Really looking forward to this. The last GI SOTA trip with Jimmy was absolutely brilliant! Let’s hope this one measures up - I’m confident it will.
After 2 days in the Sperrins we remain on target for the GI completion. Yesterday we did GI/SM-007, which I enjoyed, followed by GI/SM-004 which I absolutely did not. I’m astounded to see that some people have returned to activate this miserable, tedious and unrewarding summit for a second time!
Today was much better. We originally scheduled GI/SM-003 for the morning and GI/SM-005 for the afternoon. However, with the heavy rain all morning and our exhaustion from the previous day, this plan was shunted back to afternoon and evening respectively. That meant operating in the 2m FMAC and UKAC tonight, but this worked out fine for both of us.
We are enjoying staying at the beautiful and rural Pat Larry’s cottage, and the company of the chickens every morning! We will be adding our positive comments in the guestbook, to those of M1MAJ & M3ZCB, and M6BWA & M0JLA. Seems this is the place to stay for SOTA activators in GI/SM!
63 down, 3 to go!
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Still on track to do this. 64 GI references now activated, just two to go - GI/SM-001 & GI/SM-002 tomorrow. Jimmy has a celebration planned!
Today’s walk up Mullaghash GI/SM-008 was really tough over rough tussocky ground once we left the track to head steeply uphill. It knocked the stuffing out of both of us. We tried a different line for the descent - and sadly it was far far worse and took an eternity. Jimmy was wise to allocate a whole day for this one summit. We would have had time for another - but not the energy.
Now off to the pub to refuel.
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Sorry I can’t contact you while you complete your task on SM-002 and SM-001 but it sounds as if you will continue to get (mostly) good weather. We chose to do those two on the best day available (ie we didn’t get rained on) but did Sawel first and then 002, a much harder walk, afterwards but we weren’t finishing the GI task like you will be. Many congrats and hope the lobster bisque/Guinness cocktail tastes good on the summit! Did you finish the Mournes by reaching Eagle Mt (MM-008) as I found a champagne cork up there on our recent ascent??
Glad you liked Pat Larry’s Cottage which is very comfortable and I am just sorry that we have done almost all the nearby summits so it would be a long drive to those round Londonderry and also Enniskillen (not to mention Trostan) which still remain on the list. However we do still have Mullaghash GI/SM-008 to do, and you, like others don’t sound as if it will be an enjoyable experience. Thanks for the tip NOT to look for a better route down!
However we cannot agree on your assessment of GM-004 and SM-007. We started up Carnanelly (004) expecting great problems but took a route Rod had found online (up the track, into the forest, take the first ride on the right, over the fence and stream and onto the open moorland and walk up sort of beside the forest ;then keep on up) which we repeated on the way down and arrived back at the car with dry feet and having had a rather pleasant walk (OK it didn’t rain which was rather unexpected).
About a week earlier we had driven to Slieve Gallion (007) and parked as high as possible and embarked on the track towards the summit. We found little yellow markers to follow, crossed the fence (large warning notice) and aimed for the summit in cloud and gathering drizzle. Once again Rod was unable to use HF as it was absolutely pouring down at the summit so we huddled in the lee of a peat hag with VX-7, dipole and (fairly) waterproof notebook. Many thanks to our marvellous band of followers who ensured we qualified 2m and 70cm (yes, both) before packing up and squelching back to the car on a far wetter track than before. Just before we reached dry land the mist lifted, the rain stopped and we could see the mast on the far summit again but it still didn’t become a favourite summit! OK I can see I am biased by the weather conditions as well as the actual route - and how many times we fell down holes or even performed laden somersaults (SM-017 Oughtmore - once)
Congratulations from us both
Viki M6BWA
GI/SM-002 successfully activated; quite some walk that! Now back at the car and about to start ascending Sawel GI/SM-001, which will be the completion activation. QRV in around 2.5 hours I expect.
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OK so we’re here on SM-001. Jimmy has qualified. I’ve had many stations assuming they’ve had a QSO with me and saying 73, when in fact they’re doubling with each other and not understanding me requesting a repeat of my report.
So @1600z, unless you are M0LEP or G3RDQ, you are not in the log!
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Epic fail.
