Mona Gowan
Can you activate without a mast?
A Friday off and time to find a summit. Weather hasn’t been great but looked mild today, although could be windy. Mona Gowan is a straight forward 4-pointer which has a few routes up to it. I chose the most direct from the west, off the Old Military road. I’d driven 20 minutes and some flags flapping in the breeze reminded me I’d forgotten to pack my mast! I decided it was best to return home and get the mast. Although the summit has a large cairn and I could’ve tried laying the wire over it.
The route is straight forward, just follow the fence line and eventually you’ll see the cairn on the left. There’s a reasonable valley to across before getting to the summit, so there’s uphill on the way back too!
The wind was surprisingly calm when I reached the top and I set up on 2m and 40m. Things were going well but then the wind picked up and it managed to cause the wire to come off the end of the mast and I suddenly saw the SWR maxing out the scale. Decided to call it a day and head home.
