GW/MW-014 & GW/MW-039

GW/MW-014 & GW/MW-039

Garreg Lwyd & Cefn Cenarth

17/04/2017

Easter Monday on the hills

Garreg Lwyd

An invite from Gerald a few days ago saw me join him and Sue on a couple of Mid-Wales summits which were unique to both of us.

Our GPS track...park at SN928738..don't block the gates

On our way

Summit in the distance

09:58z	MW0XOT	144MHz	FM	John, Llandrindod Wells
09:59z	M0CQE	144MHz	FM	Paul, Oldham
10:02z	GW0PLP	144MHz	FM	Don, Aberporth
10:08z	GW0ABT	144MHz	FM	TR, Brecon
10:16z	EI3GYB	5MHz	SSB	Michael, County Mayo
10:20z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
10:21z	GW0PLP	5MHz	SSB	Don, Aberporth
10:40z	2W0IWM/P	144MHz	FM	Ian s2s
10:41z	GW6OVD/P	144MHz	FM	Mal s2s
10:44z	GW7RKC/P	144MHz	FM	Andy s2s
10:45z	MW0PJJ/P	144MHz	FM	Phil s2s
10:54z	G8XYJ/P	144MHz	FM	Matt s2s

Not many contacts initially on 2m but Paul in Oldham managed to make the trip and being one of the furthest contacts.  I hooked the KX2 up for 60m but the visit didn’t produce many responses.  So the HF bands were not in great shape again but with the FT 857 plugged in and 80m coils attached Gerald had a few nice contacts when he called into the WAB net. This was his first time on 80m from a summit so he was really pleased.  

Gerald happy on 80m :)

Great run of s2s at the end from the usual gang from the Aberdare & District Amateur Radio Society and our friend Matt  managed to hear us before we packed up to head to our next summit…thanks everyone.

Arriving back at the cars.....Don't block thes gates

Cefn Cenarth

My GPS track...Park at SN964759..Nature reserve car park

On our way

The sun was shining as we made our way up to this one.  I knew that Phil and Andy were already on air so a quick text to say we were heading up meant that we might have an s2s with them on their second summit of the day also. As we arrived we could hear them calling CQ SOTA so I quickly attached the ‘cable tie’ dipole to the fishing pole and we were soon calling them for an s2s.  It came as quite a shock when Mal came back to us saying that he and Ian were on the same summit!  They had all decided to meet up and have a joint activation…Gerald and I had qualified the summit in minutes…thanks guys.  

Nice run of s2s

What happened next was reminiscent of many years ago when I used to gather a load of s2s points within a short period of time when Barry MW0IML, Karen 2E0XYL, Ricky MW6GWR, Mickey  2E0YYY,  Mal GW6OVD, Dave G4ASA and others would arrive on summits at the same time. This time it was Rod and Viki that popped up from a very wet High Vinnals to add to the excitement…thank you both.  

Gerald in QSO

It didn’t finish there as Rob GW7LAS/p was calling ‘CQ Contest’ from Holyhead Mountain giving us another s2s and of course we had a brief chat with Rob also as he wasn’t having much success with contacts in the contest..thanks Rob.

13:34z	MW0PJJ/P	144MHz	FM	Phil s2s
13:34z	GW6OVD/P	144MHz	FM	Mal s2s
13:35z	GW7RKC/P	144MHz	FM	Andy s2s
13:36z	2W0IWM/P	144MHz	FM	Ian s2s
13:37z	M0JLA/P	144MHz	FM	Rod s2s
13:39z	M6BWA/P	144MHz	FM	Viki s2s
13:41z	M6BWA/P	433MHz	FM	Viki s2s diff band
13:44z	GW7LAS/P	144MHz	FM	Rob s2s
13:48z	G4ENZ	144MHz	FM	Martin
14:03z	MW0JCQ/P	144MHz	FM	James s2s

We were just about to pack away as 2m was quiet when I looked at RRT and saw that James JCQ  was up on Carnedd Llywelyn…would we have a good path to Snowdonia…no problem.  James was soon in the log…thanks James.  

Looking North towards Snowdonia

As Gerald and Sue had to get back to Wrexham early our last summit of the day had to be scrubbed although Gerald did pop back a few days after to activate it :) Nice couple of easy to activate summits.

Our activation set up:-  (HF) Elecraft KX2 (10 watts) and FT857(30watts+).  Antenna 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 & Gerald MW0WML