Today was going to be a relaxed and pleasant activation, after a busy week. There was even a decent weather forecast. I alerted for two easy summits GW/SW-014, Mynydd Carn-y-cefn and GW/SW-012, Coity Mountain, leaving enough time for a leisurely lunch at Fradd’s Kitchen in Abertillery.
I was on my way to the first summit when I received a call for help from a friend with water pouring from the light fitting in the ceiling. Three hours later, plumbing completed, I re-traced my route and made for Mynydd Carn-y-Cefn. The weather was foul. As I approached the summit the rain turned to snow. I parked up at West Monmouthshire Golf Club and asked if I could leave my car and take the path across their golf course. They were ever so friendly, but I could sense that they thought that I must be mad.
It is a fairly easy walk to the summit even in snow and it was rather pretty. I participate in SOTA for fun and strive to avoid hardship and suffering, so it should come as no surprise that I had brought a small shelter, my Helinox Ground Chair, a flask, and some Welsh cakes.
Once I had set-up camp and poured a cuppa, I started the activation with a pleasant run of 11 UK stations on 40m SSB, old friends and familiar voices.
The Rooster
I own two Roosters, one for the 40m QRP COA, and one for the FISTS club build. I love the Rooster. Paul at Kanga Kits made some really good design choices to produce a simple, budget radio, that works and is a pleasure to use: Crystal ladder band pass filter, 2w output, a pleasant sidetone, RIT, an audio amplifier with audio filtering, and a cute little enclosure all for under £40. Everyone should own at least one.
I am keen to be a good citizen and did not feel comfortable spotting on 7.030 MHz or 7.028 MHz so sought guidance from the FISTS reflector and was encouraged to give 7.028 MHz a go.
I posted my spot and thoroughly enjoyed working 5 stations including Nick, G4OOE; Ben, GW4BML; and Paul, M0CQE. I had done it. Qualification of a summit with my Rooster. I am sure that I could have worked more if I had kept calling but I didn’t want to spoil other folks fun on the FISTS COA.
10m SSB was heaving with contest stations, and I didn’t get any takers when I spotted. 10m CW was working well and gave 7 stations in 10 minutes of calling including: SV3IEG, W2WC, NT2A, HB9DDZ, F4WBN, and John 2W0ILQ just down the road in Newport.
Whilst drinking another cup of tea I noticed that it was now snowing quite heavily, visibility has closed in and my tracks had vanished. I was very grateful of my shelter whilst packing up. I double checked my route and started my decent. Thankfully the weather improved rapidly as I lost height.
It was still mid-afternoon, too late for lunch at the café, but I could probably have squeezed in a second summit before dusk. Maybe it shows a distinct lack of ambition, but I decided to leave Coity Mountain for another day.
Thanks to everyone who called in. I missed my lunch, abandoned my second summit, but helped a friend and had a lovely day.
73, Kevin
well done on achieving this, I know how much you’ve wanted to take it out 