This summit was activated by me, accompanied by Jimmy & Liam on Saturday 27th December 2003:   

Jimmy, Liam and myself enjoyed a really nice seasonal day out today.   We drove back out on the A534 over towards Whitchurch and Oswestry before cutting south on the A483 towards Welshpool.  Taking a left onto the A458 Shrewsbury road, I then took the second right, then the second right again.  This was then the road that leads over the ridge on Long Mountain.  We passed the track access to the Beacon Ring and transmitters and onto a pull-in on the left a few hundred yards further down the road. We got out and commenced our short walk back up the road to the track.  We walked up the track to the first transmitter, then onto the second transmitter.  Here we passed to the left and through a cutting to the other side of the wood, the Welshpool side of the ridge, the west side of the Beacon Ring. It was snowing; the ground was covered, and it was all very Christmassy! 

As soon as I set-up and called CQ on 2m FM, there was Welshpool's own John GW4BVE who was quickly followed by G8ALB, G0MJG (Stuart), 2E1RAM and G0DYC.  John kindly did the logging for me from the warmth of his shack while I concerned myself only with my PTT and the words coming out of my mouth in the falling snow on the summit.  The whole thing was completed in just 11 minutes, following which we packed up and remained in the snowy field to pass around the flask of hot Thai Chicken soup.  This was a really nice activation.  OK, it was only 15 minutes of very easy flat walking, but the snow and the delight on the kids' faces made it very enjoyable for me. The day then continued in fine form.  We made a decision not to move onto Y Golfa GW/NW-061, as it was pretty cold and we may be cutting it fine on the daylight.  Back in QSO with John on the mobile set-up, he kindly invited the three of us to his home QTH for a spot of lunch.   Jimmy was delighted - he loves other peoples' houses - his favourite TV programme is "Location Location Location" - need I say more...?  We were made to feel very welcome and treated to a very nice lunch, and ended up spending well over an hour there. We got back to Macc about 5.45pm, well-pleased with the day.

Thanks to the following stations worked, all on 2m FM with 2.5 watts, except for the first where 0.5 watts was used: