Being new to SOTA, I haven’t managed too many activations as yet, but like a few others I have done some repeat activations of my local GW/NW summits, the main ones being NW-051 and NW-042. Moel Y Gamlin offers very easy access at night and I have done a few “night raids” on this summit lately.
I couldn’t believe my luck when Mick 2E0HJD informed me that NW-042 stood at 99 activations and offered me the chance of making a little piece of SOTA history. I made plans hastily and last night 1/10/07 headed for the Ponderosa Café parking spot on the top of the Horseshoe Pass. Mike GW0DSP was back home after an activation of his local hill and offered to come with me for company, you can’t be to careful on these summits in the dark wintry nights and it was reassuring to have someone down at the parking spot, just in case of problems, thanks Mike.
The ascent in very high wind was nothing spectacular and the summit was reached in good time, mainly due to the fact that I only had my Yaesu VX-7 and log book to carry. I made my first contact with Mike back at the car, then ten other contacts followed in quick succession. After the ten contacts things went quiet and the clag started to hit the summit so I made a sharp exit, hi. The descent from the summit was faster than usual as I jogged most of the way down, they don’t call me the whippet for no reason.
My special thanks to Mick 2E0HJD for the spots and for offering me the chance to do the 100th activation of this popular summit, it’s nice to be a M3 making SOTA history, also thanks to Mike GW0DSP for his company.
Thanks to the following stations for the 2m-FM contacts: GW0DSP/M, 2E0HJD, GW1LDY, M1AVV, GW1XSN, M3XMC, G4BLH, 2E0BIX, 2E0VTS, G0AFQ and rarest DX of all Lauren M3HJD.
73 Barry (the whippet) M3PXW