After Mynydd Bodafon GW/NW-071 on Friday 27th July 2018, the last summit of our North Wales SOTA trip was the Great Orme.  We drove up onto the summit car park in heavy rain, so we waited in the car a while until it eased off.

Jimmy just about scraped his four contacts on 2m FM.  I was again on 20m FT8, and made plenty of QSOs.  Well we thought we’d got a break in the rain.  After setting up, and being QRV for 15 minutes or so, it returned, quite heavily for another quarter of an hour.  We both retreated into our bothy bags.  I was steadily working stations on 20m FT8 and qualifying easily, but Jimmy was battling the mast QRM on the Orme and was stuck on three.  The situation was not enhanced when his own mast and MFD came down, and he was reluctant to emerge from his bothy bag to fix it!  When the rain did abate, we remounted the MFD with H-pol to try to beat the QRM.  This tactic was successful, and the all-important 4th QSO was made with ease.

A visit to the Amantola Asian buffet in Queensferry has become a welcome tradition when heading home from Snowdonia, and this was no exception.  I got as far as Ollerton, between Knutsford and Chelford before having to pull into a layby and recline the seat for a 30 minute kip.  It was only 15 minutes from home, but it had to be done!