Karl MW6CSS has Activated Moel Gyw today (16/5/2010) and has submitted a report which follows……….

16/05/10 GW/NW-053 Moel Gyw

 We left the house around 9:30 this morning to arrive at the summit in time for the 10:00 (UTC) start I had planned. We used the car park at the motel on the opposite side of the road to Offa’s Dyke path, and soon began the ascent, well more of a stroll along the track to begin with but never mind, it soon became steeper.

 After leaving the farm track we passed through a couple of fields before arriving on a much more defined path heading around the base of the summit, navigating using a Garmin Vista HCX loaded with the latest build of the OSM base map (http://www.openstreetmap.org/)

 The final ascent was quite steep but the views at the top were certainly worth it. So after a quick break we decided to start setting up the station, which used to take all of a minute to assemble the beam, but today was the debut activation for my FT-857 running from a battery pack kindly donated along with a bag and 80m dipole by Ron GW6ZDH. We also planned to have a go with the dipole as no 80m activations had taken place on this summit.

So the pole was stuck into the hole in the top of the trig, the 2m beam was attached and the coax attached to the rig. We stretched out the dipole and taped it to the top of the pole and attached that to the rig.

 As usual I started the activation on my Wouxun KG-UDV1 hand held, with the Diamond whip attached which quickly pulled in Steve GW7AAV in Connah’s Quay.  Steve then spotted me on SOTA watch. I knew Jimmy (M3EYP) was around today activating the nearby summit of Moel Famau, and asked Steve if he knew if they had arrived yet. Steve said that they wouldn’t be too long, so I gave a quick call on my preferred SOTA frequency of 145.575 and was soon called by 3 stations, before Jimmy and his Dad Tom called in for two Summit to Summit contacts. Three more contacts followed including yet another Summit to Summit with Moel Famau.

 We then decided to try out 80m. So after a quick call to Steve to get a spot for me on 3.666. After three or four very long CQ calls I wasn’t sure I was getting out to well, so spent a minute scanning the band, I could hear plenty of GM stations, so went back to my frequency and continued to call. To be finally answered  G4OBK,  located in North Yorkshire, he gave me a report of 5 and 3, but said I was fading in and out, and after signing with him and giving a couple more calls we decided to give 2m SSB a try, after all there was a competition on all weekend and I was hopeful it would reveal some contacts.

 And what a good choice it was, and after another spot from Steve the contacts just rolled in. Another twelve contacts in all, including my first Scottish station GM8OTI, and another summit to summit with G8HXE/P on Pendle Hill.

So after that we decided to call it a day, and began to pack away the station, and then headed off the summit and back to the car.

 A great activation, being the first 80m activation from Moel Gyw, and my first HF activation.

 Just need to plan where to go next weekend, or the weekend after. Most likely the latter as it’s a bank holiday, and it will give me three days to get some more summits in, is anyone in the club up for activating Tal Y Fan?

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1010    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      GW7AAV      

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1014    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      G7SKR/P       

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1015    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      2E0LAE         

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1018    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      GW3RBM

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1020    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      MW3EYP/P    S2S GW/NW-044      

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1022    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      MW1EYP/P    S2S GW/NW-044

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1023    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      G0SLR

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1025    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      2E0PHJ

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1028    GW/NW-053   144MHz          FM      2W0TDX/P     S2S GW/NW-044

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1050    GW/NW-053   3.0MHz           FM      G4OBK                      First HF SOTA contact           

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1058    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    MW0IDX                  

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1059    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    2E0BMO       

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1101    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    2E0VNB        

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1103    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    GM8OTI                     First Scottish contact

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1105    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    2E0FSR/P      

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1107    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G3JIR

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1109    GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G8HXE/P                   S2S G/SP-005

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1110     GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G4LAA

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1111     GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    GW4RWR/PMW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1112     GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G1EVRAW

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1114     GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G0VOF

MW6CSS/P    16/05/10          1116     GW/NW-053   144MHz          USB    G4FPJ