Seasonal Greetings

Thanks for reading my blog.

We hope to activate a few summits after Christmas then plenty on the 'to do list' for 2017.

73 from us both

SOTA Presentation

SOTA presentation in Aberystwyth

8/12/2016

It had already been a busy day as I had activated Rhos Ymryson GW/MW-035 with John GW4TQE  in the afternoon so as soon as I got back home Val and I made our way North to give a presentation to the Aberystwyth & District Amateur Radio Society entitled ‘Summits on the Air – Practicalities of portable radio, a Mountain Goat’s perspective’. 

There were quite a few demonstrations going on but by 8:00pm it was time for me to take to the stage and entertain the audience :)  

Demonstrating my 'cable-tie dipole' for 2m and 70cms

My display and 'Powerpoint' presentation

A thoroughly enjoyable evening with a positive response from the members….. it looks as if we might gain a few Chasers and who knows there could be a few more Activators on the hills in Wales. Thanks to Colin Sauze for the pics and to all the members for the welcome.

73 Allan GW4VPX  

GW/MW-035 Rhos Ymryson

Joint activation with GW4TQE/p

GW/MW-035 Rhos Ymryson

08/12/2016

I just had to get out and meet up with John GW4TQE/p as he was activating one of the summits that is on my local ‘patch’.  He had alerted for Hafod Ithel GW/MW-029 in the morning and Rhos Ymryson in the afternoon and with these two summits tending to be difficult on VHF 2m I made a point of helping him out to qualify the first. He was soon in the log and during the brief chat that ensued I told him that I would meet him later on Rhos Ymryson in the afternoon. The summit is only 20 minutes away from home so I had calculated that we would reach the parking spot at the same time, however, I was 5 minutes early but decided to make my way to the top to set up the HF antenna.  I was half way up when I saw John arrive so I decided to wait for him so that we could set up together.   

GW4TQE/p and GW4VPX/p

We were fortunate that both Gerald and Matt were out on summits and if the timings worked out we would start our activation with a couple of s2s. The plan came together and I opened my activation with a call to Matt who was talking to Gerald and the two s2s were in the log…thanks both.

14:01z	G8XYJ/P	5MHz	SSB	Matt s2s
14:02z	MM0WML/P	5MHz	SSB	Gerald s2s
14:16z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
14:19z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
14:19z	G6TUH	5MHz	SSB	Mike
14:20z	PA0B	5MHz	SSB	Rob
14:21z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
14:22z	GW6OVD	5MHz	SSB	Mal
14:22z	PA7ZEE	5MHz	SSB	Geert
14:23z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John
14:24z	G0BIN	5MHz	SSB	E.P.
14:24z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
14:26z	G4WHA/A	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
14:26z	G0FEX	5MHz	SSB	Ken
14:27z	G0GNE	5MHz	SSB	Robin
14:27z	GI8SKN	5MHz	SSB	David
14:29z	G4MDR	5MHz	SSB	Alan
14:30z	G0FVH	5MHz	SSB	David
14:31z	G4FSN/P	5MHz	SSB	Eric
14:32z	M0HXA	5MHz	SSB	Adrian
14:32z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod
14:33z	G0CTR	5MHz	SSB	Pete

 John quickly qualified the summit with two 2m contacts and s2s with Matt and Gerald…mission accomplished.

13:54z	MW0DEW	144MHz	FM	Eifion, Llanrhystud, near Aberaeron, Ceredigion
14:02z	MM0WML/P	5MHz	SSB	Gerald, Minch Moor (GM/SS-133)
14:05z	GW4XXF	144MHz	FM	Bruce, Tywyn, Gwynedd
14:14z	G8XYJ/P	5MHz	SSB	Matt, Titterstone Clee Hill (G/WB-004)

John was lucky because no-one came back to his repeated calls even though I had put a spot up for him…not like it used to be.

Dismantling our HF and VHF set-up on Rhos Ymryson

It was a pleasure to chat with John about his SOTA experiences after I had completed my run on 60m and as he had to head for Cardigan and his B&B we pulled the plug and headed down hill.

My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) using 12V 4 Ah LiPO battery,  3 band link dipole (60/40/20),  (VHF)  Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX and John GW4TQE

GW/MW-005 Llan Ddu Fawr

Winter Bonus time once more

GW/MW-005 Llan Ddu Fawr

1/12/2016

We just had to get out today as it was the first day of Winter Bonus...yeah.

