Two Go Round a Bit of Britain (1 Viewer)

[DBK]

With our April 2020 ferry booking now deferred to 2022 our autumn tour and the first long one since Covid struck is firmly based in the UK. I know we could slip across to France but we have been promising ourselves we really should see a bit more of the UK so off we set today up the M5 towards Bristol. The general route of the trip is Wales, Lake District, Scotland - West and East coast, then down the east coast of England which has big chunks I've never visited. We will end at the Sister in Law's place in Sussex around the middle of October. Campsites all the way, all CMC except one C&CC site at Rosemarkie near Inverness. I'm not slumming it in my own country!

The traffic today was heavy from around Bridgewater to Bristol but it was moving. Unlike the southbound carriage way which was solid with miles of crawling or stationary traffic stretching far south from Bristol.

After a lunch stop at the services just before the Old Severn Bridge* we entered Wales to find almost deserted roads.

* There's no reason to go this way as there are services on the M4 just into Wales at Magor but out of habit we have done this before - and there is a lot less traffic this way. I perhaps should add we were self-catering of course. The Services are just a convenient place to stop.

A little under an hour of driving brought us to the CMC site at Brecon.

The Monmouthshire and Usk Canal runs just below the site although you have to cross a main road to reach the towpath - but the traffic wasn't busy (did I mention that?). An interesting bridge caught my eye but my attempts to photograph it were ruined by an intruder.

Good riddance!

Only joking as a canal holiday is another thing we've promised ourselves.

Below the canal flows the River Usk which enters the sea at Newport - birthplace of Mrs DBK and therefore I am obliged to mention the place.

You can see a bit of the river in this shot with also a couple of the "Beacons" peeping over the trees. I have an app on my phone (Peakfinder) which would have identified them but I did I remember to use it? They might be Cribyn and Fan y Big (no sniggering!) but might also not be. A lot of the bumps around here have Fan in their name including the highest of them all Pen y Fan, it derives from the Welsh word for peak.

And tomorrow we are heading for another of them, Fan Fawr which is a little southwest of Pen y Fan. The idea is to take my portable radio up to the summit and see who I can contact. My main challenge, having done another Welsh mountain earlier this year, is to remember my callsign, which I'm used to, changes here in Wales from the usual M0WIV to MW0WIV. It will change again to MM0WIV when we get to Scotland! Will my brain be able to cope without exploding?

To be continued if Fan Fawr and the weather doesn't finish me tomorrow. It was 29C this, afternoon.

 

[Phill D]

South Wales is our kneck of the woods and it appears the weather is great.
We are in Dumphries and Galloway and its kind dull and overcast but pleasant.

Question....

Should the heading be revised...

3 go round a bit of Britain
Or
Charlie does a bit of Britain

 

[DBK]

South Wales is our kneck of the woods and it appears the weather is great.
We are in Dumphries and Galloway and its kind dull and overcast but pleasant.

Question....

Should the heading be revised...

3 go round a bit of Britain
Or
Charlie does a bit of Britain

Charlie considers himself above humans. We are merely useful in moving him between new smells.

When his Secretary gets his act together Charlie's own blog may reappear.

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[Mr porky]

If you pass or call into Aberystwyth these guys have some great wines plus you can get some Spanish deli items.

https://ultracomida.co.uk/

 

[monzer]

'watch' button clicked

 

[DBK]

An early start (by our standards anyway ) had us leaving the campsite at 08:30 this morning for a 20 minute drive to a small car park below the Beacons Reservoir. Here Charlie had a quick walk and afterwards we had breakfast.

I had packed all the radio gear into my rucksack last night so all we had to do was fill the water bottles, slap on sunscreen and put on boots. Leaving the van at 09:30 it took us (me, Mary and Charlie) until 10:40 to reach the summit of Fan Fawr, 734m according to the OS map. It isn't a particularly striking hill, here it is viewed from just below the summit from the path.

