SOTA GW/NW-057 Foel Cae'rberllan GW4OBK June 2021

After activating GW/NW-063 Ffrid Cocyn we went back along the B4405, turning left in the village of Abergynolwyn. A few miles down the country lanes took us to a small car park with toilets at Mary Jones Chapel, SH672088. At 14:20 we set out on a marked public footpath leading to a steep field and then on to open access land, marked as Llechwedd on the 25K OS map:

The view to Castell y Bere on our ascent

Once we left the bottom path the plan was to tack across the hillside to reach the farm track at 669079 when the climbing became a little easier, but overall this was a tough ascent for me. It took the best part of an hour to get to the easier track before we doubled back towards the summit on it. We left the track at 671080 to follow sheep path to the summit. This wasn't so bad - the hardest part on the ascent had been from Llechwedd to the track. We summited at 15:50 and stayed until 17:25. We sheltered below the very top of the hill on what was a pleasant afternoon. There was what appeared to be a derelict comms installation of some sort on the summit - to the right of the broken mast and antenna there was a ground mounted control box. I thought that to install that infrastructure with a mains supply the purpose for it must have been vital at one time, but not anymore. The nearest civilisation with a mains supply was around a mile away from the summit in the valley:

The defunct comms installation and control box on GW/NW-057 Foel Cae'rberllan

Looking towards the sea in the direction of Tywyn

Another summit - same novel to read while I did my thing with the KX3, 5m pole & dipole

Selfie of Judy XYL and Phil G(W)4OBK just before we departed the summit

Radio was successful on 2m with the handheld and whip but poor using my HF gear and I questioned the insurance policy of carrying all the necessary gear for just 7 QSOs on HF. There were many unanswered CQ calls and 4 spots thanks to the excellent RBN. However, and only God knows why, I worked NW7E Michael in Oregon, a real gem of a QSO! One wonders why no more?... There was no mobile coverage on either EE or Vodafone from the summit and that for me ruled out the pointless and frustrating exercise of calling CQ on phone. 2m FM with the little FT-65E and RH770 brought me four quick QSOs including Alan GW4VPX at good strength before moving on to the 60 metre band to work G0EVV and G0FVH:

We left the summit at 17:20 local time and it took almost a full hour to reach the car over a distance of 1.5 miles. After returning to our place at Farchnys near Barmouth (booked via Sykes Cottages) we had a quick shower and changed and headed to The Steakhouse in Dolgellau. The restaurant had the best range of starters I've seen in years. The rack of ribs was delicous which is what I had. Judy was dissapointed with the standard of sirloin steak though, although if we return to the area we would go again, just on the strength of the starters and ribs. Final summit in the week was next day, Friday on GW/MW-020 Esgair Ddu which completed the 40 summit MW area for me.

SOTA GW/NW-063 Ffrid Cocyn GW4OBK/P June 2021

Well outside the Dolgellau area and towards the coast at Tywyn lie five SOTA summits with a start point off the B4405 road within four miles of each other. We'd already climbed Gamallt GW/NW-065 earlier in the week. This summit parking place was further towards the coast than GW/NW-065 on the B4405. GW/NW-036 and GW/NW-033 which can be visited as one continuous walk were left for another time when my achilles / ankle problems are healed.

For NW-063 there is a convenient lay-by outside the Geufron Farm residential caravan site at SH620034. A waymarked path going to the village of Bryncrug (not the summit itself) leaves the roadside here. We were shocked to find this fly tip mess on the public right of way. This was reported to the local authority:

This awful eyesore can be avoided by walking through the caravan site, which is what we did on our return from the summit. There was no one around to complain to about the fly tipping on the path or to ask permission for access, however as the PRoW runs across part of the caravan site roads I did not perceive walking through the site would be a problem. The site was akin to the Marie Celeste on the day of our visit...

