Sunday 27 March 2016

GW/NW-021 Rhobell Fawr

Calm before the storm

GW/NW-021 Rhobell Fawr

25/03/2016
My GPS track
Another storm had been forecast for the Easter weekend so Val and I took the opportunity to activate another summit before the bad weather set in. This summit is easy navigation as you can follow a wall all the way to within 20m of the Trig and summit. Last year I took the car up to Bwlch Goriwared but decided this year that the road might have deteriorated over the winter with all the storms we had…I was right…this year we parked at the gate where the tarmac ends SH-7664 2344.
On our way
Sadly the road is now in a mess
As we arrived at the Bwlch where you find a ladder stile to take you ENE alongside the wall to the summit we were greeted by Myrddin Phillips. Now Myrddin is well known for ‘Mapping Mountains’ (Google him for info). He was using some very sophisticated GPS equipment to measure the height of the Bwlch. He immediately identified me as SOTA :) 
Myrddin on his way to another summit
Cadair Idris in the cloud
Follow the wall
On the way up I gave John GW4TQE/p (GW/NW-055 Moel Offrwm)  a call and picked up a chaser point and also qualified the summit for him…thanks John.  Having been delayed by chatting to Myrddin we eventually arrived at the summit in 1hr 54minutes..some 2.4miles. 
Arriving at the trig
As we moved towards the trig 2m came alive with David MW0YDH/p calling CQ SOTA from Moel Hebog GW/NW-014. As you can see others soon joined with Rod and Viki on Waun Fach and John on Upper Park (a rare one) including Tom, David’s son getting a few s2s into his log…thanks everyone.
11:58z
MW6GGZ/P
144MHz
FM
Tom s2s
11:59z
MW0YDH/P
144MHz
FM
David s2s
12:00z
MW0XOT/P
144MHz
FM
John s2s
12:04z
MW6BWA/P
144MHz
FM
Viki s2s
12:04z
MW0JLA/P
144MHz
FM
Rod s2s
Flurry of s2s at the trig
I just could not get a spot up using RRT so resorted to SOTA Spotter and had a nice orderly pile-up of chasers on 60m. I had recently updated RRT and had not enabled the SMS feature so hopefully the problem has now been resolved.

12:27z
G4OBK
5MHz
SSB
Phil
12:27z
G0RQL
5MHz
SSB
Don
12:28z
GI4ONL
5MHz
SSB
Victor
12:29z
G3RMD
5MHz
SSB
Frank
12:29z
G1BLJ
5MHz
SSB
Steve
12:29z
G0VWP
5MHz
SSB
Terry
12:30z
GW4BKG
5MHz
SSB
Steve
12:32z
G6TUH
5MHz
SSB
Mike
12:33z
G8VNW
5MHz
SSB
Nick
12:33z
G4APO
5MHz
SSB
Roland
12:34z
M1MAJ
5MHz
SSB
Martyn
12:35z
G0ELJ
5MHz
SSB
Dave
On to 40m and Barry was first in the log with 5/9+ each way and after a few more contacts a faint s2s could be heard. It was Mike YYY calling me using his Antron vertical…signal reports exchanged and another s2s in the log..thanks Mickey and to all the chasers that gave us the time to complete the contact
12:44z
M0IML
7MHz
SSB
Barry
12:45z
G4TJC
7MHz
SSB
Simon
12:45z
G0RPA
7MHz
SSB
Ian
12:46z
G6TUH
7MHz
SSB
Mike
12:47z
2E0YYY/P
7MHz
SSB
Mike s2s
12:47z
M0PAI
7MHz
SSB
Adrian
12:48z
G0FEX
7MHz
SSB
Ken
12:48z
G7BGA
7MHz
SSB
Geoffrey
12:49z
M0MDA
7MHz
SSB
Mick
12:49z
PA7ZEE
7MHz
SSB
Geert
12:50z
EA2DT
7MHz
SSB
Manuel
12:51z
G0VWP
7MHz
SSB
Terry
12:51z
EA2CKX
7MHz
SSB
Pedro
12:51z
DF5WA
7MHz
SSB
Berthold
12:52z
M6RUG
7MHz
SSB
Dave
12:52z
G8MIA
7MHz
SSB
Andy
12:53z
PA0B
7MHz
SSB
Rob
12:53z
GW7MMG
7MHz
SSB
Philip
12:54z
PA0SKP
7MHz
SSB
Sake
12:54z
G4AFI
7MHz
SSB
Andrew
12:54z
DL2EF
7MHz
SSB
Franz Josef
12:55z
M3ZCB
7MHz
SSB
Caroline
12:56z
MW0BYS
7MHz
SSB
Bill
12:56z
M3FEH
7MHz
SSB
Karl
12:57z
LA5WNA
7MHz
SSB
Odd Harald
12:58z
G8LZG
7MHz
SSB
Graham
12:59z
PA1AT
7MHz
SSB
Gerry
13:00z
G0RQL
7MHz
SSB
Don
It all came to an end when a strong Italian station started to call CQ and despite protestation from my chasers he won the day..ah well..I hope everybody that wanted the summit  made my log. 
Out of the wind and on HF
A call on 2m brought a few contacts including Sean saying that he had been unwell but would soon be getting out and activating again…thanks Sean. It was nice to end the activation with a surprise s2s with Mike on Glasgwm GW/NW-015….thanks Mike
13:12z
G0OHY
144MHz
FM
Arthur
13:14z
MW0KZP/M
144MHz
FM
Neil
13:15z
MW3PZO
144MHz
FM
Sean
13:18z
M0CQE
144MHz
FM
Paul
13:20z
GW0WWQ
144MHz
FM
Hugh
13:29z
GW7HEM/P
144MHz
FM
Mike s2s
Towards the Rhinogs
On our way down...Cadair Idris now clear of cloud 

My activation set up today:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  3 band link dipole (60/40/20),  (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) & cable tie dipole for 2m - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and the spots.

73 Allan GW4VPX