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"What do you want for your birthday?" asked my wife Marianne in early July. "A pass-out to do an overnight SOTA activation on the 28th" was my immediate reply, having been plotting setting this up for some time. My alarm went off at 5am on Tuesday 28th July 2015, and I got on the road for Cadair Berwyn, having retrieved my grub for the two days ahead from the fridge.
I drove to Knutsford on the A537, up the M6, then the M56 to Chester. The A483 took me to my breakfast stop at Chirk, and onto Oswestry, where I turned right (West) onto the B roads and minor roads up to Tan-y-Pistyll. It is always reassuring to see the signpost "Waterfall" in the village from where the long cul-de-sac road leads up to it. On arrival at the cafe car park, it was raining heavily, and there was no-one about. I waited until the rain abated to a light drizzle before taking a wander up to the waterfall for some early photos.
Back at the car, the rain intensified again, and I got back in again! As before, when it abated partially, I got out and decided to go for it. I kitted up in full waterproofs as this promised to be, at least, a damp walk. Forging through the wood with Leki pole in each hand, I made my start. I took exactly the same route up as I did with Liam nearly a year earlier. This initially followed the zigzagging tourist path towards the top of the waterfall. I didn't visit the top of the waterfall, but joined the main track coming up from the valley below.
It isn't easy to see here where to turn right and head up to the ridge. Once done though, there soon appears a faint trodden path to follow, that gradually becomes more defined. This is a graded ascent and the ridge is attained with just a bit of effort. Once on the ridge, the walk becomes a series of gentle ups and downs with a slightly steeper approach over the shoulder of Moel Sych. The summit of Cadair Berwyn was attained, but like in the past, was deemed to exposed to the wind to be suitable for pitching the tent. I continued over the minor dip to the trig point and found the most sheltered spot I could. First I pitched the tent, and then the mast. The rotating guying kit was installed on the mast and then removed, so that the guy positions were in place ready for setting up the 6m beam later. Finally, I put up the 6m/10m dual band groundplane vertical, and at last got inside my tent for some much needed rest!
I was pleased to be out of the rain and sitting down. I removed my very wet boots and put them in the porch area of the tent. I removed my very wet coat and overtrousers and placed them in a part of my 2-man Karrimor backpacking tent where there was a bit of space and wouldn't come into contact with anything else. It was tempting to remove my wet socks, but it wasn't particularly warm, so I decided to keep their thermal qualities and trust in the heat generated by my feet to gradually work on them. I was in no rush to get on the air. Unlike previous Cadair Berwyn overnighters, I wasn't chasing any personal "QSO per activation" records. This was mainly because I was limiting myself to 10m and 6m in the SOTA Challenge. If I was trying for my personal best, I would be focusing on 20m and 40m, and doing it on a 2m contest night! So I simply sat back, rested, and ate some of the food I had brought up the mountain with me.
When I did fire up, I was delighted to find that both 6m and 10m had some potential in them. A concern had been both these bands being very "closed" in recent days. Hence an opening contact of Sardinia IS0 on 6m CW was an excellent "settler"! Through the afternoon I alternated between 6m CW, 6m SSB, 10m CW, 10m SSB and 2m FM, and the contacts came at a pleasing rate. This was interrupted shortly after 6.20pm local, when the noise level shot up to S9, signals all disappeared and my radio started crackling - an indication of an approaching electrical storm. I stuck my head out of the tent, felt a few raindrops, and saw a sharp edge bank of heavy rain fast approaching. Suspicions confirmed, I quickly got back inside, disconnected the antenna (using bits of dry clothes an insulators) and treated myself to a lie down. Sure enough, less than a minute later there was an incredibly heavy downpour, although I never saw or heard any indications of thunder or lightning. I was impressed that my tent withstood the lot, and not a drop of rain passed through to the sleeping compartment. After the shower passed, I waited ten minutes or so before reconnecting the antenna. There was no signs of any crackling noises and the bands were full of amateur signals once more. Time for some more operating.
