Missed summits in 2015?

So the NY is coming around shortly !

Anyone feel sad about missing summits this year, from either an Activator OR Chasers perspective ?

List some of your favourites that you didn’t get in 2015.

For me its probably Carnedd Llewelyn - GW/NW-002

Jonathan

Ah yes, Carn Liath GM/ES-020.

So close yet so far. Aborted due to a back problem which is still not sorted but is much better.

Yes…missed my total winter bonus target by 10 points for 2015 because of Eva and Frank :slight_smile:

Roll on 2016… Happy New Year everybody and thanks for all the contacts. 73 Allan

No sign of Frank this morning - it was stunning here. Tom and Jimmy had good plans. He came back in the afternoon though :frowning:

Its been a pretty wicked year for radio. Especially because of all the people involved in SOTA. Roll on more adventures !

HNY all !

Jonathan

Happy New Year to all
I missed a summit today just before roll over to the new utc year.
I got up 4 am and headed off on my journey to vk5/se-016 about 200 km away, 15km down the road a bush fire warning came on the abc am radio saying about closed roads and fire danger at Trig Hill road which is not far from my intended summit. So not wanting to drive all that way and not be able to go to the summit I turned around and came back home . Got my mountain bike out and spent 3 hours puffing off my disappointment.
I guess I can save it for 2016/17 rollover and try again then.
I had some extra summits in 2015 so now have about 44 summits in my winter/spring season lap all out there waiting for the drought to break so I can get among them again.
best of luck everyone in 2016 .
Ian vk5cz …

For me it was Karwendelspitze DL/KW-008 / OE/TI-293. I had hoped to activate it before it’s OE/TI-293 SOTA ID was deleted. I was hoping for 26 activator points (2 x 10 points for the two summits plus 2x 3 points winter bonus), plus some 10m and 6m challenge points. To make the activation happen, it had to be when the cable car was running (and it closed for a long time for maintenance), after December 1st. to get the Winter bonus points and most importantly the track to the summit had to be clear of snow and open for public access (due to avalanche dangers), for someone like me who is not a skilled climber.

Well all the combinations did not come together. Karwendlespitze was one of the few mountains that had snow at the start of December which kept the track closed. The lift only started operating again on the 21st. of December and the track remained closed until the end of the year, making access to the summit only possible for experienced climbers.

So this was not an activation just missed in 2015 but rather an opportunity missed forever as OE/TI-293 is no longer a valid summit in SOTA.

Ed.

2015 missed Sota’s
Interesting subject during 2015 as a chaser missed loads LOL due to various reason,s.

But 2015 is one, it ain’t coming back.

One is better prepared for future activations during 2016 as in equipment especially antenna’s and other areas of activation and yet to get better as 2016 comes along.

Leave the past where it is and move on chasing more and more new regions and hopefully getting me platinum this year just need that one Sota station from regions from 3 areas of America or the one in VK.

Good bye 2015 been good year
Hello 2016 :smile:

Karl

I can’t really complain: this year I activated in HL, W4C, ZL, ZS (and VK). If my arm were twisted, I’d say Suikerbosrand ZS/GP-002 - a nice drive, my dad as an antenna support, and exactly zero contacts.

My highlight would be ZS/WC-043 Maclears Beacon - an hour and a half on Africa’s busiest summit, alone, working all over ZS and V51, for the fifth continent activated for SOTA. It would be followed closely by the teenage lovebirds on ZS/WC-070 the day after - unresolved sexual tension so strong you could cut the air with a Buddistick, but unresolved due to the presence of 70 of their classmates on a geology excursion!

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR

No I don’t feel sad at all! My first year in SOTA. Activated 3 associations. It’s definitely got me back into walking and playing radio more, so that’s a win/win in my book.
I was just sitting here regretting not going for a final activation in GI before the ferry home, when the heavens have opened (again). But the mountains will still be here next time.

First of all: A Very Happy New Year to you all!
No complaints from me. Activating three summits above 2000 m in 2015 while living below sea level, was a great experience.

To Quote Mother Teresa: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

hny es 73 de geert pa7zee

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I’m looking forward to catching someone on Kirk Fell (G/LD-014) for my last G summit chased. Also I will try to get around to doing my last GW/SW activation to finally complete all GW except for one summit.

Carolyn

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I can’t really complain this year - plenty of activations in many associations.

