GW/NW-073 Today

I had promised to drop a neighbour off at his caravan in Abergele and thought I would try and squeeze an activation in of a 1 point summit to take me to 200 activator points. I hadn’t done Mynydd Rhyd Ddu GW/NW-073 this year so after dropping my neighbour off I headed for the summit. Although it had rained most of the way, it was ok when I reached the parking spot. I was approached by the landowner and told it was ok to drive up the access lane, this shortened the walk considerably and I didn’t need asking twice.
I set up just below the summit in the lee of the wind and within 5 minutes the rain came. Luckily my xyl still hasn’t realised that she has left one of her umbrellas in my boot, it’s one of those telescopic jobs and fits in your pocket when collapsed, mind you this one is pink, not the best colour for a man, no comments please. The umbrella is ideal to keep the radio and log dry and it saved the day.

I started off on 7.032-cw with a S2S with Alain F6ENO/P on F/VO-058, quickly followed by another 18 contacts. A switch to 7.090 SSB proved a waste of time, I managed to scrape a contact with Barry 2E0PXW after ringing him for a spot, but it took us 5 minutes of struggling until we exchanged at 32/44, thanks for your patience Barry. Further calls went unanswered so I QSY’d to 30m on 10.118.

A further 28 QSO’s were soon in the log on 30m including 2 more S2S contacts with Christer SM6PXJ/P on SM/VL-002 and Aage LA1ENA/P on LA/TM-042.

My waterproofs had done a great job and the umbrella was a lifesaver but I had had enough in uncomfortable conditions so QRT’d, packed up and headed for the comfort of a warm car.

My apologies for no 2m but some fool had removed the feeder for the SB5 from his rucksack prior to heading for Germany and failed to put it back in, doh!

Total QSO’s = 48
40m CW = 19
40m ssb = 1
30m CW = 28
DXCC’s = 11
S2S = 3

Many thanks to all who called in and for the S2S contacts also to F5AKL, 2E0PXW, SM6CMU and OK1AUP for the spots.

73
Mike GW0DSP

In August Im going on holiday to Anglesey with family. I plan to activate GW/NW-071 Myndd Bodafon so you may hear me Mike. I will be using my usual 2M SSB then 2M FM. I sent you an email to your hotmail address Mike to see if you knew of anything else to activate close by.

73 Chris 2E0FSR

In reply to 2E0FSR:

Hi Chris

Holyhead Mountain GW/NW-069 is ok, it has a good car park with toilet and picnic facilities and superb views over the port of Holyhead and the Irish sea. Also the Great Orme GW/NW-070 at Llandudno is good for a family day out and is more or less a drive on.
Good luck with your activation, I’ll listen out for you.
P.S. I’ll expect activation reports and photos for the News, of course;-)

73
Mike GW0DSP