Don’t think I’d get close to that with a young family! Some amazing adventures in there and a published author too! Superb.
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I’ve enjoyed seeing everyone else’s reflections in the thread and thought I’d add mine.
Main goal for the year? Have fun SOTAing! Which I’ll give myself a self-congratulatory pat on the back for comprehensively achieving! I enjoy all aspects. Activating the most, but also chasing, planning activations, planning and fiddling with kit, and following other people’s exploits.
Aimed to do more activations than I did last year, which I didn’t do. Clocking 29 this year versus 32 last year. I think a couple of years back or more I said I aimed to complete G/WB - that remains on the ‘to do’ list still! Can’t complain too much. I’m a keen mountain biker and my son has got really in to it, so riding with him has naturally taken priority over SOTA.
Highlights for me this year were:
- the Lake District weekend back in April. Cracking weather for a few days activating in a part of the World that I haven’t visited much before and fun to meet people for real.
- activating Fan Brycheiniog back in August, again on another lovely day weather wise, but what made the activation special was my daughter coming along and us having a great day out together. (If these highlights have you thinking I’m a fair weather activator, I wouldn’t argue!)
Wasdale Head, blue skies and dry under foot in April!
Amy channelling Batman-above-Gotham on Fan Brycheiniog
Should hopefully have a little more time for activating in 2026. I’ve had a conversation with work about it getting it in the way of all the family stuff, mountain biking and SOTAing I need to do and am going down to 4 days per week. And unlike 2025’s family holiday to the Tweed valley, where I failed to squeeze in a single activation, in 2026 when we head to British Columbia I am hoping to get one or two in.
Thanks to everyone in SOTA who makes it such a great community to be part of, and in particular the MT, builders and hosters of on-line tools and all the others whose free labour enables me to have such a great time!
73, Tony
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I’m not a man of many words, so:
136 activations, 79 new summits, 590 points plus 120 winter bonus.
Did my first ever joint activation (thanks, G5OLD)
Attended the GW SOTA BBQ - great fun. Thanks GW4BML
Got my 1st Goat and celebrated in style with the Aberdeenshire and beyond posse - thanks for your friendship guys
Kept fit, learned things and enjoyed the mountains I love.
Onwards and upwards
Denis MW0CBC
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This perfectly sums up SOTA😀
Well done on a fantastic achievement in 2025
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John, thanks for 155 chases on 150+ activations! Much appreciated!
73,
Andy, N4TU
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Josh, it sure was fun to activate summits together when you were in town! It sounds like you had a fantastic SOTA year. Always enjoy making contacts with you. Wishing you a great 2026!
73 de K9PM
Paul
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My 2025 SOTA year has been very up and down (whose wasn’t??) but not so much with going up and down Marilyns but being physically capable of doing so as I seen to have a lot of niggling injuries which have interfered with my SOTA ambitions (and fun).
i think the final total was 94 activations after a bit of spurt in October and November as we (with M0JLA) were lagging behind and we’d done all the usual low pointers around so had to go down towards the South Wales coast (or nearly) - only to find they’ve given up listening on 2m fm down there so most contacts were in Devon and Wiltshire. We had great plans for December WB period - but it had to be the higher SW summits as we done the lesser ones before March 15. Unfortunately a closed road stopped GW/SW-005 (and too many cars for SW-001) and we never got back as the weather closed us down. The high spots were superb weather and sights in GM/NS-land just north of Inverness - very beautiful scenery and a good band of 2m fm chasers with the help of the local Clubs. Also finally (and how!) getting up Rhinog Fach GW/NW-078 in August and, eventually, getting back to the car (Very grateful thanks for a memorable day to Gerald GW0WML. The small no of activations (38) reflects its late arrival on the list but I was surprised to see that we still feature on the ‘last 5 list’ some 5 months later.
The low points were the lack of more Winter Bonus points in December owing to lack of fitness and poor weather. Also that we had to cancel our New Year stay in Capel Curig owing to some hip problems but this seems to be receding and I hope to be out within the week (if weather permits I am rather fussy about remaining dry and warm - with up to 12 layers of clothing - honestly).
