Three on the Welsh Borders

Three on the Welsh Borders

25/11/2016

G/WB-015 Callow Hill (1 point)

Callow Hill was our first target of the day so an early start from home ensured we reached the parking spot early but we were still 30minutes behind time when we arrived on summit…oh dear.  

My GPS track -1.49km

Sign in need of some TLC

Details of the Folly on top

Approaching the Folly

The Folly...not open today...cracking morning

This summit would be an unique and a complete for me so I was hoping the bands were in good shape. The intention was to activate this and meet up with David M0YDH and have a joint activation of Heath Mynd G/WB-007 later in the day.  I qualified the summit within minutes as 60m was working well with contacts into Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland and Geert making the trip from the Netherlands.

11:36z	EI3GYB	5MHz	SSB	Michael
11:37z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
11:37z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:38z	G7BGA	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
11:39z	G0FEX	5MHz	SSB	Ken
11:39z	G6TUH	5MHz	SSB	Mike
11:39z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:40z	G3RDQ	5MHz	SSB	David
11:40z	GW6DGU	5MHz	SSB	Roy
11:40z	GW0PLP	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:41z	G0ELJ	5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:41z	G8VNW	5MHz	SSB	Nick
11:42z	GM0AXY	5MHz	SSB	Ken
11:42z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick
11:43z	G4WHA/A	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
11:43z	GI0OXG	5MHz	SSB	Joseph
11:44z	MM0GGI	5MHz	SSB	John
11:45z	PA7ZEE	5MHz	SSB	Geert
11:46z	G0FVH	5MHz	SSB	David

By the Trig on Callow Hill

On to 40m and David M0YDH/p on G/WB-006 Caer Caradoc Hill was in the log with an s2s then a steady flow of EU chasers with only Mike G6TUH, Terry G0VWP and Karl M3FEH being heard and in the log from the UK.

11:52z	M0YDH/P	7MHz	SSB	David s2s
11:56z	ON6ZQ	7MHz	SSB	Christophe
11:56z	SP9AMH	7MHz	SSB	Mariusz
11:57z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:58z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	Michael
11:58z	HB9DHA	7MHz	SSB	Reinhard
11:59z	ON7MD	7MHz	SSB	Michel
11:59z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
11:59z	IW3AGO	7MHz	SSB	Heinrich
12:00z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
12:01z	ON7AH	7MHz	SSB	Dirk
12:01z	DL1CR	7MHz	SSB	Christoph
12:01z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry
12:02z	OK2PDT	7MHz	SSB	Jan
12:02z	HB9DQM	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
12:02z	SA4BLM	7MHz	SSB	Lars
12:02z	DJ6OK	7MHz	SSB	Oliver
12:03z	F5LMK	7MHz	SSB	Schmidt
12:04z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
12:05z	DL3HXX	7MHz	SSB	Lothar
12:06z	ON4VLM	7MHz	SSB	Leon
12:07z	OE3RGB	7MHz	SSB	Rainer
12:07z	DL1CST	7MHz	SSB	Claudia

A few calls on 2m brought three responses and a few chats before a text from David saying he was packing up…time to move….

12:11z	M0LXQ	144MHz	FM	Mark
12:15z	M0CQE	144MHz	FM	Paul..Oldham
12:18z	G6IQL/M	144MHz	FM	Vince

G/WB-007 Heath Mynd (1 point)

We made good time to the parking spot and decided to eat our lunch as David had not arrived. I parked off the road on the mountain next to our intended route so that David had enough room for his car. 

My GPS track-1.64km

On our way

Not far to go

A text from David saying he would be late as he was slightly lost due to diversions but to get going and start the activation without him.

Activation underway..Corndon Hill in the distance-another SOTA

15:30z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
15:30z	G6TUH	5MHz	SSB	Mike
15:31z	G0FEX	5MHz	SSB	Ken
15:36z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
15:36z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
15:37z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
15:37z	G0SGB	5MHz	SSB	Steve
15:51z	GW6DGU	5MHz	SSB	Roy
15:52z	GW0PLP	5MHz	SSB	Don
15:53z	G0WFH	5MHz	SSB	Chris

I had logged 8 chasers by the time a flustered YDH arrived in the Cairn so I soon got him qualified by handing him the microphone. 

