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