Scottish Pandas on Holme Fell, Lakes too
And here they are on in the Forest of Dean (May Hill G/WB-018) testing out the calorific content of Sotabeams wire ! Really far south
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The farmer who owns our contest site has some. They’re double coated for warmth so the fat content on the their meat is lower. i.e. they taste nice. He did say they’re miserable critters and he has a deep distrust of them because they get stroppy easily.
Back to pics, I do think Shadow’s hi-vis fleecy suit looks cool. If you post a picture of you and him in matching hi-vis fleecy suits then I’ll give £5 to a charity of your choice 
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I’ve stopped doing summits’ imaging for a good while as once realised they all looks fairly similar if I’ve been there more than twice Although just wanted to share a very short video of my fourth summit this year
Kippure EI/IE-005 was my second summit on Saturday, just before rain and snow forecasted to hit the country. It was a great and quiet morning with 0 degrees, heavy ground frost and literally no wind. Visibility was great as well, I was able to see Isle of Man as well as Welsh mountains clearly. However, just before rounding up on Kippure the weather has started to change rapidly and my last minutes there where covered by dense fog and a lonely crow, apparenly surprised as well.
https://youtube.com/shorts/hkOBqDqR7zY
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I did a nice hike into the Sonoran desert south of the Superstition Wilderness: Turk’s Cap W7A/PN-148.
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Here are some on the side of Birks Fell G/NP-031 on Saturday 2025-01-04 along with some Herdy sheep and some locals (Swaledale and Dalesbred?).
The cloud was mostly down so not many other photos but here’s the view to Fountains Fell G/NP-017 and Pen y Ghent G/NP-010 on the way down. The cloud did lift for a time while I was on the summit but it dropped again.
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Scottish Panda’s are also on G/CE-001
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Hi everyone and a Happy New Year to all of you also from Carine and me 
After awesome winteractivations in the Swiss mountains of the cantons of VD and VS at the end of 2023 we started the new SOTA-Year just before the door of our house on the HB/BL-013
Hpe cu soon agn from a SOTA es vy 73 de René, HB9NBG + 73/88 de Carine, HB9FZC
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Happy new Year!
My first two activations on January 1st and January 2nd were on PP2/CV-006 and PP2/CV-003, receptively. Both lie in the wonderful Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park. PP2/CV-003 actually happend to be a First Activation:
The view from PP2/CV-006 down to the Jardim de Maytrea.
My homebrew EFHW on the top of PP2/CV-006.
The view from the top of PP2/CV-003 to PP2/CV-006 (and some incoming rain right behind it).
I am sorry to all chasers who were still in the pile-up while I had to abort due to incoming weather!
Hopefully 2025 will bring a lot of activations, S2S, and all kinds of radio fun.
73 to you all…
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A bit late to the party, but Happy New Year!
I ventured out to visit two local summits today, as it was sunny with little wind, and temperatures a few degrees above freezing.
It was a two rucksack day…
There was a logic to this!
The first hill, Stiperstones G/WB-003 is a 1Km walk from the carpark with about 100m of ascent. Some of the way is over loose blocks of basalt which don’t make for pleasant walking. Since my operation last year I’m not quite up to carrying my normal SOTA rucksack, so I took a smaller one, containing just a spare down jacket, hand held radio, sitting mat, logbook, pencil and small flask of coffee.
There was almost no wind at the top and the sun was warm, so no need of the jacket - it was good to be out!
Looking north, from the “shack” perched on the rocks:
Four in the log, including an S2S with John GW0MHF/P on GW/NW-044. 2m FM using HH with standard antenna. After a few minutes of calling CQ without further response, I made my way back to the car.
Over now to LongMynd G/WB-005, pausing for lunch on the way.
This time, the walk was again a couple of kilometres round trip, but over easy ground and with little height gain. So, I wanted to try the normal rucksack with a typical load of kit for a winter activation. From earlier experiments around the house and up-and-down the stairs, I wondered how stable it would feel, and whether I could stand the waist belt tight enough to be useful. It was fine, progress definately being made!
This time I just managed one QSO on 2m FM, with Glyn M7CAD who I had worked earlier from Stiperstones - thanks Glyn.
Setting up the linked dipole and Ft817, I found 40m noisy - and saw on SotaWatch that most of the activity was on the higher bands. So 15m it was, to work 8 on SSB and 3 on CW, dotted around europe.
Time to call it a day. A successful experiment, and a good start to the year.
The operating position. I set up out of the way in the AZ north of the trig point, as the fine weather had brought out a lot of visitors:
Many thanks to all callers,
73
Adrian
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Like Adrian, also late to the party. Currently my un-retirement tasks are done which means I can get back to just 2 days a week working. I didn’t get the chance to get out much in the last 2 months, I did manage 3 summits before Christmas and one mid holiday break. January has been all work till now.
Yesterday was a nice day so off to stretch stiff legs and my back… my 2015 slipped disc has been grumbling too. But gentle exercise and keeping active is the cure. So up Scald Law! I was out of form as it took 55mins not 45mins but no complaints from my back there and back. I checked the WX forecast and missed the strong winds. No wind when I parked the car, only at the top and difficult in standing when I came to come back down 
A few patches of snow and the wind being the only issues. The wind made it hard to hear the KX2. 6 QSOs on 15m CW with Jean VE2JCW and Matt W4GO being nice catches. 6 QSOs on 40m SSB but activity was low and finally 14 on 17m CW including PY2BDN at about 9000km. He started weak, 339 and lost in the wind noise but came up to be 539 by the end of the QSO. Rather nice.
View NW from the path, still some big patches of snow but none on the top. Scald Law GM/SS-125 is the highest point.
1300Z and the sun doesn’t get much higher than this in the sky at 56N this time of year.
5m pole, Inv L (Inv seven) antenna with nominally vertical section in the wind and the 1:64 match unit.
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Better late than never!
For me the culprit was OK/KR-082 Čáp. I activated it in December 2024; it was a new summit for me and I really enjoyed the short route to it. I decided to go back and try a longer walk in real winter conditions. The occasion came on the 5th of January!
I got a big pileup on 20m with the KX2 and AX1 combo. Unfortunately, the snow started to fall quite heavily and I had to cut the activation short.
It ended up being a great day with a lot of snow and a lot of fun.
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Well even later to the show… It wasn’t my first summit of the year which was Top-o-Selside G/LD-048 which might be a very nice view, but it wasn’t last week, just cloud. Nor was it my second summit, Hoove G/NP-024 which even on the best of days isn’t really very photogenic, and it wasn’t the best of days. So third time lucky - this time with a good forecast I set off for Whitfell, and the slightly longer walk from Ulpha as the road over the top is closed. The weather well - apart from 5 brief minutes of sunshine was up to the previous standards… so you will have to imagine the view over the coast and up the the summit of Coniston Old Man… The WX in the UK looks interesting over the next few days so this might be the best activation photo I’m going to get for a bit… Thanks again to all the chasers. Paul (Woody & Jet)
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