Hi Tom,
I was delighted to have an S2S with you on this very special activation. Thanks for digging me out of the noise.
Congrats!
73
Paul HB9DST
Congratulations on your 2000th activation Tom and bad luck on missing the contact with Jimmy.
I listened on several bands (ssb) and heard several chasers working you but barely a whisper from you. Certainly unworkable here and mostly completely silent. (s5 noise doesn’t help).
Interesting end to the activation. Immediate close-down a good choice even if the storm came to nothing in the end. I’ve never had an aerial buzz but have had the hissing fence and the hair standing on end several times; pretty scary.
73,
Rod
Yeah I think so Rod. I’m not sure I would go as far as to say “the storm came to nothing”. There might not have been a clap of thunder or a downpour, but there was very clearly “electricity in the air” as evidenced by the buzzing wires and clicking BNC! “Time for a sharp exit”, as the old lager advert used to say.
Serves Jimmy right. I actually phoned him about 7.15am BST to invite him to work me before he went to work. He said no, he’d have a QSO me after he came back from work later that day. Ya snooze, ya lose…
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Our SOTA motto 
Rod
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Tom, you certainly did do the right thing,ending the Activation, packing your gear and leaving the summit when you did. Your health and safety are paramount, especially so when operating solo in the hills. Good Call Tom. In the, “Great Outdoors”, The Weather is King!
I hope to hear you again soon if I am lucky, from Summit Activation 2001.
73 de Paul M0CQE.
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Dear Tom,
My respect and recognition for the magnificent achievement of such huge number of activations.
I was very glad to chase you yesterday on QRP with my new home made endfed antenna at the balcony of the flat in Pamplona.
When I chased you I was not aware that you were carrying out your 2K activation, so it’s been a nice surprise finding it out afterwards.
I read a few days ago about your activation 1995 and the open question about ideas or suggestions for the activation 2000.
I had little time and some problems to access to internet lately so I couldn’t post my recommendation for your 2000th activation, but I’m now delighted to see that you’ve done exactly what I had wanted to suggest.
To me, The Cloud G/SP-015 well deserved the honor of being your 2000th activation, as it has given you soooo many good times radio so far.
It’s clear you thought exactly the same and I’m glad for that.
Shame that Jimmy let go the chance you offered him to chase you in the morning and he finally couldn’t chase you later because you had already left by the time he was out of work.
I’m amazed at how often you activate. It was just a few days ago when I read about your activation 1995 and you were already doing your 2000th yesterday.
Congrats again and I’ll be looking forwards to having many more QSOs with you.
73,
Guru
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Congratulations Tom, sorry I was not around to work you this time, busy sunning myself in Greece at the time.
Terrific achievement & one that few will match, well done.
Neil
M6NSV
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Many congratulations Tom on your 2000th activation. sorry I couldn’t listen for you. This is a great achievement and, according to my rather quick searches, makes you the second most prolific activator in the SOTA WORLD!!
However, there is bad news to come if you should wish to reach the very top. You have been beaten by OK2PDT, Jan from Brno in the Czech Republic, who has done 2256 activations, and amassed a (very) grand total of 12157 points! This includes a ‘Mountain Goat’ winter bonus of 1095 (only other holder is our own G4YSS on 1077 - have I missed anyone else??) and 1001 unique summits by October 2015. The really bad news is that Jan has in no way hung up his boots as he has gained 1728 new points in the 12 months to June 2017 - put on those running shoes Tom!
I am very glad that you got the aerial down safely and back to the home QTH ready for the next expedition. I hope you enjoy your trip to Northern Ireland and that you are luckier with the weather than us as we ran out of waterproof notebooks very quickly! Had we been 10 days later it would, briefly, have been too hot to walk up the hills but that is what our weather is doing this year. BTW I did notice Heinz vegetable soup was available in the local shops but no sign of Baxters Lobster Bisque so you’d better pack a case!
73 Viki M6BWA
Congratulations Tom!
Well, this is a number hard to reach… 
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Hi Viki,
Yes I am well aware of Jan OK2PDT’s astonishing and continuing achievements. In fact, in my original “Closing in on the 2K” thread, I acknowledged this and the fact I would be 2nd to achieve 2K activations after Jan.
And yes, soup shopping will be done sometime this week here in Macclesfield!
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Well Said Tom. Why not take Four Cans of your favourite soup with you, then should all else fail, you could always organise a “Quadrille”. Hi Hi.
