Congrats Colin and very happy to hear and work you!
I think Colin will have quite a tale when he gets time to tell it 
73, Barry N1EU
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Well done Colin. Many congratulations. All the best for the next 1000.
73, Gerald G4OIG
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Congratulations Colin!!
A well deserved goat trophy after long time of activations and efforts with your nice QRP setup.
Cheers 73 de Ignacio
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Hi Colin
Congratulations on achieving MG.
73
Nick G4OOE
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Very many congratulations on your achievement Colin. MG is no mean feat and you have undergone every kind of privation in order to get there. Enjoy the euphoria. It’s well earned. 73 John
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Goodness, that birdy flies quickly!
TBH, I don’t feel that I will write a full report, not sure who reads that stuff anyway!
The general story goes something like this -
I started with SOTA way back in 2004, aged 24. Just after I found SOTA, I also found love - Fiona and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in April. You know how the story goes…
Winter time has generally been quiet in terms of family stuff, so it’s generally this time of year when I activate, usually January to March.
You’ve heard of extreme ironing, right?
Being a prolific builder of radio kits, I thought I would do my own twist on Extreme Ironing - Extreme Solder Ironing!
Today was the day. I took a RockMite kit, a home made key kit and a home made vertical antenna kit up to the summit of Whernside G/NP-004. I assembled the kits using a gas powered soldering iron. Thankfully I took my little tent with me, the weather wasn’t exactly tropical.
The kits went together well and the RockMite fired up first time without any debugging, although the building took much longer than I had reckoned.
I was late on air, but eventually Barry N1EU found me for my first contact. Shortly after followed SP9AMH, OH9XX and finally EU2MM to earn me my needed points. Mountain Goat was in the bag! The QSB was very evident today, QSO’s were tough, except with OH9XX, who was ear blasting. 
Firing up the FT817 (I intended to share my success with as many as possible!), I worked a handful more stations on CW and SSB, but my time was rapidly dwindling.
Finally, I’d like to say thanks for all the support given by numerous SOTA paticipants over the years, There’s a number of great, inspirational people we’ve lost in that time and I think about lots of them all the time. Roger G4OWG was particularly on my mind today as I learned of the route I took today from one of his posts. I never met Roger in person, but he was a keen chaser and fairly local to me.
73, Colin
Edit - I forgot to put forward my thanks -
Thanks to Dennis G6YBC (Kanga Products) for sponsoring a RockMite ][ ver. 1 PCB
Also thanks to Pete G4ISJ for supplying the solder!
21 Likes
One word… RESPECT!
Well done Colin, that is certainly “doing it the hard way”
73, Colin (the other one)
Wow! …when I wrote my initial congratulatory remarks I never thought you had taken this approach to celebrate your MG day…this will certainly go down in the SOTA history books 
73 Allan GW4VPX
Congratulations Colin. And constructing your radio for the MG activation AFTER reaching the summit? Wow - that is quite something! It’s difficult to find anything to do that is a “first” in SOTA 15 years in, but you could well have come up with one here! Amazing!
Inspired.
And inspiring.
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Hi Colin
Hearty congrats on MG
An amazing way to achieve it… I still haven’t got round to finishing the Rockmite clone I started building in the comfort of my shack five years ago :-s
Good luck with the next 1000!
73 de Paul G4MD
Stunning. Well done indeed.
Congrats Colin, hope to get you in the log someday.
Big effort to build the rig in those conditions.
73 John VK6NU
Totally bonkers, but what a great idea!
Well done Colin (on the ironing and the MG)!
73, Simon
Stunning 
73,
Rod
Well done Colin a great effort and twist to the activation.
73
Graeme
Colin,
congrats on your MG award and on the way you did it. Sets the bar pretty high. Kind of extended Le Mans style. First, build your radio…
73 Andrew VK1DA/2UH
Truly amazing (running out of superlatives on this thread!)
A great idea well executed, many congratulations on the MG and the style
Adrian
G4AZS
Monumental effort there Colin!
Well done on the MG, inspiring me to think more about antennas and how I can improve my set up!
73
Matt G8XYJ