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