There was just one low fence to clamber over as we left  the woodland by a large mature sycamore tree at SH 61825 03836. The downward route is pictured using the asphalt access roads on the caravan site:

From a woodland path we changed over to bracken and thistled fields (Our dog Treacle hates thistles and nettles!) with the usual local breed of sheep in abundance. We reached the summit fence line and a small pile of stones in 53 minutes. Not such a bad walk, for one mile in distance and nothing as hard as on the ascent to Gamallt GW/NW-065, a few days previous. The 5m pole and link dipole was fixed to the fence with bungee straps as was the Yaesu FT-65E (With RH-770 whip). Immediately on switching on the handheld I heard "CQ CQ MW1HAX/P on GW/NW-030" and Richard was logged immediately - good start. The summit was qualified with four contacts on 2m before moving over to the 60m band. CQ calls on CW there produced nothing, but G0RQL, G4IPB, G4WSB, GI4OSF and G4TJC were swiftly worked on SSB before going to 40m CW.  There were further multiple S2S contacts and excellent short skip conditions all around the UK on every HF band used:

Station M5OAT was worked - this call is a mystery to me - no entry for the callsign on QRZ.COM... so ? was entered under the name in the SOTA database:

All in all this was a straightforward 50 QSO activation with eight S2S contacts included, leaving us free for the afternoon to go to GW/NW-057 Foel Cae'rberllan to activate there - eventually. More on that later - another nasty mostly pathless climb!

SOTA GW/NW-055 Foel Offwrm - June 2021

After the morning activation of GW/NW-074 I drove across to the other side of Dolgellau to the carpark (with toilets) at Coed y Groes that serves the famous and popular Precipice Walk, grid reference SH745211. A couple of picnic tables are also provided by the Snowdonia National Park and this was where we had our lunch.

We crossed the C class road and entered the wood which is where the waymarked path up to GW/NW-055 starts. It was a shade under one mile with 600 feet ascent to reach the summit in 35 minutes: ©Crown copyright 2021 Ordnance Survey. Media 018/21

From the six summits activated in the week this was the only summit that gave us an established footpath right to the summit, and I can truly recommend it as a most enjoyable summit with outstanding views to the surrounding summits and westwards out into the Mawdach Estuary:

XYL Judy continued reading her novel, leaving me to setting up and activating. Operation over four bands provided me just 18 contacts - this was the only one out of six summits in the week where we were visited by a couple of walkers. Paul DL/HB9DST/P was worked on 40m CW on DM/BW-085 for summit to summit. 

SOTA NW-074 Craig y Castell - GW4OBK/P in June 2021

After the pain of GW/NW-065 Gamallt on the Sunday, Monday found us walking across the Barmouth Estuary railway bridge, and lunching in a leisurely manner at The Royal Ship Hotel in Dolgellau. The ardour of Gamallt had not worsened my sore achilles tendon. It was the same as it was before, so Tuesday dawned as a beautiful day and we made our way to the single parking bay for GW/NW-074, two miles south west of Dolgellau town. A narrow single track public road leads to the parking spot near Gellilwyd Fawr (Farm) at SH 707167. Parking place:

A track behind my car led through a metal gate then swung right on a gradual climb to the summit. Once again I was accompanied by XYL Judy and the Lakeland-Border Terrier Treacle - her second summit in three days - she's almost 14 years old, a toughie who is still climbing well - and on the lead at all times:

©Crown copyright 2021 Ordnance Survey. Media 018/21

En route we passed an impressive miniature Welsh version of Stonehenge:

The time taken to reach the mini-top (321m) was an enjoyable 36 minutes, without the need for a "photo stop", as the climb was gradual - this is probably the easiest summit to reach on foot in the area. The coverage on Vodafone was good although the coverage on 2m was dreadful - my fault as I had left my handheld on the charger back at our cottage. I was hoping for a contact with Richard MW1HAX/P above me on Cadair Idris GW/NW-009 who was on the air just above me, but it was not to be and entirely my fault... 

