Weekend SOTA trip to South Wales

Activation Reports Pre-Planning
1

A friend & I are planning a fairly leisurely weekend SOTA activating trip to South Wales this weekend (22nd-23rd May).

Looking at the weather reports I think it’s going to be a very wet, muddy & windy affair, one so I’m hoping the weather won’t curtail our activities too much (waterproofs & thermal clothing have been dusted off).

I just wondered if the chasers out there had any preferred bands on which they would like us to activate these summits?

I often hear it said that “the activator should do what suits him/her best”. This is very true but I’m also a great believer in putting on a bit of a show & trying to accommodate the chasers as best as we can because we need chasers for our activations to be successful!

I have uploaded my planned activations to the alerts page (I don’t think Harley M6DOG has uploaded his yet).

Loosely the plan is:-

  • A joint activation of Fan Fawr GW/SW-005 at somewhere around 1200-1400 UTC on Saturday.

  • We will do our own separate activations on Sunday at roughly 1000-1100 UTC, with the activations timed to coincide so that we can both claim the S2S points!

  • On the Sunday I intend to activate Fan Nedd GW/SW-007, Harley was talking about activating Fan Gyhirych GW/SW-006.

I generally tend to activate on 40m SSB & 2m FM. Very occasionally I’ll run the EFHW (cut for 40m) on 20m SSB. I think Harley tends to take a similar approach with his activations.

I do however fancy trying a couple of activations on 80m SSB, so I’m considering giving that a go if I find time to cut & tune an EFHW for 80m.

Also open to suggestions on modes if anyone wants to get a specific mode in the book. I generally run SSB on HF & FM on 2m. My 2m radio will do D-STAR but I don’t know anyone who actually uses D-STAR on simplex (I will give it a go if anyone is local & wants to try it on 2m).

It’s looking like it’s going to be a wet one & we probably won’t be up there for hours activating every conceivable band & mode but I will try to accommodate the chasers as best as we can.

2

You’ve picked the worst week to come to South Wales mucker!!! Don’t think I’ll be raising the mast this weekend but if you’re on 40 I’ll listen out for you. I know the area where you’re going and if past experience is anything to go by you’ll need to baton down the hatches especially if last night was anything to go by. Good luck and enjoy!

3

Good luck with your activations this weekend, hope you’re bringing waterproofs! Feel free to join the Welsh SOTA page on Facebook “GW SOTA”. You’ll find lots of advice and chasers eager to work you.
73
Roger

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4

Well hopefully we might get a S2S on Saturday. I’ve alerted my planned bands. Enjoy! :slightly_smiling_face:

5

Hi James

Check out Mountain Weather for the Brecon Beacons. Looking reasonable for tomorrow but not good for Sunday

https://www.mwis.org.uk/

73 Allan

6

Having looked at the weather reports, that was my initial reaction!

Bad weather gear & thermals retrieved from my locker at work & survival kit placed in backpack. It looks like I’ll be taking the Yaesu VX-8E, which is advertised as “submersible”!

I’ll see how far we get with it. I’m obviously not going to take any silly chances. If it gets too bad we will pull the plug but as long as there are two of us & we take the appropriate gear I think we will be ok.

I was hoping for the full works 80m, 40m, 80m & 2m activation. If the weather is that bad then we will definitely be scaling down the activations.

I did once activate Pen Y Fan when the winds were up at around 30-40mph+. The rain was very literally horizontal & physically painful when it hit your exposed skin. If it is anything like that then it will be 2m FM only from a handheld as the mast for the HF antenna won’t survive (& I won’t want to put it up in those conditions anyway)!

I’m not too worried about Fan Nedd. I recall that being a relatively tame climb even in bad weather. If the weather is really bad on Sunday then I’ll call it a day & go home early.

I’m slightly more concerned about Fan Fawr as that’s a longer & more strenuous climb. It’s also higher & likely to give us more of a battering from the wind & rain.

As someone has already said, Saturday doesn’t look too bad, so I think that’s the better day to try Fan Fawr. If the weather gets really bad then we may end up abandoning the trip all together.

That said, I’m not averse to a bit of wind & rain as long as long as I’ve got the right kit & it doesn’t get too dangerous. We will see how it goes.

1 Like
7

Thanks, I’ll have a look at the alerts & see how it ties in with our plans.

8

Fan Fawr…carpark at SN987180 (below Beacons Reservoir)…walk 200 meters South on the main road then pick up the track at SN988179…head NW over Cefn yr Henriw SN976185 to summit… far easier and safer route than from Storey Arms car park especially with the wet conditions.

73 Allan

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9

Awesome. I’ve always skirted around Bryn Du & gone at Fan Fawr from the north. I’ve often wondered about tackling it from the south but I’m a creature of habit & always gone with the route that I know.

It certainly looks less steep from the south (based on the gradient lines on the map).

I’ll take you up on that tip, thanks.

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10

But not so convenient if also doing SW-001 :slight_smile:

11

Too old for that now Pete😂

Hope to see you one day again on GW/SW…you are a ‘local’ now👍

73 Allan

12

So the net result was a very successful weekend.

The weather for Saturday was pretty much perfect. A bit of a chilly wind but not enough to cause any problems & we avoided the rain.

Harley (the friend who accompanied me) activated on 2 fm, while I went the HF route.

40m only yielded 3 contacts, probably due to large amounts of QRM. I also suffered the usual issue that plagues QRP SOTA stations……other QRO stations “stealing the frequency” after I had been calling CQ for a while.

20m was the money band for me with a number of contacts coming in thick & fast.

I tried 80m, but only made one contact. I think it might have been a bit late in the day for 80m.

Sunday wasn’t quite so favourable!

I stuck with my plan to go for the smaller & less ambitious summit of Fan Nedd.

The mountain forecasts said 40mph winds, gusting 60mph. The rain was horizontal. I was glad that I was wearing multiple layers, with waterproof & wind proof top layers!

Due to this I decided on a lightweight “VHF only” activation, which was very successful and resulted in a small pile up, despite having to erect the mast a second time after it blew over!

My fellow activator on the other hand changed his plans and decided to be ambitious and take on Pen Y Fan (the highest summit in the GW/SW region) instead of the smaller summit that he had originally planned to do. Something which I thought was unwise given the conditions.

I sat on the summit of Fan Nedd watching the cloud descending over Pen Y Fan. A S2S contact confirmed that visibility was extremely poor.

To make it more entertaining Harley also managed to leave his waterproof clothing in his vehicle in the carpark!

The net result was a successful joint activation on the Saturday & 2 successful activations on the Sunday including a S2S.

I stayed relatively dry despite the bad conditions due to having the right gear on.

Unfortunately Harley got very cold & wet, returning to his vehicle looking like a drowned rat.

We both made it to the summit & back in one piece & got more than the required 4 contacts, so I call that a success.

5 Likes
13

Hi James

Thanks for all the contacts from your summits especially the 20m one😁.

I think Mountain Weather (MWIS) was spot on and I’m pleased that Harley got down safely from PyF…you could really hear the wind on his transmissions.

73 Allan GW4VPX

14

Hi Allan,

I must admit, I became a little concerned about Harley when he told me that he had left his waterproofs behind.

As you said, there was a lot of wind noise on his transmissions. I found a nice shelter on the summit of Fan Nedd (I don’t remember it being there last time but I could be wrong) so managed to keep the wind off of my mic.

From my location on Fan Nedd I could physically see cloud descending & Pen Y Fan disappearing into the cloud.

I was following his APRS track to make sure he was still moving!

Thanks for the contact.

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