Last Sunday, the 3rd of December 2017, I finally activated Snaefell on the second attempt - the first was a very wet and windy spring evening during the week with zero visibility that taught me a lot about the FT-817 and moisture and bleedthrough. That was a quick 20 minute sprint up from the Bungalow but this time round we did the ‘sea to summit’ from Laxey which took around 2.5 hours up and 2 hours down with around an hour on the summit.
Equipment
- Yeasu FT-270 2m 5W FM waterproof handheld
- Yaesu FT-817 5W all mode, all band transceiver (in drybag)
- Slim-G 2m antenna
- Sotabeams Quad Bander 20/30/40/80 dipole
- 10m Sotabeams compact squid pole (top 3 sections removed)
- 5AH 4 cell LiPo
- Waterproof log book
- Sitmat
- Several protein bars
- 1.5L water
Approx pack weight with water: 8KG
The route
The track up from Laxey to the disused mines is easy to find and follow. By the disused mine buildings there is a footpath sign that takes a sharp right up from the track before a building on the right. I would recommend following that path as shown on the map below. We followed the contour to the north and came a bit of a cropper in the valley below the mountain road. The path takes you to the ridgeline instead and gives you half a chance of not getting bogged down too much. It’s probably less effort too.
On the way down we followed the slightly longer route - again mostly very easy to find - towards Slieau Ruy. This gives excellent views of the North Barrule ridgeline.
The Activation
The wind was pretty brisk at the top, probably around 40 mph with the windchill giving sub-zero temperatures so no time to loiter. I caught two Welsh activation’s on the FT-270R on the way up:
-
MW0XRT/P on GW/NW-040 David on Tal y Fan 5/9+ 5/9+
-
GW4TQE/P on GW/NW-070 John on Great Orme 5/5 5/5
Upon reaching the summit I set up for 2m which was doing just fine then forgetting my ability to spot via SMS using SOTAspotter (it’s amazing how the cold ruins your brain - like swapping QRZ with QSL!) I had to call on 40m blind. Thankfully the previous activator G4RQJ who missed the 2m activation responded and then spotted and I had a quick run on 40m with one on 20m just as I was reminded how cold it was and persuaded to pack up and leave.
Great views from the top but not quite good enough for the seven kingdoms - I couldn’t see the UK coastline at all.
Many thanks to all the chasers.
Photo album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HMO0OAcokC1DiIUf2 (includes a few photos from 9-DEC-2017 where I did a little DX’ing from a snowy Douglas beach).
Time Call Band Mode Notes
12:19z 2E0LBI 144MHz FM 53 55
12:22z G0MRL 144MHz FM 55 59 Laurie IO83RO
12:22z MW1FGQ 144MHz FM 59 59 John
12:23z GI6FZI 144MHz FM 59 59 Gordon
12:24z GW0PLP 144MHz FM 53 51 Don IO72RC
12:26z 2I0VOF 144MHz FM 59 59+ Paddy
12:43z LX1CC 7MHz SSB 58 57 Mill
12:49z G4RQJ 7MHz SSB 58 58 Rob Walney Island
12:58z DL8DXL 7MHz SSB 51 33
13:00z PA5KM 7MHz SSB 58 59+
13:01z DJ6OK 7MHz SSB 58 55
13:01z EA2DT 7MHz SSB 55 52 Manuel
13:02z F6FTB 7MHz SSB 51 42
13:03z 2E0XCZ 7MHz SSB 59 59
13:04z EA2CKX 7MHz SSB 59 52
13:05z M0IML 7MHz SSB 58 57
13:06z EA2DPA 7MHz SSB 52 55
13:16z 9A5O 14MHz SSB 58 57 Sado JN86D
