70+ Years of age. 48 of them travelling all over Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Nordic countries, down to the Syrian border. I always looked forward to meeting my closest friends along the road maybe 1 or 2 and if i was lucky all 3. I could find them in places i would not have dreampt of, and sometimes not find them where i would really have expected to find their smiling faces. I have lost my friends, no that is wrong I connot find them HERE at the moment. I looked for them on my first post, I looked for them when asked by the moderator and the MT to contact them via email. No not there, I really do miss them so if you see my 3 friends anywhere in this SOTA Reflector please let them know i am looking for them. Sorry I almost forgot to give you their names. INTEGRITY, TRANSPARENCY, and ACCOUNTABILITY. Thank you, if you can help.
Hello William, i’m here and read your words, 4 or 5 times, half an hour. I must say its a grazy world, so many has chanced the last 20-30 years. Most of them is not good. I will say thank you for your warm words. Stay health. Jürgen/DO2JHM
Jurgen, thank you for your very pleasant reply and like, you know something i might just find my friends after all heres hopeing. Stay safe look after your friends and family. 73 MI7WJL.
Hi William,
I was really hoping to catch you on the air from my SOTA activations here in GI this week. Sadly not, but I did catch up with some of my other GI friends on 2m FM from the summits.
Heading back home on the night boat from Belfast tonight.
73
Tom M(I)1EYP
You stay safe John Willy I have missed your cheery voice on the air but not to worry , you stay in the warm and hopefully when the warmer weather gets here we’ll speak again.
Best 73 and have a good Yule tide
Allen
Allen, good to hear from you. keep checking SOTASpotter sorting out a few wee things on my antenna’s but will be out shortly. 73. Stay safe.
I notice you were the last activator on Cross Slieve GI/AH-011 before me William. Wonder what route you took? I’ve used three different routes on this summit now, though I couldn’t find the one I took last time. Anyway, very easy hill with lovely coastal views.
Hi William, I see we’ve managed to work each other a few times on SOTA activations. Hope to renew the contact during my next visit. Not sure if I’ll be heading to the Mournes or the Antrim Hills, it depends on the weather and family commitments!
HI Andy / Willy John
Off topic - nothing to do with lost friends I’m afraid…
FB - its expensive crossing Johnson’s EU border in the Irish Sea from Stranraer isn’t it? Have you any way of getting a discount? I have done some Mournes but no Antrim or Sperrins etc yet… got to be worth a visit sometime methinks…
73 Phil
I did consider (briefly) suggesting to my wife that it was far too expensive travelling across the sea to see her parents for Christmas. But then common sense (otherwise known as cowardice) struck and I happily booked the tickets 
The main problem now is that I always used to take a case of wine over for the family. I suppose that’s over my duty free allowance now. And I’ll leave it there in the interests of avoiding political discussion!!
As a backstop you could always take the case of wine and plead ignorance if you are stopped. I don’t think there are any checks for privateers and you won’t be selling it in the south as its a present. There must be car loads of Xmas presents travelling across in the next few weeks.
I don’t think the price has increased dramatically if at all. We always take the overnight from Birkenhead to Belfast, and while over £500 seems a hefty sum, if you consider it as:
- two eight hour ferry crossings (for multiple passengers)
- two nights accommodation
- about 400 miles worth of diesel saved
…then it’s not so bad. For 2, 3 or 4 of us, it’s the best value way of getting over. Flights might seem cheaper, but not when you factor in hire cars, airport parking, extra two nights accommodation etc. How it would work out for a single traveller I’m not sure as I’ve never done the ferry on my own - so don’t know how much (if any) the price drops.
Thoroughly enjoyed the five GI/AH summits I did this week and can recommended them to anyone. It’s a personal perception of course, bought I felt the points allocations were correct for four of them. The 4 + 3 bonus for GI/AH-003 seemed very generous - but hey I’ll take them 
Now diesel - there’s something that IS getting very expensive very rapidly!
Cheers Andy, good to get the contacts. Please let me know when and where you might be going and I will look at a S2S. Am making a list of 4 pointers for the Winter bonus. And I have two new home brew antenna’s to try out for real. Stay safe 73 MI7WJL.
Tom, I just checked my cards parking was 55/05/31.1N -6/03/40.7W. Just at an entry opposite Grenville caravan Park on Grenville Rd. Follow the well defined farm track up through the out buildings, I broke left just past a slight cutting on the right across the field to the coordination point. 73 MI7WJL.
Thanks William. I just checked that on Google Maps and realised two things:
-
That was exactly the same approach that Jimmy and used on our 2008 activation.
-
It turns out I did find the intended access point this time! As that’s exactly where I told my satnav to take me. However, when I arrived there, the entrance was blocked by a locked gate, with lots of “Private land” and “No admittance” signs. Enough to make me think I was in the wrong place!
So it looks like this way of ascending to the summit of GI/AH-011 is no longer viable.