Scottish Borders visit

We, Rod, M0JLA, and Viki, M6BWA, are soon heading North for an attempt to complete LD and to start on the challenge of SB.
Viki will, as usual, be hoping for contacts on 2m FM and 70cm FM; Rod will be sharing 2m FM or using HF if walking and weather conditions allow. No Alerts yet as plans remain sketchy (as usual). We also expect to spend time on Hadrian’s Wall and other non-SOTA activities. We expect to be able to Alert but expect self spotting to be difficult. We will try to give potential chasers reasonably accurate notice of where and when but plans based on the weather forecasts may be overtaken by conditions on the day.
Loosely, the timetable for SB begins on Tuesday 9th October, starting South & West and working East & North with the odd SS thrown in if we find ourselves conveniently placed.
All depends on the weather :slight_smile:
73,
Rod

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Hi Viki & Rod
Hopefully I can get out to work you both S2S.
GL/73
Nick

Thanks, Nick.

I hope one or two others will chase us as well :smile:

73,
Rod

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Hi Both
I will look forward to trying to work you both, but stay safe.
Cheers Ken G0FEX

We expect to be out Tuesday on one or more of sb-6,7 or 8
Hoping for contacts.
73
Rod

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Will be watching for alerts and spots - take care :grinning:

2m & 70cm FM OK today as well as HF
VERY windy
Apologies for temporary QRT during QSO with G4OOE - aerial collapse
Thanks all contacts
Peel Fell Wednesday?
73
Rod

Thanks for the point yesterday Vicky and Rod. Today the WX looks good for a summit push. Stay safe

Regards
David G0EVV
PS you can work Peel Fell with a GM call. This is because the AZ includes a portion of very boggy GM.

No problem about the aerial collapse Rod. At first I thought that I had lost you in the qsb. However, Allan GW4VPX let me know about your situation and then he kept the frequency occupied for you. Dave G3TQQ and I were very pleased to get you and Viki s2s from Stony Cove Pike yesterday on 2m and 70cm - thanks!

73
Nick

As requested in the notes I have now updated the category to reflect the change in emphasis here.
Apparently Sighty Crag, G/SB-005, is the least activated (31 until today) of the G summits. We now know why :smile:
There is the long and rather tedious forest road walk - modified today by having been well churned up in places by the loggers and consequently improved views.
Then there is getting out of the forest and up onto the moorland.
And then there is the moorland ! and also the consequent descent.
I think this can be fairly described as a once-only summit - reserved for serious Completers only. This is not our comment on SB summits in general; Peel Fell was much more fun, Long Crag rather easy and Shilhope Law & the Coquet Vally delightful despite the wind.

Apologies for the brief activations (a waste really after all that effort) and VHF + 60m only but the wind was fierce, rain threatened (arriving shortly after we reached the car) and it was another long day away from base - 12 hours yesterday, only 10 today with 6 of them on the hill.

Many thanks to all the chasers, particularly Bill, G4WSB, and Allan, GW4VPX, who have between them started off all the HF activations so far.

Friday was always likely to be a day off and unless the WX is quite different from the forecast it certainly will be - Cragside beckons.

73,
Rod

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Not exactly true Rod. Here are the 4 least activated G SOTA summits.

  1. Hensbarrow Downs G/DC-008 - 7 activations (8 if you include Richard’s G3CWI activation which isn’t logged on the SOTA Database)

  2. Muncaster Fell G/LD-059 - 22 activations (23 if you include Richard’s G3CWI activation which isn’t logged on the SOTA Database)

  3. Swinside G/LD-057 - 28 activations

  4. Sighty Crag G/SB-005 - 31 activations

This means that Sighty Crag G/SB-005 is actually the 4th least activated G SOTA summit. The least activated G SOTA summit as at the moment as you can see on the above list is Hensbarrow Downs G/DC-008.

Jimmy M0HGY

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So there’s only 7 G completists then. An exclusive club :slight_smile:

Thread going off topic…
It used to be that Sighty Crag was the least visited of all English Marilyn Summits on hillbagging.co.uk there was a league table on there showing the number of unique visitors to each summit but I cannot locate it now on the website

http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/Marilyns.php?

I’m not yet one of the 7 Completists mentioned by Tom so I must get down to G/DC-008 sometime (I activated the old position below the waste heap before the change).

Will I then be the only operator who has Chased all G AND Activated all G once I have paid my visit? No way of checking this in the database as far as I can tell…

Phil G4OBK

Indeed! The forest track was made palatable by the use of a bike. The subsequent slog made this a one off as you say. Well done finishing it

Not exactly true as 2 of the activators which are Alastair M0TYM and Andrew M1CJE are not G SOTA completists. 5 out of the 7 logged SOTA activations for Hensbarrow Downs G/DC-008 are G SOTA completists. However there are actually 6 G SOTA completists if you include Richard’s G3CWI activations of Hensbarrow Downs G/DC-008 and Muncaster Fell G/LD-059 which are not logged in the SOTA Database.

Jimmy M0HGY

Thank’s for your analysis of the G SOTA Activator Completists Jimmy.

73 Phil

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Agreed about using the bike for Sighty Crag Andy, however from the sound of it the direct downward forest track is in a rotten state due to the logging operations mentioned by Rod and cycling may not currently be an option. Walking the distance I would say makes the one pointer a full day exercise.

I won’t be returning to those woods…

73 Phil

I don’t quite understand this. I take it that there is a difference between a Completist and an Activator that Completes a summit i.e activates and chases the summit.

73 Allan

Good point Jimmy, I didn’t think of that. No I’m not counting Richard - if it isn’t in the SOTA Database, it didn’t happen. There are hundreds (probably thousands actually) of SOTA activations conducted that have never been entered. We can’t be considering all the possibilities of those when writing the history of SOTA.

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Yes.

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