Off on Sunday to Brecon in the van for a few days. Staying self contained and as COVID safe as possible.
Alerts will be posted, but possibly not until a few hours before as I’ll be dodging the WX.
It’ll probably be mostly 2M FM with the handheld into a decent antenna.
Nearly getting to the end of GW… except for THAT one…
We were all set to do our final GW summit a few weeks ago - but GW went into its firebreak lockdown 36 hours before! Now that’s over, but G is in lockdown. We’re hoping that we get a day in December that has both G and GW free of travel restrictions, and a day off work for both Jimmy and me. Fortunately, our last summit isn’t THAT one!
Enjoy the Brecon Beacons. Love it there, had some great trips with Jimmy and Liam. Despite being the furthest from my QTH, it was the first GW SOTA Region we got finished. Lots of lovely rewarding walks, aesthetically pleasing hills and good accessibility.
Well that was “a little damp and breezy” (British understatement)
Sunday 15 Nov 2020.
GW/SW-013 Allt yr Esgair. 2M FM, 4 contacts. FT270 and Slim G
Monday 16 Nov 2020
GW/SW-006 Fan Gyhirych. 2M FM, 7 contacts. FT270 and Slim G. One summit to summit with GW4VPX on GW/MW-034 Mynydd Cynros.
GW/SW-007 Fan Nedd. 2M FM, 5 contacts, FT270 and Slim G
Tuesday 17 Nov 2020
GW/SW-009 Mynydd Troed. 2M FM, 6 contacts, FT270 and Slim G
GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse, 2M FM, 5 contacts FT270 and 857 (20W) with Slim G
Wednesday 18 Nov 20
GW/SW-013 Tor y Foel, 2M FM. 7 contacts FT270 and 857 (20W). Then 2M SSB. 2 contacts 857. All with SlimG vertical. One summit to summit with M0MYA on G/WB-006.
Particular thanks to my good friend Allan GW4VPX for working so hard to get me on every summit, including travelling out from home to chase me and arrange a summit to summit too!
The weather was not kind. But we got on with it and got the job done.
GW/SW-013 Allt yr Esgair - summit panorama board.
GW/SW-013 Allt yr Esgair - descending with a view of the Usk Valley and the next heavy shower coming in.
GW/SW-006 Fan Gyhirych - still smiling despite the wind and rain.
GW/SW-006 Fan Gyhirych - trig is an “island”.
GW/SW-006 Fan Gyhirych - operating point by the big cairn north of the trig.
GW/SW-006 Fan Gyhirych - Sue going “above and beyond” again, hanging on to the mast during the activation.
GW/SW-007 Fan Nedd - cowering behind the trig point for shelter. Horizontal rain.
GW/SW-009 Mynydd Troed - looking south to GW/SW-015 which I was heading across to later.
GW/SW-009 Mynydd Troed - summit trig operating point.
GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse - operating spot by the larger cairn north of the true summit. This afforded a small amount of shelter from the wind.
GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse - the rather small true summit cairn.
GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse - route that goes down from the summit to the west on a more gentle descent line.
GW/SW-013 Tor y Foel - operated just off the summit on the north side to get out of the worst of the weather, not that you would believe that from this photo!
GW/SW-013 Tor y Foel - returning to the summit before descending. Very strong wind and heavy rain.
Hi Gerald
Thanks for the report and photos and well done to you and Sue. Certainly was a wet and windy few days…not typical of Wales. I’m glad I picked a dry…ish morning to get you s2s from Mynydd Cynros. Great fun chasing you…we worked hard to get some of those contacts😀. Looking forward to the next time.
73 for now and 88 to Sue.
Allan
Hi Gerald and Sue
Lovely to see you both ejoying both ‘our’ hills and ‘our’ weather! At least you managed to see some of the panorama from Allt yr Esgair before the next shower swept in. Your wet photos bring back many memories - especially trying to shelter behind trig points (either they are too narrow or I am too wide for this to be successful!!) and that little cairn on Mynydd LLangorse. There is just nowhere to hide away out of the wind on that hill once you start walking towards that trig. I have a theory that the summit of Tor y Foel is one of the coldest spots around - considering it is really quite low - and if I try to hide in one of the nooks below the summit that I struggle even harder to get contacts. I hope you didn’t meet the farmer on the way down the narrow road. We once had to back for what seemed to be the whole way back up the hill! Mind you that road does save a lot of height gain as we discovered when we did it from the reservoir (after Waun Rhydd) one dayl. We must have been a lot fitter (or sillier) in those days!!
Please come again in better weather when we can arrange some s2s - and a debrief in a suitable hostelry!
73 Viki M6BWA
Looking forward to it! Post the “unpleasantness”…
Thanks for this one Gerald, it was a treat to work you. I was in a frenzy trying to get set up fast enough to work you before you went QRT - your Slim G was doing a very respectable job especially considering the cross polarisation losses!
73 Dave M0MYA.
