They are the best ones! @GM5ALX Alex and I are so used to marching around mountains to a time schedule that would rival an atomic clock for precision, that we sometimes forget to look up and to look around.
After enjoying our Christmas lunch on my last Cairngorms NP summit earlier this month, we both sat in silence for some time gazing up Strath Spey, soaking in the views. The problem with that is getting up afterwards is even more of a struggle, both mentally and physically.
My SOTA year, or should I say Month 
Due to other commitments, I had to take a step back from a number of hobbies/committees/voluntary roles this year. This included Radio in general and of course SOTA. While it was difficult, I’m delighted to say that it was worthwhile and everything has worked out amazingly well. Not having the time to play radio, did not prevent me from spending time and money on my other disease, which in gathering, stock piling and squirreling away, all sorts of radio related junk. The “That will come in handy” collection has grown immensely throughout 2025.
I also spent some time learning CW, joining up with the Long Island CW Academy for some help along the way. I have made good progress and now have a good number of CW chaser points in the log. I was also chuffed to make my first S2S CW QSO this past week with another EI SOTA Op on 20m. My SOTA activities for 2025 started in December this year, while late in the day, I still managed to get six activations in and added an additional 60 points to my tally. Looking towards 2026, I hope to not leave it as late again, before getting started. I would love to get to the 250 point marker, one leg of the goat, so to speak. Among my other goals for 2026 are to have a CW activation, a top band activation and to have a crack at the 270cw 2026 challenge. I’m grateful to all chasers and indeed all those activators and ops who provide such positive encouragement, assistance and sound advice, I wish you all the best for 2026. 73 es HNY de EI2IAB Marty.
Looking out over Dublin City onto Irish Sea, on decent from EI/IE-018 Two Rock 29/12/25
At the start of the year, I bought myself a Garmin watch for maps and tracking my activities. It only seemed appropriate to have a look at this, as all my SOTA activations have been logged with it.
The only slight nuance is that I don’t distinguish between cycling and walking when on a route, I just record the whole thing as one hiking activity, I’m sure I could change or chop it up later but I’m not that fussed.
I managed to activate all GM/ES summits, and creep into 4th spot on the activator roll for all G in 2025, finishing the year on 901 points. Think I’d set myself the target of 800 by the end of the year and then when that was past in October, 900 was the new goal (including all of GM/ES).
Many memorable summits, but also many that aren’t in the front of my mind, and so writing them up on here or elsewhere helps to remind me of them later on. Every hill has been enjoyable, from little to large, from scorching to sodden.
I also made a few little toy apps:
)
It’s been good to get to know everyone, on the air, on here, and in person. Schedules can be hard to line up, even just myself to get out, so with others it can be even harder. Particularly as I’m a week day activator (only 7% of my activations were on a weekend), but luckily there’s a nearby OAP who can rearrange his coffee mornings.
Here’s looking forward to 2026! 
Shack sloth is my favourite kind of radio operator as a (mostly) activator. I’m very conscious that the reflector isn’t an accurate reflection (no pun intended) of the actors in this grand play.
I’d like to salute all the dedicated chasers who ‘complete’ this hobby.
Mark
That’s a lot of dedication there! Some of the lower hils are actually harder due to less well followed routes.
Looks like a great list of things done.
Wow! Only 6 activations, but that’s a great S2S.
I’ve been guilty of that this year. One of my aims in 2026 is to fit is some more leisurely days out.
That’s a great way to end the year!
I’m tired just looking at that list!
That’s my favourite bit!
Hear, hear! Again to that!
Speaking from the view of a chaser. My 2025 was a great year taking part as a chaser in SOTA. I accomplished several goals. My kudos to those intrepid CW activators that trekked up and down those mountains to give me enjoyment in the chase. I am looking forward to an even better 2026 as I continue “the chase” and accomplish even more goals.
