GW/MW-011 Foel Cwmcerwyn

Winter bonus 2015

GW/MW-011 - Foel Cwmcwerwyn   02/01/2015

On my own for this one although in the past Steve MW0BBU has been with me for the first summit of the New Year but his shift work pattern did not coincide this year.  It was very cold and extremely windy on the summit and I had to keep the antenna low with the nylon chord brace attached to the dipole centre to support the fishing pole. I dropped into the ‘bomb hole’ some 10m away from the trig and set up ready for activation.

Half way there

The Trig

Now this summit has a trig point TP-5522 - Precelly (WAB spreadsheet) and I had alerted on both Sotawatch and the WAB Yahoo User Group that I would be active at around 10:30. With 60m in a poor state with only Don G0RQL and Brian G8ADD answering my calls it was with some trepidation that I called into Barry M0IML/p for an s2s and trig2trig on 40m

10:32z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:34z	G0RQL	144MHz	FM	Don
10:36z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian

As I mentioned in an earlier posting on the SOTA Reflector I make no apologies for not getting involved with the 'WAB net' as I feel that I need the freedom to 'pull the plug' as those who really want the Square or Trig will find me. My main objective today was to get my SOTA points and to start building on the WAB Trig Awards which will come naturally from activations. Providing there is a (WAB recognised) trig on summit I will continue to Alert on both sites and will follow the same 'modus operandi' .

Out of the wind

As Barry had finished he handed me the frequency and with a spot by Mike G6TUH I was into a pile-up immediately but not what I was expecting. The pile-up was made up of the 'faithful Sota chasers' many of which collect the WAB squares also so were including the trig today as well with a brief comment to that fact.

10:42z	M0IML/P	7MHz	SSB	Barry s2s +TP6473
10:46z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
10:46z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
10:47z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry
10:47z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	Mick
10:48z	G4JZF	7MHz	SSB	Graham
10:48z	G0TRB	7MHz	SSB	Roger
10:48z	G3XQE	7MHz	SSB	Ken
10:49z	G0TDM	7MHz	SSB	John
10:49z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
10:50z	M0RMY	7MHz	SSB	Tom
10:50z	M0BKV	7MHz	SSB	Damian
10:51z	GM0AXY	7MHz	SSB	Ken
10:52z	GM4YMM	7MHz	SSB	Christine
10:53z	G0HRT	7MHz	SSB	Rob
10:53z	M0JLA	7MHz	SSB	Rod
10:55z	G8MIA	7MHz	SSB	Andy
10:55z	G8VNW	7MHz	SSB	Nick
10:56z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
10:56z	MW6GWR	7MHz	SSB	Ricky
10:58z	2E0GGI	7MHz	SSB	Robert
10:59z	G4MCQ	7MHz	SSB	Steve
11:00z	G7LAS	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:02z	MW0YCC	7MHz	SSB	Alan
11:03z	M6WSB	7MHz	SSB	Stephen
11:03z	2E0SCS	7MHz	SSB	Stephen
11:04z	GW4UEP	7MHz	SSB	Ken

Now with 40m going quiet I decided to give a call on 2m as I had heard some activity on the FT270. I was rewarded with a bonus s2s with Richard GW0IBE/p on Snowdon GW/NW-001- thanks Richard.

On my own today

11:09z	GW0IBE/P	144MHz	FM	Richard s2s
11:12z	2W0JMK	144MHz	FM	Mark
11:15z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy
11:17z	GW6OVD	144MHz	FM	Mal
11:24z	GW0GVY	144MHz	FM	Chris
11:31z	MW0WEE	144MHz	FM	Andy

The summit trig was very busy this morning with a large number of hill walkers which really surprised me as I am normally very alone on this summit – probably people were still on holiday after the festive season.

Despite the wind and the cold it was an enjoyable activation which kick started my WAB Trig Awards, SOTA winter bonus points - 34 contacts on both HF and VHF including 2 s2s for SOTA.

Thanks everyone for the contacts.

73 de Allan GW4VPX