I failed though to activate Gun (1qso with the Baofeng HT on a snowy & windy summit) and abandoned Shillhope Law - G/SB-006 in August.

HNY & 73s
Angel

I had a real comedy of errors back in March. My wife and I were on a Mercian Mountaineering Club meet at the Agnes Spencer Memorial hut in Patterdale, and there was plenty of snow on the hills. My game plan was to do LD-018 Stoney Cove Pike, I had stripped down the gear, even taken the internal batteries out of the 817 to save weight as I would be carrying crampons and a walking axe (for safety, I don’t know how to arrest a slip with walking poles but I am an artist with an axe! :grinning:) So after a hasty breakfast we go to the car - and only then do I discover that my boots are still at home! This means a hasty re-think, I have my Karrimore walking shoes but no way will they take crampons, so instead we head for LD-037 Little Mell Fell with the intention of doing both Mells. So, I get to the top of Little Mell Fell, set up the antenna for 5 MHz…and discover that the power lead is not in the rucksack, though it had definately been checked into the rucksack at home - and of course I hadn’t replaced the internal batteries! So, a quick cup of coffee and back down to the car with my tail between my legs!

Later I found the lead lying on the floor of the hut, it had been hooked out when the ice gear was removed! Oh yes, there was time to do Little Mell Fell the next day, but not Great Mell Fell, as we moved on to stay for a couple of days in Cockermouth.

Brian

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Definitely missing out on a round of NS-139, NS-124 and NS-149 - carefully planned, including getting the OK from MoD and a wild camp near Beinn Akie all scuppered by the weather and a death in the family of the Cape Wrath ferryman :frowning:

Did have a great time in the far North nevertheless, and managed a few other unactivated hills, even though dire radio conditions limited the numbers of contacts. Currently planning a return to the Parph later this year hope no-one beats me to it :-s

Here’s to a highly radio-active 2016!

73 de Paul G4MD

My regret from 2015 was not being able to accompany you ooop to the far north Paul on account of time, funds and logistics. I am hoping 2016 won’t have such issues.

As for missed opportunities, yes quite a number of summits that would have been prospective Completes that have been activated using only 2m FM, with no chance of me hearing the activations from here in this relatively easterly location, even with a vertical beam. Maybe I will be fortunate enough to bag some of those summits S2S in the coming months and years… or maybe I will just have to go and activate some of those that I have chased.

73, Gerald G4OIG

I guess my most glaring “misses” of the year were the Tenerife summits EA8/TF-003 to EA8/TF-019. They weren’t in the EA8 ARM when we holidayed there at Easter - but were added later in the year. Still it’s a good motivation to go back to a place where we had our best ever holiday!

Hi Guys
My own thoughts, missed summits, what I do not get today, I can always get tomorrow, it is not a race or a competition, I simply enjoy participating and all being well will be activating this year, not on a great scale but listen out, I will post via That Rascal Don G0RQL.
Cheers Ken G0FEX

SOTA is not inherently competitive against other people (thank goodness), but more so against your own ambitions and goals. That is quite evident from the posts above. Very good for you both mentally and physically.

I can vouch for it being a race… trying to get a s2s in before a QRT or band change :smile:

Missing summits is an emotion of sadness because you enjoyed it so much the first time, or because you nearly got to the summit and had to return back for some reason.

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

A couple of years ago, while activating G/SP-004 Shining Tor, I completed an s2s with Russ M6RGF who was activating GW/NW-061 Y Golfa.

This gave me a s2s contact with all 76 GW/NW summits. Then, rather selfishly, someone discovered that Mynydd Anelog was a P150 and qualified as GW/NW-077. Since it entered the SOTA database, try as I may, I’ve never been able to make an s2s with it. To make matters worse, the last time it was activated, was in May 2015 by Simon G4TJC, for the only time that year, and sods law, I managed to miss his activation,

Still, I live in hope :frowning:

73 Mike
2E0YYY

NW-077 is a fair drive as is any of the Llyn peninsula summits. I don’t think I will be getting to it until the end of 2016 or early 2017.

Its wonderful driving back there though as apparently everyone still uses coal for heating. Wonderful smell of fresh Welsh air with a hint of coal aroma.

We need more activators in GW/MW - NW, as you mention the numbers on some summits have declined. I suspect there is a list of un-activated summits for 2015.

I am not using 2m much after I left my homebrew Slim-Jim on the Cloud. Need to make another one !

Jonathan