Mal (GW6OVD) once more rescued me for an hour out. From the start, the weather looked... damp? (Persistently raining). But... it was seven more points, and local.
Today’s target was SW-010 Craig y Llyn. Driving up... more rain.., heavy rain... I started to doubt our sanity, but Mal said it would be easing off at the summit. In fairness, it did. It stopped raining! Yay. It snowed instead...
The route to this one is an easy walk up the access roads for the wind farm. The track is good and fast going. Of note, take care if your going up there, as we were passed by a number of large logging trucks, tractors etc, all giving us a friendly wave. Stay to the sides of the tracks, as they can be hard to hear with the wind.
Once at the top of the track, it’s a little right turn into the forestry and within a minute, your at the trig point. Though sheltered, we opted to operate at the far end, overlooking the valley (though not today as it was full of cloud).
The trees can make vhf difficult in some directions, but it was chosen to start the activation, with hf as a backup. As we set up, it started to rain again... so we huddled under the trees and pulled Mal’s umbrella over the radio.
The first couple of CQ calls gained us two contacts, and with a little more work, we soon had the summit qualified. Then... the snow started. Heavy, fluffy snow. Yes, we must be mad! Huddled under the trees, in the snow, calling CQ 😂 (actually, it was good fun). After 7 contacts, things went quiet, so we went QRT and packed up.
The walk down was uneventful, and quite picturesque with snow clinging to the trees. Of course... the skies then cleared and we had nice views and blue sky! (Though it didn’t last long).
Thanks to all those that answered our calls. Catch you on the next outing.
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