Nope, not a 9th generation phone! A great big congrats to Mike for achieving 9,000 activator points today on W5N/ CO-010 & W5N/ CO-013 You set a great example, Mike.
Best, Ken
5 Likes
Congrats Mike, glad to chase you for this special achievement on W5N/CO-013.
73 Gary
Wow! Amazing! I’ll be 1G tomorrow (Sat) finally. 9G is out of this world!
Congrats!
Jim/K7MK
After 6 years chasing and activating SOTA, I’m still at 2/3 of my 1st MG…
I think what Mike has done is just… stratospheric.
Congrats and thank you for those activations and all our QSOs.
73,
Guru
Congratulations Mike! That is a lot of Activator points and outdoor fun activity! Glad to have QSO with you on your 9th MG summit W5N/CO-010 and the many more SOTA contacts we had! Bob AC1Z
Well done Mike! Quite an awesome achievement and great example to all of us. Motivator!
73
Mike NS1TA
Congratulations Mike on a significant accomplishment. I probably will never get to Goat but cannot even imagine the effort and dedication. I will be looking forward to our next RF encounter. Stay safe and healthy.
Jack KB7HH
Wow, that is an incredible accomplishment. I don’t think I can even count that high ;-). Congratulations!!
73 Paula k9ir
Way to go, Mike! I worked you S2S and at the time didn’t realize you were 9X MG. I am honored to have worked you on such a special occasion. Keep it up! 
Ron, KI4TN
Congratulations, Mike! And thanks for all the contacts over the past 8 years!
73, Walt
Holy Smokes Mike! Keep climbing them hills!
Scott kw4jm
Congratulations, Mike! I wonder how many miles you have put on your SOTA vehicle getting to all those summits? 
Dave AE9Q
Congrats Mike on making MG 9 times. That’s a fantastic achievement and Martha and I were glad we could make contacts with you for that event. I can see MG-10 in your future. Always fun to work you on the air.
Gary A - W0MNA
Congrats Mike, always fun chasing you and great being a small part of 9K Goat points. You epitomize the term, “steady Eddy”. Keep it up OM.
D.
Congrats Mike on 9x 
Kris
Always nice to work you when the bands allow. Super job. 73 de Scotty
Congratulations, Mike! Quite the accomplishment. Thanks for all of the chaser points that you have provided me.
73, Ward - WC0Y
Wow, thanks everybody for the nice comments! Believe me, they are much appreciated.
Thanks especially on this one to Martha, W0ERI, who was the 4th QSO on the 9K peak. Gary and Martha are super chasers and it’s always great to hear them.
Also, I’m not sure that I ever told WA2USA that he was the 4th contact on my original Mountain Goat peak. A belated thanks for that and for being the kind of CW op that makes partial-call alerts workable in the areas of the NM outback where cell phone coverage is spotty to non-existent.
As for AE9Q’s question on miles, things are pretty spread out here in NM. It’s not unusual for a SOTA day from Albuquerque to take 300+ miles of driving. A couple of years ago I bought a new 2017 Tacoma and it’s just about to turn over 70K miles. Not all SOTA miles but I’d guess it would be under 30K if it weren’t for this crazy hobby.
That’s why many of us try to string together 2, 3 or more peaks. K6EL once jokingly called multi-peak days “hit and run” activations but most of us try not to cut things short to save time. Barring problems, I do my best to stick with each band till people quit calling.
But sometimes there are problems. If there’s a lull on the activator side, if things inexplicably stop in the middle of a response only to pick up later it could be because a pen has run out of ink, a guy who’s been staring silently has just commented “you know there’s really no fish around here…” , a persistent centipede has decided to crawl across a foot, a group of deer has just discovered there’s a person sitting 10 yards from them, or the antenna just blew down.
My favorite event of this kind occurred at dusk in the Arizona White Mountains a few years ago. Out of nowhere a ringtail cat streaked in, ran part way up a tree about 5 feet from my face, glared at me for a long 10 seconds, then jumped off the tree and disappeared full speed into the brush. I stopped sending for awhile.
There are a couple of other recent goals reached that I’m pretty proud of - hitting Super Sloth and topping 5K S2S points. Combine the many different areas of accomplishment SOTA supports both at home and in the field with researching routes to remote spots, four-wheeling, dirt biking, hiking and route finding challenges, and the chance to design, build and use innovative, lightweight gear and you’ve got something worth sticking with.
Next goal: 1000 summits! Checking right now - it’s not that far off.
Tnx es vy 73,
Mike - ke5akl
1 Like
Congratulations Mike! Always look forward to chasing when I see your spots pop up. You’ve really put a lot of RF out from summits all over!
73,
Keith KR7RK
Amazing MIke! Just WOW!!!
73, Joe KE9AJ