The usual dipole was deployed on a 5m travel pole - 60m through to the 20m bands were used with the band conditions in my favour, finishing with 42 HF contacts - 8 SSB and 34 CW.  A stroll back down and then a drive to the other side of Dolgellau to a car park with toilets and picnic tables which was the start point to our afternoon summit activation of GW/NW-055 Foel Offwrm.

SOTA GW/NW-065 Gamallt activation - GW4OBK/P in June 2021

Having arrived in the Dolgellau area the previous day I decided we would choose an easy one point summit to start our weeks holiday in Snowdonia. I was wrong - it wasn't easy at all! The distance walked to the summit was only one mile - yet it took us an hour in hot weather to reach the highest point on the access land. Parking is available roadside on the B4405 outskirts of Abergynolwyn at SH 674067: 

Leaving the B4405 a gated track joins a bridleway. At SH673071 we left the bridleway to tack up the steep hillside on the access land. Once the wall was reached surrounding the upland wood, we followed it up the best we could. It was a very hard one point climb to the summit, and I took a few photos on the way up:

We were both hot and bothered after the one hour climb, so much so I failed to take any photos of the activation itself - I wasn't feeling myself due to a painful achilles tendon, something that has been bothering me for over a month. Switching on my Yaesu FT65E with RH771 whip was a delight though as I heard and worked Allan GW4VPX/P activating GW/NW-028 Creigiau Gleison. This was my only 2m contact - Gamallt is only 288m above sea level and surrounded on most sides by much higher summits. I went on to HF and was dissapointed by just one 60m contact with my friend Victor GI4ONL on CW. A spot by Victor and CQ calls on CW and SSB were fruitless, so I tried the other usual bands, 40/30/20m. Summit to Summit wise it was a successful activation all round, but the number of contacts - just seventeen, for the time on the air - over an hour, was dissapointing, however 20 minutes of that was spent setting up on HF with my Elecraft KX3 and link dipole:

After an hour my XYL had enough of reading her book and was being bothered by ants, flies and hay fever so I abandoned ship leaving SSB out of the activation and I packed up. Sunday's on 40m with a contest in progress is no place for a QRP SSB signal. Our lunch was back in the car and we needed it. A slightly lower level route was taken going down with the return leg taking less than 30 minutes which demonstrated how hard the stop-start climb up the hill had been for me... Power used on HF was 10 watts. There was good coverage on the EE Network on Gamallt, but zero coverage on Vodafone. 

Both of us felt we had done enough on day one of our holiday, a second activation skedded for the afternoon was cancelled so instead, I drove back to the Cross Foxes pub at the A470/A487 junction near Dolgellau for ice cold refreshments in a temperature of around 25c.

GW/MW-012 Carnedd Wen 29 May 2021

I took a day out from a family visit in Cardiff to try to activate the last two of forty Marilyn Summits in Mid-Wales that I need for Summits On The Air (SOTA). Only one summit was completed, due to injury leaving GW/MW-020 Esgair Ddu for another day in 2-3 weeks time, when I am resident for a longer period near to Dolgellau.

I left Cardiff at 0715 a.m. on an almost three hour, 125 mile drive that took me along the now familiar and excellent roads through the Brecon Beacons, Builth Wells, Rhayader and Llanidloes. Then from Mallwyd roundabout (A470) I drove six miles eastwards on the A458 to the parking place, a wide gateway which leads to the summit of GW/MW-012 Carnedd Wen (523m, 2 points). 

The locked metal gate at the parking spot, was one of three or four climbed that day, taking the walker on to a 3.5 mile track to the summit activation zone. The first real and immediate obstacle being a concreted sill ford - water depth was about half way up the tongues of my Scarpa's, so the feet remained dry. After a rainy spell this torrent could well overtop your boots I reckon:

The graded track took me up across open fell and then into the forest. The navigation was straightforward, and the climb gradual and as easy as you could imagine. Within 90 minutes after 3.5 miles I was within the activation zone where a caravan had been parked:

Some environmental land management was taking place as I came across packs of plantings stored on the track containing moss and suchlike, so I can only surmise that the caravan is there to act as either a crewroom or sleeping accommodation for the workers. It was a Bank Holiday weekend and I never saw a soul all day... By the time I reached the summit area my left leg achilles tendon was very sore and the final 200m spent locating the deliberately hidden trig point, involved dragging my hungry body and sore ankle over a peat bog making it worse. Rule for the future: "DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST".

