Wow!
Thanks Andy 
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Is she a doctor?
Iāll get me coatā¦
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Moel Gyw GW/NW-053, Foel Goch GW/NW-039, Allt y Main GW/NW-059
Having had this weekend in the family diary for months I thought that all would be well, and Iād even persuaded my XYL to come along too. That was the first part of the jigsaw that fell apart as my son (aka big brother who we had hoped would teenager sit) wasnāt available so Sarah had to stay at home. The next two pieces of the Jigsaw that fell apart roughly consisted of a big work problem for Sarah, and a medical problem with my daughter conveniently in Nottingham. So at 1AM on the Friday morning Iād rather given up on getting anywhere. Thankfully by the morning things had calmed down and once again I was off!
Moel Gyw GW/NW/053
One of the least pleasant aspects of travelling with dogs is wandering around near a lay-by or motorway service station on a patch of very well walked rough grass which appears to be a set for some sort of forensic investigation, whilst waiting for the dogs to āperformā. Doing a summit is much better and Moel Gyw looked like a nice walk from a car park with a much better dog walk which wouldnāt look like a murder scene. After a detailed search on Google Maps and Street View there seemed to be a disused Motel with a pay by phone car park right at the base of Moel Gyw, but on arrival there was lots of concrete blocks, keep out signs and the odd builders van. Perhaps this could also be a set for some sort of murder drama. Plan B was the lay-by about 400m W, but that involved walking along a busy roadside which is a less than pleasant activity with Woody and Jet in tow. Thankfully most of the way it was possible to get off the tarmac and onto the grass verge. Once off the road the walk was lovely and despite a deteriorating forecast it remained hot and sunny for the whole of the activation. It took 45 min from the lay-by to the summit but it would have taken a bit longer without the enthusiastic pull up the hillside from Woody. Given the recent state of the HF bands I didnāt even bother bringing my HF gear, just the FT-270, a ladder line J Pole antenna and pole. I managed 9 contacts on 2m FM, with the best DX being G6LKB in Cumbria.
Foel Goch GW/NW-039
In 2023 I did my first GW Sota weekend and activated Maesglase and worked Ben GW4BML from the top of Cadair Idris where had summited at what seemed like incredibly early in the morning. Iām sure he wrote it up and I think in involved getting up at a time of day that should only exist in the afternoon, so last year when I decided to activate Cadair Idris I chose a campsite near Minffordd which allowed me to fall out of the bed in the camper and start walking up the hill. This was my approach this year too, I wanted a summit that had a campsite at its base making an easy start to the day, and there is a small - and recommended caravan site in Llangym which gives easy access to Foel Goch.
The alarm went off at 6AM to the sound of heavy rain outside the camper, which was soon followed by a rumble of thunder. I was starting to think that the prospect of climbing up a hill and then strapping a mast with a conducting wire to the top would qualify me for a Darwin Award, but by 7-45 when I was ready to set off with the dogs fed and given a short walk the thunder had moved away to the north. I chose a route using public footpaths to get to the access land, and was hoping that there were sheep not cattle in the fields as dogs and cows are not a good combination. (It was sheep not cattle). The walk to the top was uneventful and according to the met-office weather map it was due to clear up in an hourā¦. I usually find the OS route planner to give me a reasonable estimate of time, but on this occasion I managed to ābeat the clockā. I did check lightning maps, and the line of thunder was now in the Lake District.
2m seemed surprisingly dead and I managed just one contact, I was struggling to hear Jared on Cadair Idris. He must have a technical fault I thought, before trying 40m in vain. As I sat and listened to white noise on 40m I started paying a bit more attention to the surroundings. It looked like there was some ladder line in the grass. Who could have possible left that on the summit? I then looked up to where my 2m J Pole ladder line should be and found out where the other 40dB had goneā¦.
(Note the HF antenna with the VHF J Pole missing!)
Once I had attached the J-Pole back to the mast 2m worked well, with a 59+ S2S with M7OND on the Calf, some 166km away! I only managed 1 contact on HF scraping a 33 report into Germany on 20m, and despite quite a few calls nothing on 40m, which sounded very long. 2m was very busy and it was hard to keep track of who I had worked! The weather app on my phone showed the good weather appearing in about an hour as the drizzle continued. By 11AM with the good weather still an hour away I had got cold, and Woody sounded like he was developing a sore throat with his insistent CQ bark I headed back down the hill to have a nice shower at the campsite and a spot of lunch before heading to the hog roast. It was still raining but the weather app said it would stop in an hourā¦. Enjoyed a good chat at the hog roast whilst it rained - but it was due to stop in an hourā¦
(Equipment FT-270, 2m ladder line J Pole, 6m Sotabeams mini tactical, 40/20m linked dipole and an Elecraft KX2)
Allt y Main GW/NW-059
Iāll blame David G0EVV for this detour on the way home he managed to persuade me that the home jobs could wait but the summit was worth the detour, and it was! This was a very enjoyable dog walk and SOTA point. It is also worth saying that by now after several hours and several predictions it had finally stopped raining. There is a huge lay-by at 170149 (which is handy if driving a big camper) and a footpath all the way to the top. Ben explained that the summit had a bench and it was good for attaching the mast to (It was still early Sunday morning and I had not seen any other walkers so no-one could get upset). The views from the summit were brilliant. I just activated on VHF, and got just four contacts, but as I had a long drive up the M6 I made it a short activation.