Speak again soon Tom. 73 de Paul M0CQE.
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Congratulations Tom! Fantastic achievement.
All the best - Al M1FHM
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Congratulations Tom, great achievement!
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Well, I can now reveal that “2001: A Summit Odyssey” (credit to M0CQE for that one!) will be tomorrow (Sunday) morning 0900-1200 UTC / 10am - 1pm local.
There is a 6m CW contest on, so that is an opportunity I cannot resist! There are bound to be several “quiet” periods in an event of that nature (unless condx are stupendously good), so I will use these to call on 2m FM, as I know at least one chaser (who doesn’t have 6m) is keen to work my 2001st activation and had requested that I announce it first.
Sadly it looks like it might be a bit damp, but no danger of any electrical activity this time! Hope to work many chasers on 50MHz CW tomorrow, and as I say, there will be occasional calls on 2m FM for the local chasers.
Thank you everyone for your nice comments above, much appreciated.
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Good intentions and all that…
As I was setting up the SB6 beam for 50MHz on Cloud summit, Sunday 25th June 2017, I noticed that I had left the VHF handheld in the car! So I couldn’t fulfil my stated intention to offer A2001 to the local VHF chasers. Well, not properly. I suspected there would be a very good chance that Paul M0CQE would be listening S20 and ready to pounce, so I forced a CQ call out through the 6m antenna. Sure enough, Paul answered, and we completed a very quick rubber stamp contact.
Onto the 50MHz, and as expected, it was pretty slow going for the full three hours. 21 QSOs were made into G, GD, EI and I. A couple of GM stations were heard, but far too weak to work. Frustratingly, it was only in the last 15 minutes of the contest that an opening to Italy appeared. I didn’t manage to get back to IK3VYO, who understandably had an anxious pile-up from G stations in the contest! I did manage to get through to IK7EVE though, so at least the activation ended on a high.
Mid-activation, a chap approached and said “I’m a National Trust warden. Have you got a licence for this?” I responded in the affirmative and told him I had held my amateur radio licence since 2001. “No, I meant a licence from the National Trust” he continued. I reported to him exactly what the NT had explained about its attitude to “low-impact activities” in years gone by, but added that if he required me to pack away, I would comply without argument and be able to do so in less than five minutes. There was no need for that though, as we was happy and content with what I’d had to say. With his colleague, had move along to the northern-most of the four paths off Cloud summit, and worked on installing a Gritstone Trail waymark post.
Finally it was back down and back home via the supermarket, and preparing Sunday dinner for Marianne’s return from work.
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Well it appears I have done a “Boycott”…
I am ploughing through the process of updating my website with activation photos and even some activation reports that haven’t even appeared on this reflector (Tenerife 2017 for instance).
I came across some photos that didn’t match any activation in the SOTA Database - and realised, that for some inexplicable reason, that my activation of Walton Hill G/CE-002 on 30th April, had never been entered!
Well, it is now. But you know what that means don’t you? My 2000th activation was not. It was my 2001st activation. Sorry to have to break this news!
So “Activation 2K” was not G/SP-015, 21st June 2017 with 104 QSOs. It was, in fact, 20th June 2017, also on The Cloud G/SP-015, but with just two contacts!
Thank you to Pete 2E0LKC and Anne 2E0LMD for working me on this historic occasion!
#rewritinghistory
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And another. Now found that my Cloud G/SP-015 activation from 26th June 2017 is still hiding away in my waterproof logbook having never been submitted…
Wonder how many more I’m going to find???
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Here’s a thought for you…get a process.
- Decide to go out and place alert on SOTAwatch
- Activate and spot
- Update log as soon as you return
- Run over kit fixing all issues observed on activation done earlier
- Charge batteries
- Place gear back in “grab box” so you can grab and go.
Deviating from the list results in arriving on the summit with a flat battery or broken antennas or discovering 10’s of activations missing from the log.
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Cheers for the advice Andy.
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Tom
It is interesting that numbers with zeroes are so significant. It could be worse than your nightmare of discovering more activations recorded in chaser logs but completely forgotten due to weather, log chewed by dog or goat.
If we had six fingers our number system would be quite different. Reaching 2000 in a base 12 system would require 3456 contacts (base 10) and the mountain goat award would require 1728 contacts. Then again we might have six limbs and be able to climb mountains much easier.
Just a reassuring thought. Things could be a lot worse!!
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
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