The dull grey trig point had been masked by ploughing back the land - to create an ad-hoc quarry with pond, for forest roadstone within 6 feet of the trig and at least 10 feet higher. This higher terrain became the tieing off point for one end of my link dipole:

After climbing up and tieing off on top of the spoil heap I felt decidedly dizzy, so I sat down for 5 minutes to regain full conciousness (Don't tell the XYL!). I put this down to the pain from my achilles and lack of breakfast... The small pork pie and water I had at the start was insufficient to nourish the effort needed to reach the "summit" I thought. I knew at this point that one summit was all I could manage that day.... Completion of the GW/MW with MW-020 activated and chased would have to come on another day...

Time for some Radio then... 

With time to spare having decided on this being a one summit day I switched on my recently purchased (Chinese made) Yaesu FT-65E. I bought this relatively cheap radio as it has a bigger battery pack than my other FT-4X (Also Chinese made). Both radio's also operate on 70cm which is a band I am unaccustomed to using. As I was setting up on HF I used the handheld with long dual band RH771 whip to work Dylan M7DST/P on Long Mynd G/WB-005. Then I heard Vicky MW6BWA/P and Rod MW0JLA/P call CQ from Great Rhos GW/MW-002 also on 2m. Two more lovely S2S QSOs with the added bonus of 59 reports both ways on 70cms as well!

Time for HF action now and Victor, GI4ONL (Bushmills) was waiting at home for me to come on 60m CW, followed by another good mate, Nick G4OOE (Scarborough). A move to SSB and I worked another mate, Terry G0VWP (York) and continued to work my way through the bands on CW and SSB working UK and EU stations, avoiding 20m CW due to the CQ WPX Contest congestion. I finished with a good handful of welcome S2S QSOs. As I was packing up and monitoring S20 Jordan MW3TMX/P came on the air from nearby Garreg Llwyd GW/MW-014 to finish off my nice spell of SOTA activity with 45 QSOs. Jordan being on his 3rd summit of the day with another one to go later. 

The way back down was painful walking with a limp and stiff leg and then when nearing the car I made matters worse, by slipping off a metal gate and slamming my sore left leg hard down on the ground. This meant the air turned blue with profanity but there was only I to hear it!  A golfing friend has suggested some exercises to repair and strengthen my achilles as well as rest and ice packs. I am hoping that this will be enough to allow me to resume activating in Wales when we return in June.

My drive back with a meal stop at the recently refurbished and much improved Burger King in Builth Wells was enjoyed, and I was back in Cardiff by around 7.45pm.

Review - The Bresser / National Geographic WIFI Weather Center 7in1

Bresser / National Geographic 7in1 monitoring the weather in Pickering

Following on from my previous blog reporting on my experiences with the unreliability of budget weather stations, this is a review of my latest unit, the National Geographic WIFI Weather Center 7in1 by Bresser UK. This unit replaced a more expensive Youshiko YC9391 unit - which lasted less than six months before failing under warranty. 

The Bresser range of weather stations are supplied by Bresser GmbH Germany, however the units can be ordered from Bresser's UK Office and website based in Kent. The Bresser Company has been trading now for over sixty years. 

No duty was payable for my unit on delivery (Post Brexit April 2021). The range of stations available is extensive, currently starting at £35 and going up to £433. The units are branded as either Bresser, Explore Scientific or National Geographic. This review is for the mid-range 7in1 National Geographic model. This review was written after the unit had been in service for just 3 weeks. 

This model and similar units in the Bresser range do not rely on a computer to transfer data to the internet. Data is uploaded from the control panel directly to publicly available websites via the users own router, which becomes an "Access Point".  A comprehensively written 22 page English Quickstart printed manual is included for set up and maintenance and this is also supplied in German.