Two memories from the year
A moving sight on the trig point of GW/SW-025 Cefn Eglwysilan on 28/10/25
I just reached the car on GW/SW-019 Mynydd Twyn-glas in daylight but M0JLA was still marching down by the (endless) pylons!. I think my camera lens needed a clean!
Fingers crossed for next year! 73
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One word describes my SOTA year.
Abysmal.
Due to family pressure, “you’re too old to gallivant on those hills on your own!” I limit activating to a rare visit to something easy or drive-on, but at least chasing familiar summits brings back memories.
Last winter a storm put my 6/2/70 array out of action. I’m much too old to relish climbing ladders supported by crawling boards on a composition garage roof, so tried putting a 3 band colinear in the loft space. The results are unencouraging, not that I really expected anything better! The current challenge seems to be boosting activity to the point where I will get help renewing the antennas and dead rotator when the weather improves.
During the spring the local noise reached a crescendo, S9 on 40m, making only the strongest signals workable. In the autumn I tried the stratagem of moving my doublet as far from the house as possible, leading to a drop of about four S points in the noise - except that at random intervals a terrific racket originates from the club the other side of the end of the garden, which the antenna is now close to 
but for much of the time chasing has become pleasurable again.
And so to the latest problem: somehow the recent storm destroyed the centre support of the doublet, bringing it down to about 5m above the mud patch that my garden becomes in winter. Here we go again!
Still, if it was all plain sailing it would probably become boring, so for 2026 I look forward to hearing lots of activations, and lots of familiar voices from familiar summits - and summits that I wish were familiar! 
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“you’re too old to gallivant on those hills on your own!”
…I know how you feel Brian, I get this comment most times from my family!
Geoff vk3sq
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I had an awesome 2025. I didn’t post a personal best but, yeah, kicked some SOTA butt.
Some of the hilights:
- I went to W7A a few times and hiked with my pal AA7OY.
- Made Quad Goat
- Took an epic road trip with my friend W6TED and actived 19 summits in 5 days. battling high winds, forest fires, area closures but I still managed some awesome sarcasm along the way.
- Attended the W7O campout. People and hiking were awesome. It was like being on happy drugs.
- Passed my Amateur Extra.
- Did a campout / SoCal SOTAFest with the W6 SoCal crew which was awesome.
- Went to Yosemite, camped, and hiked 5 summits and had a blast.
- Assumed the W6 Association Manager Position
- Built a new W6 Association site (http://w6sota.org) with the help of KE6SRN
- Wrote 11 SOTA safety articles ( N1CLC: The Ham Ninja’s Top 10 Safety Tips )
- Oh, and another highlight was working ZL1BYZ S2S several times!
What’s Next:
- More SOTA
- 2026 Oregon campout
- Passing 1,000 summits and working toward 1 million feet of elevation climbed and 5x goat.
- Crushing the 2026 challenge
- Helping others in SOTA
More at N1CLC: A Look Back At 2025
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…hi Christian, great report and, aswell your blog!
Geoff vk3sq
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A bit late to the party, a bit like the start of my 2025 activator’s year which did not start until June.
The main reason for this was coming back too soon from an injury I suffered on both shoulders back in 2023, but aggravated in the autumn of 2024. The healing process takes longer as I get older.
My aims for the year were to achieve 500 Uniques and 500 SOTA Completes. Being grounded for an unspecified amount of time, I turned to chasing summits I previously did visit and those I could perhaps visit some time in the future.
Some of my 2025 SOTA highlights:
- My wife accompanying me up Pen y Fan (GW/SW-001)
- My eldest son accompanying me on several GW summits
- A 480km seven hour round trip to chase GW4ZHI on GW/NW-058 on 2m FM for one of my last few remaining G&GW SOTA Completes
- Meeting fellow activators & chasers during the GW SOTA Day
- First time activating in DM/RP; a fantastic area, part of the Palatine Forest (Pfälzerwald). Some cracking forest walks, coloured sandstone outcrops in a large wine-making area.
- After activating in DM/RP, dropping down across the border into the North Vosges, using the fantastic trip report of @HB9DIZ and @DL6GCA as a guide.
Some figures:
- Activated in 5 associations: G, GW, ON, DM and FL
- Added 42 Uniques, ending the year on 522
- Added 72 SOTA Completes, ending the year on 512
- Activated 140 summits for 1,064 activator points
- Achieved 5th MG
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