GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

Snow today...but more winter bonus points :)

GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

07/01/2016

The weatherman had promised a cloudy day with sunny periods after the storm had pushed its way towards the East. However, Val and I had rather an unexpected slow journey today as the storm was still with us as we made our way North towards Devil’s Bridge.  First it was flooded roads then as we approached the summit the rain turned to snow and hailstones with gale force winds….nevertheless it was onwards and upwards. 

Onwards and upwards

Wind turbines in the mist

Now Pen y Garn has a lovely spiral cairn so I knew we would be protected from the elements. On arrival in the cairn I posted a spot saying that I would be QRV on 40m (7.118) in 30 minutes so that would give me time to set up. I knew I would not be able to extend the pole to full height today and would have to miss a visit to 60m so two sections remained in the main tube. Sadly when posting the spot I noticed that John MW0XOT/p had already activated his summit a good half hour before our arrival and had experienced similar weather to us so had kept his activation on 2m to a bare minimum of contacts….I knew he would not have had any protection on Black Mountain so my one and only s2s of the day had gone.  

On my way to the trig from the comfort of the cairn

I soon ventured out to the trig point and strapped the pole to it then stringing out the dipole on either side…those stones around the cairn were like glass…so easy to fall and break something! 

Brollies at the ready

A low slung dipole today

It was nice to get back into the cairn and very soon I was on 40m on my alerted frequency…it seems that there was a nice ‘ragchew’ going on with a large number of chasers keeping the frequency  warm…thanks everybody:)   With a booming signal from North Yorkshire, Phil OBK was first in the log followed quickly by Mike TUH with another end stopping signal….then a massive pile of regular SOTA and WAB chasers…great fun today and once again I was only running 5 watts from the FT817.

11:27z	G4OBK	7MHz	SSB	Phil
11:28z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
11:29z	G0EVV	7MHz	SSB	David
11:29z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
11:29z	GI4ONL	7MHz	SSB	Victor
11:30z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
11:31z	G0HRT	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:31z	MW3VJN	7MHz	SSB	Tristan
11:31z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	Mick
11:32z	G0TRB	7MHz	SSB	Roger
11:32z	G4IAR	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:32z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
11:33z	2E0SCS	7MHz	SSB	Stephen
11:33z	G0TDM	7MHz	SSB	John
11:33z	G3RMD	7MHz	SSB	Frank
11:34z	G3TQQ	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:35z	M6RUG	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:35z	MM6FSV	7MHz	SSB	Paul
11:35z	GW2HFR	7MHz	SSB	Jonathan
11:35z	MK3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
11:36z	G4APO	7MHz	SSB
11:36z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:37z	G4OOE	7MHz	SSB	Nick
11:37z	PA0SKP	7MHz	SSB	Sake
11:38z	PA0B	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:39z	G0ELJ	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:40z	G4TXF	7MHz	SSB
11:41z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
11:41z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	Michael
11:42z	M0ZAE	7MHz	SSB	Henry
11:43z	G4SQA	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:43z	M0NTC	7MHz	SSB	Gez
11:44z	M0JLA	7MHz	SSB	Rod
11:44z	G4DUE	7MHz	SSB	Adrian
11:45z	G0GWY	7MHz	SSB	Geoff
11:46z	MM3PDM	7MHz	SSB	Peter
11:46z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
11:47z	G7AFM	7MHz	SSB	Phil
11:47z	MK0BKV	7MHz	SSB	Damian
11:48z	G0FVH	7MHz	SSB	David
11:48z	PE1PIC	7MHz	SSB	KeesJan
11:49z	GI0OXG	7MHz	SSB	Jo
11:52z	MW0BYS	7MHz	SSB	Bill
11:52z	2E0GBK	7MHz	SSB	John

Two MK stations made my log today for the first time namely Karl MK3FEH and Damian MK0BKV (K for Kernow…Cornish stations have been allowed to add K to their callsigns for 2016). Because of weather conditions I had decided that this would be a short activation and as soon as there were no more callers I ‘pulled the plug’. Now sitting in the comfort of the cairn we hadn’t realised that conditions had changed and the sun was trying to break through the clouds although the wind had not died down and it was just as cold (2deg C in the car  when we left so minus whatever on top).

Blue skies appearing

I soon packed away but Val was adamant she wanted to look for the Geocache before we left the summit…some hope as everything was covered with snow….let’s go…coffee and sandwiches ready for us in the car :)

My activation set up today:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  3 band link dipole (60/40/20), Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and despite the conditions I enjoyed the activation….till the next time

73 Allan GW4VPX