I thought that now is the time to revive this topic becuase back in May 2021, me and my dad Tom @M1EYP thought we have activated all GW SOTA summits when we activated Disgwylfa Fawr GW/MW-038. However later that same year Rhinog Fach become a Marilyn and therefore become a SOTA summit and was given SOTA reference GW/NW-078 which me and my dad managed to activate in December 2021 and once again back then we both thought that we have finally manage to activate all GW SOTA summits.
It now turns out that yet again, we still haven’t activated all GW SOTA summits becuase when a survery took place last, it was found that Mynydd Y Grug was higher than Mynydd Machen GW/SW-030 and as a result Mynydd Machen GW/SW-030 was removed from the SOTA programme on the 1st March 2026 and Mynydd Y Grug was given SOTA reference GW/SW-042 from 2nd March 2026 (SOTA’s 24th Aniversay). This means that we now need to activate GW/SW-042 in order for us to complete GW for SOTA for a 3rd time which is kind of a concidence as a we compelted all G SOTA summits 3 times previously.
As Mynydd Y Grug GW/SW-042 isn’t daytripable for us, I have booked off from work Monday 1st June til Friday 5th June from work and I spend a lot of time recently outside of my working hours browsing booking.com to try and find some suitable accodomation for us. I was really struggling to find anywhere suitable on booking.com and then it occured to me to look on Air BnB and I managed to find on there this penthouse very close to the town centre of Caerphilly which is perfect for us as this is within walking pubs and restuarants of an evening and therefore shouldn’t have much of an issue getting a meal or a beer anywhere in the evenings. I have now booked to stay at this penthouse in Caerphilly from Sunday 31st May until Wednesday 3rd June and travelling back home Thursday 4th June. Something I have noticed with South Wales is that the majority of pubs there for some reason choose not to serve food on Sunday evenings. Luckily in Caerphilly, most restuarants are open on Sunday evenings, but quite a few are shut though Monday and Tuesday evenings. However, there looks to be a handful of places open in Caerphilly on the Monday and Tuesday evening where we can get some food.
Obviously our main priority while in the area is to activate Mynydd Y Grug GW/SW-042 to complete all GW for a 3rd time and not sure yet which of the days we will be activating this SOTA summit, but it will be the day which has the best of the weather. I plan to activate this SOTA summit on 2m FM and my dad plans to activate this SOTA summit on 2m SSB and expect that there will be some HF involved as well so please work us on the bands if you are able to for our special SOTA activation. When we completed GW SOTA summits the 2 times previously, both activations took place during COVID19 restrictions to which I felt very unconfortable seeing anyone mainly due to having to observe social distancing and therefore didn’t really want anyone joining us during of previous 2 GW SOTA completions. However, now that there is no COVID19 restications, I am happy for any SOTA activator who wishes to join us on Mynydd Y Grug GW/SW-042 to celebrate us completing all GW for a 3rd time to do so and happy for any SOTA activator to join us for any other SOTA activations that we do while in the area and for any meals or drinks of an evening also.
We haven’t really planned yet what other SOTA summits we will be activating while in the area with the exception of maybe activating Burton Hill G/WB-020 on our way home so that my dad can finally make some QSOs from this summit (see Drew a blank ). The good thing about staying in Caerphilly is that there are loads of very easy GW/SW SOTA summits nearby. There is the possibility that my dad may activate some GW/SW SOTA summits himself without me if there is times when the weather isn’t great as my dad doesn’t mind the odd bit of rain where as I for one cannot stand the rain at all.
Jimmy M0HGY