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Me and my dad Tom M1EYP are pleased to announce, we have activated all SOTA summits in GI. Here is a photo of us celebrating by drinking a bottle of the Black Stuff on our final GI SOTA summit Sawel Mountain GI/SM-001 which is the highest mountain in the Sperrin Mountains.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Very well done!
73,
Rod
PS, I would have taken a couple of cans - better ale to weight ratio
PPS Very surprised it was not a Baxter’s soup saved for the occasion 
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Bottled Guinness has better iron content. Soup today was chicken & vegetable broth. We didn’t actually carry the flask on either walk - just left it in the car where we took lunch between the two summits.
At 15:53 i was unable to complete due to QSB and other stations calling over you. The CW was a complete shambles in my brain
and i had give up, sorry. Its enough to drive anyone to drink !!
73
Neil
Congratulations!
TNX for sharing the nice foto.
I saw your alert for the final summit, but could not reach you because of qrl.
73 and GL
Martin DF3MC
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Yeah that was a shame Neil. It was you I was calling back as well, but the other station just kept calling over the top of you and as a result I didn’t get my report. Now to have a look in the Database to see if that other station imagines he had a contact with me… 
Edit: …and indeed he does. 
Well done you two. The skip into my part of GM yesterday was poor. So no show, but I did hear Jimmy working David G(M)0EVV/P S2S 2M on one of my local GM/SS’s.
Now how about those Scottish SS’s next - all 284 (sorry 285, oh sorry 286, oh so sorry 285 ) of them (I’ve just under 30 left - though a bit of moving target - hi!) - just a short hope over the Border (err well not quite - having to drive half-way up Scotland before your into WS, CS, ES territory - so much for the South of Scotland tag - but hey there it is - all good fun!)
73 from a fellow Guinnessee!!!
Jack(;>J
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Very Well Done, Jimmy and Tom. Have a Safe and Easy journey Home.
Speak with you soon. 73 de Paul M0CQE.
Also Many Congratulations on your 400 Unique Summits, Activated.
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We’re going to do a couple of trivial (parking area in the AZ) summits today as we make our way back over to Belfast for tonight’s sailing. Jimmy has posted the alerts.
It’s been a super and successful week. Thanks to Caroline M3ZCB for alerting us (and, it seems, the entire SOTA world) to the wonderful Pat Larry’s cottage. It has been a brilliant place to stay.
Oh, and it turns out that our first summit yesterday was our 400th activator unique!
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@2345 BST, we are sailing back on the Belfast-Birkenhead ferry after a very successful and enjoyable week. Today, we activated Carrigatuke GI/CA-003 and Cairngaver GI/MM-017, either side of a visit to the QTH of Dave GI4SNA.
We completed activating all Northern Ireland summits and passed 400 activator uniques. We made a total of 168 QSOS from the 9 activations. We certainly walked lots of miles over challenging terrain!
Huge fun, considerable exertion and much Guinness drank! Thanks to all chasers that worked us, especially the 2m FM fraternity in GI.
We will probably focus on GW for the time being, but thoughts are turning to future activations in EI, GM, PA, ON, LX and DM. Also on the cards are holiday SOTAing in EA8, EA8, F and I.
More immediately, I will look to develop my JT65 activating and other datamodes - and who knows what else? You never do in this hobby!
Reports and photos for the GI SOTA completion trip (9 activations) are now available on http://tomread.co.uk
Individual summit pages (in chronological order):
GI/SM-007 Slieve Gallion Slieve Gallion SM-007
GI/SM-004 Carnanelly Carnanelly SM-004
GI/SM-003 Mullaghaneany Mullaghaneany SM-003
GI/SM-005 Mullaghmore Mullaghmore SM-005
GI/SM-008 Mullaghash Mullaghash SM-008
GI/SM-002 Mullaghaclogha Mullaghclogha SM-002
GI/SM-001 Sawel Mountain Sawel Mountain SM-001
GI/CA-003 Carrigatuke Carrigatuke CA-003
GI/MM-017 Cairngaver Cairngaver MM-017
Plus there’s a few more on these pages too:
G/SP-004 Shining Tor Shining Tor SP-004
G/SP-013 Gun Gun SP-013
G/SP-015 The Cloud The Cloud SP-015
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