Great Rhos Danger Area extended

The good news is that the summit of Great Rhos GW/MW-002 is still accessible. The less good news is that the Danger Area surrounding the nearby “rifle range” has been extended to include a large area of the summit plateau, making access from the South rather less attractive.
In practice, this means that you can still walk up the path from New Radnor or Haines Mill, but, once on open land, you can’t fork right at the flagpole near SO186622 to follow the obvious route.

I have added a note to the summit page.

Here is a photo of the new information board near SO189619. I couldn’t get a better angle without climbing over the barbed wire fence, but it says that the new area is marked on the June 2018 OS map update.

Anyway, having arrived at the summit, my activation today was enjoyable despite the wet low cloud. Twenty six contacts spread across 80m, 60m and 2m in about an hour.

I am hoping to spend a bit more time on HF this year (as sussed by @GW4VPX in his blog :smile:. One thing I have yet to sort out is a quick and efficient means of raising a HF dipole and a 2m vertical antenna on the same mast, as 2m FM is a good option from most of the summits I frequent in Wales and Welsh Borders. Today’s attempt was not great, as the two interacted, giving a high SWR on 2m, with few stations heard.
The only QSO on 2 was a very welcome S2S with Allan gw4vpx/p on Fan Nedd GW/SW-007, not too far away.
I also need to watch my operating - coming straight off 80m, where it is normal to call CQ and then work the calling stations, I did the same on 145.500, only realising my mistake when Allan appologised for staying on the calling channel. Luckily the band wardens must have been on a tea break, as I didn’t get a ticket! (I did also appologise for my bad manners)

Here is a shot of the shack:

Thanks to all callers, contacts much appreciated.

73
Adrian
G4AZS

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Hi Adrian

First of all thank you for the s2s…caught you just before I stepped off the edge by the cairn.

Secondly thank you for the information regarding access to Great Rhos…it’s on the cards for Winter Bonus time. Blog for today is up and thanks to all the chasers.

73 Allan

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If it helps this is off the current 1:25000


©Crown copyright 2019 Ordnance Survey. Media 009/19

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Good to catch you yesterday Adrian, under my pseudonym of GB9WAB!

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Thanks for the info.
I’ve yet to find an obvious route to the trig point, it has always been a battle with waist high braken, to the extent that I find somewhere easier to setup within the AZ :slight_smile:
Are you saying that you just veer off the path and skirt the danger zone now to the east? (Purple line on map).
Is the Danger zone fenced off to make it obvious?
Cheers

Yes, I’m suggesting that as the likely permissible route, but I don’t know how easy it would be - I have to confess that I only noticed the new sign on my way down.
I expect in time a well trodden path will evolve.

No, not at all. Judging by boot prints on the ground, I’m not alone in missing the sign on the way up. Not too surprising as it faces mostly uphill - you would have to make a conscious effort to look back at it on the way up.

From my googling, it seems that the plateau is open common land despite the “danger area” so I’m not sure that they would be able to fence across it - sheep still graze etc. Better signage would be good, though.

It’s hard to understand why the area has been expanded. On the way up Harley Dingle there is a clear sight line into the range, yet this is still permitted.
On the old route across the plateau, there is no sight line into the range. Maybe the risk is falling debris from above, or possibly unexploded nasties nearby. Who knows, I couldn’t find anything definitive even with the help of google.

Annoyingly, I have found a nice little path for this, repeated successfully a couple of times, but no longer of any use!

I don’t know the range but, if it is a rifle range, then the extra area marked could be there to protect from possible ricochet off the outcrops shown on the map. Better to be safe than sorry, even a “spent” bullet hurts

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It is known as a “rifle range” but is a bit more complicated than that:

http://radnor.org.uk/

From their website:
“…our range also supports the flying of drones and counter-drone activity…”

It occurs to me that they might use lasers in this context, in which case you wouldn’t want to risk peeping even momentarily in the wrong direction. Although, the danger area comes under the “explosives act”, so maybe not. Maybe they’re firing missiles at drones :wink:

I heartily agree that safe is better than sorry.

Hi All
this is the route I took in mid 2017, I am thinking of activating there again this Saturday and using the same route as before as it was very easy.

Paul

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