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