Radio Tales from West Wales and beyond...: GW/MW-001

GW/MW-001 - Plynlimon-Pen Pumlumon Fawr (6 points + 3 Winter bonus)

28/12/2018

A little bit wetter than expected.

Once again the weather turned a little nasty on us as we made our way up to the summit of Pumlumon Fawr. I opted to take a different route today which meant Rhodri and I were walking up the route I usually take on the way down. This is a safe navigation route to the summit as there is a track nearly to the fence at SN784850...keep the fence on your left and follow it to the summit if it is really foggy.

Park at SN797840..still £5 to park

On our way

My usual route...this was to be our return route

I hadn’t realised how low the clouds were and coupled with a strong westerly wind of 25 to 35mph we both took a bit of a soaking on the way up although the weather proofs did their job and we were dry underneath.

Following the fence...there is another track to the East which runs parallel

Due to the SOTA ‘Gaulfest’ organised by Tom M1EYP there was a flurry of activity as I hit the summit so the first contacts were all on the FT270 with a flexible whip antenna…I didn’t have time to set up the dipole or even get the log from the rucksack….Rhodri recorded the contacts on his phone.

Chasing s2s with FT270 and Flexible whip antenna

In between my contact with Gillian MW6OVW/p and John MW0XOT I hastily put up the 5m pole with the 2m dipole and HF loosely attached….in my haste to get the system up I forgot to cable tie the bottom half of the 2m dipole so that didn’t help.

In my haste to 'set up'...wires all over the place. Waterproof log book today.

The last three contacts were 5/9 each way with Helen and Simon, ‘mobile’ on their way down to Devon…thanks.

10:14z	G4AZS/P	144MHz	FM	Adrian s2s..G/WB-005..Long Mynd PB
10:24z	MW0HGY/P	144MHz	FM	Jimmy s2s..GW/MW-006..Pegwn Mawr
10:27z	M3TMX/P	144MHz	FM	Jordan s2s..G/WB-010..The Wrekin
10:32z	GW4TQE/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s..GW/NW-021..Rhobell Fawr
10:39z	MW6OVW/P	144MHz	FM	Gillian s2s..GW/SW-04..Black Mountain
10:45z	MW0XOT	144MHz	FM	John
10:46z	MW1EYP/P	144MHz	FM	Tom s2s..GW/MW-006..Pegwn Mawr
10:48z	GW4TQD	144MHz	FM	John
11:00z	MW0TMD/M	144MHz	FM	Helen
11:00z	GW4TJC/M	144MHz	FM	Simon

After the 2m contacts I took some time to erect the HF antenna as it was now blowing hard outside the shelter of the cairn. I had forgotten that the EE phone signal on this summit was a little iffy but Rhodri eventually hit a sweet spot by rotating my phone in different directions and I was up and running on 60m but not on my alerted frequency as that was occupied.

Slight lean on the pole :)

Rhodri looking rather damp

Band conditions were not good but eventually I had 10 chasers in the log. It seemed that I was getting the worst of the weather as there were comments which included the words ‘Sunshine’ and ‘nice day’…….

11:20z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:21z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
11:22z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:23z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:24z	GI0AZA	5MHz	SSB	Esther
11:25z	G8MIA	5MHz	SSB	Andy
11:26z	MM0GGI/P	5MHz	SSB	John
11:26z	M0NTC	5MHz	SSB	Gez
11:27z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod
11:28z	G4YBU	5MHz	SSB	Tim
11:34z	MW0PLA/P	144MHz	FM	Paul s2s..GW/NW-012..Cadair Berwyn

I abandoned my visit to 80m as I was convinced the traps would break the antenna wire in the wind so apologies for not visiting the alerted frequency. Just as I was about to dismantle the system I heard Paul calling from Cadair Berwyn so I finished my activation with an s2s…thanks Paul. We were now getting cold and conditions were not improving so we beat a hasty retreat this time following my usual ascent route following the marker cairns in the mist…we were soon out of the wind but the rain kept falling.