GW/SW-005 Fan Fawr

GW/SW-005 Fan Fawr

03/01/2019

Change of summit

I arrived at Storey Arms and was greeted by loads of Police (some armed), Ambulance, Mountain Rescue and the Police helicopter heading South in front of me.  Pen y Fan car parks and the surrounding area was in lock down and I was informed to return later…the news reported that they were looking for a missing person but later I found out that there was more to this than met the eye.

Quick decision and I opted for Fan Fawr so I headed down to the car park by the dam and took the SE route to the summit which I had done a few weeks ago.

My GPS track

Heading up

Looking across to Storey Arms and Corn Du.

Fan Fawr looms into sight

Fan Fawr ahead

It was -2C when I left the car and about -5C when I reached the summit with a slight breeze blowing and increasing the chill factor so I chose a nice sheltered spot and immediately set up the Bothy bag as I would be here for a long time. Kicking off on 2m with a spot I qualified within some 3 minutes with Mal OVD first in the log followed by Bryan from near Neath who seems to pop up regularly these days…welcome to SOTA Bryan.

10:40z	GW6OVD	144MHz	FM	Mal..Treharris
10:41z	MW6IUT	144MHz	FM	Bryan..Neath
10:42z	GW0PLP	144MHz	FM	Don..nr Aberporth
10:43z	G4KPM	144MHz	FM	Malcolm..Portishead
10:50z	GW4TQE/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s..GW/NW-049..Gyrn Moelfre

It was great to get John TQE with an s2s and I was happy with the 2m path to the North as there would be quite a few more popping up from that direction later on. There were no more callers so I headed to 60m with Bill WSB  once again answering my “Is this frequency in use?” call with “Is that you Allan?”. With a spot from Bill I was into to a pleasantly orderly pile-up which seemed to go on forever and from all over the UK.…great fun…thanks everyone.

10:55z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill..Wiltshire
10:57z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry..York
10:57z	G0ELJ	5MHz	SSB	Dave..Norfolk
10:58z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don..Holsworthy, Devon
10:59z	G4AFI	5MHz	SSB	Andrew..Hants
11:01z	GI0AZA	5MHz	SSB	Esther..Dungiven, NI
11:02z	GB9WAB	5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:03z	G4LOE	5MHz	SSB	Gary..Solihull
11:04z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick..Leeds
11:05z	G0EVV	5MHz	SSB	David..Morpeth
11:05z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John..Penrith
11:06z	G8MIA	5MHz	SSB	Andy..Rugeley
11:07z	G4ETQ	5MHz	SSB	John..Truro
11:08z	G0LGS	5MHz	SSB	Stuart..Cheltenham
11:09z	MM0GGI	5MHz	SSB	John..Sutherland
11:10z	G6NHI	5MHz	SSB
11:12z	GM6ZAK	5MHz	SSB	Andrew..Fife
11:14z	GI4ONL	5MHz	SSB	Victor..Bushmills, NI
11:15z	G4ZRP	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:16z	G4PDF	5MHz	SSB	Bob..Market Rasen
11:16z	G3KEV	5MHz	SSB	Malcolm?..North Yorks
11:17z	G4EJH	5MHz	SSB	Keith..Portishead
11:19z	G0GWY	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey..Scunthorpe

Raised end 

I had used my 5m pole today but ensured that the ends were raised with my walking poles by about a metre which means the VSWR is really low (no need for ATU)…without the poles and the VSWR is really high with the need for an ATU.

The office

I could hear Adrian calling on 2m and with a few QRZs on 60m and no answers I quickly grabbed the FT270 and he was soon in the log from Cyrn y Brain…thanks Adrian. I had heard John MW0XOT speaking to Adrian before me so I popped up to the calling frequency and called for him on the off chance he was back there…bingo..in the log.  No further callers to my QRZs and CQ SOTA on 2m.

11:22z	GW4AZS/P	144MHz	FM	Adrian..GW/NW-043..Cyrn y Brain
11:24z	MW0XOT	144MHz	FM	John..Llandrindod Wells
11:36z	G4OOE/P	144MHz	FM	Nick s2s..G/NP-015..Great Knoutberry Hill
11:37z	G3TQQ/P	144MHz	FM	Dave s2s..G/NP-015..Great Knoutberry Hill

An s2s came up on 2m from Great Knotberry Hill so  I called out in the hope that either Nick or Dave would hear me as this was would be a really long distance contact…a bonus s2s in the log with both and to make it really worthwile it was a complete for me as I had activated it many years ago with Barry M0IML…thanks both.

Other SOTA summits in the distance

I was really feeling the cold now so I hit the coffee and sandwiches and contemplating whether I should go on to 80m…yes I was that cold. The coffee warmed me up so up went the coils and a spot on 80m. Annoyingly, after calling several times to see if the frequency was in use a digital transmission came up forcing me to move. Another spot and an instant surprise from Helen with an s2s from Pendle Hill…in the log and making it a worthwhile visit to 80m…thanks Helen.

11:57z	M0TMD/P	3.5MHz	SSB	Helen s2s..G/SP-005..Pendle Hill
11:58z	GB9WAB	3.5MHz	SSB	Dave
11:59z	2E0FEH	3.5MHz	SSB	Karl..Saltash, Cornwall
11:59z	G0EVV	3.5MHz	SSB	David..Morpeth
12:00z	MW6IUT	3.5MHz	SSB	Bryan..Neath
12:01z	M0GQC	3.5MHz	SSB	James..Swindon
12:02z	G4TJC/P	3.5MHz	SSB	Simon s2s..G/SP-005..Pendle Hill
12:04z	GI0AZA	3.5MHz	SSB	Esther..Dungiven, NI

After sprinting a few metres to Helen’s FT817 Simon TJC  made my log but as he said later he could have waited as we both had a cracking contact on 2m shortly afterwards. The next hour was spent having another coffee, collecting s2s and waiting for Martyn/Caroline to reach the top of Shining Tor and Rod/Viki to summit Pen Llithrig y Wrach (roughly translated Slippery Peak of the Witch).

Ready for s2s

12:05z	G4TJC/P	144MHz	FM	Simon s2s..G/SP-005..Pendle Hill
12:09z	G4HQB/P	144MHz	FM	Philip s2s..G/WB-003..Stiperstones
12:36z	M0WBG/P	144MHz	FM	Neil s2s..G/WB-003..Stiperstones
12:40z	MW0ZAQ/P	144MHz	FM	Chaz..GW/NW-042..Moel y Gamelin
12:55z	M3ZCB/P	144MHz	FM	Caroline s2s..G/SP-004..Shining Tor
12:56z	M1MAJ/P	144MHz	FM	Martyn s2s..G/SP-004..Shining Tor
12:59z	MW0JLA/P	144MHz	FM	Rod s2s..GW/NW-013..Pen Llithrig y Wrach
12:59z	MW6BWA/P	144MHz	FM	Viki s2s..GW/NW-013..Pen Llithrig y Wrach

Heading down..sunshine above Storey Arms

Heading down

Nearly at the car

Despite the cold it was a great day although I did stay too long on summit…soon warmed up on the way down though…thanks everyone.

My activation set-up

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

VHF:- Yaesu FT270 and dipole

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

Antenna support – 5m Fishing pole with end supports

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX