![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/waun-fach-300x188-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Parking was a bit tricky with no recognised parking area in the vicinity.\u00a0 We managed to find a spot on a verge near our planned starting point.\u00a0 At a squeeze there would be room for two cars but definitely no more.<\/p>\n
The ascent was pleasant enough with good visibility.\u00a0 There is a fairly clear path all the way to the top.\u00a0 On reaching the top I was surprised to find that the big boulder that used to mark the summit has been removed.\u00a0 There is now a made up path across the summit plateau which certainly makes passage somewhat easier than the old quagmire that used to be there.<\/p>\n The bowl that the boulder sat in is still there if you look carefully but for how\u00a0much longer I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 There appears to be extensive work being done to counteract the erosion with planting mats laid around to try and stabilise the surface.\u00a0 I am sure it will improve access but there was a certain sense of achievement missing now the summit point is so easy to find.<\/p>\n A few minutes after we arrived at the summit we heard the distinct sound of a helicopter approaching.\u00a0 Much to our surprise the helicopter touched down<\/p>\n about ten meters in front of us, right in the summit bowl, and dropped two people off before leaving again.\u00a0 I asked them what it was about and they informed me that they were about to fly in a pile of supplies for further reconstruction work.<\/p>\n We set about establishing our operating position. After our previous success on Pen Y Fan this time I had brought along a small 2 element beam for 2m that I had built from an old set of fibreglass tent poles.\u00a0 Whilst setting this up I heard activity on the radio and realised it was still monitoring GB3TD, our local 70cm repeater back in Wiltshire.\u00a0 \u00a0The signal from Wiltshire was extremely good and I was able to have a chat with some of the locals from Swindon radio club.<\/p>\n Once everything was connected I called \u2018CQ SOTA\u2019 on the 2m FM calling channel and immediately ended up on the sharp end of a small pileup.\u00a0 Having relocated to S21 I managed to work thirteen QSO\u2019s in the space of about thirty mins, regularly interrupted by the helicopter flying in and dropping off large bags of stone.<\/p>\n In addition to the small beam, I had packed a small linear amplifier for 2m.\u00a0 In tests made before we left I was measuring about 50w output when driven from my Kenwood TH-D74.\u00a0 Power for the amplifier was provided by a set of four cell LiPo packs (4S4P) with a small buck converter dropping the voltage to 13.8V.\u00a0 Adding the amplifier and batteries of course increased the weight we were carrying but it was still within acceptable limits.\u00a0 In thirty minutes of operating I used about 2.5Ah from the total capacity of 10.4Ah available so it looks like this is certainly a viable option for those more distant summits.<\/p>\n Date \u2013 17th September 2017<\/p>\n Postcode \u2013\u00a0LD3 0EU<\/p>\n Parking \u2013\u00a0SO 186 290<\/p>\n Radio \u2013 Kenwood TH-D74 + 50W PA on 2m<\/p>\n Antenna \u2013 2 ele dipole<\/p>\n Band \u2013 144 FM<\/p>\n Contacts \u2013 13<\/p>\n SOTA points \u2013 8<\/p>\n Group \u2013 Myself and Peter<\/p>\n GW\/SW-002 \u2013 A novel approach For my second SOTA summit I headed over to Waun Fach.\u00a0 I have climbed to this summit a number of times in the past but always from the East.\u00a0 For a change this time I decided to find a route up the westerly flanks. The route up Waun Fach from … Continue reading Waun Fach 2017<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":199,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-south-wales","category-summits-on-the-air","category-welsh-summits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/243\/revisions\/1444"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/waun-fach-boulder.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nPhoto \u00a9Nigel Davies Shown under\u00a0CC licence<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h2>\n
Unexpected visitors<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20170917_132938-e1507583439349-225x300-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Power to the people<\/h3>\n
Journey Details<\/h3>\n
GW\/SW-002 Log<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/log-1-300x148-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWalking Route Summary<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Waun-Fach-summary-258x300-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"