W6LEN / JESS
My 2025 SOTA year was most EPIC! 111 activations, which is the most in a year for me so far.
In late Feb. my wife and I went to W7A so she could attend a quilting convention. I got to do some summits with @K9PM and @AE9Q , and also got to visit the Grand Canyon for the first time since I was 7 (and my wife’s first visit to the park). Absolutely stunning!
In July, we had the W7O campout near Crater Lake NP in Oregon. I got to spend my birthday there with something like 70 of my SOTA friends, and activate 11 amazing summits (many of which were uniques and completes for me). They sang me happy birthday in camp, and there was cake 
In late Nov. my family went down to SOCAL to visit my grandmother and I got to meet up with @K6STR @W6LOR @N6AN @KD7DTS @AG6N @KE6SRN@KE6SRO @KE6THKE6TH and activate two of the most activated summits in NA with them. Ben made me an awesome award to commemorate the activation.
Just a few weeks ago my SOTA buddy WW7D and I took a road trip down to San Francisco and spent a saturday morning on the most activated summit in NA (Mt. Davidson, W6/NC-423) with @K6EL and @WB6POT. We chased a bunch of S2S and probably annoyed a lot of chasers who had to wait through 4xS2S QSOs… it was AWESOME 
If you want to read a report of that trip, check out the latest PNWSOTA newsletter here:
On 11th Nov. I hit 100K chaser points. I also got to 5K unique summits chased. 
I’m feeling very blessed as this year comes to an end, and thankful for all the fun and friendship that SOTA has brought me.
A very Happy New Year to all! 
73,
Josh WU7H
In short - a year of missed targets - some unrealistic and more appropriate for 2026.
Most irritating - a tie between being 2 activations short of the target 100 (but still the best since 2020 and failing to get my modified QMXs working properly.
Rolled over for 2026 - reaching 20,000 Chaser points and 20,000 Activator QSOs.
Best day out - Moel Siabod GW/NW-010 on 12th October with a strong and widespread inversion.
Snowdon Horseshoe from Siabod path
Snowdon Horseshoe from Siabod path - later, from higher up
Snowdon Horseshoe from the bridge at Plas-y-Brenin - the photo everyone takes
Siabod is now above my limit for a day walk with full (reduced) SOTA kit so I took it very slowly.
Worst day - difficult to single out but I suppose it has to be the day of the first trip from Inverness when I carelessly slipped on a loose stone while descending the very steep track on Tom Bailgeann, GM/CS-113, landed neatly on my hand and (as I discovered some weeks later) damaged a tendon. The next three activations were limited to pottering around on easy ground after delivering MM6BWA to the start point. (Side benefit for her was a more-or-less guaranteed 70cm FM contact and activation of the summit.)
Best news - Hans G0UPL released the long awaited ssb firmware for the QMX in March, giving me time to have the QMX ready in time for our Scottish “holiday” in the pursuit of Uniques. This had the bonus of putting off indefinitely any attempt to do an activation using CW. (Well you would put it off too if you needed to work at about 3wpm - 20wpm characters with looooong spaces - so you had time to look up most of the letters!) The QMX is now my only Activator radio. It is not just the light weight of the radio as the new battery is only 77g and lasts for hours. (The downside is fewer QSOs and making life harder for the chasers.)
A busy year 
73, Rod
Ah, the amazing boggy track. I’m sure Gavin GM3GAV told me it’s eaten up attempts to build a hard core road and and a few machines have come unstuck over the years.
My SOTA year has been quite good & certainly enjoyable.
At the start of the year I needed 101 Activator points to get to my target of 500. In the event I managed 89, so I’m 12 points short of reaching semi (or demi?) Goatdom. The New Year will soon remedy that.
Three new Uniques were obtained, one on Orkney, one in Wales & my first North Pennines hill. Edited-I drove about 1440 miles in the course of my activations.
Chasing was very good with over 2000 points obtained, I needed 1200 for a total of 9000, now I’m only 150 points short of Super Sloth status!
More to the point though, I’ve enjoyed my SOTA, there have been challenges, as usual. I had to abandon one 6-pointer when a dose of atrial fibrillation kicked in. A couple I put off aiming to get the Winter Bonus this month, but events got in the way (memo to self-do them sooner rather than later!
Here’s a pic of me strutting my radio stuff on Lliwedd, N Wales in July, my first activation of it:-
Hi Gerald, I have had a steady year with 555 activator points, final summit yesterday. Thanks to all the many chasers with whom I have spoken. Thanks for your support.
Only 88 summits in 2025 down from 128 in 2024 which was my best ever year. All unique summits of course, 27 winter summits with a bonus.
Activated in Europe and North America; Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Eire, Canada and Greece.
Highlights include;
Ninth Mountain Goat achieved on 23 March 2025.
Highest peak activation, OE/TI-002, Wildspitze, 3768m. 11 April 2025. Good day ski-mountaineering.
Jedi master award on 4 May 2025. "The greatest teacher, failure is." Avoided any no points activations throughout the year.
First activator to complete all of the Cairngorms National Park summits on 27 June 2025.
My first SOTA activation on 144MHz using SSB, 14 July 2025 (GM/WS-345) Feels like I anticipated the 2026 challenge?!!!
First to activate all of the Scottish 10, 8, 6 and 4 point summits on 12 October 2025.
1500 unique summit activations, 21 October 2025, SV/ST-069 Katsantoni (1580m).
Globetrotter VHF and Mountain Explorer VHF Platinum award on 29 October 2025 while in Canada. (20 associations in 5 continents).
Ehh, that’s it!
Happy New Year!
Wow.. fantastic year indeed!
Looks fabulous Rod!
That, of course, is all that matters!
Think that’s enough of an achievement for anyone…..especially as it’s all Unique! The rest of your list is no less inspiring!
Hi Gerald,
Thanks for the thread and made me reflect, and I do remember the @MW0WML summit contacts usually from South Wales to North !
2025 Activation Round Up G5OLD
I managed to get my mountain Goat while on Gran Canaria mountain on Montaña de Aguas Sabinas (EA8/GC-019), a spectacular but rather dangerous 4-pointer. I really should write up a proper reflector post on this one, long overdue. For me, Gran Canaria continues to be an outstanding SOTA location; I’d love to complete the island, but permissions on some summits are starting to look like hard work.
Next in line was my munro completion on Beinn na Lap GM/WS-091 in August with @MM0EFI Fraser and @GM5ALX Alex, thank you both. A great day and a milestone I won’t forget the result of 30 years chipping away at the Munros.
I managed 111 summits in 2026, and once again, Scotland (GM) dominates, with Wales and England taking a smaller role this year and most of those are repeat activations.
2025 was also my best Antipodean S2S DX: A memorable contact with Ben ZL/G4BML/P on Mount Eden (ZL1/AK-023) in New Zealand, working Shadow and myself on Beacon Batch G/SC-003. One of those contacts makes SOTA so good.
I’ve spent virtually the entire year QRP, running a 10.9 m inverted-L vertical on HF. This has now become my go-to antenna for quick activations and, frankly, it knocks the socks off an EFHW in my experience. Thanks to @HB9BCB for the design.
I didn’t spend as much time on the Scottish Corbetts as planned, my current project but I bagged the Corbetts on the Scottish islands with trips to Arran, Mull, Lewis, and Harris. Jura remains which I hope to tackle in 2026. Plenty of GM wildlife firsts along the way, including a polecat and three golden eagles in a single day.
My highlight peaks of the year have to be the majestic Cir Mhor GM/SI-011 on Arran and Carrizo EA8/GC-023 on Gran Canaria, both outstanding peaks I highly recommend.
