Me and my dad Tom M1EYP will be going to GI on the last week of May/first week of June to activate all 9 of the GI/SW SOTA summits. These are all rare summits as only the Victors have activated all these so far and Bill G4WSB has activated some of these as well, so is a good opportunity to get for chasers to chase some uniques. We are also planning to activate some GI/SM SOTA summits as well. We don’t know which ones yet, but the likely ones will be GI/SM-006, GI/SM-010, GI/SM-011, GI/SM-012, GI/SM-016, GI/SM-017, GI/SM-019 and GI/SM-021. Me may activate EI/IN-067 near to Sligo if we have time. Any GI radio amateurs are welcome to join us for a joint SOTA activation, meal or drink while are are over there.
I was introduced to Northern Ireland as it is the homeland of my wife, and I love the place, so really excited to be heading over there again, and visiting part of it I have never been to before.
I will be doing 40m, 30m and 20m CW on the HB1B, prioritising on whichever band has the best condx at the time. Jimmy will focus on 2m FM on the 817. If either/both of us fail to attain the requisite 4 QSOs for qualification, then we have the option of connecting Jimmy’s 817 to my end-fed antenna & Z-match to try 40m/20m/10m SSB.
EI/IN-067 is a nice easy summit, only been activated 3 times so far. Plenty of parking and a great big flat area on the top, with a massive stone tomb that you are not supposed to climb, but everyone does. When I activated it last July only Bill G4WSB had operated from there before me and it was a great thrill to actually get him in the log from the summit…
You get a nice view of Benbulbin which is a very impressive mountain in that area but sadly not a Sota Summit in its own right, but Slievemore EI/IN-012 is and its just over the back from Benbulbin… Would love another trip over there but it won’t happen this year. Hope the weather is good, it was beautiful when I was there last year.
Thank you for information on EI/IN-067. We also thought it looked a nice easy summit to do and if we choose to activate an EI SOTA summit while we are over there, this is the one we will activate, but only if we have time. Our priority is activating all of the GI/SW SOTA summits and more of the GI/SM SOTA summits.
GI/SW region: 9 summits, and an all-time combined activation count of 22, courtesy of just 3 activators: MI0JST, GI4ONL and G(I)4WSB. A total of 290 QSOs from the entire region in the lifetime of SOTA. I hope, therefore, the activations will be in high demand when Jimmy and I conduct them in the Whitsuntide holiday.
That’s a pity Guru as one of these summits has never been previously activated. Jimmy and I will have to work out who gets the “First Activation” - although Jimmy says “Just see which one of us manages to make a contact first”!
Hi Tom, easily fixed - just get into his log and 1 hour to the time for each of his contacts. Problem solved - you will have the first activated honours that way!
No need for skullduggery Matt, it’s an interesting match-up as it is. Jimmy will have the advantage of reaching the summit a few minutes before me, so will be QRV first. However, as I know he will persist with trying 2m FM first, it could well be that 30m/40m CW enables me to get a QSO into my log before he does.
Well hope to do some S2S with you as heading for Durness and camping at Sango Bay from the 27th May till 10 June but not looking forward to the 9hr drive.
Wonder if we have any chance of making contact on 2m Jimmy, while we are in GM/SS, but I think it is rather unlikely as, by then we will be West of the M74?
Current itinerary:
15/16 May Drive north and ferry to Arran (possibly a little summit or 2 on the way)
16 - 21 May Arran summits - Goatfell etc (mostly smaller)
21-18 May Based at Moffat - lots of GM/SS on the list!
28 - 31 May Based N of Biggar - lots more to do including SS-049 and SS-064
1 June The long drive home.
This means we will only coincide on 30 and 31 May and our best chance would be when you are on G1/SM-021 at 0930 if I can be hauled up SS-064 (Tinto) by then! Will listen out for you other hills - don’t forget to take some 70 cms kit as well!! (Thanks to Tom for the 70cm S2s 2 days ago from SP-004 to WB-015).
Have a good trip (it doesn’t look like a restful holiday!)
That is 250 km. However, there is nothing of any height in between, so I suppose it might go. Beams both ends?
SW-004 looks equally possible, only about 15km further.
73,
Rod
Yes Tom, as Jimmy did when we went to Ailsa Craig in 2009 when he was the first activator using his M3 callsign. He deserved it to, having organised the expedition. That is the way it should be so I hope he is the first to activate as he appears to have worked out the programme himself, and what an enviable programme it is.
Don’t you be encouraging him now Phil! Yeah Ailsa Craig was fair enough, as he put a huge amount of work into making that happen. But even he says “Let’s just see who makes the first contact” for this one - so that’s how it will be. No prior agreement - it’s his speed + 2m FM versus my HF CW.
It would be great to work you summit to summit while you are in GM and we are in GI on 2m fm. I think this will be unlikely though as we will too far west. Unfortunately we will not be doing any 70cms on this trip.
Some of them might get another couple of activations before then, though we aren’t publishing alerts since exactly which hills we do on which days will depend on weather and state of legs.