On the other side of the valley is the popular Pen y Fan. You can see the very well worn path up to it, although that distinctive summit isn't Pen y Fan but Corn Du. The summit of Pen y Fan looks almost identical but is 500m behind Corn Du and at 886m high only 13m higher than Corn Du.

This is the area we were in. The wording "A4059 Recently viewed" is where we parked, below the reservoir. To the north west there is an unnamed hill, this is Fan Fawr.

At the summit of our more modest (but much quieter) hill I set up the radio gear.

I carry too much stuff!

Skip the next paragraphs and start again at the photo if you aren't interested in SOTA (Summits On The Air).

I intended to try 40m SSB first but I was seriously delayed finding a mobile signal so I could post on the SOTA website my frequency and location. Eventually I found one particular place on the edge overlooking the reservoir and put up a "spot" to say I was using 7.165MHz.

It was a bit of a struggle but I managed four QSOs, two to Belgium and 2 into Spain. Four QSOs is the qualifying target to claim the SOTA points for the summit so after this I could relax.

I had a look at 20m but it was very quiet. If the mobile signal was better I would have tried it but instead, and conscious of the time, I took down the wire antenna and hoisted my 2m Slim Jim and gave out a CQ SOTA call on 145.450MHz FM after jumping through the hoops again trying to connect to the Internet.

I'm a bit of a 2m novice and so can't really judge where my experience sits on the good or bad scale but I am fairly certain it was towards the good end.

Best QSO was a summit to summit with M7MCG/P who was on the top of Fountains Fell in the North Pennines. I haven't worked out the distance but it must be at least 150 miles*. In the opposite direction GU3TUX in Alderney was my first ever Channel Islands contact. A total of twelve 2m QSOs were made, many from Wales but also Devon and Cheshire. For a band and mode normally limited to just a few miles a bit of elevation and a good antenna certainly made a difference.

* 267Km I've just discovered.

The photo above shows the dam and in the clearing on the right you might just be able to make out our Murvi PVC. I took the shot as we returned down the path - it's always reassuring to see your vehicle still there!

We got back at almost exactly 13:00 and ate our lunch before returning to the site. The site features a dog washing point although Charlie wasn't hugely pleased to experience it but that's his fault for finding a very muddy puddle to cool off in.

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[royandsharont]

I used to post stories on the CAMC forum from our tours for family & friends to follow where we were and what we’d got up to so, I will follow this journey with envy. Perhaps our van will have arrived before your home again Enjoy yourselves & thanks for all the effort I know is needed to do this

 

[Silver-Fox]

I found Pen y Fan a bit of a slog to get to the top for some reason.

A trip to the five waterfalls is worth the trip if you have the time

 

[DBK]

I found Pen y Fan a bit of a slog to get to the top for some reason.

Probably because it is a bit of a slog. It was an option instead of Fan Fawr but even mid-week there were a lot of cars parked below it and that's why we chose Fan Fawr instead. Didn't see another soul until we got back to the van. Bliss.

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[Ralph-n-Bev]

I had packed all the radio gear

Ralph says how are you liking the Icom-705 QRP ? He doesn’t come on MHF but when I saw all the wires and radio I thought, that looks like what he gets up to when we’re away in Pug. so Ive shown him the thread.
Infact the last time we were out Ralph had rigged up a circular aerial on a pole and someone asked him if he’d caught any decent fish that day

 

[DBK]

Ralph says how are you liking the Icom-705 QRP ? He doesn’t come on MHF but when I saw all the wires and radio I thought, that looks like what he gets up to when we’re away in Pug. so Ive shown him the thread.
Infact the last time we were out Ralph had rigged up a circular aerial on a pole and someone asked him if he’d caught any decent fish that day

It works well from the top of a hill! What it lacks is the power to be heard over stronger stations when I'm working from home. When I'm not doing SOTA from a hill I do listen to others when they are calling from a hill - but it can be frustrating trying to reply if it is busy. CW (Morse code) works better but I'm still a beginner but I hope to do some practice from the site tomorrow then try it from a summit soon.