Two sets of Thanks - Firstly to all the chasers without which it would be literally pointless, and secondly to Ben for organising the hog roast, which despite having two young children he makes look easy.
- Paul (Woody & Jet)
(Think Iāve worn the dogs out!)
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Not having my a long stay visa for Wales, myself and Peter (M1BZJ) decided to activate G/WB-005 before heading over to the Hog Roast, for which we actually made it on time this year. If HF had been in better shape we would have been late.
Summit chosen for ease of access and also the weather forecast played its part (10 mns back to the car if required).
38 qsos mostly on 2m and 70cm with HF being poor shape.
22 on 2m - 16 S-T-S (mostly Welsh)
7 on 70cm - 2 S-T-S (duplicates of ones on 2m)
4 on 40m - 1 S-T-S (HB20SOTA)
2 on 20m - 2 S-T-S (M1EYP & EA2EUS)
1 on 10m
2 on 6m - open to Spain with deep qsb though
Especially pleased to get G/SC-003 in the log on 2m (twice after the first contact was curtailed by a brief but very heavy rain shower )
6m dipole was hastily rigged up using the so-239 part of a jpc-12 vertical system (which was used on 10m) with 2xtelescopic whips. It worked, thatās all that matters.
Excellent day, excellent evening.
Ian
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I stuck with my plan of GW/NW-009, after being influenced by Benās choice 2 years agoā¦ The weather was pretty tricky up high but luckily there is a good shelter on Cadair so I made the most of it!
I took the Foxes Path up past the lake, and then the Pony Path back down on Dolgellau side. The route I take to get the Pony Path is very off piste/pathless so my trousers got very wet at this section.
I didnāt bother with HF, and just operated with my FT-65 and RH-770, getting 30 odd QSOs from the shelter doorway, with over 20 being S2S, my most impressive being up to Calf Top in the North Pennines.
Iāve made a quick short of the conditions up on top during a pretty heavy shower - GW/NW-009, Cadair Idris GW SOTA day 2025 rain shower!
Thanks to everyone who took part, it really made it worth slogging up in the horrible conditions, and an enjoyable meetup after. Hopefully can make it next year!
M0YUK
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Ben invited me to the GW event, saying that Iād be more than welcome to attend. In a last minute rush, I ordered a new tent and paid a little extra for faster shipping in order to have it in time. The motorhome I would have usually have borrowed is now up for sale.
I starting preparing on Thursday evening by taking the car to be fueled up and check the tyre pressures. My car is getting old now and doesnāt usually do the long haul trips. I have a roof box which was used on previous cars but found that I could also make it (just) fit on the Fiat. Iād been looking at the GW Alerts on Sotlas and noticed that Foel Cedig GW/NW-034 wasnāt taken. It didnāt take much detective work to find out why that summit was free - the walk was quite long and was better suited to access via mountain bike. My bike is heavy as far as modern bikes go and I didnāt fancy driving at motorway speeds with my bike on the roof. My solution was to put my stuff in the roof box and my bike inside the car.
On Friday morning I packed up the car and got going around 10am. First call was to stop at Go Outdoors in Chester. Iād been looking for maps in the local shops but none had maps for deepest Wales- only Eryri (predictably). Go Outdoors (JD Group) sells OS maps at 40% off RRP, so they work out cheaper than most other sources. I did look online a week before (my usual source for paper maps is Dash4it), but the estimated arrival date was Friday 13th - that wouldnāt work for me.
I had Googled Go Outdoors in Wales and found that the one in Chester was near to the Welsh border and wasnāt much of a detour from my intended route either. Thankfully the store had every flavour of Welsh map you could possibly need.
Packed lunch in the car park of GO Chester before buying paper maps.
Ben GW4BML had suggested the summit of Stingwern GW/MW-030 as an easy summit for Friday afternoon on the way to the event. I looked at the summit resources and managed to find the special piece of fence without barbs!
Parking for Stingwern Hill
The Kp index had been up at 7 when Iād checked it before setting off from home and the weather forecast didnāt look all that good either! Nevertheless the sun had been shining most of the day and by the time I reached the trig point of Stingwern, the Kp had been dropping a bit.
