GW/MW-035 Rhos Ymryson

Unexpected activation

GW/MW-035 Rhos Ymryson

03/11/2015

It wasn’t all that early in the morning and with other activities planned I just happened to look at the alerts on Sotawatch and was surprised that Mal GW6OVD was heading for Drygarn Fawr GW/MW-003.  I immediately sent him a text to find out what his ETA was on summit..’30 minutes ‘ was the reply!!  A quick word with Val, an alert up on Sotawatch and a text to Mal to say we were heading out to Rhos Ymryson we were soon on our way as the rucksacks are always ready and batteries fully charged:)  The summit is only 20 minutes from home so I calculated that Mal would either be on 60m or 40m and as a last resort I could call him on 2m.

He was calling ‘final calls’ on 60m when I finally switched on the FT817 after setting up on the fence close to the underground reservoir on Rhos Ymryson.  A short chat to Mal and thanking him for the summit I took over his frequency as he had finished...thanks Mal.  I soon qualified the summit with a good run of regular chasers and one activation point in the bag (first time on this one this year) ...thanks everybody.

11:38z	GW6OVD/P	5MHz	SSB	Mal s2s
11:41z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
11:41z	G3RMD	5MHz	SSB	Frank
11:42z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John
11:43z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don IO70uv
11:45z	G4ZRP	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:46z	PA5V	5MHz	SSB	Bob
11:48z	M0EMM	5MHz	SSB	David

 

I plugged the linear in for 40m and looked for a clear frequency knowing that Mike G6TUH was around so I sent him a text saying that I was calling on 7.114 knowing he would spot me.  Also hovering was Bill G4WSB so they were both very quickly in the log followed by Ken G0FEX keen to get my summit in his log. Most stations were really strong with Christine and Ken from Scotland and Pedro once again making my log from Spain. 

11:57z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
11:59z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
11:59z	G0FEX	7MHz	SSB	Ken
12:00z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
12:00z	G1BLJ	7MHz	SSB	Steve
12:01z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
12:01z	G0ELJ	7MHz	SSB	Dave
12:01z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
12:02z	G4OBK	7MHz	SSB	Phil
12:02z	G4WHA/A	7MHz	SSB	Geoff
12:03z	G8AVK	7MHz	SSB	Bob
12:03z	M3TAW	7MHz	SSB	Tom
12:04z	G0TDM	7MHz	SSB	John
12:04z	2E0SCS	7MHz	SSB	Steven
12:04z	LA3NGA	7MHz	SSB	Henning
12:05z	GM0AXY	7MHz	SSB	Ken
12:05z	GM4YMM	7MHz	SSB	Christine
12:07z	DL8DXL	7MHz	SSB	Fred
12:07z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry
12:11z	ON6DN/P	7MHz	SSB	Alfons s2s
12:12z	ON9CBQ/P	7MHz	SSB	Franz s2s

The office...showing some of my 'dry bags' which I use to protect the equipment in transit

I finished my activation with a bonus s2s with Alfons and Franz on ON/ON-029 over in Belgium...thanks both.  As this was an unexpected activation and we had rushed out of the house we didn’t have time to prepare coffee and sandwiches so it was time to pull the plug,  head back down the hill and make tracks for home.

My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  UK-MX 50M linear (for 817) and 12V 9.2 Ah Lithium Ion battery,  3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m+80m extensions),  (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and spots

73 Allan GW4VPX