The 705 is good for digital modes like FT8 but I'm not a fan of those, other than I'm impressed by how well they work.

 

[royandsharont]

I didn’t realise morse code was still used today. Back in the day I recall my morse and semaphore teacher, Nobby Clark ex RN, with respect for getting me through my B of T radio officers certificate for my merchant navy mate’s tickets. That’s a long time ago now.

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[Ralph-n-Bev]

Thanks for your thoughts on the 705.
More into SWL myself but hopefully when I have a bit more time I will sit the foundation licence.
Been looking at SDR transceivers for a while and loving Icom gear the 705 or the 7300 are on my wish list.
Hope the weather stays good for you to get back on the hills.

Good DX

Ralph

 

[Barti Ddu]

If you pass or call into Aberystwyth these guys have some great wines plus you can get some Spanish deli items.

https://ultracomida.co.uk/

I'll second that, although their other deli in Narberth, Pembrokeshire is even nicer - with a lovely bustling tapas bar tucked away at the back of the shop.

 

[Offagain]

If you pass or call into Aberystwyth these guys have some great wines plus you can get some Spanish deli items.

https://ultracomida.co.uk/

I'll second that, although their other deli in Narberth, Pembrokeshire is even nicer - with a lovely bustling tapas bar tucked away at the back of the shop.

Just what I was going to say! Although last time I enquired the tapas bar was only open at lunchtimes. We loved it there when they did evening sittings.

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[DBK]

but hopefully when I have a bit more time I will sit the foundation licence.

It can all be done online now, including the exam and there is no practical exam either now.

I did the online Foundation course with Essex Ham but for the next two levels I just studied on my own. But I can recommend the Essex Ham course.

Foundation Online - FREE Amateur Radio Course | Ham Train

Looking to get a Foundation amateur radio licence? Join one of our free Internet-based amateur radio training courses, which include training videos & guides.

www.essexham.co.uk

 

[DBK]

We walked into Brecon this morning along the canal towpath. It's takes about twenty minutes or longer if like us you stop to read some of the notices along the way which explain a little bit of the local history. Most interesting was the early 19th century tramway which was used to transport goods, particularly bulk stuff like coal or limestone further into Wales. Each carriage or cart, a bit like those used in mines, was pulled by a horse.

The canal basin in Brecon where the canal ends is an attractive spot. The last bridge over the canal before you reach here has two arches, one for the canal and one for the tramway.

Brecon Cathedral is supposed to be worth visiting but we had Charlie with so this photo of the rear of the building is as close as we got. The statue is of Wellington and Waterloo is also written on the plinth. Erected I assume because a lot of Welsh soldiers fought In the battle. The Welsh Regiment Museum is also worth visiting and has displays about Rorke's Drift.

We returned to the site via the footpath beside the River Usk. The water in the river, unlike the canal was clean enough so we let Charlie have a cool down.

I would have been reluctant to let him in the water a little further downstream. The pipes you can see in the picture below are a disused discharge from the sewage works, now replaced by a pipe we could see emerging in the middle of the river. There was a bit of a smell in the air and it wasn't coming from the treatment works because that was down wind from us.

The Radio Section - and a bit technical this time .

I had to have another play with my radio when we got back. Stringing up a long wire antenna was going to be difficult on the site - garroting your fellow campers doesn't increase your popularity though it would add an interesting entry into the list of "Why I was thrown off a CMC site". So instead, I tried out my new MP1 Super Antenna. This is very compact as you should be able to see below.

The top section is a titanium whip which rolls up to fit in the bag. Below that is the adjustable tuning coil. This one does from 10m to 40m and there is a second coil you can add for 80m and if you want 60m they sell yet another coil for that band as an extra. On hard ground it is used on a little tripod but on grass I used the spike. Spreading out from the base are counterpoise wires, one for each band.

