GB-1180 Moel Famau Country Park on a misty eyed morning in March 2025
This park has an affinity with me for so many reasons. The first time I visited it was in 1968, when I was an excited 7 year old. It was the first time I was away from home on a school camping trip in an adventure centre called Colomendy, which was situated in Loggerheads at the base of Moel Famau Mountain. I remember climbing up to the top of the Hill and at that time the Jubilee Tower was open and we did pencil rubbing of the brass carvings within. I have vague memories of a world that seemed less troubled then!
As is most peoples experience I suppose, life got in the way and it was a long time till I revisited the park again.
Fast forward to May 2008, a photo of the Jubilee Tower at the top. Mrs JPV posing after a long arduous climb via the longest route from Loggerheads. I was a lot older and perhaps a little more wiser? There is a less strenuous walk up, I like to call it the "Tourist Route" from Bwlch Pen Barras car park.
Moel Famau and its neighbour Foel Fenli became SOTA Summits in the early 2000's. Their respective summit references are: GW/NW-044 & GW/NW-051. Moel famau was first activated as a SOTA on 16th April 2002 by one of the founding members of the Summits on the air program Richard GW3CWI signing as /P.
Fast forward again to February 2009, My very first radio activation on Moel Famau albeit a summit, back then my ops were always VHF SSB using a FT897 and a 3 element home-brew beam (plastic overflow pipe and aluminium rods.)
A snowy topped Moel Famau, the following year, on my own. No! the tower is not sliding away, the post I put my camera on was leaning at a strange angle as I took a timed photo of myself 😁
So lets bring us up to the present time, and report on my visit to this , one of my favourite places in North Wales.
GB-1180 Moel Famau Country Park. This POTA park includes the hill and the surrounding lowlands including the car park area at Bwlch Pen Barras. The other great thing about POTA is the ability to activate from your vehicle if needed, which as you may know is great for me as my disability does not allow much distance for me to walk especially on uneven ground. There are however plenty of places to go fully portable alongside the car park area, away from the general public if needed.
Also you can of course if you want more height for possible increased distance of DX, you could climb to the top of the hill?
The other great thing is there is a big potential for a "2fer" as there is also a trail running through the car park from the top of Moel Famau and heads up the side of Foel Fenli. GB-1122 Offa's Dyke National scenic Trail
This day 3rd March 2025, my Plan was to complete 4 Parks in the one day and they needed to be possibly cut short depending on then time and how quickly it goes when you're having fun in the Parks. Two activations of 2fers would certainly help, I started off on 17m ssb, and managed a few (4) in the log, my furthest dx being Portugal. On to 20m ssb after swapping my Hamwhips, got a further 12 in the log with one P2P. because this operation was in the morning it was cold and misty, so when the callers went quiet , I decided to pack up grab a cup of hot tea made with my 12volt kettle and assortment of hot drink sachets in my tiny little kitchen box in the boot. I plug my kettle in when I leave home ,so when I arrive at the park it boiled enough to sort a drink straightaway. Then on to the next 2fer which is only a 6 min drive back down the welsh lane. I did complete that 2fer with 41 in the log, and even had time to do a 5th Park on the way back home. Thus achieving my Warthog certificate, so all in all a fun and successful day. At the time of writing, this park has been activated successfully 21 times including mine with over 600 Q's in the logs.👌
And to finish off my review , we go back to ancient times! During the Iron Age, this area was inhabited by people and Iron age villages out in these windswept hills were common place.
So once again dear reader, I thank you for reading this review to the end, I am very grateful to Perry for allowing me use of the Website. I hope you have found it interesting and you will consider visiting Moel Famau next time you are in the area. Hopefully you will be able to activate for Portable operations even possibly including more than one Program of awards.
Good luck and 73
Tony de G1JPV
