Inspired by the idea of Gateways On The Air, today I had a walk out to my local SOTA summit G/SP-017 Billinge Hill, Merseyside county top. My idea was to see if I could make a GOTA activation from a SOTA summit via my MB6GR gateway. (yes I know network SOTA’s aren’t allowed) but i thought there’s no reason why I can’t try to have possibly the world’s first GOTA activation made from a SOTA summit 
So armed with my trusty Yaesu FT70d and a flask of coffee off I went. Thankfully there were plenty stations happy to come back to my SOTA to GOTA call. Here’s the list
M0VUB GB1GOA/P Shane
2E0PXX/P Paul via GB3NF
G0SYR Brian via MB7IMS
M0CAJ Doug via MB6XY
M0MNG Ed via MB6IGG
2E0HEV/P via GB7IMS
G7RUP/M John via MB7IDP
GB1ORC Francis via MB6IMK
M0JQQ Robin via GB3CD
M0TZR Paul via MB7ZR
2E1HWE Oscar via MB7ISX
and MM7DCD/P via MB7IBH
thanks to everyone who came back to my calls and thanks to the GOTA event organisers and the Freestar Network for all your hard work.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. I have a few pics from today but the one of the hill is an old one.
Why not get out portable and do your own SOTA to GOTA activation, I can’t wait to do it again
for more info on GOTA please visit the GOTA website
thanks and best 73 Gary M1DYU
2 Likes
Very interesting and quite appealing! A pity that I was completely unaware of the event until halfway through the period of it.
The website link didn’t work but I’ve edited it so that it now does 
It will, of course, be important to ensure stations worked, especially those new to SOTA, understand that these would not be valid SOTA chaser contacts, but nonetheless, it’s a good opportunity to promote SOTA, and perhaps encourage those within range to switch over to simplex for a valid QSO.
It would be even more interesting if/when the log includes overseas / DX stations
2 Likes
thanks Tom, i think the GOTA event is running up to the weekend so there’s time yet. Most info can be found on Freestar International facebook page.
1 Like