A huge thank you to for all the contacts, support, chases, and company on the hills. Most of all the Shadow who accompanied me on each activation and put up with hours sitting around, usually in the wind and rain, while I activated. SOTA was a big part of my life in 2025 and I enjoyed it.
73,
Tim G5OLD
Well done Tim and Shadow, keep it up!
HNY 73, Heinz
………………….
Am 07.01.2025 um 10:26 schrieb Tim Morgan via SOTA Reflector reflector@sota.org.uk:
Hi Heinz,
Now that the 10m challenge is complete, i would like try you all-band inv-L antenna GP antenna in particular as its multiband and gives better performance on the higher bands than my EFHW. Thank you for your document. Very useful.I note that you have to have a matching circuit for 20m. This looks like it matches the impedance for 20m and so presents a very good SWR to the radio. (NOTE: I am not interested in 60m or 80m).
I would like to understand, why not just use a 9:1 unun and let the KX2 tuner do the rest ? Did you try this ?
I apologies in advance is i have missed something…
Thanks
Tim
Am 07.01.2025 um 14:40 schrieb Bluewin heinz.baertschi@bluewin.ch:
Hi Tim,
Your question “why not just use a 9:1 unun and let the KX2 tuner do the rest?” may be justified, but looking only at the VSWR of an antenna is, in my opinion, far too trivial to understand how well and in which direction an antenna really radiates.
The design of the 10.90 m multi-band inv-L antenna (a bent vertical antenna) was therefore a pure “EZNEC drawing board antenna”, in which initially only the radiation characteristics were optimized across all bands. It started with a wire length of 11.20 m, but this required external matching aids for the KX2-ATU on 4 bands (-> 4 switches).
The final 10.90 m long inv-L antenna required, apart from the loading coils for 80 and 60 m, only the impedance matching of the 20 m band (~ half a wavelength …), “the rest was done by the KX2 tuner”, hi.
For this impedance matching, a 16:1 transmission line transformer was initially used, which was later replaced by a 9:1 transformer of the same type (FT-82-43 ferrite core).These solutions worked without any problems.
Later, the slightly more efficient version with the 20 m L-Match was used. It was a good feeling to be at this state of the art … This version is currently uploaded to HB9SOTA.
BUT, because Bruno, HB9CBR, had problems with impedance matching on bands other than 20 m with the KX2/3-ATU over the years at summits that did not allow for textbook antenna installation, I have been building the old solution with the 9:1 transmission line transformer again since last year (Appendix). As a developer purist, this took some effort on my part, hi.
All’s well that ends well for everyone.
Note: The antenna achieves best performance at an apex height of 6 m (or close), 5.5 m is already a compromise.
……
A possible optimization from a technical and practical point of view has also emerged over the years with regard to the radials (Appendix).
By the way, I have been thinking about updating the document published on HB9SOTA for some time because the 10.90 m multiband inv-L has become my standard portable antenna and it is also used by some other SOTA/WWFF/POTA enthusiasts.
I hope you continue to have fun with portable radio.
73, Heinz HB9BCB
And finally, Tim’s handsome version
Hi,
The raw stats are 39 activations, 187 points 30 uniques - 1 MG achieved
Memories gathered - lots and lots!
I’ve had some fantastic days out on the hills, with a couple memorable for other reasons too.
I managed a trip to Arran and , like Tim, had great days on the hills, the fun was enhanced by activating on 13cm too - so thanks to the GM13 chaps for the support given , especially Jack @GM4COX who chased me on all of the summits I visited.
I was intending to go the the far north of Scotland with @GM4LLD Andy and Andy @MM7MOX in May but a house move put paid to that. It did mean a couple of “little ‘uns” in G/LD got activated - we were homeless for a week so rented in the Lake District for the period - @GM5ALX was a bit surprised to have me chase him from a little hill when he was also in G/LD - our normal stomping ground being somewhat north of there.
A casual shout to “the local SOTAers” resulted in an evening of 70cm activations around the Edinburgh area - made a nice evening out!
