MW0BBU	40m	CW
G4SSH	40m	CW
DL6UNF	40m	CW
HB9IAB	40m	CW
ON5SE	40m	CW
DL7URB	40m	CW
G3XQE	40m	CW
DL3HXX	40m	CW
DF5WA	40m	CW
LA8BCA	40m	CW
PA0SKP	40m	CW
G4WSB	40m	CW
G4FGJ/M	40m	CW
G4AFI	40m	CW
DL3EAD	40m	CW
G4ASA	40m	CW
DL2EF	40m	CW
G4WSX	40m	CW
G3RMD	40m	CW
DL1FU	40m	CW
DL2KAS	40m	CW
G4OIG	40m	CW
PA0HRM	40m	CW
DK7ZH	40m	CW
F5SQA	40m	CW
GI4SRQ	40m	CW
S52CU/P	40m	CW
DJ5AV	40m	CW
ON3ND	40m	CW

 

Marianne's plan for Saturday 4th May 2013 was a family day out at the seaside. That's all well and good, but when your "kids" are 20 and 15 year old lads respectively, then the stereotypical version of the "family day out at the seaside" doesn't work.  But Marianne was clever. She advised that we would drive out to Llandudno on the Saturday morning, grabbing breakfast on the road. Thereafter, Jimmy and I would activate Great Orme GW/NW-070 while she and Liam would visit the Llandudno Transport Festival. Bingo, we had a car full of happy people eagerly anticipating the day out.  Breakfast was taken at the OK Diner on the A55. I enjoyed hash browns, bacon, eggs, pancakes and syrup along with a peanut butter milkshake, to the sounds of 1950s American jukebox hits.

   

As to be expected on a Bank Holiday weekend with the promise of good weather, the roads were quite busy, especially in Llandudno itself, and some time was lost. Furthermore, car parking in the town was virtually impossible. So the plan for Jimmy and I to walk up the Orme from the bottom cable car station was scrapped. Instead, Marianne drove to the Great Orme car park to park the car there for the day, and her and Liam set off on a walk down the hill and right along the promenado to the transport festival, which was taking place right beneath the slopes of Little Orme.  It was ironic that the SOTA activators - Jimmy and I - would be doing considerably less walking than Marianne and Liam on this day! I managed a little bit of walking, for Marianne had set off down the hill with the car keys, which were more sensibly left with me, especially seeing as my smartphone was locked in the car and I wanted to do some PSK! She waited for me at the "Halfway" (even though it isn't) tram station; I descended, got the car keys, then walked back up to the summit.

It was very windy, but I found a reasonably sheltered spot a little east of the summit and around 10 to 15m lower, so comfortably within the permitted vertical distance. Also, this spot was well away from any paths established in the grass, and best of all not in the field of vision any wardens who might otherwise come and instruct us to take our aerials down. Which we would do immediately of course if requested. But it never happened.  This could be a long activation with Marianne and Liam otherwise occupied with old cars, lorries and buses at the opposite end of the promenade. I set up the 15m groundplane, while Jimmy sorted out the SOTA Beam. He opted for beam rather than MFD for this one to give himself more flexibility in avoiding the notorious QRM from the masts up here. This worked out well, and he was able to find a spot to erect the antenna, and a beam direction that did not suffer whatsoever, as well as pointing ENE just above the North Wales coastline and towards Manchester and Lancashire.

   

What I didn't have with me was a feeder extension lead, so I was sat very much within the tetrahedron outlines by the radials and guylines of my antenna. The radials were a good 1.5m above me though, and my PSK system did not throw any wobblers about RF getting in anywhere. The same was noticed the other day with the 10m groundplane antenna, so it seems that if the radials are a bit further above the set-up, then the problem diminishes. The 20m system definitely requires the feeder extension to get away from the radials; I must try the 17m GP to investigate where the "cut-off" point is.

   

By the time I was QRV on 15m PSK31, Jimmy had already qualified the activation for his point on 2m FM. There was no point available for me today, nor the activator component of the S2S award, for I had already activated this summit in March, and had an S2S contact on that occasion. However, the very being here entitled me to the chaser component of the S2S award, so rarely are repeat activations "pointless" anymore. Pun intended and both interpretations valid.  I kicked off with 4 QSOs on 15m PSK31, followed by 6 on 15m SSB. Within these I enjoyed a bit of a natter with friend and MT colleague Barry GM4TOE. Onto 15m CW, 7 QSOs were added, including S2S with Bill W4ZV/P on Anderson Mountain W4C/WP-012.  At this point Jimmy MW0HGY/P, who had made 8 QSOs on 2m FM including S2S with Mark G0VOF/P on Longridge Fell G/SP-014, and I swapped equipment. Jimmy went on 15m SSB adding three QSOs to his log while I managed just one on 2m FM. After swapping back, I made three more QSOs on 15m PSK31 and four more on 15m CW.