An adaptable mounting kit for fixing the 7in1 unit to a circular pole is supplied, or the mounting bar with shoe can be fixed permanently to a flat surface. The supplied clamp was used with stainless steel hardware to fix the mounting bar to a 30mm length of tubing attached via u-bolts to a small mounting bracket on the gable end of my home.

The 7 in 1 unit fixed to its mounting bar and fixing shoe prior to erection

The 7in1 Unit

The moulded plastics used are of good quality. The unit weighs 673 grams. Incorporated in the unit is a rain chamber, which operates using a conventional tipper, outdoor temperature gauge, anenometer for wind speed measurement and weather vane for measuring wind direction. In addition humidity and UV / light intensity index is also measured. In use, the effect of sunlight on the temperature sensor does not influence the readings.  A spirit level is incorporated in the top of the unit to ensure level mounting, so that in theory at least, the rain gauge remains accurate.  To power the 7in1 unit I used three Duracell Ultra AA batteries. It will be interesting to see over time how long the batteries will last...

The 7in1 unit mounted in proximity to the writers Amateur Radio antennae

The unit passes weather data at a power level of >25mW on a frequency of 868 Mhz to the control panel inside my home. A range of 150m is claimed - in my installation the signal passes through two masonry walls and two wooden floors to the panel 11m distant from the 7in1 unit. The panel indicates that the signal strength is 4 bars, which is the maximum indication.  

The Control Panel

The control panel is smaller and brighter in colour than my previous unit. It is small enough not to look out of place on top of a worktop, window sill or piece of furniture. The unit is powered by the supplied 5 VDC plug-in mains power supply. Backup is via a CR2032 button cell. No batteries for either unit are supplied by Bresser. 

The panel has internal sensors for indoor temperature and barometric pressure. The display is highly configurable for various parameters of each weather characteristic. I prefer to observe wind gusts in mph, temperature in centigrade, absolute pressure in millibars hPa and rainfall in millimetres.  The unit also displays the "feels like" temperature which I can vouch as being accurate when we have a "nithering northerly" or a "beast from the east" cold wind! In terms of accuracy all measured units can be calibrated electronically during setup. The barometer was actually reading six units high compared to the local airfields, so the panel was recalibrated to match the accurate air pressure. Several weeks later the reading has remained accurate. 

National Geographic / Bresser Monitoring Panel

In addition to monitoring the 7in1 weather data the smart device picks up and displays date, time, and moon state data which it obtains from the internet.

During installation and calibration the control panel becomes an Access Point, allowing set up using WiFi via a tablet, phone, laptop or personal computer. The set up interface can be displayed on Android or iOS devices. The frequency used for the purpose of access is in the commonly used 2.4 Ghz band. I had no problems in accessing the panel settings using an Android tablet or smartphone and a Windows 10 laptop, which all allowed me to save the settings.  The panel was set up to provide viewable current and historical data to three publicly available websites - see below.

Internet Connectivity

These latest Smart Devices no longer need a direct connection to a computer to upload data to external websites, as earlier models and many current units still require. This is a positive advantage, to provide 24/7 day monitoring without the need to rely on a computer to be left on continuously, yet still sharing the weather data via the users router to a website. In the case of my installation the data is uploaded to Weathercloud, Weather Underground and AWEKAS.  All three websites provide a free service to registered users.  You can see the results at: Weathercloud, Weather Underground and AWEKAS. One last important point to note - this unit is covered by the Bresser five year warranty. 

The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WIFI Colour Weather Center with 7in1 Sensor is available at £189 plus £5.95 carriage from Bresser UK 

My experiences with Weather Stations from 2009-2025

I've been running amateur weather stations at the two homes I have lived in at Pickering North Yorkshire, for more than ten years. Since I started with the first cheap Watson unit the technology and web content which can be viewed via the internet by the general public, has changed considerably. After spending more than £500 on five stations in the low to mid budget category over the years, it seems that the stations susceptibility to the very thing they are measuring, the weather itself, is their "achilles heel" of the outdoor sensors. So I thought I would catalogue my experiences of the different units I have used over the years in my blog...