Stingwern GW/MW-030 trig point.
I put up my 20m end fed wire, and using my trusty orange MTR-5B, I managed to get 4 CW QSOs and therefore qualify.
Operating from the trig point.
I turned on my handheld and found Denis MW0CBC/P working another station. At that point I spotted a couple walking up the hill towards me and it turned out to be Andy G6PJZ and his partner. I worked Denis and then packed up in order to let Andy try to qualify the hill.
Andy found it hard to qualify the summit using voice and HF SSB just wasnāt working at all. Eventually Kevin MW0KXN and Ben GW4BML appeared on 2m FM to provide the last two QSOs that Andy needed to qualify.
Andy trying HF SSB
From Stingwern Hill, I drove to the event site and where I helped to set up the shelters.
Setting up the site on Friday evening, trying to dodge the increasingly heavy rain showers.
I slept fairly well in my new tent and I was in a very deep state of sleep when my alarm went off at 6am. I noticed that I couldnāt hear any rain. I started getting my stuff packed up and by the time I was getting ready to leave my tent, the rain had started and the rain was getting rather heavy.
The drive to the start of the track for Foel Cedig GW-NW-034 was amazing, the sun had come out a little bit and the roads were almost devoid of vehicles. I saw a large bird of prey fly very close to my car at one point.
As I parked up and got my bike ready, it started drizzling a bit. I put on a softshell jacket and waterproof trousers.
I found the cycling quite hard going really, the track was quite rough and my bike is definitely more suited to road use, despite the 2 inch wide tyres. I was soon feeling hot, so despite the drizzle, I stopped to take off softshell jacket and waterproof overtrousers. After a bit the drizzle stopped.
I found the point where I had to leave the gravel track and do the last little bit on foot. I spent a bit of time placing my bike in the heather out of sight from the track, it took a bit of trial and error to find the right spot.
My bike loaded up with radio gear at the point where I did the last bit on foot.
The walk was trivial and short although I didnāt find evidence of an actual path. I first set up for HF with my 20m end fed wire and MTR-5B. I managed to qualify the summit with HF CW, despite the yet again poor propagation. Iād taken a 2m flowerpot antenna with me so I packed up the HF gear and put the 2m antenna up on the mast instead. I improvised by using a bit of velcro and some string to hold the antenna up. My FT60 handheld got a rare workout, 2m was full of signals. I worked down a pile up of mostly S2S stations until the rain set in. I didnāt attempt anymore CQs when the frequency went quiet!
I was wearing full hardshell waterproofs for my bike ride back to the car. Iām quite surprised that I managed to cycle the entire route back to the car without falling off! I havenāt really done much off road biking and the track had some deep puddles in places which meant going off piste at times. The rain never stopped but thankfully my waterproofs had held back most of the rain. I had a bit of a wet patch on my front where the water resistant zip on my jacket is missing a tooth, and my feet were sodden (I wore trainers in order to ride the bike and accepted that Iād get wet feet). I changed my socks and footwear at the car.
I then drove back to the event site and enjoyed chatting with fellow SOTA enthusiasts. As per usual at these kind of events, I find that time goes quickly and before long itās time for the closing speeches. Yet again I missed speaking to some people that I would have liked to and didnāt fully explore some topics that I wanted to with others. Maybe itās just my social skills, I know that Iāve always struggled with in-person interactions (I genuinely find operating SSB more difficult than CW - CW has more structure and requires less real time thinking- itās mostly āphrasesā that youāve used hundreds of times before.) Anyway it was great to mingle and meet some people for the first time.
āRain stopping in 10 minutesā
Allan GW4VPX doing a fine job as Benās umbrella holder!
John G3WGV giving his speech about the history of SOTA, undaunted by the rain!
I woke up to glorious sunshine on the morning after the event!
I enjoyed using my new orange tent.
Thanks to Ben for, persuading me to attend, and more importantly organising the event.
73, Colin
M(W)1BUU (I think this weekend was the very first time MW1BUU has been put on air.)
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ā¦a great report and photos Colin; terrific read.
Geoff vk3sq
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Letās hope that this has given you a taste for activating in Wales. There are lots of lovely summits waiting for you, and you will always receive a welcome.
It was great catch up for a brief chat. Time flew by at the Hog Roast and like you I didnāt manage to speak to everyone I had wanted. I guess thatās a good reason to attend next year.
Kevin, MW0KXN
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Many thanks to Ben and his Team for organising such an iconic event again. Itās great to see so many fellow SOTAists voting with their feet 
It was a real treat for me to be able to get out so heartfelt thanks also to Gerald G4OIG for his company and encouragement; and my youngest daughter for stepping in and taking over my caring duties for the day, which made my attendance possible.
My apologies to all those I didnāt get to speak with and didnāt say goodbye to before mine and Geraldās precipitous departure, unfortunately my rapid return home became advisable 
Really looking forward to next yearās event!
