Am I right in thinking Shining Tor SP-004 was your 200th activator unique in SOTA Gerald? If so, well done. I’ll try to crack on a bit, but I suspect my time is almost up and it’s my turn to play catch-up!
I’ll tell you what, I bet there can’t be many, if any people that leave Shining Tor out of there uniques record for that long! Today was my 203rd SOTA activator unique, and Shining Tor was my very first of them all!
UFB,
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom,
Yes, Shining Tor G/SP-004 was my 200th activation and unique, recorded and celebrated in fine style with the help of Steve G1INK. It was only by chance that the summit crept into the first 200 as Paul G4MD and I were planning to activate Moel Siabod GW/NW-010 and Tal y Fan GW/NW-040. However, with the occurence of high winds and purely on safety grounds we decided to lower our sights (in terms of summit height) and execute one of our Plan B options.
As for who is chasing who up the uniques table… well, let’s just say SOTA is non-competitive. Besides you started much earlier than I did!
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
Hi Gerald,
Congratulations with acheiving your 200th unique, it was a good to contact youself and Paul on SP-004 and seeing the set up on your side thanks to Steve’s video.
73’s
Robert G0PEB
In reply to G0PEB:
Congratulations on your 200th unique Gerald, it’s been a pleasure to chase you on a large number of them.
Also congrats on the matching jackets, syncronised activating now eh:-)
73
Mike GW0DSP
Congratulations on getting your 200th unique Gerald.
Jimmy M3EYP
In reply to GW0DSP:
What do you mean Mike ? Has Gerald sold the Sprayway Goretex and bought His and His kagoul’s from Aldi ??? LOL !!
In reply to M0LMP:
The gortex brought 8 quid on ebay, which was put towards matching jackets for Gerald and Paul, watch inky’s video:-)
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
Cor, I turn my back for a couple of hours and you’re casting aspertions about me. What do you want - a DNA test on the jacket? Not sure whether there’s any of Lee’s DNA left on it since I Nikwax Techwash’d it during the week. What I would say is that the tatty red thing I’ve been wearing up to now has finally hit the bin - the XYL had to stop me putting that one on eBay!
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
INKy made me post it Gerald.
73
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
INKy made me post it Gerald.
I’m not convinced Mike. I think you’re telling porkies!
Anyway, ignoring that aside, many thanks for the congrats chaps. My personal target is to get to MG activating uniques qualified on either 2m or 70cms. This is quite a task in itself… as you’d expect, Swinside is not on my hit list!
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
MG is quite some achievement Gerald, to attempt it by uniques only and on uhf/vhf is an undertaking worthy of mighty applause. I for one know that you will achieve your goal and I hope I’m able to chase your qualifying summit. Trouble is, you keep travelling farther afield in your quest for uniques.
73
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
You’ve hit the nail on the head Mike. We are already running out of uniques relatively close by, so Paul and I are looking to do two-day sorties farther afield to improve the VFM. It won’t just be a case of knocking off the big ones either as we’ve yet to do the Lleyn Peninsula, a swathe of single pointers spread between SP-017 in the west and the trio of TW’s in the east and there’s a bag of them in the south Lakes as well. Uniques will take priority - MG is the secondary target. Whether I’ll ever catch up with INKy in the uniques stakes is another thing entirely…
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
Hi Gerald. Congratulations. Whatever this ‘Uniques’ thing is all about, you and some others appear to have done very well with it.
I saw the video of your activation taken by Steve. It sounded windy; no wonder you had the phones on! Shining Torr is one I have heard of many times but never experienced.
Well done to you & Tom and also to Tom for succeeding with Hoove.
73, John.
In reply to G4YSS:
Hi John,
The Uniques experience is just that - something new every time we go out. Wish I had a tenner for every time either Paul or I have said “it doesn’t look like this on Google Earth”. Generally the adventure starts at the parking spot (assuming we can find it!) and it doesn’t stop until the satnav is back in control taking us back home.
Yes, it was rather windy on Shining Tor - much the same as it had been on Kinder Scout earlier, but of course at a lower altitude. You can see my mast bending and considering that’s not the thinnest sections of the pole, I’m pleased it survived. By the way, both Paul and I always wear headphones - doesn’t make for a good video I’m afraid (you note that I couldn’t hear Steve say hello), but it certainly helps with the weak signals. My 817 lives inside a plastic box with the dual band linear and these are permanently inside the backpack, so again not a good view for a video, but it saves the rig from bad weather… and we’ve had some of that on occasion!
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
Well done Gerald, i still have a few to do to catch up with you! Sean M0GIA