My first weather station was made by Watson and cost less than £100. This Watson station which came as a christmas present, cost less than £100, and the unit has long been discontinued.  The Watson lasted less than three years before there were problems with two of the outdoor sensor units, so I decided to replace the whole thing. Over the next six years I ran two identical WMR88 weather stations made by Oregon Scientific:

I had problems with the first control panel after around three years, so I purchased another WMR88 set as the cost of that was close to the cost of a new panel. The seperate spare sensors for wind, temperature and rain later came in handy to replace the first set when they became unreliable. After six years operation I still had a servicable weather station from the two I originally bought, so I took it out of service, repacked it and sold it in 2020 as a servicable station for £80 on eBay.  

These early stations relied on software running on my own PC. I configured them to upload data to my own website and to the the public website Weather Underground.  This was achieved using the original Cumulus software which was written by a guy on Sanday in the Orkneys.  This software writer has now retired but an updated  version called Cumulus MX is available from another writer. If you try the updated version yourself - good luck, I could never get it to run on a Windows 10 PC.

In 2020 three of of us, all radio amateurs, decided to all purchase identical stations from a company called Youshiko that is trading in the UK now, selling weather stations and other items, such as radio clocks and battery chargers. The company is based in Romford Kent. We all decided to purchase their top of the range "professional" unit the Youshiko YC9391 at a cost then of £299.  The YC9391 has a 7in1 unit with all sensors contained within the roof mounted outdoor unit, which in my case was mounted on on a 30mm diameter pole on my house roof:

Now defunct Youshiko YC9391 Weather Monitoring Station on 29th January 2021

The only external sensor to the main external unit was the indoor thermometer which was seperate to the control panel. There was no internal thermometer within the panel itself:

With technology and internet connectivity of devices continuing at great pace over the last decade, these latest amateur weather stations operate in a different way to the earlier models I had which relied on a home PC 24/7 to perform the upload function every few minutes using software on a PC. The latest units such as this Youshiko and others by Bresser, National Geographic, Explore Scientific and other branded similar stations, utilise the users own WiFi router to upload weather data to the internet directly, so no longer does the user have to rely on connecting their panel to a PC to upload their data to the internet. The panel communicates directly to the router and the router then sends the data every few minutes to one or more publically viewable websites. 

Unfortunately it appears that the three of us were unlucky in purchasing the YC9391 unit, and only one out of the three of us are still using these. Within four months of installation one of my friends 7in1 units stopped functioning completely. The support provided by the Weather Shop where he purchased it was excellent. They told my friend that the units had been unreliable and that they weren't able to repair the unit. They also told him that they had stopped retailing the Youshiko YC9391 on account of its unreliability. He was asked to return the YC9391 to them. To their credit they supplied, at no cost, a similarly priced Davis unit. My other friend was also unlucky with his unit which stopped working after around 4 months - in his case he like me, had purchased direct from Youshiko, who replaced the 7in1 unit. Six months later I'm able to report that the second replacement unit is providing reliable service.

In my case problems with the 7in1 unit developed after 5 months when the UV sensor stopped working. Up to this point the unit had been reliable. At the same time as the UV sensor failed to read, the 3 x AA batteries in the 7in1 unit expired and these were replaced by lithium ones. These lasted just three weeks, so that meant another climb on the roof to replace them! This lithium set lasted less than two weeks so once again it was necessary to climb on the roof and replace the batteries again. This time Duracell Ultra AA were fitted, and yes, you guessed it - these lasted just three weeks! 

