Mynydd Machen - GW/SW-030 SOTA (2025)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Sunday 21st September, 2025.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Mynydd Machen, South Wales, Wales.
Summit ID: SOTA reference GW/SW-030 (1 point).
Summit Height: 363m elevation, 193m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 51.60359, -3.12216. Maidenhead Grid IO81ko.
Distance: 2.4km travelled with 120m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 1h (including operating).
Weather: 13°C, sunny, 9kph NE wind, 59% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Elecraft KX2, EFHW.
Callsign Used: MW1HAX/P.
Contacts: 9 (20m SSB).

Trip Notes

Mynydd Machen rises above the village of the same name near Caerphilly, carrying both Welsh heritage and dark industrial history. The name means “mountain of the place of Cein” - ma meaning place combined with the personal name Cein. Below the hill, the Black Vein Colliery earned the grim nickname “death pit” due to repeated fatal gas explosions that killed hundreds of miners between 1846 and 1880. Blackvein Mountain Road, which provides access to the summit, takes its name from this tragic history.

I parked on Blackvein Mountain Road where there is space for one car at the junction with the service road to the mast installation. There is also space for another vehicle a few metres down the road towards the farm entrance on the grass verge. A vehicle was parked here when I arrived with what appeared to be youths taking recreational drugs - not filling me with confidence about leaving my car in this remote spot.

The route begins by passing the gate across the service road, heading southeast. Much of the vertical ascent for this hill is done in the car driving up to the parking spot. The summit is easily gained by following a rough track after the mast facility is reached. At the summit there is a trig point with good views in all directions - Cardiff, Newport, the Severn bridges, and the Brecon Beacons all visible.

It was very windy as I set up my carbon fibre SOTAbeams pole and end-fed half-wave antenna, working nine stations on 20 metres SSB. The highlight was three separate S2S contacts: HB9HWJ/P on HB/TG-005 in Switzerland, OM1ALT/P on OM/BA-004 in Slovakia, and S57MS/P on S5/CP-017 in Slovenia. A local runner stopped to enquire what I was up to - always a good opportunity to explain amateur radio.

After about 25 minutes I packed away and walked back to the car, which was thankfully unscathed. An accessible one-point summit with excellent HF propagation into Europe.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Mynydd Machen on Sunday 21st September, 2025.

Walking Route for Mynydd Machen

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Mynydd Machen. The GW/SW-030 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 9 amateur radio contacts operating as MW1HAX/P from GW/SW-030 Mynydd Machen on Sunday 21st September, 2025 (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 Mynydd Machen:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for GW/SW-030 Mynydd Machen.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Mynydd Machen.
• Google Maps Page for Mynydd Machen.
• Wikipedia entry for Mynydd Machen.

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