GW/NW-074 & GW/NW-038

GW/NW-074 Craig y Castell

23/09/2016

I met up with David M0YDH at the Kings YHA at 9:00am and as David had spent the night there the Warden kindly allowed me a Pass to park my car at the Hostel.  It was an easy and pleasant walk up on to this one with David and I deep in conversation in the Welsh language stopping occasionally to take in the view  towards Cadair Idris and the surrounding mountains. 

My GPS Track

I was pleased that we could see Dolgellau way down in the valley which would mean I would get a phone signal so within 10 minutes or so and a spot with RRT we were active on 60m and soon qualified the summit with some shared contacts…thanks everyone.

Dolgellau in the valley below

GW4VPX/p with the Cadair Idris mountain range behind

09:34z	M0NTC	5MHz	SSB	Gez
09:39z	G3RMD	5MHz	SSB	Frank
09:41z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
09:41z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
09:42z	GW0PLP	5MHz	SSB	Don
09:42z	PA7ZEE	5MHz	SSB	Geert
09:43z	G0VOF	5MHz	SSB	Mark
09:50z	G4OIG	5MHz	SSB	Gerald
09:51z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John
09:52z	GI0HWO	5MHz	SSB	John
09:54z	PA0SKP	5MHz	SSB	Sake
10:12z	OK2PDT/P	7MHz	SSB	Jan s2s

My Log

MW0YDH/p deep in QSO

I let David take over and changed the links for him to get on to 40m. He was very soon into an S2S so I was immediately by his side anxious for another 10 points from Jan on OK/PL-008 Polom :) Thanks Jan.

09:35z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick Dailey, Leeds
09:37z	M0NTC	5MHz	SSB	Jez Bull, Netherton, Dudley
09:41z	G3RMD	5MHz	SSB	Frank Regan, Cheltenham
09:42z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry Sayner, York
09:45z	G0VOF	5MHz	SSB	Mark Walmsley, Blackburn
09:47z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod Archard, Hereford
09:48z	G8TMV	5MHz	SSB	Colin Tuckley, Cambridge
09:50z	G4WHA/M	5MHz	SSB	Geoff Harper in his shop in Penrith
09:51z	G0FEX	5MHz	SSB	Ken Porter, Leicester
10:02z	G6INU	7MHz	SSB	Doug, Sidcup
10:07z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry Vile, Dover
10:08z	EA2DZX	7MHz	SSB	Luis Baz Ladero, Bizkaia
10:10z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro Jaureguialzo, Oñati Gipuzkoa
10:11z	HB9DHA	7MHz	SSB	Ray Siegrist, Zurich
10:14z	OK2PDT/P	7MHz	SSB	Jan Lavicka S2S OK/PL-008
10:16z	PA1BR	7MHz	SSB	Pascal Breugelsmans, Sprundel
10:17z	DJ9BX	7MHz	SSB	Michael Ahlgrimm, Krakow am See
10:18z	GM0AXY	7MHz	SSB	Ken Dons, Edinburgh
10:20z	PA2CVD	7MHz	SSB	Cor Verdult, Hoogerheide
10:21z	MI0RTY	7MHz	SSB	Martin Strawbridge, Coleraine
10:22z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl Kruger, Saltash, Cornwall
10:23z	OK3KW	7MHz	SSB	Karel, Rakovnik
10:25z	EI2GHB	7MHz	SSB	Pat Thompson, Co. Cork

Towards cardigan Bay

Already, time was not on our side as we had the drive up to Trawsfynydd then the long walk up to Moel  Ysgyfarnogod in front of us. We could also feel the wind picking up and thought that it might be strong on NW-038 as the weather forecast had promised. We packed up quickly as soon as there were no further responses to David’s calls.

Our activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  UK-MX 50M linear (for 817) and 12V 4 Ah LiPO battery,  3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m+80m extensions)

GW/NW-038  Moel Ysgyfarnogod

It’s  a long but pleasant walk for most of the way up to the summit with the final half  kilometre being rather a stiff climb. 

The GPS track for Moel Ysgyfarnogod

The gate at SH677342

Keep left of the plantation at SH669345

The strong breeze on Craig y Castell had now developed in to a gale on the summit of Moel Ysgyfarnogod and as we approached the trig the rain arrived…we dived behind the cairn next to the Trig and gave a call on 2m with my handheld.  Luckily the Ceredigion SOTA gang were listening and Don and Roy were soon in the log after I attached the cable tie dipole to the fishing pole and pushed it up just above the cairn…we took turns to hold the pole whilst sharing the contacts.  With a’ heads up’  from Don,   John ZPL/p was next in the log followed by Mike WMW near Dolgellau and Jim GLB from Co.Wexford.  It all went quiet on the band so with no improvement in the weather we decided to head back down with Don posting a spot to say we were not going on to HF…sorry.

Let's get off this mountain...David in charge of selfies :)

14:08z	GW0PLP	144MHz	FM	Don
14:09z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy
14:13z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John
14:18z	MW6WMW	144MHz	FM	Mike
14:21z	EI9GLB	144MHz	FM	Jim

My Log

We were both intrigued with the excavations that abound on the hillside around Moel Ysgyfarnogod and it was a chance encounter back at the cars with a pair of hill walkers that we were told that they were Manganese mines (http://www.davel.f2s.com/hendrecoed/Merioneth-Manganese/introduction.html) …interesting reading.

David was delighted with the day as he was now on 999 activation points and has already organised his 1000^th point party by activating The Wrekin G/WB-010 on the 29th of October  2016….I’ll be there so hope we hear some of you on air :)

Our activation set up:-   (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole up at 3m...

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX