M3ZCB Caroline Mt Goat

In reply to G4JZF:

Fantastic, well done and looking forward to future summit 2 summits.

Colwyn
MM0YCJ

Congratulations Caroline!

It was a pleasure to work you (and Martyn) S2S on your MG-qualifying summit.

Best 73,
Fred
GI4MWA

Many thanks for all the congratulations.

I had hoped to try to make the activation memorable by working all the bands I’d used on different activations, but the weather and terrain weren’t cooperative. The snow started as we reached the Marchlyn Mawr Dam - it wasn’t lying but it was making everything wet, and by the time we got to the summit the clouds had removed the views.

After working Fred for a S2S on 144FM I started off on 433FM using the handie and a whip, and soon had the hill qualified. Our initial position was too exposed, so we moved into one of the shelters and set up the FT817 with MFD. We had managed to forget the bothy bag, but managed to keep warm despite the snow - I ended up with 3 coats over a fleece! I had a good run on 144FM. We thought about HF, but the weather and the narrow rocky summit put us off, so I had a go on 50ssb using a telescopic dipole.

After that the weather started to improve, and we contrived a way to get the HF dipole up - not very high, and with not enough space to get the full 80m dipole up. Martyn had a go on 5Mhz, and I then had a go on 14ssb and 7ssb. Despite the sub-optimal antenna, I managed some satisfying contacts, being particularly pleased to work N1EU on 20m - only my second ever transatlantic contact from a summit. We ran out of time, so I didn’t try 28Mhz, and we couldn’t get the dipole out for 80m.

This was my longest ever activation at almost 5 hours and my personal best of 83 QSOs:
10 on 433 FM
36 on 145 FM
4 on 50 SSB
16 on 14 SSB
17 on 7 SSB
with 7 Summit to Summits.

A good but long day (made even longer by us deciding to make the most of the improving weather by descending via the ridge route over Carnedd Y Filiast).

Many thanks to all the chasers who have made climbing up the hills worthwhile.

Caroline
M3ZCB.