This week has been an exciting one for M(W)1TJM/P. Being at home for Easter, visiting family, has been wonderful - seeing everyone has definitely been the highlight. But between you and me, the summits down here have been pretty great too!
It all started with a Tuesday evening activation on GW/SW-019, Mynydd Maen, which boasts its own bench and trig combo. Then, on Wednesday, I managed an early finish at work to squeeze in GW/SW-005, Fan Fawr, and GW/SW-001, Pen y Fan. A jam-packed week, despite the weather and working the 9-5 remotely.
A definite highlight was a memorable QSO with Ian, G4WTF, the first-ever activator of Pen y Fan. Ian was using the same transceiver he used to activate this summit back in 2002 - back when I was just learning how to walk!
Another standout moment was standing on the edge of Pen y Fan (which was definitely a little scary) to reach Ben, GW4BML, near Llanfyllin. A contact of over 100km with just 5W of power from my Yaesu FT3D was something I thought impossible. Ben confirmed the contact with a solid signal report of 44, which made it clear that the takeoff from the edge of the summit was the key to making it happen. A huge thanks to Ben for sticking around to make that happen!
Fast forward to the good old Friday, 3rd April… I’d been summoned by friends for a catch-up. The weather forecast wasn’t too promising, but a nice cup of coffee in Cwmbran and a short stroll sounded perfect - until it wasn’t! When I mentioned SOTA, I got the classic “what on earth is that?” So, I thought, “why not give it a go and show them what it’s all about?”
I suggested GW/SW-042, Mynydd y Lan. But when we arrived at the base of the AllTrails route, we were greeted with a mattress and heaps of rubbish. It’s always sad to see fly-tipping at the base of beautiful summits. We pushed on, though, and my friend, who works for the Police, was fascinated by the radio talk, especially discussing their Airwave system. But what they were about to see on the summit was real radio!
Setting up the mast and 40m dipole with my friend untangling the mess of wires was a bit stressful but a lot of fun. We found a sheltered spot on the broad summit to activate, as Storm Dave was making himself known.
We powered up the Xiegu G90 (first time using it), but only hearing a few strong European stations on 40m was a little discouraging. The bands seemed in poor shape, and we struggled to make contacts. We did manage one local contact on 20m with Ed, MW0KEC, just down the road, which was unexpected but great. Even though we only had 5 ITL, it gave me a chance to share a bit of the science behind radio on the descent.
I dropped my friend off, apologised for the overload of radio talk, and she replied, “What do you mean? It was brilliant! I love nerdy things like this.” Maybe there’s hope for her to start learning the foundation material one day! 
We went back to Cwmbran for that hot chocolate, bid each other 73s (I did; she wished me a Happy Easter 
), and I was on my way home. Or so I thought! I pulled over in a lay-by, turned off the engine, and checked my daily go-to site, SOTL.AS. My next summit wasn’t far away, and it was GW/SW-042, Mynydd y Grug, the newest and hottest addition to the GW/SW collection 
Following the excellent route provided by Robert, M0RWX, I parked about half a mile from the cattle grid and alerted a few local ops. I was excited about the chance to be activator #7 - it’s my favourite number, after all, so that was some good motivation in the mist, wind, and rain!
When I reached the summit, I was greeted by a glorious bench (kudos to whoever placed that there - we radio operators appreciate it). After setting up the mast and Slim-G antenna with my FT3D, I ran into some challenges. The radio had terrible front-end overload from nearby masts. Still, I pushed on and managed to make my first CQ call. To my surprise, I got a mini pile-up!
M7VPZ, near Bristol, was my first contact and we had a great rag-chew. Next was M7IZJ/P on Glastonbury Tor - what a shame this wasn’t a S2S, eh? The highlight of the activation, though, was a 70cm contact with Steve, GW5SAW. After failing to make a 2m HT-to-HT contact, I suggested trying 70cm, and despite our LoS being blocked by GW/SW-024 and both of us using simple HTs, we made it work! I called on 433.475MHz, and Steve responded. Some serious knife-edge diffraction magic there, I think! 
Steve was kind enough to send me a video of the final part of my QSO, and I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. Feeling rather chuffed, I decided to go QRT at this stage due to the wind picking up. That’s when the real fun began…
I had to wrestle with my Slim-G antenna, which was defying not only LoS but also gravity in the increasingly gusty wind. And, of course, in the midst of it all, I somehow managed to stand on my fishing rod and snap it. A moment of silence for the AliExpress carp fishing rod, please… forever in our memories.
All in all, it’s been a fantastic week back in my homeland. I’m really looking forward to the GW S2S event in June and everything else to come. A huge thank you to the wonderful SOTA community - who knew this time last year that I’d be here, sharing these experiences? I’m incredibly grateful for all the memorable QSOs and the warm welcome I’ve received.
Stay safe, enjoy your activations, and catch you on the next one! 73,
MW1TJM/P 
Few known cures - a very small number are cured by reaching the 1000 points for Mountain Goat but the only real cure seems to be SK 
I’d left the remote transceiver on the frequency you’d spotted. As soon as you reached the edge of PyF, your signal came through a perfectly readable 4/4. Keep up the good work buddy