It had been noticed by Paul, HB9DST, that I often recognize and congratulate people who have reached major SOTA milestones. I’m sorry, but me back again, hi.
But what should I do? Look away before noticing a new score now > 2,000 points? Pretending that I didn’t hear him calling me on 2 m today? Refusing an S2S contact today? Nope! Congratulations on this milestone and the new companion for your first Mountain Goat, Manuel! They will duet their «baa» now for you henceforth.
Manuel is well-known in our community – here in HB9 and furthermore – for mountain tours of a tougher style, e.g. the first activation of the Dufourspitze, top of Switzerland, in 2018. He is highly skilled to structure and display a pile of data and to see and bring the essentials to any type of audience, e.g. at the SOTA meetings at the Ham Radio show in Friedrichshafen or here on the SOTA reflector. He is a good teamplayer, modest and friendly.
I hope that Manuel continues to receive in the future all these necessary secret ingredients that let his personal sun shine above his SOTA heaven – enjoy!
Thanks, @HB9DIZ and all others! I will take good care of the second – I’m sure it will come in handy to carry more radio stuff to the summits
The summit that helped me reach this milestone, Brienzer Rothorn 2350 m HB/OW-010, is anything but rare, what with both a steam train and a cable car available to bring one to within a few steps of the summit. My partner and I opted for an ascent on foot from the lake shore of Brienz (560 m), ascending 1800 m. The hiking trails were still officially closed, but that didn’t stop us, and the few remaining patches of snow were easy to cross or circumvent. We didn’t encounter any other hikers on the way up, but the summit area was of course pretty busy.
For the descent, we thought we’d let the steam train save our knees (and time). However, only five minutes after leaving the summit, the train came to a stop because a mixture of snow, rocks and mud had slid onto the track in the afternoon heat. After a while, the conductress announced that we were going back up the mountain until the track was cleared. I told her that I wanted to leave the train right there and walk back down to Brienz, as that would probably be faster (hoping that my partner would follow suit). However, the conductress wouldn’t let me, because “the hiking trails are closed”
Deciding not to challenge her, we waited, went back up the mountain, waited some more, went downwards again, waited again and again to pass oncoming trains as the schedule was now completely messed up. In the end, the journey down by train took nearly three hours instead of one, or almost as long as it took us to hike up… But it was still a fun little adventure in a nostalgic train with great views.
Big congratulation, Manuel, for that amazing 2xMG. I’m still under 75% of the way to my 1st MG…
Thank you very much for so many SOTA QSOs.
73 and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the report, Manuel. The activators will recognize from the pictures that this summit with its two means of transport (the mentioned train to from the south, the cable car from the north) is marvelous and a good one for a holiday activation. When all trails are open, you can combine this one with the nearby Arnihaagen, HB/OW-024, but you need then a full day for both. So enjoy not only Manuel’s goat, but also the splendid view!
– I’m sure it will come in handy to carry more radio stuff to the summits 