   

Marianne called on the phone to advise that they were ready to meet back up, so we packed up and made the short descent to the car park. I drove Marianne's car down through Llandudno (where half the streets are closed due to the fair) and along the promenade to the bus stop near Little Orme. Liam got in the car, Marianne resumed the driving, and, as usual, it was off to the Raj Bengal Palace in Colwyn Bay for some tea.

G0VOF/P on Longridge Fell SP-014	2m	FM	J
G3NPJ	2m	FM	J
RZ3OA	15m	PSK31	T
G0HRT	2m	FM	J
M6BLV	2m	FM	J
G7SKR	2m	FM	J
UT5CO	15m	PSK31	T
G1ZIM	2m	FM	J
G6ODU	2m	FM	J
M0SCU/P	2m	FM	J
G7SKR	15m	PSK31	T
SV2NCH	15m	PSK31	T
SV2BBO/P	15m	SSB	T
EB2JU	15m	SSB	T
GM4TOE	15m	SSB	T
EA2CKX	15m	SSB	T
DJ5AV	15m	SSB	T
G6ODU	15m	SSB	T
RL3DZ	15m	CW	T
N4EX	15m	CW	T
W4ZV/P on Anderson Mountain WP-012	15m	CW	T
MW0IDX	15m	CW	T
AD5A	15m	CW	T
UU4JIM	15m	CW	T
HB9TVK	15m	CW	T
SV2KGA	15m	SSB	J
MW0IDX	15m	SSB	J
G4BLH	2m	FM	T
UR7TV	15m	PSK31	T
DL7UDA	15m	PSK31	T
MW0IDX	15m	PSK31	T
YU1TY	15m	CW	T
K5KDG	15m	CW	T
4O4SM	15m	CW	T
UT3UY	15m	CW	T
UR5XMM	15m	CW	T

 

It was a second consecutive 5am get-up on the morning of Sunday 17th November 2013. Already up and dressed was Liam - now what could have possibly inspired him to be so motivated for a SOTA expedition this early on a Sunday morning?

       

Well, it was the final stage - Stage 22 - of the Wales GB Rally, and this was taking place on the Marine Drive around Great Orme GW/NW-070. And I had promised to take Liam, a motorsport fanatic, to his first ever rally stage event as a reward for achieving "Student of the Week" at Macclesfield College the previous week.

       

Unfortunately, the OK Diner on the A55 near Northop was closed. At 6.20am, we were a tad early for the 8am opening time. So we pressed onto Llandudno and began to pick up the yellow signs for the WRC stage 22. These took us up the familiar steep roads up the Orme, but then right just after the Halfway tram station, and onto a farm access track and the field being used for spectator parking (the summit car park was being used for rally teams and officials only).

       

I suppose it was a dear do - £15 each for admission to the event plus £5 parking meant that it cost me £35 to do an activation on this particular day - but there was some top motor sport thrown in!

       

We were there very early before the first cars were scheduled to run, so we walked to the summit with the radio gear first. It was strange to see the Summit Complex closed and abandoned. I took the unique opportunity to set up right in front of the cafe, as this side was quite sheltered. Here we breakfasted on our flask of Baxters Royal Game soup. Delicious and much better than the rubbish I had the previous day (Sainsbury's Moroccan chick pea soup).

       

Despite operating for an hour and a half, things were quite slow and just 36 QSOs were made on 12m - 33 on CW and 3 on SSB. I then had a wander across to the other side of the car park where a repeater station had been set up for rally control. Unfortunately, the operators of it didn't seem to have a clue about what frequencies they were using. I tried to find some race radio traffic on my VX7R later, but never did.

       

What followed was, by far, the most walking I have ever done on the Great Orme, including the time I walked all the way up from the pier at Llandudno. It was about a twenty minute walk across to the first nominated spectator viewing area. We spent some time watching the rally cars speed along a long straight before a tight double-bend just before the famous lighthouse B&B. Then we continued to explore around the steep hillside towards Llandudno, experimenting with different vantage points, some virtually at roadside, and some on rocky outcrops high above. By the time all cars had been through the stage, and we were walking back to the car park, we certainly felt that we had done a lot of walking and climbing!

       

To complete the day, we then drove down to the front at Llandudno, and walked into the main street for the winners parade. Every participating car went up the ramp and the drivers and co-drivers were congratulated. This was Liam's favourite part of the day and he insisted we stay to the end! He seemed particularly interested in Tony Jardine's co-driver!

       

Another repeater QSO with Jimmy M0HGY broke up the return trip, and we met him in the Weston Balti Raj for our Sunday evening meal.  All-in-all, very enjoyable weekend, with a good block of QSOs and multipliers added to the 12m Challenge score.