HI Rod
Yes, I will also be returning to Dollgelau - unfinished business there for me in addition to the new one. I want to eat the ribs again from the steak house adjacent to the big car park. The steak was pants - we have much better home cooked, but the ribs and sauce was the best I have had anywhere. Worth going back for SOTA and those.
Sorry we did not make it when I was on Black Hill yesterday, I missed @G4OOE also on CW who I knew was listening out. Condx on all bands was fairly poor, especially 60m so I moved through the bands quickly as there were few stations calling me. 60m seems to be a lousy band for inter UK propagation around lunchtime in the summer. I coudn’t hear Allan @GW4VPX on 5371.5. It was a lovely walk though from the Castlelaw ranges to the east. Very busy with cyclists and walkers. As a result to avoid the crowds we are taking a day off today, Sunday and resuming on Monday with West Lomond (AM) and East Lomond (PM). On Tuesday on our way home we hope to activate Meikle Says Law GM/SS-148 (AM).
73 Phil
@G4OBK Hi Phil. Called you a few times on 40m yesterday for s2s as I could hear you …it was not to be☹
@M0JLA Hi Rod. The HF bands were hard work yesterday and 60m didn’t produce any chasers. 40m produced a few s2s and EU chasers. Bill and Debbie in my log for s2s. 2m was buzzing.
True, and even on the map Rhinog Fach doesn’t look a pushover! Most of the paths shown on the map can’t be found on the ground, at least when the vegetation is high.
I have an affection for it, it was the first Welsh Mountain I ever climbed, our party was all beginners and we worked harder than we had expected.
If anyone finds a good safe route it will be much appreciated if the GPX track of it (if you collect them) is uploaded to the SOTA Mapping website. Share please, as I don’t like asking. I will not be first to go for the new one, far too many in GW/NW I still need to Complete. I think I’m half to two thirds way through the area.
I’m usually a big fan of 60m [my 2nd favourite band] but this year I’ve found it hard work to get contacts on 60m CW even though DRA5, LX0HF and GB3ORK are usually S9.
Perhaps it’s cos I’m trying to use my Cha MPAS Lite vertical instead of my 60/40/30/20 linked dipole - although 60m reports I receive are okay but not great as you would expect. But then I don’t hear many CW stations either. Maybe activating mid morning is the problem. But then I can go to 30m [my favourite band] and get loads of contacts at any time of day.
Overnight camp Allan? There’s a nice wall up there for some shelter, provided the wind isn’t running along it.
Personally I wouldn’t bother… memories of what happened when G/NP-025 changed to G/NP-032 and Paul and I were planning to stay over, but had to abandon that idea. We would have been better driving a boat on the way home there was so much water falling out the sky.
No track, but perhaps outdated experience will help. There is a LOT of rock there, much of it pretty loose. The easiest approach I found was from the Rhinog Fawr side, the north, much of the way following a wall. From the y Llethr side there is some pretty awkward scrambling needing skill, or the ability to dodge around the nasty bits. Best to skirt around either to the east side where there is a lot of blocky scree, or wend your way up the west side through deep heather, bracken and many blocky boulders. This little mountain is a worthy adventure in its own right and puts up a sporting resistance.
Hi Geoff, As others have explained, Marilyns are the Hills in the British Isles that have a prominence of 150m or more. The SOTA summits in most associations including the VK associations have a prominence of 150m or more. In some associations, the SOTA summits have a prominence of 100m (known as HuMPS in the British Isles) or more, this is when either there’s no hills with a prominence of 150m or at all or there’s a large area that has no hills that have a prominence 150m more.
To be honest, I would just prefer to do the new summit as a day trip without adding any other summits. I would be happy though to take some bottles of Snowdonia ale to have on the summit or leave that till the pub afterwards. This decision will depend on what the COVID19 situation will be when we do end up activating summit. It seems from Brian G8ADD’s description of when he walked up the 4 summits in one day that he either did this as a linear walk or that an overnight camp was involved if doing it as a circular walk from him mentioning the name of the first hill and where he walked to after the last hill.
I once tried using a Superantenna MP-1 vertical with its 60m coil. Nearly tanked the activation; Signal readability never better than 4. At least for NVIS contacts a horizontal antenna works better…
Since coming up to Edinburgh last Wednesday I’ve used 60m on every summit using CW and SSB in the international segment (5354 KHZ) and given it as much time as I needed to until callers dry up after self spotting on both modes - the freq usually goes quiet within 15 minutes at most. The best DX was Juerg HB9BIN/P using CW on HB/SO-018 (Saturday 1134z). When there is SSB (Often German hams chatting) on 5354 and 5363 I try on 5398.5 and 5403.5 but that rules out most EU stations who cannot operate there. My log so far shows:
This was using an inverted vee link dipole for 60m through 20m on a 5m pole fed with RG-174. The good thing about using a 5m pole is you can reach the links on all bands without lowering the antenna. The ends of the antenna on 60m are within 1m of the ground, I don.t elevate them. Power is 10 watts from a KX3. I’ll try the same method today on 60m on GM/SS-154 and GM/SS-198 and tomorrow on GM/SS-148. I am a believer in the link dipole for SOTA - no ATU or balun required! The only drawback for me is the extra weight to carry compared to using an end fed.
I’m finding them there more and more often when I go to activate CW on 5354.5 (usually mid to late mornings). So, I switch to another band like 30m or 40m and go back later to 5354.5 to try again only to find they are still chatting, at which point I give up with 60m. I really like the NVIS properties of 60m which allow me to have local, regional and European QSOs on the same activation.
They have the right to be there of course but it’s a pity that the only CW frequency range shared between EU and UK on 60m that I know of is used for rag chews.
It looks like their [suppressed] carrier frequency is 5354.0 which is the lower edge of that particular UK 60m sub-band. It would be legal for a UK op to transmit USB voice on that dial frequency as all the emission would be within the sub-band. However, a A1A CW transmission (being AM) has USB and LSB and the LSB would be out of band.
I’ve looked at my KX2 CW on a spectrum analyser and the bandwidth [at any Morse speed] is very narrow so I could go close to the lower edge, e.g. 5354.1 and they might not hear me. But that’s not the problem - their QRM means I can’t hear weak stations properly.
