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

A glorious day

GW/NW-001 Snowdon

09/07/2015

I kept a careful watch on the weather prior to our intended visit to Snowdon and when the MWIS ( Mountain Weather Information Service - http://www.mwis.org.uk/home) gave the thumbs up for Thursday we were ready to go.

On our way with the cloud clearing on the summit

Snowdon summit in the distance - the little blip in the middle of the picture

It was a nice cool clear morning when my wife Val and friends Len and Gwyneth opted for the Llanberis path leaving our car in the Mountain Railway Car Park. Travelling light was the essence of the day and with limited space on the summit I packed my Yaesu FT270 FM handheld and Multi-Function Dipole with a Kenwood TH-F7 as backup.

The Snowdon Mountain Goat

Another one passes us on our way up

A train arriving at Clogwyn Station

As we reached the bridge at Clogwyn Station I left our little party and pushed on ahead as my alerted time was fast approaching.

My little gang below-right of train

Nant Peris and Pass of Llanberis

Summit in sight

Crib Goch, PyG and Miners tracks

Now Mike G6TUH had sent a text to me to say that he was ready to spot me as soon as I was ready. At 11:20 I was in place just below the steps to the summit cairn /trig and on the SE side facing Y Lliwedd and the Watkin path.

Watkin path and Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008

Spot up and I was away with John MW0JWP from Bangor being first in the log followed by an s2s with John M0VCM/p on G/NP-004 (Whernside) which gave me a complete for that one and another s2s with Sean M6HRE/p on G/SP-015 (The Cloud)...thanks both.

11:28z	MW0JWP	144MHz	FM	John (Bangor) IO73wf
11:36z	M0VCM/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s
11:40z	G3NPJ	144MHz	FM	Alan Wirral IO83mh
11:42z	M3LIU	144MHz	FM	Ian (Burnley)
11:43z	M0JVW	144MHz	FM	John
11:45z	M6HRE/P	144MHz	FM	Sean s2s

GW4VPX/p well into the pile-up on a very busy summit

Busy summit - looking down on Llyn Llydaw

I then had a good run of regular chasers which delighted me with Andy G8MIA being the first with another spot on Sotawatch which kept me on my toes..thanks Andy.

11:48z	G8MIA	144MHz	FM	Andy
11:48z	EI9GLB	144MHz	FM	Jim
11:49z	G4ZRP	144MHz	FM	Brian
11:49z	M3NHA	144MHz	FM	Tony
11:50z	M6NHA	144MHz	FM	Sara
11:50z	MW0RHD	144MHz	FM	Bob (Pwllheli)
11:51z	M6RUG	144MHz	FM	Dave (Crewe)
11:52z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy

Now John from Bangor popped in once again to say he had two friends in the shack and would I like to get them in the log...the answer is always ‘yes please’ :)

11:56z	MW0BYT	144MHz	FM	Ross
11:57z	MW1DAM	144MHz	FM	Tony
11:57z	MW6EYI	144MHz	FM	Bryan (Pwllheli)
11:59z	G4JZF	144MHz	FM	Graham (Willenhall)
11:59z	G0HRT	144MHz	FM	Rob (Southport)
12:00z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John

On my 'to do list' - Mynydd Mawr, Moel Eilio, Moel Cynghorion-distant

It was great to hear the familiar voices of Graham G4JZF and Rob G0HRT calling in and once again a pleasure to work John GW4ZPL. In between callers I thought I had heard the letters XYL/p so with a ‘stand by everyone’ I called for Karen 2E0XYL/p and for once my ears had not deceived me as she came back to my call from LDW-062 along with Neil 2E0TDX/p which resulted in a brief brief qso with them both. They were on their way to a SOTA summit but our time schedule would not allow us to wait as we had a long walk off the mountain and a long drive home....next time.. thanks both :)

12:01z	2E0XYL/P	144MHz	FM	Karen on LDW-062
12:03z	2E0TDX/P	144MHz	FM	Neil on LDW-062
12:03z	MW3RAU	144MHz	FM	Tommy (Llanfairfechan)
12:04z	M3UGN/P	144MHz	FM
12:08z	GW1YPQ/P	144MHz	FM	Karl..walking off Snowdon

A few final calls brought another three contacts with an end stopping qso with GW1YPQ/p Karl who had left the summit earlier and was well on his way down.

SOTA on Snowdon..well trained flag bearers

It had been an enjoyable activation with 25 contacts in the log from a very busy summit.....thanks to everyone for the contacts and spots and finally thanks to Len for all those extra pics.