I’d unfinished business up the west coast GM/WS due to poor weather in a 2024 trip but this year made up for it with great mountain days on @GM/WS-014 and @GM/WS-018 and the 5 Sisters of Kintail ridge - fabulous weather and great views and support from chasers on the Western Isles. A few more hills here and there and all of a sudden I needed to select them carefully to make MG on Ben Challum - not sure why that was selected, but anyway, turned out a splendid couple of days see There's a goat on Ben Challum GM/CS-021
So goodbye 2025, here’s to 2026 adventures!
Huge thanks to all the chasers over the years.
The “other reasons” - included - Lochnagar, the weather was very poor , such that the torrs on top could not be seen from one another (they are not that far apart!), I set off from one in a wrong direction and was phoned by Fraser @MM0EFI who was following me on APRS via Lora to get me back on track! My phone got waterlogged and decided to not charge any more, so the following days were “interesting” switching it on for brief periods to send spots etc. - All part of the rich pageant!
So goodbye 2025, here’s to 2026 adventures - there’s plenty planned - whether I get them all done is another matter.
73
Alan
It must be some optical effect which makes the whip look longer! For the record, it’s about 92cms long. 73 John
Very significant achievements and experiences in there… this SOTA business can be very rewarding!
Fellow Garmin owner here. I’ve been through a few over the years, current squeeze is the Enduro 3 which i use for the solar and very long battery life (needed for certain races etc).
You could try setting up your hikes and cycles as a multisport activity. Usually it is for triathlon or duathlon. Though you can make your own custom ones too.
Which watch did you go for? Looks like an Epix or Fenix? I went from Fenix 5 > Fenix 6X Pro > FR965 > Enduro 3.
The 965 was my only AMOLED and I hated it and went back to MIPS, mainly due to battery. You also get sapphire glass and solar as standard on the Enduro 3. Baffling why it isnt on the Fenix 8 range.
Was going to get a Descent 3 just for dives but hearing rumours a new Descent is due this year. If it isn’t great I’ll probably get a Suunto.
Hi @MW0WML Gerald,
During 2025, a total of 68 SOTA activations were completed. Activity levels were slightly lower than previous years due to family commitments, most notably the arrival of my second daughter, Arthelia.
Despite this, the year remained productive, with a diverse range of summits and notable personal milestones achieved.
• Total activations: 68
• Scottish island summits: 24
A substantial proportion of the year’s efforts focused on Scottish island summits, which provided a wide variety of challenging terrain, including boggy ground, steep scrambles, and remote approaches.
A significant personal highlight was taking Arthelia onto her first island summit, marking the beginning of her involvement in outdoor activities and the SOTA experience.
One major achievement this year was completing and publishing my book, Summit of Dreams, now available on Amazon. The publication includes extensive content related to SOTA and the remote islands of the UK.
I attended the GW SOTA S2S Party and Hog Roast, which provided an excellent opportunity to meet and speak with many fellow activators and chasers, who are all now friends of mine.
Challenges
Several activations involved difficult conditions, both in weather and terrain. A number of “iffy moments” were encountered, but all were managed safely, and each activation was successfully completed. The Scottish island summits in particular required careful navigation and steady progress.
Community Appreciation
I would like to formally acknowledge and thank:
• The SOTA chasers, whose consistent support greatly enhances every activation.
• Fellow activators, whose shared enthusiasm contributes significantly to the enjoyment of the scheme.
• The SOTA Management Team, for their continued dedication and hard work in maintaining and developing the programme.
Closing Remarks
Despite reduced availability due to family commitments, 2025 was a positive and rewarding year within the SOTA programme. The combination of island summits, community engagement, personal milestones, and successful publication of Summit of Dreams collectively made the year both productive and memorable.
I look forward to continuing involvement in the scheme during 2026.
73, Ben
GW4BML
