Just to say a big thanks to Karen 2E0XYL, Barry MW0IML and Robert G0PEB for activating GW/NW-072 Mynydd Enlli today. This summit has seen very little activity in the last 4 years and it was one GW/NW s2s contact I was really keen to tick off.
I made my way up to G/SP-004 this morning in heavy rain, hoping the contact would be possible on 2m fm. Karen had packed her colinear and I set up the 5/8 over 5/8 colinear on the finger post. I received a text to say Karen was QRV on 2m and made the contact almost immediately. Barry followed Karen into the log. He was working with his HT! Bit scratchy, nevertheless, signal reports were exchanged making this a wonderful contact.
Not to leave Robert out of the party, I found him on 14.285 and all three finished with a s2s in their log.
Once again, the 40m band was in poor shape.
The rain never eased off for one second on Shining Tor and I’ve never left a summit so dreched
It’s an interesting path if you mark it on a map. The bit that helps is that NW-072 has a nice sharp drop to the NW. So there’s significantly less ground reflections than somewhere like Kinder Scout plateau.
Apart from near Abersoch, it’s a sea path to Snowdonia. That’s a huge advantage too. Then whilst it passes over Snowdonia, it passes over the lower parts not Snowdon etc. But by now the signal is into troposcatter mode. The path actually misses the Clywdian Range and of course, Shining Tor has an excellent view out this way which again reduces ground reflections.
It’s great contact for just a handy antenna and maybe, even probably, if you’d tried to work Shining Tor from some of the Lleyn peninsula summits with the same gear you’d have heard zilch from each other.
Does anyone know if Robert was doing some preliminary scouting from NW-072 yesterday? He called me twice (17m and 20m) yesterday as GW0PEB/P when I was on W4C/WP-012 but I didn’t get his reference and I didn’t see him spotted or on the Alert list. He did spot me on 20m “tnx again de GW0PEB/P” so I don’t think it was someone pirating his call. I recorded NW-072 but wonder if anyone knows for sure? If not I’ll send him an email.
I meant yesterday (Monday). We had QSOs at 1145z on 17m and again at 1221z on 20m. I’m not sure whether the GW0PEB/P he was signing meant he was on a summit or simply away from home (G0PEB). If he was not on a summit I’ll need to remove the S2S.
In reply to MW0IML:
Thanks for the S2S Barry with me on G/LD-048 Top O’Selside on 60m. I loved it when we exhanged frequencies and I took your 40m spot, hearing the wall of chasers before I left!
Cheers Mike for the S2S on 2m too.
Off to get wet on G/LD-023 Knott tomorrow using 2m fm and a survival shelter. Joy!
cheers
Sorry for any confusion caused from Monday’s activities. I can confirm that we worked on 20 and 17m CW, i’m currently on holiday in North Wales and was operating /p from the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden due to the torrential rain experienced here on Monday. My planned activation was cancelled.
Today I operated from Mynydd Enlli GW/NW-072, along with 2 other Mountain Goats 2W0XYL and MW0IML, and the weather was perfect. I had a great day out.