 My GPS track

Our car...parked by the cattle grid

I parked the car at SN784683 and as we had already kitted up at home we were away quite quickly so that we could get my friend  Emyr 2W0MWM/p for an s2s from Fan Nedd.  The best time to hit this summit is when the boggy bits are frozen and I can tell you there are quite a few of them here.  It was -2 degrees C when we left the car and as we have had a cold snap down here the boggy bits were well and truly solid....but, the sun was shining :)

No 'boggy bits' today....keep the fence on your left for the first part of your journey

 As I was approaching the final kick up to the summit I was taken by surprise by a ‘CQ SOTA’ call from Bill GW4WSB/p on Waun Fach GW/SW-002 so I gave him a quick call to let him know I would be on summit in about  10 minutes..he replied that he would wait for me.  Standing outside the Cairn I exchanged details with Bill for my first s2s of the day with a bonus chaser contact with Don G0RQL as we managed to find the ‘sweet spot’  to make the trip to my FT270 handheld..well I was facing Devon :)…thanks both.  

Still not set up....s2s with Emyr

I still hadn’t set up when I heard Emyr calling from Fan Nedd GW/SW-007 so  he was soon in the log followed by a brief chat …diolch Ems. It always pays dividends to keep monitoring 2m on your way up to a summit.

09:52z	GW4WSB/P	144MHz	FM	Bill s2s
09:52z	G0RQL	144MHz	FM	Don
10:02z	2W0MWM/P	144MHz	FM	Emyr s2s + TP3108

I quickly set up by attaching the pole with bungees to the trig and with a self-spot up using RRT I was quickly into a nice pile-up on 60m. Val meanwhile was kept busy taking a few photographs most of which are shown on the blog but eventually sat down and enjoyed the sunshine :)….thanks Val.

Self-spot on RRT

Towards Claerwen and the Elan Valley

10:24z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod
10:25z	G8VNW	5MHz	SSB	Nick
10:26z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
10:26z	PA7ZEE	5MHz	SSB	Geert
10:26z	GI4ONL	5MHz	SSB	Victor
10:28z	PA0B	5MHz	SSB	Rob
10:28z	G0FVH	5MHz	SSB	David
10:29z	GW6DGU	5MHz	SSB	Roy
10:30z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
10:31z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
10:32z	EI9GLB	5MHz	SSB	Jim
10:33z	GW6OVD	5MHz	SSB	Mal
10:34z	PA0SKP	5MHz	SSB	Sake

I could hear Ian GW4WTF/p calling ‘CQ SOTA’ on 2m  so as soon as the chasers dried up on 60m I gave him a call for my third s2s of the day. He was on Ysgyryd Fawr GW/SW-016….thanks Ian.

10:34z

GW4WTF/P

144MHz

FM

Ian s2s

Busy in the air today....on their way to America

F15...from America...on our way up

I started my visit to 40m by calling in on the WAB net to give them the Trig and square. The band was not behaving with continental QSOs making conditions difficult,  nevertheless I managed 9 contacts with many thankful for the new Square.  

GW4VPX...on the air

It was like this last year...brrrr

I announced a QSY and a further 13 regular SOTA chasers made my log finishing with a brief contact with Emyr once more who was way down in the noise….a few more final calls and it was time to pull the plug before we got too cold.

10:45z	G4SQA	7MHz	SSB	Dave
10:46z	MM0GGI	7MHz	SSB	John
10:47z	MK3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
10:47z	MM3PDM/M	7MHz	SSB	Peter
10:48z	G4DUE	7MHz	SSB	Adrian
10:50z	GM0FGI	7MHz	SSB	Tom
10:50z	GM0OTS	7MHz	SSB	Bill
10:52z	G1OCN	7MHz	SSB	Dave
10:52z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
11:03z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	Mick
11:03z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
11:04z	DL2HWI	7MHz	SSB	Dietmar
11:05z	G0HRT	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:06z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
11:07z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:07z	G4IAR	7MHz	SSB	Dave
11:09z	DK7ZH	7MHz	SSB	Manfred
11:09z	G7AFM	7MHz	SSB	Phil
11:10z	EI8FI	7MHz	SSB	Kevin
11:11z	G4HXC	7MHz	SSB	David
11:11z	M0WBG	7MHz	SSB	Neil
11:13z	M0NTC	7MHz	SSB	Gez
11:14z	2W0MWM/P	7MHz	SSB	Emyr s2s diff band

Cup of Coffee before starting our way down hill...just listening on 2m :)

The Teify Pools...on our way down

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