GW/NW-021 – Rhobell Fawr

GW/NW-021 – Rhobell Fawr

04/02/2018

Simon’s Mountain Goat day

A belated Happy New Year to everyone.   It’s been a troublesome time at the home QTH with adverse weather causing drainage problems under the front lawn.  Last week we replaced the broken 450mm  bore concrete pipes with plastic ones. This is only Phase 1 and there is another stretch to be replaced during the next few weeks.

Our lawn!!

Anyway,  Simon G4TJC was on 999 points and only needed another one to get his Mountain Goat status.  I had promised him some time ago that I would join him for the important activation and after a few e-mails we decided on Rhobell Fawr GW/NW021 (6points + 3 winter bonus).  We met at SH 797249 having decided to use Gerald’s (MW0WML) ascent track from the Sota Mapping Project  https://www.sotamaps.org/tracks.php

Trig in sight

It was -2C when we left the cars and we soon hit the snowline and a sharp wind from the NE….it was going to be cold on top…it was probably -10C+ by the Trig. 

Cadair Idris GW/NW-009 in the distance

We had already decided that 2m was to be first band as we knew that quite a few chasers were waiting for us.  I helped Simon put up the Slim Jim  and within 6 minutes Simon qualified the summit.  The fourth contact in his log was Helen 2E0VMD/p..Simon’s wife who had gone out on a hill to chase him on his Mountain Goat day…success.

GW4TJC/p Mountain Goat ..pile-up

Happy MG

11:11z	M0VTD/P	144MHz	FM	STUART
11:16z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	JOHN
11:17z	MW0ISC	144MHz	FM	STEVE
11:18z	2E0VMD/P	144MHz	FM	HELEN
11:21z	2E0DIJ	144MHz	FM	DUANE
11:24z	2E0JKR	144MHz	FM	RON
11:26z	G4ZWY	144MHz	FM	STEVE
11:27z	GW4TQD	144MHz	FM	John
11:27z	G7LMF	144MHz	FM	GRAHAM
11:29z	IE9GLB	144MHz	FM	JIM
11:32z	2E0VMD/P	433MHz	FM	HELEN
11:37z	M1EYP/P	144MHz	FM	TOM,IO93BM
11:41z	GW3XRM	144MHz	FM	DAVE
11:43z	GW4UKU/P	144MHz	FM	PETE
11:45z	2E0ICE	144MHz	FM	PAUL
12:05z	G8MKT/P	144MHz	FM	Chris,IO83XD
12:21z	MW1CJE/P	144MHz	FM	Andrew,IO81JS
12:29z	M0JLA/P	5MHz	SSB	Rod,IO82QL

Simon’s Log

I soon left Simon to his 2m pile-up and set up my HF station starting on 60m…it was really cold now but the run of chasers made up for it.

Our stations ..VPX on 60m

KX2 in use  

11:12z	M0VTD/P	144MHz	FM	Stuart
11:16z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John
11:17z	MW0ISC	144MHz	FM	Steve
11:18z	2E0VMD/P	144MHz	FM	Helen
11:25z	2E0JKR	144MHz	FM	Ron
11:37z	M1EYP/P	144MHz	FM	Tom s2s
11:50z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:52z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
11:54z	G0EVV/P	5MHz	SSB	David s2s
11:54z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:55z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:56z	G3RDQ	5MHz	SSB	David
11:58z	G0HRT	5MHz	SSB	Rob
11:59z	GI4ONL	5MHz	SSB	Victor
12:02z	GM4WHA	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
12:06z	G8MKT/P	144MHz	FM	Chris s2s
12:22z	MW1CJE/P	144MHz	FM	Andrew
12:29z	M0JLA/P	5MHz	SSB	Rod s2s

My Log

60m soon went quiet so to keep warm I made my way over to Simon who said that once Rod and Viki were in the log we would head down and out of the cold wind.  Although we could hear Viki calling she could not hear us due to interference from the communication systems on her summit…sorry Viki.

He's got the badge

A final pic by the Trig and we made our way down to a sheltered spot for coffee and a piece of Christmas cake as a celebration of Simon’s MG.  We followed Gerald’s descent track which was fun but not recommended in foggy conditions.

Activation set up

 (HF) Elecraft KX2 (10 watts) and 4Ah LiPo

 Antenna - 3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m extensions +80m loading coils)

Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX & Simon GW4TJC