On Wednesday 17th February 2010, Jimmy MW3EYP/P activated this summit.  Here is his report:   

My Mum, her friend Cath and my Friends Edward and Hunter all went to Llandudno for a day-trip today. I decided that I and my friends would walk up and down the Great Orme GW/NW-070 while my Mum and her friend would visit Llandudno.  This is first I've walked up the Great Orme. In previous activations we always drove up the car near to the summit and walked to the trig point from there.

   

I got up at 6:30am and was ready just before my friend Hunter arrived.  When Hunter arrived we both went up to the shop to buy some coffee beans and draw some money out.  Both us went back to my house before my friend Edward arrived.  We all had a brew and some of us had some toast. We all left my house and picked up my Mum's friend Cath. We soon left Macclesfield to set off to Llandudno. On route we stopped in Knutsford to get some petrol and the first McDonalds in Wales to get some breakfast. When we got to Llandudno we parked the car on Hill Terrace which is road below the Great Orme.

From here my Mum her friend walked into the town centre while I and my friends started our walk to the summit of Great Orme GW/NW-070. We walked up the cul-de-sac and then through the gardens up to the ski slope. We walked up the ski slope and made our way to the half way station. We passed the half way station and then walked up the hill to the trig point.

I set up the SOTA beam and then called CQ and 145.500 fm. This called was answered by Glyn GW7SBO and we QSYed to 475. I struggled to work Glyn because of heavy QRM either from the transmitters or I had an intermittent radio problem, which continued through all my QSOs. I called QRZ and Mike G4BLH answered.  I called Mike but there was no reply.  My next QSO was with Alun 2W0CYM, and then Chris M1DTJ/P which was a struggle.  My next contact was with MW0MON/M.  After this there were no takers, but I found a QSO on 475 which was my working frequency which I broke into.  This was answered by Glyn GW7SBO and I asked to work the other station which was Dave GW0DXO.  The QSO was a struggle; he was 21 when I was 59+.  Thank you to Glyn GW7SBO for making this QSO possible.  No more QSOs were made after this.

   

I then packed the SOTA beam away and we descended back down to the half way station. From the half way station we followed the tram track all the way to Llandudno. When we in Llandudno we found a cafe to have lunch and the food was excellent.

After this we met up with my Mum and her friend Cath.  I passed my walking gear onto my Mum to put back into the car.  My friends and I went into a few shops to buy a few things.  We then went into the arcade at the start of Llandudno pier and I won a £5 on the 10p machine. My Mum and her friend met us in the arcade and me and my friends walked up the pier to the end to it.  We then returned to the arcade and my mum and her friend started to walk back to the car and we soon walked back to the car ourselves after me and my friend Hunter had a game of air hockey.

   

We then left Llandudno to set off back to Macclesfield via Sale. We stopped at Chester services to get a drink and clean the windscreen-wipers as they were squeaky.  We then drove to Sale drop off my friend Hunter.  We then drove home to Macclesfield where we dropped my friend Edward at the hospital as his Dad was there.  We then dropped my mum’s friend Cath off and then me and my Mum returned home where we loaded all the stuff into the house.  Thank you to all stations that I worked and my Mum for the day out.

For Backpackers session 3 on Sunday 4th July 2010, I elected to try Tal y Fan GW/NW-040. It wasn't a great contest site. It could be, with more activity from EI, GI, GD and GM - but there wasn't. But more of that later.

   

Of course, we couldn't consider a run out to Tal y Fan without bagging the easy point from Great Orme GW/NW-070. Well, me anyway. Jimmy M3EYP had already done this one in 2010, on a trip with his mates in which they, rather nobly, walked up Great Orme from Llandudno town centre. This time however, we would be using the summit car park!

I began the day by picking up Jimmy's mate Craig from Bollington at around 6.40am. I then returned home to pick up Jimmy and Liam, who was having a rare outing with us today. This gave the lads the extra minutes they seem to need to get ready compared to me! We then drove to Lymm Truck Stop for a slap-up cooked breakfast, before hitting the M56 and A55 to Llandudno.

       

Parking fee just below the summit was £1.10, and we exited the car into fierce westerly winds blowing across the coast. The idea was to get a very quick handheld activation done here, but it was to prove otherwise. Only one QSO each could be generated from such operating conditions, so we had to set up the SOTA Beam. Still QSOs were hard to come by, but eventually I got five and Jimmy got three. He already had his point, so that was not a problem.

   

As we retreated to the car, the wind was stronger still, and we were being bashed from side to side as we picked out way across the car park. Already, we were nearly one hour behind schedule, and resigned to a late start in the Backpackers contest.