SOTA Alert - A Top Band Friday Night on Mynydd y Grug, GW/SW-042!

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160m… Welsh cakes… and three slightly over‑excited activators.

This Friday evening (20th March), Allan @GW4VPX, Kevin @MW0KXN and myself, Ben @GW4BML will be heading up Mynydd y Grug (GW/SW‑042) for a special SOTA activation. This one’s a bit of a milestone: it’ll be the first time Allan and I have activated this summit, and once we do, we’ll have completed all the summits in Wales again – thanks to the new SOTA edition. Another clean sweep (until the next reshuffle, anyway!).

To make the evening extra memorable, and possibly to confuse every noise floor in the UK, we’re planning to run 160m for a bit of fun. So if you’ve got a Top Band antenna that only gets used once per decade… Friday is its moment to shine.

Plan of Attack:

• Start on 80m SSB

• Then move to 160m SSB & CW

• Try not to get tangled in 80m of wire

• Drink tea and judge the quality of Welsh cakes

We’re meeting Kevin on the summit at around 20:30 UTC, where flasks of tea will be cracked open and the Welsh cakes distributed with the efficiency of a finely tuned contest station. Expect a bit of banter, a joint activation, and hopefully a pile‑up or two if the radio gods are smiling.

Whether you’re chasing us, testing your antennas, or just listening in for the chaos, we’d love to work as many stations as possible.

Hope to catch you on the bands, and yes, bring your Top Band ears! :speaker_high_volume::wink:

73, Ben
GW4BML

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Thanks for the notice, Ben, it gives me time to bake a batch of Welsh cakes myself, to enjoy while listening for you. Sainsbury’s stock a commercial brand but you can’t beat the family recipe!

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We will have to have a SOTA Welsh Cake Bake Off soon Brian :grinning_face: look forward to working you!

73, Ben
GW4BML

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Sounds fun! I can’t work 160m from here, but I might be able to go to our club station which is well suited for 160m :smiley:

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Yes, that would be great :ok_hand::grinning_face:

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Your plan is building a fullsize 160m dipole? :flexed_biceps:

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Yes, Kevin and I built one a few years back, and it’s served us really well. A full size 160m dipole, 80m of wire in the sky! We can just about see each others head torches in the distance when pegging both legs out on a night activation :grinning_face: it works a treat with the Icom 705.

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I’ll see what I can lash up here for the QSO Ben. Keep away from 1933 :wink:

73, Jonathan

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