73 Paul G4MD/G6GGP
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Great to attend again Ben, thereās a lot that goes into this day, from arranging the use of the field, the food, the toilets, mowing the field several times(!), putting up the gazebos (which you supply), the tables, chairs, water boiler, generator and moreā¦ Am I painting a picture here? Itās a lot of work and I (and everyone else) am incredibly grateful.
My own activation was a very simple affairā¦ I just went up the easiest 1 pointer around - Long Mountain Beacon Ring GW/MW-026. It was a 200 metre walk (distance not height!) and Sue helped me take my table and chair!!!
The weather was mostly kind with a bit of rain. I pitched myself out of the wind, but in doing so also cut off my 2m access to the south and put myself in the worst of the QRM from the commercial mast 80m away. Fortunately I could use my SOTABeams bandpass filter.
Despite all of this I got 20 2m FM contacts, of which 15 were to unique summits. HF SSB was a bit rubbish, but I did manage 5 contacts of which 2 were also S2S to HB and FL association summits.
Picture shows my rather comfortable operating conditions just as the only shower came in! It is a proper table and chairā¦ the grass was really very tall!
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Hi all,
Just a big thank you all for the hog roast last weekend. 267 miles from Morpeth but worth every mile. This was my first expedition to Mid Wales, so everything was new. Beautiful contryside, good beer, friendly farmers. What was not new was the inclement weather on Saturday morning, Ben, that was not needed! The heavy overnight rain had swolen the rivers and the ford on the approach to the ascent road to GW/MW-012 was my first challenge.
The ascent was however very pleasant, despite the WX, in the company of Christine and Kevin MW0KXN who had a mision to capture a well deserved Sota mountain goat. Congratulations Kevin. Thank you Kevin for the Complete.
It was decidedly damp on the summit and having erected my 6M pole with 2m flower pot on the top I put out a call but could hear nothing.
Ivestigation proved that the flowerpot SMA was faulty (later found to be a sliver of metal shorting the pin to screen). So I was left with the IC92D 6W and rubber duck. I managed 6, 2m QSOs. Thank you fellow activators!
The Hog Roast was great and a fabulous opportunity to āeye balIā so many Sota people. Many thanks to Ben for organising and to the hardy serving team standing in the rain. Having won a prize in the raffle I now am the proud owner of two Sota coasters.
I camped overnight in my 60 year old Vango Force Ten, breakfasted and then set off to GW/NW21.
Sunday started off dry, but as I ascended the clag came down, strangly it was both wet and warm. It was nice to ascent a hill with so very few paths on broken ground. I met no one.
I qualified the summit on 2m FM, 30m CW and 40m CW, also working G1LAD/P who was taking part in the PW low power contest that I had taken part in in 1986. I was back in the car by 1430 and on my way to overnight in Chester.
Thank you all
David
G0EVV
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Hi Denis 
I donāt seen any alert on GW/MW-037 and I know itās maybe difficult ā¦
Was for me the last GW/MW summit and I will move to FL/NO next week !
We donāt care, there will surely be other opportunities.
Go and get all your favorite summits and s2s btw us
73 Ćric F5JKK
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Denis missed you for 15 minutes thanks for trying 73
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Sorry, Eric. I couldnāt alert with any certainty because Iāve been touring with my partner this
last few days and I was just squeezing in a few hills as we travelled. It was quite a short activation in the end because itās on a road verge, HF condx were very poor and there was rain moving in.
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Wonderful to see that vintage Vango Force Ten (is it still up in the cupboard?) which brought back many memories. The groundsheet was certainly very robust but also incredibly heavy, For our first backpacking āadventureā I made a new flysheet from balloon fabric (very light but also very noisy!) to cut down the weight on the Faroe Islands (ferry from Thurso - having seen the runway we were glad we werenāt flying in!!). Despite this weight saving, Rod nearly expired before we reched our first camping spot, Long before radio came on the horizon - or digital clocks so we had to take a solid alarm clock with bell to wake us up at 0530 for a ferry. You youngsters just donāt know what it was like in those pioneer days!
Viki
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I do think the reflector needs a laugh emoji without the need for a reply!
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At least you could get a ferry to the Faroes without going to Denmark first!
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Vango is about to celebrate itās 60th year and theyāve redesigned the Force 10 and Banshee models as a tribute to the success of those models. The new versions are both UL (ultra lightweight) with thin fabric and lightweight poles. The new F10 looks particularly impressive with lots of interior space.
I have a 2007 Banshee which I really like and it would be great to compare it with the new UL version. The demo UL Banshee I saw was in a burnt orange type colour, it was pretty cool but Iām not sure it suits a wild camping setting! Not my my vivid blue Banshee is any better! 
73, Colin
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