GW/MW-001 Plynlimon-Pen Pumlumon Fawr

Not according to plan

GW/MW-001  Plynlimon-Pen Pumlumon Fawr

09/03/2017

Well, the weather was perfect but the bands were not and to make matters worse my antenna was still not working.  

Still £5 to park at Eisteddfa Gurig  SN 798 840

Right here and head North

Turn left here

Just been passed..they had no maps...they asked me for directions !!!!

I'm in a hurry to get to the top :)

I set up today outside the cairn and although the wind was bitterly cold we had enough shelter to make it comfortable and still get the benefit of the sunshine.

Val enjoying the sunshine

Nant y Moch reservoir below

 I set up both antennas but was dismayed to find that the vswr on 80m was really high. I called my friend Roy in Cardigan on 2m so that I could start the activation and get the required 4 contacts to qualify the summit.  As soon as I finished with Roy I tried to figure out what was going on with the antenna as I had checked it after the previous activation of Mynydd Troed last  weekend where the same problem had occurred but couldn’t find a fault.  The FT270 burst into life and Dave G3TQQ/P  was calling ‘CQ SOTA’ from Walton Hill G/CE-002..in the log..thanks Dave.  G6TUH had sent a text to say that  Jarek MW/SP9MA/P  was about to activate GW/MW-026  Long Mountain-Beacon Ring. I quickly dialled in his frequency which had popped up on RRT..there he was 5/9 …quick link change …no high vswr and he was in the log…thanks Jarek and enjoy your stay in the UK. So the antenna problem was on the 60m legs… a quick check revealed nothing so it would have to be a visit to 40m to qualify. Time passed quickly as I chatted with Val and prepared a spot when suddenly I heard my callsign on 2m..it was John MW0XOT/p out on a hill testing his antenna and searching for me…in the log..thanks mate..summit qualified.  It’s funny how such a simple thing as trying to get those first 4 contacts can still cause such consternation…that’s the magic of SOTA.

11:26z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy
11:38z	G3TQQ/P	144MHz	FM	Dave s2s
11:39z	MW/SP9MA/P	7MHz	SSB	Jarek s2s
11:52z	MW0XOT/P	144MHz	FM	John
12:05z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry
12:05z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
12:05z	HB9DHA	7MHz	SSB	Ray
12:05z	SP9AMH	7MHz	SSB	Mariusz
12:08z	EI9GLB	7MHz	SSB	Jim
12:08z	PC9DB	7MHz	SSB	Mark
12:10z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
12:10z	SM6CNX	7MHz	SSB	Dan
12:11z	SP6BBE	7MHz	SSB	Zbigniew
12:12z	GW7HEM/P	144MHz	FM	Mike s2s
12:24z	G4WSB/P	144MHz	FM	Bill
12:40z	GW0IRT/P	144MHz	FM	Phil
12:43z	MW6LPU/P	144MHz	FM	Lee

40m was not in good shape as can be seen from my log and it soon went quiet, however, up pops Mike GW7HEM/p  on 2m with an unexpected s2s from Fan Gyhirych GW/SW-006 and a nice chat and a running report on Meg his dog  who accompanies him on his activations…thank Mike. I put up a spot on Sotawatch for 2m but only Phil and Lee came back to the calls…nevertheless we had a quite long overs  :)

As it was such a nice day we decided to take the other route off the summit and bask in the sunshine on the way down..Spring is here ?

Looking back...on our way down on another route

Lots of these about today

 Looking down on our earlier route to the summit

When I got home I investigated the antenna problem a little more carefully and found that the wire on one leg had parted inside the plastic covering..repaired and fingers crossed for the weekend…more winter bonus chasing.

My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  UK-MX 50M linear (for 817) and (4Ah LiPo),  3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m extensions +80m loading coils),  (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX