Episode 6 of the increasingly inaccurately named mid-week madness trilogy.
Over the past 6 weeks many people had said that Ben @GW4BML and I must be mad going out on to the hills on a winter’s night. This was the first time that I felt that perhaps they may be right
It would have been rude not to visit being so close to Waun Rydd.
We had planned an earlier meet up than previous weeks. The drive through the Brecon beacons was stunning in the evening light. Ben was slightly delayed which allowed time for a long chat with the local farmer, a lovely chap. I kicked off the conversation by asking if my parking spot would cause any inconvenience as I was planning on walking to the summit with a friend. Without prompting he started telling me about some charming fellow who comes to Tor Y Foel every year, who sets up huge antennas to talks to his friends on the radio, I suspect that he was referring to Rick @M5RJC and Cathy from his description.
We raced up the hill for a quick activation on 2m FM and 40m CW, enjoying the pleasant evening, and the sheltered spot north of the summit recommend by Mal @GW6OVD and Ian @2W0IWM . Lee 2W0LPU reported that my signal was unexpectedly weak and suggested that I check my antenna. The white plastic dielectric insert had fallen out of my BNC plug, great spot Lee. After a pleasant run of stations we sprinted back to the cars, eager get to Waun Rydd.
The walk to Waun Rydd passed in an hour of pleasant conversation, Ben and I do like a chat. The walk starts with a steep ascent. Darkness plays strange tricks on the brain: Over recent weeks we have noticed that you tend to walk much faster on steep ascents in darkness than you would in daylight, wondering why you feel so weak and tired, later to be astounded by how steep the terrain is when you return on your decent. After the brutal start the path eases with a pleasant mile or so walking along the edge of a high plateau. It was at this stage that we noticed the wind building. The final ascent to the summit cairn is on ill-defined paths with uneven ground and thick heather, but we thought that we had a plan for this. The activation zone encompasses several hundred meters of a well-defined path, eliminating the need for bush whacking.
As we approached the summit, the wind was funneling straight up the valley and getting stronger. Our plans of staying on the path were abandoned as we bush whacked through the heather to drop down into shelter in the lee of the hill. The wind wasn’t following the rules last night and was just as strong over the back of the hill. We plodded around in the darkness for a while looking for some natural shelter before giving up and setting up camp in the wind. We should probably have kept looking.
Ben set to erecting the beast, our full sized 160m dipole, while I set-up our shelter.
Setting up the Tarp shelter was a nightmare. The wind seemed to be playing with me, maliciously flapping the farthest corner of the tarp and launching the previously secure pegs to hide in the heather. Eventually the shelter was erected but the wind seemed to have backed by 45 degrees and was now flattening one side of the shelter. It would have to do.
Ben had brought his Sotabeams Tactical 7m, compact heavy-duty pole ‘to save weight’. It is a really sturdy and well-made pole, but felt nearly as heavy as the Spiderbeams 10m pole that we had used previous week, fortunately the pole was on Ben’s pack this week, which felt much better to me.
We pulled our bags into the shelter and looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. It was blowing a howling gale. The forecast had been fine, objectively, conditions were no worse than previous week’s but it felt horrendous. I had promised several stations that I would contact them on 2m, but as I looked out of the shelter the heavens opened with torrential rain. I am sorry; if you were there you would understand.
Ben set-up the Icom 705 and MAT-705 atu. We decided to start on 160m SSB, sharing the mike to ensure that we had 4 contacts in the log before the shelter collapsed or was ripped to shreds. We had cautiously alerted for 21:00 UTC and managed our first contact, Luc @ON7DQ at 20:58. Over the next 40 minutes we worked 18 stations. These were our friends and weren’t conversation to be rushed.
Part way through a QSO there was a sudden jump in SWR and a report that our signal has dropped 2-3 S points. Ben poked his head out of the shelter and advised that the antenna and the pole had vanished. A quick press on the tune button and we were back in business, and still managing to get a 59 from John @GI4OSF from our 10W. We later discovered the pole laying flat on the ground, having narrowly missed us, draping the antenna wire over our shelter. Ben made a further 9 CW contacts on 160m, with really strong signals from our EI/ GI friends over the water.
The highlight of the night was the Top band, summit to summit contact on SSB and CW with Adrian @G4AZS who made a special trip to G/WB-005, Long Mynd - Pole Bank for the occassion. Thank you Adrian, that was something special.
The weather was now thoroughly unpleasant. The shelter was doing a great job, but was thrashing wildly in the wind, and the condensation was gently raining down on us.
It was with a heavy heart that we conceded defeat on activating 80m or 2m. We knew that our friends were waiting up in their shacks for us. Hopefully you saw our spot letting you know.
After two flasks of tea and far too many cakes, we braved the elements and packed away our station.
It was a pity that we hadn’t activated all of our promised bands, but what we had achieved felt good. There are only 24 stations on the all-time, all association, all mode, 160m band, summit to summit role of honour, and only ourselves, Adrian @G4AZS, and John @G4YSS from the UK.
The wind was now coming from the West and the rain had stopped. A large section of the walk back to the car was in shelter, we forgot about the conditions on the summit and talked about our plans for next Wednesday night.
73 Kevin & Ben
Roedd hi’n wyntog iawn
at last the wx enabled us to activate on 160/80m SSB/CW and 2m FM - happy days! A week of madness off next week, but deffo looking forward to the following week! 73