This was my first real test of the antenna and the results surprised me. I wanted to do some CW (Morse code) practice so I sent out a test CQ call on 20m to see what the result might be.

The map is from the Reverse Beacon Network which links amateur radios which are left on and connected to a computer scanning for CQ calls. As you can see, the USA, Iceland, Sweden and then down through Europe to Greece all heard me. For 10W and a small antenna mounted close to the ground this was impressive.

But what about in the real world, will humans hear me?

So I looked on the SOTA website at who was transmitting CW from summits within range. GM4YSS/P was on the summit of Ben Nevis and I could hear him clearly - but so could a lot of others and he was dealing with a massive pile-up with several stations transmitting over the top of each other. I listened hoping for a gap but gave up after a while. But it wasn't wasted time as listening helped to get my CW brain engaged.

Next I switched to another frequency where CS7AWB in central Portugal had just posted a spot to say he was about to start transmitting. Again I heard him and this was his first CQ call so I had an opportunity to get in at the start while everyone else was busy chasing Ben Nevis. His signal was weak but I heard him send "MWO" followed by a question mark, indicating he had heard the first part of my callsign. On the second attempt he copied me correctly and I heard him responding with my full call sign. Sadly, I'm not sure we fully completed the QSO as I didn't hear a 73 from him. I'll check the SOTA website later and see if he uploads his log and if I'm on it.

My third effort was successful. After switching to 40m GM4ZAO/P on Allemuir Hill a little south of Edinburgh and I had a good QSO and if I needed convincing about the MP1 then I was now. I must try it from a summit next.

This was my outdoor station.

I had just poured out some wine so this was the end of my CW efforts for the day. Alcohol and CW do not mix as I have discovered!

And a close up of the 705. All the faint vertical lines are CW. The bright block of lines right of centre is the FT8 digital section. This is a very popular mode but I struggle to generate any enthusiasm for it although for the sake of completeness I'll give it a go later on this trip.

 

[Barti Ddu]

An interesting read. Thanks.
By the way, about 50 metres from the canal basin in Brecon is a Powys County Council coach and lorry park, in which the council positively encourage motorhomes to stay overnight for free (between 6pm and 8am).

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[carolyn]

This is me plus Shirley aka Mrs Sheddy on Pen y Fan last month. Piece of cake, mind you we didn’t have very good weather as you can see! 16th August and I’m wearing a hat.

 

[DBK]

If anyone is interested in what CW sounds like this short recording I made might give you a flavour. I found this exchange difficult at the time but listening to the recording afterwards I'm amazed how slow I was. The person I'm responding to is on a mountain in the Czech Republic. He is calling CQ and giving his callsign but could I understand what he was sending? Nope is the answer. The loud beeps you hear are me sending a question mark. It goes downhill from there for a while but eventually we sort it out. We have since been in contact on a forum and he has confirmed the QSO from his end.

 

[monzer]

I find the very little that I understand of this interesting.

So all communication is done via signal? No actual spoken conversation?

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[Spriddler]

The person I'm responding to is on a mountain in the Czech Republic.

Fascinating radio sounds. Reminds me of 'The Sky at Night' progs with the wonderfully eccentric Patrick Moore listening for extra-terrestrial life at Jodrell Bank.
Do you exchange just coded standard messages from a phrase book (a la 'Nighthawk in 'Allo Allo'), and does everyone have to be able to communicate (in Morse) using English?

(Ah, mine's crossed with similar thoughts by monzer ).

 

[DBK]

I find the very little that I understand of this interesting.

So all communication is done via signal? No actual spoken conversation?

Fascinating radio sounds. Reminds me of 'The Sky at Night' progs with the wonderfully eccentric Patrick Moore listening for extra-terrestrial life at Jodrell Bank.
Do you exchange just coded standard messages from a phrase book (a la 'Nighthawk in 'Allo Allo'), and does everyone have to be able to communicate (in Morse) using English?

