Tal-Y-Fan GW/NW-040 11.30 UTC 13/08/09
I had planned to do this one midweek before I start my New Job on 17th.
Ian 2E0EDX had emailed me to say he would like to accompany me so agreed times and we set off from my Home QTH, with plenty of time to avoid traffic delays. M56 to head up onto A55 Welsh Road coming off at Road towards Betwys y Coed. Then hitting a section of very narrow country lanes with two gates to pass through,a few scary moments with boulders sticking out tempting my suspension to come closer Hi Hi.
Arriving at car space with loads of time,over the Stile and upwards from the off, I did say to Ian,who was far fitter than me, to not let me delay him as I felt I was slowing him down. Couple of wettish areas reminding me of SP Summits we crossed two more stiles. Then Ian being the Gentleman that he is, told me to take the final ascent to touch Trig first. He said because its my activation I should be first to top. Bit of scramble and a up/down section as you follow the wall to final stile and Trig touched,lovely views beyond.
Deciding to stay Trig side of the wall, we set up about 10 meters apart to avoid cross frequency fuzz. I was doing 2m, 70cm and 6m SSB with my 897, Ian doing 2m and 4m FM Handheld only but with a beam and vertical for 4m. Shouting a couple of times on 2m ssb, before getting Rob G4RQJ coming back and qsy to 320. Next came a nice for me as I was hoping to get Ireland accross the Sea and 2nd in my log was Jim, EI3GE, pleased with that one. A number of old faithfuls came in and I eventually had 11 2m ssb contacts in the log, it would of been 12 but I spoke to Brian G8ADD,who faded out before I could get reports swapped, sorry Brian. I called you back in a couple of times,hope it was just conditions that caused it. These included two S2S contacts on 2m ssb. swapped to 70cm ssb and got 7 more contacts in log. chased my 3rd S2S with 2W0RXX/P on Great Orme with Liam MW3ZRY. Switched to 6m ssb and only had one on there before my batteries finally decided they had enough.
Ian had said he had approx same amount of contacts on HH and a number of S2S too so we agreed both pleased with the day and the Radio play.
Overall I bagged 21 contacts in total mostly in nice sunshine or at least dry conditions,lovely views from top both into sea and inland towards Snowdonia. bit rocky and scrambly near top section but do-able!
Thanks to all below for the chats and contacts:
2M SSB 10 watts into beam: G4RQJ, EI3GE, G1OPV/P(S2S), G4TRB, G4USW, G3OHC, M0JDK, M3CJW, G4TUP/M, G0MRL (Esteemed RSGB Newsreader), G1INK/P(S2S),
70cm SSB 10 Watts into same beam: M3TMX, G8AXW, G3OHC, G4TUP/M, GW1SXN, GW1SGG, G4GRG(Club Call),
2m FM 10 watts same beam: 2W0RXX/P(S2S), MW3ZRY/P(S2S),.
6m SSB into wire dipole stretched out on top of wall: GW3XRM.
All calls logged in database with usuall couple of pics on Flicker.
73
Tony and Ian(2E0EDX)