Moel Eilio Hike - GW/NW-022 SOTA (2019)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Saturday 27th July, 2019.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Moel Eilio, North Wales, Wales.
Summit ID: SOTA reference GW/NW-022 (6 points).
Summit Height: 726m elevation, 259m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 53.09706, -4.15839. Maidenhead Grid IO73wc.
Also Activated: GW/NW-030.
Distance: 13.4km travelled with 1053m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 5hr 20m (incl. operating and other summit(s) on the same hike).
Weather: Feels like 16.1°C, 4 kph wind, 88% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FT891, Linked Dipole, Zippy 8400mAh 4S LiFePo4. Yaesu FTM100D, MFJ-1714, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4.
Callsign Used: MW1HAX/P.
Contacts: 33 (40m SSB, 2m FM).

Trip Notes

Moel Eilio is a mountain located in Snowdonia, North Wales. It is part of the Snowdon massif, which is a group of peaks located in the northern part of the Snowdonia National Park. Moel Eilio is located to the east of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, and reaches a height of approximately 746 meters.

This mountain is relatively easy to climb and can be reached by following a well-marked path from the car park at the base of the mountain. The summit of Moel Eilio is marked by a large stone shelter and offers views of Snowdon and the surrounding peaks.

My route started from the Snowdon Ranger car park and took in the summit of Moel Cynghorion along the way. There are clear paths (gravel and grass) along the full route.

This was my second Summits on the Air activation using high-frequency (HF) amateur radio. There is a large summit plateu on Moel Eilio which makes it ideal for setting up inverted-V dipoles, tents and such like. You can view a 360-degree panorama of the summit using the link at the bottom of this page.

I operated for nearly an hour working stations across Europe on 40m, fielding a few questions from curious passers-by, before retracing my steps back towards the Snowdon Ranger station car park. My Yaesu FT891 mobile rig performed very well, but it is too heavy to routinely carry up more significant SOTA summits.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Moel Eilio on Saturday 27th July, 2019.

Walking Route for Moel Eilio

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Moel Eilio. Note that this summit was activated as part of a multi-summit hike and the map below shows the full route taken on the day. The GW/NW-022 summit area is marked on the map with a blue pin icon.

You can download the route shown above as a GPX file suitable for use with most GPS devices. This file is provided for information only, to support your own walk planning and research (it may contain navigation errors, detours and/or safety hazards). The route downloads provided here are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Station Log

I logged the following 33 amateur radio contacts operating as MW1HAX/P from GW/NW-022 Moel Eilio on Saturday 27th July, 2019 (all times shown are UTC):

In the notes field I will usually log the other operator’s name and the signal report they provided. In accordance with the Summits on the Air rules, I do not make a log entry where a complete exchange of callsigns and signal reports was unsuccessful.

Additional Information

The following resources may be helpful to walkers, mountaineers and SOTA activators interested in Moel Eilio:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for GW/NW-022 Moel Eilio.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Moel Eilio.
• Google Earth view of Moel Eilio.
• Wikipedia entry for Moel Eilio.
• 360° Panorama near summit of GW/NW-022 Moel Eilio.

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