Mobile Chasing in Welsh Wales

[G1JPV]

On Saturday 14th September , I decided I would go to a different location than my usual park spot for “Mobile” chasing. I had planned to chase today anyway as the OE SOTA Day was my aim. This didn’t quite come to fruition as the bad WX had forced most of them to cancel.

I decided I would revisit a place I had activated back in 2010, GW/NW-062 Hope Mountain, obviously not using the Summit from my Car. We drove to a neighbouring Country Park Waun-Y Llyn, whose car park is approx 280m asl.

There is a quiet part of the car park, with lovely views to the south, that would be great for setting up the mobile shack, The FT857 is powered from a 44ah Car Battery in the boot and covers all bands from 160m to 70cm and I use a AT588 for the missing 4m band on FM. I have mobile whips for 60m, 40m, 20m and 17m, along with a dual band for 2m & 70cm’s plus a quarter wave whip for 4m.

The view from the shack was definitely more interesting than my usual place.

My Journey from home was testing my T-Beam Mobile Tracker G1JPV-6 and I was igated all the way to the country park. When we arrived , Elaine had accompanied me on this adventure as usual, we combined our other serious hobby of Geocaching as there was a couple of them at the park. My Heltec tracker G1JPV-7 was also igated as we looked for the cache close to the trig.

We didn’t find the cache as it was well overgrown with too many stinging nettles and hawthorns OUCH!

I did take a photo in the direction of the neighbouring SOTA Summits including Moel Famau, Foel Fenli, Moel Gyw, not visible but on the horizon is Snowden.

That Log Bench on the right of the photo, has a QR Code Remembrance tab, and was comfortable to sit on.

Now back to the matter in hand “Chasing Summits” My usual ops are to set up my Sota tracker app on my Phone which updates spots in real time. The usual happened today as most times and that was stations on 20m, so 20m whip attached and watched my phone then changed the 857 to the frequency and wait for a gap in the “booming alligators stage” .

Today I decided to drop the RSL in my call as I thought maybe " Golf Whiskey one Juliet Papa Victor stroke mobile may get lost in translation on HF? I did keep the Mobile in my call though, as I have found “Mobile” can get you dragged out Quagmire of callers on occasions.

I was so pleased that my 1st contact was with LA1SOTA, the Norway SOTA Club, the op was Knut today. 6 more contacts on 20m and 43 Chaser points in the log took me over 2500 points and closer to my third Sloth Award. one of my 10 point contact was Pat ZL1KS on holiday in Europe using a DL Prefix. would have made my day if I got him in his home Land on a 10 pointer I did not see many spots for uk , but that’s either WX or seasoned Activators are holding out for December and the winter bonus Season??

WX was pleasant sunny most of the time but windy, But Both Elaine and myself agreed it was a great trip and I was pleased with what I got from this location, so keep it in mind for doing it again.

Thanks to all the activators who go up for us and thanks to you the reader for taking time to read my Report.

Best 73,

[G7ADF]

A very useful report.

My wife is a full time wheelchair user, so she normally doesn’t accompany me on sota trips, however we are always looking out for places to visit that have decent scenery and allow me to play radio while she does her graphics stuff. This kind of place fits the bill perfectly as then it gives me more credits for when I want to go out activating somewhere that’s not Billinge Hill

Looks like it might also be suitable to put up a fishing pole for a wire antenna, do you think that would be frowned upon?

Ian

[G1JPV]

Hi Ian,

The car park is not within the Country Park itself so I don’t think the rangers would object and I would think the quiet spot where I parked, has no pathway, so I would think a wire would be out of the way of the general public?? But as usual I would do a reccy to confirm for yourself.

Hope Mountain next door is a SOTA Summit, but only accessed from permission of the Farmer and not suitable for a wheelchair in my opinion.

to me its a nice enough place to have a picnic and use a Handy to play Radio,

Hope this helps??

[MW0WML]

@G1JPV

Hope Mountain

I can just about see this summit from my house in Mold.

The nearby country park is a great spot.

Long before I was licensed I dabbled in illegal AM/SSB CB from up there with a mate in his very old car… we’d spend hours trying to get DX contacts. This would be in 1980/81 aged 16 or 17. A little later I had a play with the UK FM licensed CB from there too.

I then abandoned radio for 30 years until doing “the right thing” and getting licensed properly. But I always remember my early experiments up there!

[G1JPV]

Me too Gerald , not from there though, even back then most of my Radio play was mobile from a Volvo F12 HGV. Cycle 23 was great fun back then, you’ve also just reminded me, I recently added a 10m Mobile whip to my HF Antennas for the car.

Tony

[MM0FMF]

@G1JPV

added a 10m Mobile

Did you fix the 40m problem?

[G1JPV]

Hi Andy, yes I used an Analyser on the poor whip and there was a break in the winding halfway up the fibreglass section, so sent back and the replacement worked after a bit tuning the whip. That makes all of them resonant on the bands they were made for. so success at last, especially the 60m whip which was spot on from the factory mark