I managed to escape family shopping duties on Boxing Day and so decided to head out to Great Rhos Fawr GW/MW-002 and other peaks in the area.
Sunrise inversion over the beacons. Black Mountain across to Fan Brechienhog!
It was a great day out and I was treated to a cloud inversion and a chance encounter with Ben @GW4BML and family ! Was great to meet by chance and catchup!
Shadow couldn’t resist a photo opp with another SOTA landy !!!
The forecast for Saturday was similar with the cloud base a bit higher. I figured it would be a close call on conditions, horrible clag or the chance to be above it all! I had Fan Brycheiniog GW/SW-003 still to bag as my last large big Brecon Beacon, so today was the day!
The day started with frozen conditions, in the cloud + mist with the steep haul onto Fan Hir. And at about 700m, I started to poke through the cloud - I was not disappointed!
shadow admiring a cloud bow
And then up onto Fan Hir
Fan Hir Ridge
The views were awesome, across to Pen y Fan, Fan Gyhiych and Waen Fach the only peaks fortunate to poke above the cloud !
Onwards to the summit where conditions just got better and better !
On the way up I was able to hear Gerald @MW0WML on GlasGwm GW/NW-015 the first of several summits to summits and an easy complete on 2m.
I walked past the Trig point and shelter onto Tŵr y Fan Foel and setup for 2m. Two meters was in great condition. I could immediately hear @G4YSS on Helvellyn G/LD-003 but he was working quite a few stations and I couldn’t break in QRP from 297km away ! So I spotted myself and worked a huge pile up.
setup on summit
2m was in superb condition, certainly a lift of some variety happening with some nice 2m Summit to summits:
I then switched to high frequency and with conditions so good decided to take the time to work 40m, 20m and 10m !
A fantastic activation. My absolute favourite!
I retreated back to the pub wondering if I should head up Y Garth on the way back to Somerset to help push on the 10m challenge. I had a word with Shadow and we decided on a cold beer. I was just starting on the beer when I saw @M1EYP spot on 28.453Mhz on the cloud……
pity certain people have to spoil a great write up by focusing on someone’s business, hey ho, move on! Looking forward to catching up again soon, hopefully on a hill doing SOTA, not B1 5OTA 