YDH arrives

I had already primed some of our regular chasers to ‘stand-by’ for when he arrived so thank you everybody…you know who you are… 

Time to move but not before....

M0YDH gets the Geocache :)

We had noticed that the sun was dropping down over the horizon and it was getting dark when David announced that we had a slight problem…Whist parking, he dropped the car into a ditch so would need to be extracted from it and could I help? We got down off the summit in the dark…surveyed the situation with a torch and then with tow rope attached and ‘diff lock’ engaged he was soon back on the road…never a dull moment when M0YDH is around :)…an adventurous day I think. 

We bade farewell to David then Val and I headed for Ludlow where we had booked into an hotel for the night and  hoping to meet up with Matt G8XYJ. It transpired he had a party so we agreed to meet up the next time when we were in the area…plenty more one point unique summits to tick off close to Ludlow.

26/11/2016

G/WB-018 View Edge (1 point )

The next day we headed for View Edge. A rather uninspiring one pointer but nevertheless a good summit if you want to start activating,  indeed most of the summits in G/WB are excellent as an introduction to SOTA. 

Park on grass verge walk NE then left over a stile then use PROW (follow blue line)

The actual summit is on private land but the Activation Zone is very large. I set up a few hundred meters in from the road using bungees to strap the pole to the stile. I had an excellent run of chasers on 60m and I think one of the best I’ve had in quite a while.

10:32z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:33z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
10:33z	EI9GLB	5MHz	SSB	Jim
10:33z	G6TUH	5MHz	SSB	Mike
10:34z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
10:35z	G3WGE	5MHz	SSB	Keith
10:36z	G0NKZ	5MHz	SSB	Kenn
10:36z	GI0AZA	5MHz	SSB	Esther
10:37z	GM4WHA	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
10:37z	MK0BKV	5MHz	SSB	Damian
10:38z	M1MAJ	5MHz	SSB	Martyn
10:39z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod
10:39z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
10:39z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick
10:40z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
10:41z	G7AFM	5MHz	SSB	Phil
10:42z	G0FVH	5MHz	SSB	David
10:43z	G4ILI	5MHz	SSB	Grant
10:43z	G3ZIY	5MHz	SSB	Richard
10:45z	G3XKT	5MHz	SSB	Tony
10:46z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John
10:46z	G7BGA	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
10:47z	G3XFA	5MHz	SSB	Rob
10:47z	G0GWY	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
10:48z	G0FEX	5MHz	SSB	Ken
10:49z	M0IOK	5MHz	SSB	David
10:50z	G3RMD	5MHz	SSB	Frank
10:51z	G8VNW	5MHz	SSB	Nick
10:52z	PA0B	5MHz	SSB	Rob
10:53z	GM4COX	5MHz	SSB	Jack

Bungee pole to the stile

Despite an s2s with Juerg 40m was not working all that well with some sort of QRM and very soon the chasers dried up and I quickly pulled the plug and went to talk to some walkers who had shown an interest in what I was doing.

11:03z	HB9BIN/P	7MHz	SSB	Juerg s2s
11:05z	LA8BCA	7MHz	SSB	Terje
11:05z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:05z	PA1BR	7MHz	SSB	Pascal
11:06z	F4FWO	7MHz	SSB	PERRIER Sylvain
11:07z	MM3PDM/M	7MHz	SSB	Peter
11:08z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
11:09z	EB2JU	7MHz	SSB	Jos? Luis
11:09z	DD5LP	7MHz	SSB	Ed
11:10z	OK2PDT	7MHz	SSB	Jan
11:10z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry

We were soon homeward bound after three successful activations and an enjoyable few days away from home. Three completes as well and Winter Bonus is looming :)

 My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo) using 12V 4 Ah LiPO 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

73 Allan GW4VPX