I was ready for a break by about 7.15pm, so decided it wouldn't do any harm to swap over to the SB6 Moxon at that time. The sky had cleared and the early evening views were stunning, so I took a few more photographs as well. There was plenty of 6m CW activity going on, so I worked what I could, while secretly hoping I would be able to work them again after the contest started. In most cases I did. The contest itself, from 8pm local, was fun with stations worked from Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Slovenia, as well as the usual squares from around the UK. At the end of the contest at 10.30pm, I worked my friend and Tall Trees Contest Group colleague Dave GW4ZAR. I had found him at 10.27pm, but frustratingly he was engaged in a difficult QSO that didn't complete until the stroke of 10.30pm. I got the impression the Dave was as gutted as I was that we had just missed working each other in the contest! I also then found Jonathan GW2HFR/P again. He was activating Mynydd Troed GW/SW-009 in the contest, and we had a good natter for a while. It was a little damp outside in now thick mist, but not too bad, so I decided to pack the SB6 and rotating guying kit away, and reinstate the 6m/10m groundplane. This was a bit of a chore so late at night in the cold and mist, but I kept telling myself that this would be some packing away that I wouldn't need to do the next day! Despite having the 6m/10m antenna back up, there was nothing now available, so the remainder of contacts in the calendar day were just on 2m FM. I listened for a while to the broadcast radio using my Yaesu VX7R handheld, before trying to get some sleep - quite difficult on uneven ground with wind noise and wind bashing the tent! The day's activation had brought a total of 185 QSOs.
I woke up, and felt immediate relief at the realisation that I had just spent some time asleep, even if that time was only 3 or 4 hours or so. It wasn't long before I turned on the radio and started tuning through the 10m band. There was nothing doing there, so I had a look on 2m. I put out some CQ calls and before long and had a couple of stations in the long. Moving back to 10m CW, this time supported by a self-spot, I got a reply from Richard G3CWI in my hometown of Macclesfield. Accompanying my early morning radio work was breakfast, courtesy of a bag of beef jerky.
With nothing else happening on HF, I went back to 2m. After a quick QSO with Roy M6CEQ in Stoke-on-Trent, there was Richard G3CWI again, so this time we had a more in-depth ragchew. Richard was surprised to learn that the QSO was taking place on the 6m/10m antenna he had built me! It wasn't until just after 8.20am local that I managed to get anything going on 10m, but a I got a short run of SOTA chasers from around Europe. Four more stations were eked out of 6m, but by then it was clear that it was going to be hard work to achieve much more. The optimal thing to do was to pack up while it was dry and get on with the return walk. It was only 34 QSOs for activation #2, but as I say, I wasn't chasing records. That 34th QSO came when I popped into the large stone summit shelter after taking my first return steps, and put out a CQ call on my 2m FM handie.
I never really enjoy the first part of the descent of Cadair Berwyn on my preferred route. The main path runs very close to near vertical cliffs that would make me very "wobbly". The alternative is to walk in parallel to this path, a few metres to its right. The problem with this is walking on slippery wet grass, especially where the land starts to fall more steeply. Then comes the heather which can be quite tricky underfoot. However, with this bit out of the way, one can rejoin the main path and walk down almost to the banks of Llyn Lluncaws. At this point, I usually stop for a rest and a snack - only thing was I had eaten all my grub by this point!
Soon I was reunited with a path I like very much - a flat green track that descends very gradually along the side of this glacial valley with fabulous views. I should have made faster progress but I was unbelievably tired, and a few more rest stops were required. At least the reward to spur me on was a hearty lunch at the cafe where my car was parked, before tackling the drive home. The pie, chips, veg and gravy was absolutely delicious - and absolutely demolished.
The drive home was successfully fuelled by Red Bulls and flapjacks, and all was well. Now I could look forward to my 21st wedding anniversary the following day, and taking my wife Marianne to London to see the musical Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre in the West End.
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