On Saturday, January 11th 2020, Ignacio EA2BD achieved his MG after activating Mt. Erreniega EA2/NV-092, which is the very same summit he first activated back in 2011.
He kindly waited in the summit until I showed up late on air from my SOTA just to make S2S on my birthday and his MG day.
Ignacio usually likes being low profile, but let me highlight his nice personality, his generosity, his great personal values and the big value he adds to the whole ham radio community and SOTA in particular.
He introduced me to SOTA and was my mentor, together with Santi EA2BSB, his friend and now friend of mine too, during my first steps into SOTA activating.
He is and has always been there ready to help me and many others with anything.
He is a great, great person, a good ham and a very good friend.
Please, join me in congratulating Ignacio EA2BD for his MG
Very well done!
73,
Congratulations Ignacio I have a QSL card on my shack wall for our S2S we had on 1/10/2012 the very first SOTA activation in VK5 on vk5/se-012, its been a long journey to Mountain Goat well done. I was lucky to make Mountain Goat May 2019 on vk5/se-012 as the 2 pointer to make my MG score. Well done Mate.
Regards Ian vk5cz …
Congratulations Ignacio!
I am sure you will have enjoyed a lot on the way to 1000 points, and I hope you continue to enjoy this beautiful combination of radio and mountains for a long time.
73 de EA5INS
Way to go, Ignacio! Achieving MG shows a lot of dedication to SOTA. I only see you in my log from the fall of 2018 but hopefully conditions will improve and we can make many more contacts.
Many congratulations Ignacio. What a great way to make the day special not just for yourself, but Guru as well. Best wishes for your future activations.
Thank you dear Guru for your very kind words, and all of you for your warm celebration on my 1x MG.
When I started activating for SOTA back in 2011, and after evaluating my chances to go up to the mountains, I roughly estimated it could take me about 10 years at this pace to reach MG.
Nevertheless, you all know SOTA is very addictive and it just took me a bit more than 8, hi.
No matter how much it takes to reach your first thousand points, there are other points much more importants here.
When I first activated a SOTA I was astonished to see how many people chased me that very first day with that tiny rig, a silly wire strung on a pole and a very basic homebrew paddle.
Along this years, I identified many points that are the reason why I found this SOTA program so interesting and positive for my life. Some of them are:
Activating portable had the challlenge to create a lot of homebrew stuff and optimize all the gear to progressively decrease the rucksack overall weight (weight, always the weight!) and increase performance.
I learnt a lot more of antennas than staying in the comfort of my shack.
My CW operating practice got a huge improvement troughout the activations.
All the information interchange and public contribution facilitated by the reflector, mails or on air, in an open and nonprofit style, is very rich and motivating.
I have found lots of new friends, local or international, having the chance to meet some of them in joint activations.
Doing some challenge, events, and special projects together with other hams was very amusing and exciting.
Although there are points and ranking, it’s friendship and personal milestones the key point of this program.
In the past 8 years we have faced some difficulties and health issues here at home. SOTA was always a way to relax, keep positive, enjoy life, and encourage to get on.
I wasn’t a mountaineer back in my youth, but nowadays I am in love with plants, mountains and the beatiful scenery that nature bring us. We now have to contribute to keep it for future generations!
Let me share a final anecdote: I spent some days this Christmas to visit New York. I couldn’t carry my little QRP MTR (a pity!) there but we visited the Natural history museum and, looking at these imppressive dioramas, I got the feeling I soon would become a Mountain goat…
