GW/NW-007 Aran Fawddwy

Bit of a slog but......

GW/NW-007 Aran Fawddwy

08/08/2015

Arriving at Dolgellau a little later than anticipated Val and I picked up my cousin Gareth from his home and we were soon on our way to the Car Park at SH8524 1884 just below Blaencywarch. It’s a 6.39km walk uphill (as always) using the well trodden route I had chosen.   

My GPS track

The Car Park...with basic toilet facilities

Bracken spraying ...not near us

Being a gluton for punishment this was Gareth’s second visit to the summit within a month but relishing the experience of seeing me activating it for SOTA? ...  :)

 Another steep way up or down...Glasgwm GW/NW-015 left

Glasgwm centre

Looking back down the valley on our way up

Looking back...follow the fences

Aran Fawddwy appears-centre

Our route ahead..follow ridge to Aran Fawddwy (above lake)

Well before the summit I was in QSO with John GW4TQE/p on GW/NW-046 (Rhialgwm) and Viki MW6BWA/p on GW/MW-023 (Carneddau) both promising to stay on summit until I arrived on mine...thank you both.

 Not far to go Val

Before I had time to unpack they were both in the log including Rod MW0JLA/p who had sprinted over to take the microphone from Viki for that s2s with me :)...thanks everyone.

12:23z MW6BWA/P 144MHz FM Viki s2s 12:25z MW0JLA/P 144MHz FM Rod s2s 12:29z GW4TQE/P 144MHz FM John s2s
With a spot from Mal GW6OVD (thanks Mal) I was soon into a steady trickle of chasers on 60m but this very soon came to an end but included an s2s with Barry..great stuff..thanks Barry.
12:50z GW6OVD 5MHz SSB Mal 12:53z M0MDA 5MHz SSB Mick 12:53z G8MIA 5MHz SSB Andy 12:54z EI9GLB 5MHz SSB Jim 12:54z G0RQL 5MHz SSB Don IO70uv 12:56z M0IML/P 5MHz SSB Barry s2s t2t TP6473 12:58z M0BKV 5MHz SSB Damian

GW4VPX/p on HF

13:12z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don diff band
13:12z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
13:12z	ON6ZQ	7MHz	SSB	Christophe
13:13z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
13:13z	PA7ZEE	7MHz	SSB	Geert
13:14z	GW2HFR	7MHz	SSB	Jonathan
13:14z	EB2CZF	7MHz	SSB	Jose
13:16z	G0FEX	7MHz	SSB	Ken
13:16z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
13:16z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
13:18z	DK1WI	7MHz	SSB	Ed
13:18z	M0VCM	7MHz	SSB	John
13:19z	M3ZCB	7MHz	SSB	Caroline
13:19z	G0ELJ	7MHz	SSB	Dave
13:21z	GM4COX/P	7MHz	SSB	Jack s2s
13:23z	G7AFM	7MHz	SSB	Phil
13:23z	2W0MFB	7MHz	SSB
13:25z	GW0EVV/P	7MHz	SSB	David s2s
13:26z	G0RPA	7MHz	SSB	Ian
13:29z	F/G6LKB	7MHz	SSB	David
13:30z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
13:32z	G0FVH	7MHz	SSB	David
13:35z	M1MAJ	7MHz	SSB	Martyn
13:36z	M0SGO	7MHz	SSB	Scott
13:36z	SP9DPM	7MHz	SSB	Dariusz
13:37z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Franc

I then managed to get a spot up for 40m with Don G0RQL popping in once again followed by a steady stream of European regulars.  Jonathan GW2HFR ended that starting a good run of UK stations with Ed DK1WI managing to break through the pile-up. I managed two s2s, the first one with Jack GM4COX/p on GM/SS064 (Tinto) and the other with David GW4EVV/p on GW/NW-051 (Foel Fenlli)...thank you both for the summits and the brief chats.  It was evident that there were a few WAB chasers in the pile-up including David F/G6LKB on holiday in France but still chasing and Bill G4WSB who told me off...all corrected now Bill :) The run of chasers soon came to an end so I decided to move onto 2m.

13:49z	MW3PZO	144MHz	FM	Sean
13:51z	MW3YQL	144MHz	FM	John
13:52z	M0INY	144MHz	FM	Ian
13:54z	MW1BZJ/P	144MHz	FM	Peter
13:56z	EI9GLB	144MHz	FM	Jim
13:58z	G4AZS	144MHz	FM	Adrian

GW4VPX/p on 2m

From the Trig

Rhinogs distant

Snowdonia distant

Cadair Idris and Barmouth distant

 Time was moving on and the breeze was getting colder so after a quick discussion and happy that everyone was fine I ventured on to 20m. Val tried to spot me but just could not get a signal...RRT had also ‘crashed’ ...I decided to have a look around 14.285MHz to see if it was clear only to find Steve GW1YBB/p calling ‘CQ SOTA’ slightly lower....he was very soon in the log...well done Steve on your first foray into activating a SOTA summit. I moved on to 14.285 but without a spot only 2 stations made the log so I quickly ‘pulled the plug’ as we had a long way to walk off the mountain.

14:09z	GW1YBB/P	14MHz	SSB	Steve s2s
14:13z	YT2KID	14MHz	SSB	Ivanovic
14:15z	OK1SDE	14MHz	SSB	Borek

 Val and Gareth

Monument cairn to a member of RAF St Athan Mountain Rescue Team

Monument cairn...Cadair Idris distant centre (taken from Drws Bach)

On our way down

Thanks everyone for the contacts especially the activators that ‘hung around’ on summit so that we could get an s2s.  It was great to be in the company of my cousin Gareth and I think we have a plan developing to jointly visit some of those SOTA summits to the North of Dolgellau in the very near future :)

73 Allan GW4VPX