SOTA Activations GW/NW-061 Y Golfa & MW-026 Long Mountain August 12 2014

Geoff 2E0NON and I needed two easy summits before heading home on day two of this all too short business / pleasure trip into Mid-Wales. 

GW/MW-026 Long Mountain / Beacon Ring is almost drive on - a short walk from near the transmitter masts took us to a picnic table on the edge of the escarpment... 

G4OBK - my car - was parked up - note the brolly - it looked like rain

We walked to the left of the transmitter site to where we set up the 2m FM station in comfort on the picnic table. GW4TQE/P was worked on GW/NW-049 Gyrn Moelfre.

Here is Geoff logging his 9 contacts on 2m FM - the brolly was not needed after all!

After 15 minutes we packed up and headed to a golf club near Welshpool, not for golf but for more amateur radio... 

GW/NW-061 Y Golfa

We turned right off the A458 at SJ 168065. The name gives the location of this summit away - it lies at the highest point on a golf course and within access land. No need to ask permission then to visit, but if you park in the clubhouse it pays to ask permission for that, which of course we did without problem.  It took just 17 minutes to reach the summit and we were travelling light with just a small 50 watt Yaesu FT1500M Transceiver, half wave vertical dipole and 5m fishing pole.

We ran the station for another 15 minutes and completed 7 contacts with five English Stations and two Welsh ones - notably Alan GW4VPX and Mal GW6OVD/P who was on the summit of Hirfynydd GW/SW-017. 

So that was as much of Wales I could manage for the time being, writing this blog report months later, it was to be January 2015 before I returned to Wales for more SOTA there...

Mid Wales activations 11 August 2014 GW/MW-030 - MW-017

I needed to travel to Welshpool on business in August. My meeting was for just one hour and my travel expenses by car from North Yorkshire were covered, so I extended my visit into a two day trip and combined it with a handful of SOTA activations.  I called my friend Geoff 2E0NON in Malvern to invite him and he agreed to come north and join me for both days. 

Once again I used the booking.com website, finding a pub with a twin room and B&B at an economical rate - this was the The Golden Lion in Llandysilio / Four Crosses, where we stayed for one night. I then set about finding some unique summits in the area which we could easily activate as simply and quickly as possible, using my 40 watt Yaesu FT-1500M 2m FM Transceiver and dipole antenna.

Day 1 Stingwern Hill GW/MW-030 QRV 1058z - 1113z 145 MHz FM - Seven QSOs

Lying just 7 miles south west of Welshpool is Stingwen Hill. Parking was by the gateway at grid ref SJ 131015. The walk to the summit trig point took less than five minutes. If you go there look carefully for a way through the hedge and fence without causing damage - you could be liable. The way up on the left side of the fence is not on a public right of way...

Geoff Fielding 2E0NON was striding out as he approached the summit fence gate and trig point on Stingwern Hill

The weather was perfect for our 2m activation of GW/MW-030, which was completed within 30 minutes including setup / take down, so we were soon on our way to our second summit of Garreg Hir GW/MW-017...

Garreg-Hir GW/MW-017 QRV 1306z - 1315z 145 MHz FM - Five QSOs

A pleasant walk of just 1.2 miles to the summit took us 28 minutes - the return route following the ridge was the better path

Nine miles west of Stingwern Hill is Garreg-Hir. We were parked up, lunched and walking before 1230z. There was parking roadside at SO 012968 shown as Lluast-y-greolen on the OS map.

We went through a gate to follow a bridleway in a nature reserve. With Llyn Mawr below us, it was a walk that my XYL would have appreciated and we had a good day for it, although it was a tad windy as we looked over Llyn Mawr:

Contacts were not too easy, but we qualified with five.....

Top: Geoff fighting the wind.... Below: the writer leaving the access land at the stile grid ref SO 000976