Saturday 9 January 2016

GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

Snow today...but more winter bonus points :)

GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

07/01/2016

The weatherman had promised a cloudy day with sunny periods after the storm had pushed its way towards the East. However, Val and I had rather an unexpected slow journey today as the storm was still with us as we made our way North towards Devil’s Bridge.  First it was flooded roads then as we approached the summit the rain turned to snow and hailstones with gale force winds….nevertheless it was onwards and upwards. 
Onwards and upwards
Wind turbines in the mist
Now Pen y Garn has a lovely spiral cairn so I knew we would be protected from the elements. On arrival in the cairn I posted a spot saying that I would be QRV on 40m (7.118) in 30 minutes so that would give me time to set up. I knew I would not be able to extend the pole to full height today and would have to miss a visit to 60m so two sections remained in the main tube. Sadly when posting the spot I noticed that John MW0XOT/p had already activated his summit a good half hour before our arrival and had experienced similar weather to us so had kept his activation on 2m to a bare minimum of contacts….I knew he would not have had any protection on Black Mountain so my one and only s2s of the day had gone.  
On my way to the trig from the comfort of the cairn
I soon ventured out to the trig point and strapped the pole to it then stringing out the dipole on either side…those stones around the cairn were like glass…so easy to fall and break something! 
Brollies at the ready
A low slung dipole today
It was nice to get back into the cairn and very soon I was on 40m on my alerted frequency…it seems that there was a nice ‘ragchew’ going on with a large number of chasers keeping the frequency  warm…thanks everybody:)   With a booming signal from North Yorkshire, Phil OBK was first in the log followed quickly by Mike TUH with another end stopping signal….then a massive pile of regular SOTA and WAB chasers…great fun today and once again I was only running 5 watts from the FT817.
11:27z
G4OBK
7MHz
SSB
Phil
11:28z
G6TUH
7MHz
SSB
Mike
11:29z
G0EVV
7MHz
SSB
David
11:29z
M0IML
7MHz
SSB
Barry
11:29z
GI4ONL
7MHz
SSB
Victor
11:30z
G0RQL
7MHz
SSB
Don
11:31z
G0HRT
7MHz
SSB
Rob
11:31z
MW3VJN
7MHz
SSB
Tristan
11:31z
M0MDA
7MHz
SSB
Mick
11:32z
G0TRB
7MHz
SSB
Roger
11:32z
G4IAR
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:32z
G4WSB
7MHz
SSB
Bill
11:33z
2E0SCS
7MHz
SSB
Stephen
11:33z
G0TDM
7MHz
SSB
John
11:33z
G3RMD
7MHz
SSB
Frank
11:34z
G3TQQ
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:35z
M6RUG
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:35z
MM6FSV
7MHz
SSB
Paul
11:35z
GW2HFR
7MHz
SSB
Jonathan
11:35z
MK3FEH
7MHz
SSB
Karl
11:36z
G4APO
7MHz
SSB

11:36z
EA2CKX
7MHz
SSB
Pedro
11:37z
G4OOE
7MHz
SSB
Nick
11:37z
PA0SKP
7MHz
SSB
Sake
11:38z
PA0B
7MHz
SSB
Rob
11:39z
G0ELJ
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:40z
G4TXF
7MHz
SSB

11:41z
EA2DT
7MHz
SSB
Manuel
11:41z
DJ5AV
7MHz
SSB
Michael
11:42z
M0ZAE
7MHz
SSB
Henry
11:43z
G4SQA
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:43z
M0NTC
7MHz
SSB
Gez
11:44z
M0JLA
7MHz
SSB
Rod
11:44z
G4DUE
7MHz
SSB
Adrian
11:45z
G0GWY
7MHz
SSB
Geoff
11:46z
MM3PDM
7MHz
SSB
Peter
11:46z
ON5SWA
7MHz
SSB
Francois
11:47z
G7AFM
7MHz
SSB
Phil
11:47z
MK0BKV
7MHz
SSB
Damian
11:48z
G0FVH
7MHz
SSB
David
11:48z
PE1PIC
7MHz
SSB
KeesJan
11:49z
GI0OXG
7MHz
SSB
Jo
11:52z
MW0BYS
7MHz
SSB
Bill
11:52z
2E0GBK
7MHz
SSB
John
Two MK stations made my log today for the first time namely Karl MK3FEH and Damian MK0BKV (K for Kernow…Cornish stations have been allowed to add K to their callsigns for 2016). Because of weather conditions I had decided that this would be a short activation and as soon as there were no more callers I ‘pulled the plug’. Now sitting in the comfort of the cairn we hadn’t realised that conditions had changed and the sun was trying to break through the clouds although the wind had not died down and it was just as cold (2deg C in the car  when we left so minus whatever on top).
Blue skies appearing
I soon packed away but Val was adamant she wanted to look for the Geocache before we left the summit…some hope as everything was covered with snow….let’s go…coffee and sandwiches ready for us in the car :)

My activation set up today:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  3 band link dipole (60/40/20), Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.
Thanks everyone for the contacts and despite the conditions I enjoyed the activation….till the next time

73 Allan GW4VPX

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