23rd February 2019. SOTA Activation GW/MW-009 & 006.

Today's SOTA Activation's.

GW/MW-009. 23rd February 2019.

Altitude 547 M. Grid SO 176767.

Today was going to be another two summit activation and both unique's for me. The first was Beacon Hill GW/MW-009, I left home at 06:50 a.m. and headed towards Much Wenlock and south down the B4368 towards Ludlow. I had studied the maps the night before and decided on a different car park location to most other activators.
I arrived at grid SO 19170 74834 at 08:08 a.m. and parked next to the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust sign with information about Beacon Hill and a sign saying Crown Estate no Vehicles past this point.

The journey from here to the summit was 1.78 miles and took 30 minutes with a few photo stops. This is a fairly easy route and I will use it again next year. Once I arrived at the summit I set up my 2M Yagi and Yaesu FT-817 and started calling CQ Sota. I logged my first QSO at 09:03 a.m. with G0DUQ (Rob), I had heard G6DFD (Mike) calling me but sadly he could not hear me. I managed to log 9 QSO's in all then had a quick play with flying my drone.

Today's Second SOTA Activation.

GW/MW-006. 23rd February 2019.

Altitude 586 M. Grid SO 023812.

I headed towards my second activation and not the best journeys I have ever had I must admit. My car's SatNav took me down every minor road that it could. So the journey cost me time and made me late for my second activation time which was 11:00 a.m. I parked the car at grid SO 01024 80944. at 11:11 a.m. sorted out my gear and started my ascent. I arrived at the summit for 11:33 a.m. and set up my 2M gear as the previous summit.

I made my first QSO with 2W0IXM/P (David) a S2S on GW/NW-044, then M0RSF/P (Chris) also another S2S on G/NP-010. This was followed by another 4 QSO's all within 10 minutes. Summit qualified and time to play with the Drone again.

16th February 2019. SOTA Activation GW/NW-046.

Today's SOTA Activation.

GW/NW-046. 16th February 2019.

Altitude 540 M. Grid SJ 055211.

Today was going to be a new summit for me what they call a Unique Summit. I was off into North Wales half way between Welshpool and Bala. I left home at 06:50 a.m. (a late start for me this week). I had only planned on activating one summit and testing out my new EFHW antenna. The car park location for today was about another 600 meters further up the tract than others have parked. Be warned if you don't have a 4x4 I would not go that far. Grid SJ 06233 20980.

I forgot to track my ascent but managed to tract the descent. 27 minutes to ascend and 22 minutes to descend, lots of loose tress and branch's so be very careful if you are planning a visit soon.

I spent about 30 minutes erecting my two masts, a 10M SOTA pole with my new
EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) 30/20M linked. Also my 6M mast with SOTA Beams 40/30/20M linked dipole. I wanted to compare and I would say the EFHW was up by 3 S points.

The activation went well with 14 QSO's including 4 S2S's. I had taken my drone up with me to the summit, below is an edited video of the drone flight.

9th February 2019. SOTA Activation GW/MW-002 & 010.

First Summit of the day.

GW/MW-002. 9th February 2019.

Altitude 660 M. Grid SO 182638.

Another 6 a.m. start heading south for a change. Today I was activating two of the Mid Wales summits but these are both to the south of Telford. I arrived at my first car park grid SO 15715 65556
at 07.22 a.m. Sorted out my gear and started the 2.79 mile walk, I have added my GPS tracked route below. It was already very windy and that was at the car park altitude 440 meters.

I was a little surprised when I saw there was still snow on my ascent. I managed to arrive at the trig point for 08.28 a.m. Set up my gear ready for 2M FM and made my first QSO at 08.38 a.m. with G7LMF (Graham) followed directly by G6DFD (Mike) and G0OOQ (Sean). G0HCT (Brian) was also there but we didn't manage to make a good contact. After these quick few QSO's the band was dead and it took another 33 minutes to get my fourth QSO and finally qualify the summit with G3UKV (Martyn).
There was another TDARS member trying to contact me but it was not happening on FM so his good idea was to try SSB. Which we did and gave each other 5/5 & 5/8 G3JKX (Mike), this was followed by G3UKV also giving and receiving a better report than we did on FM.
This is the short video I managed to make of some of the journey.

Second Summit of the day.

GW/MW-010. 9th February 2019.

Altitude 542 M. Grid SO 158555.

I arrived at my car parking grid of SO 15119 57200. at 10.49 a.m. about 30 minutes behind schedule because of the problems I had qualifying Great Rhos. I had read that the farmer likes to be asked to have your car parked there so I started knocking on the doors. After 5 minutes I decided that there was no one around, so I left a polite message in my windscreen with my name and phone number if required.

This ascent reminded me of the Wrekin a relatively short walk but up hill all the way. I managed to reach the trig point at 11.19 a.m. and yet again it was very windy, this was going to be hard going and I decided not to even try to erect my mast for HF.
I was just about to start calling CQ Sota and my phone rang, it was G3UKV (Martyn), we are waiting on 20M for you Paul he said. I explained about the bad wind conditions and Martyn and Mike (G3JKX) both came on 2M SSB and we had good 5/7s and 5/8s. We had a quick chat and then I went back to calling CQ SOTA. To my disappointment no one came back, this was going to be a hard shell to crack. It was another 15 minutes of calling before I managed to log G8TPM (Nigel) followed by G8UKV (Maz). Summit qualified in the end I was happy even though a little disappointed at not being able to activate HF.

A quick video to show the summit conditions.

 

2nd February 2019. SOTA Activation GW/NW-044 & 051

First Summit of the day.

GW/NW-044 2nd February 2019.

Altitude 555 M. Grid SJ 161626.

Yes Saturday again and time to go back up the summits, today was going to be Clwydian Range. I left home (Telford) at 06:15 a.m. and headed towards Shrewsbury and on to Wales down the A5. The summits today are very close together and near Mold in North Wales. The temperature was 0 degrees as I left home but soon started to drop. -1 as I got to Shrewsbury and -2 as I approached the Oswestry area.
No snow on the roads until I was about 2 miles away from my car park grid SJ 16146 60586.
I arrived at 07:45 a.m. made a quick video and started my ascent.

I managed to arrive at the summit for 08:30 a.m. I had passed a few walkers on the way up and it was very cold already with a wind chill of about -5 degrees. I set up my 2M Yagi against the fence in the SE corner of the trig point. I started calling CQ Sota and made my first QSO at 08.44 a.m. I managed to log 16 QSO's in about 26 minutes including 4 TDARS (Telford and District Amateur Radio Society) members from my local club.

I packed away my gear and started back towards the car at 09.15 a.m.

Second Summit of the day.

GW/NW-051 2nd February 2019.

Altitude 511 M. Grid SJ 164600.

 I made it back to the car and had a quick cup of coffee to warm up a little before I started my ascent up Foel Fenlli. I started my ascent at 09.52 a.m. and the going was very slippy and the wind was blowing a lot harder on this summit which was not making the way any easier.
I managed to make the summit at 10:13 a.m. took a quick selfie and set up my 2M Yagi again, this time no fence so in went my tent pole as a mast support.

I logged my first QSO at 10:26 a.m. and managed to log 15 QSO's in all, 35 minutes later I had finished and was extremely cold I had already decided not to activate HF, sorry to any chasers that were waiting. My hands were so cold I don't think I could have used the Morse key.