Saturday 1st February 2020 - Moel y Gamelin GW/NW-042 & Cyrn-y-Brain GW/NW-043

This particular SOTA outing has developed a rather typical pattern.  It invariably starts with me picking up Richard G3CWI from his QTH five minutes drive from mine.  Unusually, no flask of soup is prepared - and that's because lunch is always taken at the marvellous Ponderosa Cafe which sits at the parking spot between the two hills.  The difference today was that Richard, now a keen YouTuber, had an idea for a video shoot.

I always prefer to tackle Moel y Gamelin first, as it is the longer and more strenuous of the two, albeit still a perfectly pleasant walk of about 45 to 60 minutes.  It was very windy, so I needed to drop down on the East side of the summit to gain sufficient shelter to get the Bandhopper 4 linked dipole erected - and find a spot comfortable enough in which to operate.

Richard's idea for the film was a "shootout" to see who could make the most contacts.  As usual in these "contests", Richard chose his own working conditions, while specifying what mind had to be.  I was restricted to using the FT8 datamode on HF, while Richard would use 2m FM from his handheld.  The results - and indeed the resulting video can be seen on the Cyrn-y-Brain GW/NW-043 report - as that was the summit we went to after the lunch in Ponderosa.