Standard Alkaline, Lithium and Duracell Ultra AA batteries

So after an awkward and protracted email discussion with the man at Youshiko about my faulty unit with no offer of replacement I lodged a Section 75 claim through my credit card company against the company. After five weeks Youshiko offered to refund my money and provided a forwarding address. The unit was returned to them boxed with all the original documentation. With the £299 back in my account I had now to decide to buy a replacement, my 5th weather station in twelve years.... so what did I buy? I got the National Geographic WIFI Weather Center 7in1 from Bresser UK costing £189 and I will write up a review in my next blog entry. Happy weather watching folks...

Update almost 4 years later.... 27/02/2025

The National Geographic / Bresser 7in1 weather station is still working well and giving reliable readings:

At last we can travel to Wales for SOTA...

Its now  over a year since I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and dilated cardiomyopathy, which doctors call heart failure. The condition means that my heart lacks the ability to pump blood around my body at the rate it should. Despite being on optimum medication for this condition, my heart stills pumps at a rate of only 32%, when with normal heart function it should pump at 55%-70%, which mine did until two years ago when my heart became damaged - the doctor thinks by a virus (not Covid-19). So having optimised my medication without much improvement I was fitted with a CRT-D Pacemaker (which includes an on board defibrillator) 10 weeks ago. The heart can fail at anything less than 40% ejection fraction so at 32% this little unit could save my life.  The pacemaker however, does not appear to have made much difference in terms of my fellwalking ability, although my atrial fibrillation has  been fixed, with the unit inside maintaining my heart rate at 60+ when sleeping and 80+ during the daytime. So this one day trip to Wales was a test to determine if I could come anywhere close to my fellwalking ability in the years before my heart became damaged and allow me to continue hill walking and SOTA activating. 

GW/NW-035 Manod Mawr (661m)

After leaving my home QTH in North Yorkshire at 0545L I was parked at Manod Mawr slate quarry at 0930L. This was an excellent Sunday morning 200 mile drive with no hold ups whatsoever, on a lovely sunny day. 

Parking at Manod Mawr Quarry for GW/NW-035

A path to the rear of the slate workings leads up to the summit. I followed a GPX track by Simon G4TJC which I downloaded from the SOTA Mapping Project. A discernible path took me right to the summit shelter less than a one mile walk from the car, with 500 feet ascent - 30 minutes walk time, I would grade the walk as easy.

Quarry waste and scrap metal to rear of the quarry buildings

I was carrying fairly heavy 2m FM gear - a Yaesu FT-1500M mobile radio, 4 AH LiFePo battery, 5m pole and vertical dipole. I had a Yaesu FT-4X handheld and RH770 whip in the sack as backup and a bottle of water. 2m was buzzing with activity when I switched on at 0925z, and the Welsh Association Manager, Roger MW0IDX was first into the log! Great to work an AM who is still active in SOTA having been in the role since 2002. I noticed that many AMs appear in name only in association manuals and no longer take part in chasing or activating.

GW4OBK/P station pole with antenna on the summit of Manod Mawr GW/NW-035

Several nets, the RSGB news etc meant I finished up on 145.300 MHZ where I made 16 QSOs. The most welcome contacts were S2S with Tom M1EYP on Cloud G/SP-015, Neil and Karen 2E0TDX/2E0XYL on Foel Goch GW/NW-039. It took me 22 minutes to return to my car after an enjoyable walk and activation. My best DX was Alan 2E0AGB in Dewsbury. 

Looking down on the Manod Slate Quarry Workshops on my way down

GW/NW-027 Arenig Fach (689m)

A ten mile drive from NW-035 west towards Bala on the B4391 and A4212 roads, brought me to a gate at the foot of GW/NW-027, Arenig Fach.  I parked on the very dry grass verge by the A4212. In wet conditions I would have driven on for 300m and parked in the layby. It was here that I spoke to the only person I saw walking all day, a man about my age - and I met him again on the summit. Before setting out I had some lunch, a pork pie and a pear. All I then had to carry was a small bottle of water plus the radio gear. The walk started well enough on grass, however once I passed through the intake gate in the stone wall at SH 823403 I was into rough heather and the climb became less enjoyable. My heart condition means I now have to stop from time to tiime for a minute or two rest on a climb of this nature.  I would have expected to climb this in around 60 minutes a few years ago, but today it took me 95 minutes to climb the 1.5 miles to the summit shelter. This involved an extended "comfort break" behind a wall, if you know what I mean... (Too much information)... There was just under 1200 feet in the climb and the fellwalker I spoke to at the bottom appeared from my left as I approached the shelter. We exchanged a few socially distanced words and then he left the summit to me.