(Ah, mine's crossed with similar thoughts by monzer ).

It's all just dots and dashes. For example the letter A is a dot followed by a dash. It's the length of the tone which determines which one it is. A short tone is a dot and a longer one a dash. To learn it the trick is to learn what the letter sounds like. What you must not do is try and count the dots and dashes as you will never do this if the morse is coming quickly.

It may be hard to identify but in the recorded example above the letter K is sent at the end of almost every transmission. This letter is dash dot dash and to my ear it sounds like "baa be baa". The K is short for "over to you"

The actual exchange is quite formulaic. This isn't an opportunity for a natter although people do use CW for long chats, or rag chewing as its known. Essentially, in SOTA we exchange callsigns, so we know who we are talking to. Then we exchange a signal report which is 3 numbers indicating readability, strength of signal and finally the tone of the signal. In the example above I gave him a 529 with the 2 indicating a very weak signal. Finally we sign off by sending 73 to each other which is another short code for "thank you and goodbye". We also finish with a "toot toot" which isn't something I've read about but is commonly done. Right at the end he starts calling CQ again and his signal strength improves significantly to at least a 3 or 4 I think. CQ is another code used and it is used to ask stations to respond. It is very old - Marconi sent it on the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission.

 

[Taran_Las]

I believe Brecon cathedral is actually shared by both Brecon & Swansea. Swansea does have a Roman Catholic cathedral of its own though.

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[mackeellan]

So sorry to tell you but your photo of cathedral is actually St Marys Church. The cathedral is about half a mile away. I am looking forward to reading about your trip, enjoy.

 

[DBK]

So sorry to tell you but your photo of cathedral is actually St Marys Church. The cathedral is about half a mile away. I am looking forward to reading about your trip, enjoy.

Many thanks, had we gone round the front we might have spotted that.

 

[Larafach]

Smashing photos, what camera do you use?

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[DBK]

Apologies for the delayed update, I've been busy over the last few days although the photographs are a bit sparse mainly due to me forgetting to take any when I should have. Oops!

Leaving Brecon we drove more or less north up through mid-Wales and travelled through regions completely new to me and I think also to the Welsh born Mrs DBK. We passed through some interesting places and as a generalisation the bit around Welshpool was probably the best. The sort of place I could live if I could speak the language.

We eventually joined the M6 and continued on a north heading through busy traffic - but it kept moving as a good pace.

Our destination was the CMC site at Meathop Fell at the southern end of the Lake District. Its a civilised place but has tall trees on the bit of the site we are on which block out the sun when it appears. The site is virtually full and there were only 4 places left to choose from. We took the one with the most grass next to it for Charlie. The location is under the blue blob in this screenshot.

I'm afraid the reason I'm here is radio related. I've previously admitted my interest in SOTA (Summits On The Air) and this weekend is the SOTA Lake District meeting. The idea is for operators to climb to the tops of Lake District peaks and try and contact each other and of course
elsewhere.

The weather forecast wasn't great for the weekend and on the Friday the clouds were very low and none of the hills were visible. But we went for a drive anyway, travelling north through Windermere, Ambleside to Keswick. We saw long queues of traffic but fortunately for us they were all in the opposite direction but they convinced us returning this was wasn't an option. So we turned west then south west after Keswick and explored a bit of the west coast of Cumbria. As a Cumbrian I'm familiar from childhood trips and holidays with the bits around Silloth and also St Bees Head but the rest was new to me. We stopped for lunch at the bird reserve at Drigg where I could let Charlie off the lead on the empty beach.

The weather improved during the afternoon and we began to see the tops of a few hills. (insert photograph here if I had remembered to take one)

Saturday dawned overcast but it wasn't raining and things looked promising for a bit of radio work.

