And that’s yer lot. We went up GD005 again yesterday afternoon and I even activated it again this morning while the three “sleeping beauties” were unconscious and immobile in their sleeping bags. My EE phone hasn’t been able to connect to anything on GD so I have been reliant on 'HGY for spots etc. However as this morning’s plan was for a more mainstream band, that nice man KU6J did all my spotting for me.
Now on the Irish Millpond heading back to G land after a super week’s DXpedition of 25 SOTA activations, a few hundred qsos, lots of food and beer, good wx, beach and stock cars. Hope you all ‘got in the log’ - or into 'RQJ’s last week.
Just pasted some columns from the Database into MS Excel and asked it some questions.
The result is that I can now confirm that Jimmy M0HGY is the first person to have activated the highest peak in each of the five UK associations:
G/LD-001 Scafell Pike 978m
GM/WS-001 Ben Nevis 1344m
GW/NW-001 Snowdon 1085m
GI/MM-001 Slieve Donard 850m
GD/GD-001 Snaefell 621m
Of course, this isn’t an existing SOTA award or threshold. It is merely a silly quirky self-imposed target for one’s own gratification. But then the Database does encourage this:
“SOTA is not inherently a competitive activity, it’s about individual aspirations and working towards a goal at your own pace.”
…and Jimmy and I have been eyeing this particular goal up for some time. The little so-and-so beat me to it by 17 minutes…
Congratulations Jim. No question about your drive and determination to do this.
I agree Tom. This is a fine aspirational goal to aim for by anyone interested and capable of activating in the UK and Ireland. Just to climb all five summits is an achievement, but to qualify them for SOTA really puts the icing on the cake.
Congratulations Jimmy, and well done to you Tom, even though you were No.2 (Reminders of Ailsa Craig)!
I couldn’t dream of being No. 2 on Ailsa Craig Phil. You and Jimmy were just two among the pack of lean whippets that left me and one or two others for dead on that lump of granite!
The similarity is in Jimmy’s determination to be first. IIRC, on Ailsa Craig he had to get agreement from the participants that as he had organised the whole thing, that it was only fair he be the first. On this occasion no such agreement existed. In fact I had told Jimmy “Whoever gets it, gets it. Game on”. We had lunch together in Snaefell summit restaurant and then woosh - he was gone. And by the time I had joined him on the summit true, and was QRV, he had already made at least four contacts.
Yes he did thanks Allan. In fact he was incredibly tolerant and supportive of the big bias towards mine and Jimmy’s hobby throughout the week. So when the opportunity of a stock car meeting came up, and then a beach weather day on Friday, these had to be taken up. Liam loves cars and beach, Jimmy isn’t so keen, but Jimmy agreed it was only fair to do some “Liam things” before we came home!
Liam’s walking is faster and stronger than ever now. He didn’t often get ahead of Jimmy on this trip, but he was usually well ahead of Edward and me!
Thank you to all for congratulating me on being the first to activate all 5 of the UK’s highest mountains. I could hear Mike 2E0YYY working GW4VPX summit to summit when I was on Mull Hill GD/GD-005 on 25/07/13, but I could not hear GW4VPX.
In reply to M0HGY:
Congratulations Jimmy, but I am now going to be SUPER picky.
The Isle of Man isn’t part of the United Kingdom.
The Highest points of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are:
Scotland - Ben Nevis
Wales - Snowdon (please don’t call it Mount Snowdon…)
England - Scafell Pike
Northern Ireland - Slieve Donard
The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency (and interestingly not part of the EU).
I get a bit excited about all of this…
Cue nice video
Oh and an even nicer one about the EU
Sorry for the thread hijack
73
Gerald
MW0WML
(Welsh, British and an EU Citizen - I think)
ZD7, ZD8 and ZD9 all have P150 summits. ZB2 fails and there are access issues. I’m surprised there has been no approach regarding setting up an association for 5B4. There’ll be a few Commonwealth/ex-Commonwealth islands in the Carribbean that will be P150 as well. Whilst the list isn’t endless, there’s many more to do still. Including creating the associations.
Yes, I know that is technically correct. But is amateur radio on the IOM administered and regulated by the Tynwald? No, like many other things (international representation, defence etc) the IOM cedes this responsibility to the UK government, ie (in this case) Ofcom, and therefore the callsigns come from the same series as the rest of the UK.
IOM might not technically be part of the UK, but its amateur radio most definitely is. After all, Edward 2E0NSR (an Intermediate licensee) operated from there using his own callsign and without needing to secure any kind of permission.
You can all be picky and pedantic if you wish, but be warned, you are facing the World Champion at pickiness and pedantry here…
You may be a contender Brian, but “deliberately taking things out of context” (especially when the context is defined by the thread title) is arguably the lowest form of pedantry. Certainly not in 'CWI’s league in any case!
That aside, the report and photos for Day 1 of the GD SOTA DXpedition are uploaded now. I invite interested parties to have a look via http://tomread.co.uk and the ‘SOTA’ link on the left menu. The summit concerned is Mull Hill GD/GD-005.
You may notice a lot more photos down the page after the activation report. That’s because we activated it five times, and reports will be added to that page in due course.
Comments may be left in my website guestbook or in this thread - or both.