You don't get a much better shelter than this one on Arenig Fach

It felt great to be on the summit but bashing through that heather was damned hard work and not enjoyable one bit! It was now 1245z and I switched on the 2m FM band to find plenty of summits audible on the air. Moel y Gamelin, Easington Fell, Tryfen and Shining Tor were all logged for S2S. I logged 12 QSOs in 35 minutes before packing up. When I worked GW4TJC/A Simon he confirmed that my last planned summit of Mynydd Nodol GW/NW-048 nearby, was just as heather crusted as the one I was now on...  Maybe I should head back home after this?  I decided to wait and see how I felt when I got back to the car. The walk back down to the car took me just 50 minutes, not much slower going down than the old days! 

GW/NW-048 Mynydd Nodol (539m) 

After a drink and an energy bar and despite Simon's warning about another heather bash to the summit, I decided to spin the car round and go the the cattle grid parking place for Mynydd Nodol which was only two miles from my current parking spot, but more like 3 miles by road to drive to get around Llyn Celyn reservoir, which is to the north of GW/NW-048:

Thanks to Simon G4TJC and Gerald MW0WML for the GPX track downloads I got from the SMP ©Crown copyright 2021 Ordnance Survey Media 018/21

Parking on a track near the pylon line just off the lane for Mynydd Nodol GW/NW-048

After following a track for a while I climbed the (unmarked) fence at SH 860394. The unavoidable heather came into my climbing line as I went up by the fence. My arms and legs had little strength left in them now,  so it was a case of climb for 25m, rest, then continue. I must have had to stop around 10 times for a minute or two to enable me to complete the short climb. It wasn't breathing that was my problem but the lack of strength in my arms and legs... Eventually I topped out at the fence corner SH 865392, and a short walk over a small col took me to the summit cairn for my 3rd activation of the day😀 

It was the same distance as the walk up Manod Mawr (0.9 miles) with 600 feet ascent, but this climb took me 53 minutes as opposed to the 30 minutes easy walk up to Manod Mawr. The difference being the terrain - easy gradual path compared to a bash through heather on the steep section going up to Mynydd Nodol. 

The summit cairn Mynydd Nodol - I fastened my pole and aerial on the nearby fence

I was on the air at 1545z and made nine QSOs in 20 minutes including an S2S with M7BIA/P Martin, on Gun G/SP-013. I packed up and took the left side of the fence going down which had less heather on it than my route up, until I got near the bottom track, and was back at my car at 1640z. Time out from the car less than two hours and another unique summit bagged. 

 

The drive back to North Yorkshire was uneventful. I took the C road from the summit parking down to Bala and then the usual Chester bypass, Manchester M60 western circuit, M62 and A64 home. I stopped off at Tesco Prestwich for fuel and McDonalds Whitefield near there, for the lousiest burger and chips I have had in my life. I won't be going back there, it was dreadful - lukewarm chips and a cold big mac. 

 

The trip leaves me with 79 unique summits left to activate to reach my target of 1000 SOTA Completes - that's 1000 summits chased and activated. I'm hoping that travel restrictions ease soon and we are able to continue with SOTA Touring into Europe again - which should enable me to reach my target before the end of 2022.  I was home for 2200 local in time to catch the news and in bed an hour later 💤🛌 I think on future trips like this into North Wales I will consider activating with just a 2m handheld and whip. I could have easily qualified the summits with much lighter gear and enjoyed the climbs without having to keep stopping for rest which made my day less enjoyable. Total distance walked 7 miles, 2350 feet ascent, 395 miles driven.