The keen and fit were heading for the high summits. With a 6m MH my main concern was parking so I had chosen a hill well away from the crowds. Hutton Roof Crags isn't even in the Lake District National Park I think but is included as a Lake District summit for SOTA. And at 25 minutes drive from the site it was an easy journeys there.

Parking we found but could only view it from a distance as there was a 2.1m height barrier - but fortunately there was space outside the entrance for us to pull over and this is where we parked. This was where we were.

The other round blobs on the map are different SOTA summits in the area. The information in the pop up window showing the last activation was 27th June is wrong. The most recent was today and before that me yesterday - its a database fault I think and will be fixed.

Hutton Roof Crags, at only 275m high and surrounded by trees was impossible to photograph so this shot will have to suffice, taken near the summit after I emerged from the undergrowth.

You can see a few bits of limestone pavement, bare rocks with ankle breaking crevices if you are not careful. The Lake District is ringed by limestone and this is another outcrop of it.

Radio-wise I had a good but brief session entirely on VHF 2m FM. This is a mode which isn't very popular where I live but the Lake District and Pennines are different and here VHF is king. It was good to have a chat with people exactly like a conversation by mobile phone. I also managed a few summit to summits, the highlight to Andy who was on top of the Lake District's higher peak, Scafell Pike a little after 10 in the morning. He must have made an early start to reach the top by then.

In the afternoon we walked to Grange Over Sands (GoS) which is the nearest place to the site. This is the western end of GoS viewed from the ridge over the railway.

The tide was in which was slightly disappointing as we wanted to see the extensive sands. But what we could see was the top of Blackpool Tower, about twenty miles away in... er... Blackpool. It isn't visible in this photograph taken with my phone but it was there in real life between the power station and the shower on the horizon. Honest!

More boring radio social stuff follows...

On Saturday evening a few of us gathered at The Brookside in Windermere. This is in the "proper" Windermere which is a little distance from the Lake and the flesh pots of Bowness on Windermere. Amazingly there was room to park the PVC in the pub car park but we could have found off-street parking nearby. This was a fairly quiet area.

Highlight of the evening was a short talk by John Linndon who was instrumental in setting up SOTA just under 20 years ago. It now has 35,000 registered members around the World although only around 9, 000 are active. New members are joining at a rate of over 1,500 a year.

This is John (standing) talking.

Everything is done online and amazingly it is all free.

Today I went a bit off piste and forgo another SOTA summit and did a Wainwright.

Alfred Wainwright (AW) wrote several books about the Lake District fells and there is a small following for WOTA - Wainwrights On The Air. Within walking distance (just!) from the Meathop Fell site is a hill described in one of AW's books, Hampsfell, and so off I trudged this morning towards it.

The tide was out in Morecombe Bay.

On the summit of Hampsfell is a small square stone building known as the Hospice. Built in 1831 by a local vicar for the relief of travellers it has a flat roof with railings around it which makes a good viewing platform. The Isle of Man can be seen in good conditions. I forgot to photograph it so I can only offer this substitute image of a sign pointing to it.

There's a WOTA website where you can post a "spot" giving your frequency. With no great confidence I did so and was pleasantly surprised to get replies to my initial call. There really are people who collect Wainwrights and it was, a pleasant and enjoyable morning.

This is the hill in AW's book The Outlying Fells.

I ignored his recommended route and approached from the top of the page.

We move again tomorrow to the NW edge of the Lake District. A few more hills may beckon if the weather holds off.

 

[DBK]

Smashing photos, what camera do you use?

My "proper" camera is an Olympus OM-D 10 but I'm using my Google Pixel 3a phone more and more now. In the post above only the photo of Charlie on the beach was taken with the Olympus, all the rest, less screen shots, with the phone. Generally all the photos are subsequently tweaked in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom as it is now called, previously it was known as Lightroom Mobile.

 

[Larafach]

Thank you. I’ve got an older iPhone and it’s not great. I’m looking at getting a high performance compact camera instead of my Canon Eos, just want something smaller to carry in my pocket.

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