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On 8th August 2009, a number of operators from the Cambridge University Wireless Society operated a DXpedition from Tryfan (Co-ordinates: 53.11501°N, -3.99757°W) (SOTA GW/NW-006).
On 8th August 2009, a number of operators from the Cambridge University Wireless Society operated a DXpedition from Glyder Fawr (Co-ordinates: 53.11274°N, -4.00169°W) (SOTA GW/NW-003).
On 9th August 2009, a number of operators from the Cambridge University Wireless Society operated a DXpedition from Tal Y Fan (Co-ordinates: 53.23609°N, -3.9058°W) (SOTA GW/NW-040).
This activation is a Cambridge University Wireless Society DXpedition.
This is the write-up that I wrote for the CUWS newsletter:
We left Cambridge on the Friday evening and set up our tents at the Gwern Gof Uchaf campsite at the foot of Tryfan just after dusk. On the Saturday morning, after a leisurely start, we walked up Tryfan. We took a slightly challenging route, which involved a bit of a scramble towards the end, during which we met M0RCP and his 16 year-old son M3OOL who were also activating the mountain that day. They told us that G3CWI and MW0IDX had already been up there earlier in the morning, too! Fortunately, we would not be interfering with the other operators as they were planning to use 2m, whilst we had equipment for 80m and also 40m.
On the top of the mountain we set up and started making the requisite four QSOs each for the activation to count for SOTA. Whilst we were doing this, we were surprised to see a group of Extreme Ironers arrive, one of whom was dressed in a pink lycra suit! M0SCH invited them to come and iron next to our antenna, which they duly did. Shortly after this, they dressed in black tie to do some more ironing between the Adam and Eve rocks on the summit.
We descended the mountain shortly after lunchtime, leaving Rui M0RLM and Matilde 2E0CAO to finish operating on Tryfan, whilst the rest of us headed to Glyder Fawr. There were two options for the ascent of Glyder Fach, which we had to climb to be able to access Glyder Fawr along the ridge. The most obvious route looked as though it required a long and difficult scramble, so instead we took a slightly longer path to avoid this. It didn't really work as the alternative turned out to involve a scramble as well. On the way up, we met G3CWI and MW0IDX, who were descending. G3CWI took the opportunity to ask whether we were going fishing, pretending not to recognise the fibreglass antenna support (which he sells). Eventually, we reached Glyder Fawr, where G0RCP and M3OOL were just packing up their equipment.
The descent took a little longer than we were expecting with the result that we got to the bottom with very little time to spare to get to the pub for dinner, where Rui and Matilde were already waiting for us.
The following day, we decided to go to an easier mountain -- more of a hill in comparison -- called Tal Y Fan, towards the North coast. Our departure was again quite slow as we were tired from the previous day.
The route to Tal Y Fan looked quite simple on the map but as we got closer to the destination, the road deteriorated to a track. With Martin's car beeping from low fuel, he and Matilde went to get petrol, whilst the rest of us headed to the hills. For six people to make four QSOs each, even on a combination of 80m, 2m and 70cms took a long time, and we were about half an hour late for our rendez-vous at the pub in a nearby village, where we had a quick drink before returning to Cambridge.
Thanks to Martin G3ZAY and Rob M0VFC for driving and to everyone who contacted us.
Photographs can be found on Flickr