Well the start was better than the finish with my first activation of 2018 starting just 9 hours into the new year, but I’m afraid that life got in the way and my rate slowed somewhat, so just 10 activations this year. I did manage to get to 100 activator points and 500 chaser points but the Goat might have to wait until there is a bit more in the pension fund! The most memorable activation was Hellvellyn in the heat wave which included a short swim in Red Tarn but I have really enjoyed all of them. My standard kit has settled a bit to an FT817 + 40w amp, linked dipole and some 4 and 5 AH LiPo batteries which seem to behave very well and I spend longest on 80/40/60m. Santa brought an FT270 so 2m FM is now a better possibility. Despite the relativly small number of activations I still manage to beat the foolproof systems and forget something. The best this year was to bring the LiPo charger and forget the LiPo battery…
Next Year - I still want to do Cross Fell ( G/NP-001 ) at the same time as one of the RSGB backpackers contests, Easter in the Peak District should get Kinder Scout (G/SP-001) done and I’m slowly working my way through the NP and the closest LD hills. I might try a CW activation, despite two years of listening I dont think I am yet back to my 1979 speed! (This could just be evidence that 40 years on my brain is not as good at re-learning) I am lucky enough(?) to own 2 cars which throw a vareity of faults and as the children have consumed copious quantities of my income I usually end up dealing with some of the issues myself. The Polo is usually more straightforward but the 1998 Land Rover Defender has much more imagination and more things fluids can leak from.but has the advantage that there are very few grass verges which are un-parkable! Blancmange suspension would probably be an improvement, but it does have the advantage that no driver aids are required to maintain the driver in an alert state, indeed it is a bit like chasing on 40m trying to identify any worrying rattles over the “normal” noises!
Hope to be out more in 2019, hope that the Sun starts to be a bit more active and hope everyone else also have a good 2019!
73 Paul
Thanks Andy for the spot on your Topic regards to everyone .
Link to my Blog is probably easiest if you can be bothered checking out my 2018 story.
Looking forward to New Years Morning to get my next year underway.
regards Ian vk5cz
A pretty good year, I reached the mountain goat at 25 April 2018. this year, I managed to activate a summit that I had long dreamed Pizzo Stella I/LO-025. Moreover this year I started to transmit in cw, with the first qso with ea2if guru, unforgettable activation.
2018 was also the year of my first qso in 80 meters and 60mt, in Italy the band of the 60 meters has just been granted.
This year I gave up some 10 points summits I used to activate, in favor of new referenced summits.
The use of cw allowed me to log dx stations, mainly NA. I skipped the 2 meters ssb for the 2 meters fm, few qso but I hope they will increase next year.
Do not forget that this year I performed activations in company of amateur radio friends.
A very fun year!!
Merry Christmas at all!!
73
Roby iw2obx
Hi all,
Sota wise this has been a year of highs and one big low.
In June I enjoyed an 8 day expedition to Shetland. I activated 18 Sotas. Great fun. My thanks to the chasers.
On the 11th of September I achieved my Mountain Goat.and went on to complete the activation the 3 highest Sotas in the UK,GM/WS-001 (Ben Nevis), GM/ES-001 (Ben Macdui) and on 13 September, while snow fell, GM/ES-002 (Braeriach).
On 6th November I activated G/LD-012 (High Stile), Then, early in my descent, while above Red Pike and without warning, I ruptured my quads tendon (Right Knee). The descent took 4 hours of hobbling! An operation and with a lot pf physio still in progres I am on the mend but with a long way to go.
So I have now taken up a bit of chasing and have added a third Sloths to the bag.
No, the activation gear is not for sale, as Arnie says “I will be back”.
My thanks to the MT for pulling this complex programme together.
Merry Christmas and a great Sotering 2019.
David
G0EVV
Hello. Just 3 SOTA summits were activated this year in North Wales, 2 more in England and a few Wainwrights with Dad and my sons in August.
I’m fascinated by digital ATV and am in the second year of building and developing my TV station. The British Amateur Television Club is a cutting edge of the hobby especially in reduced bandwith DATV and an amazing bunch of people. Operating “portable” TV from the back of the car on the summit of Brown Clee Hill using 40 kg of gear did seem wrong from my SOTA background point of view! The need for Tx and Rx computers is a handicap which I hope the club geniuses will reduce to one small computer. I asked Dave G8GKQ club president for a single computer DATV transceiver no heavier than a FT857 which I promise to take to mountain tops in England and Wales. It’ll be a few years yet.
All this workshop time means I’m getting fat so need to resume outdoor pursuits in 2019!
73 es sd
David M0YDH
My 2018 seemed to be a mixed bag. Not a lot of SOTA activating because most of my SOTA time was spent working on IT infrastructure, like the SSO and new sotadata, and helping Rob with the new SMP and non-SOTA time was largely work time or family time. For the first year since I started in SOTA, I activated no new associations.
I did however, get a few new uniques and finished off some unfinished business on Hawkins Hill and Rimutaka (ZL1/WL-101 and WL-054), and qualified a bunch more summits on 2m/70cm for a bit of added challenge, adding to my Mountain Explorer (VHF) tally as well.
2019 is going to involve activating at least one new association, and trying to avoid faffing about on low point summits. With a bit of work, half goat is achievable by this time next year 
Hello all; it was a great 2018 and looking forward to keeping pace in 2019:
2018 was my biggest SOTA year yet… I achieved half goat during the year as well as did a half goat’s worth of points during the span of the year (I basically got sucked into watching my call eek up the W6 activator board thru the year). I managed some international SOTA in both Germany and the UK including a lucky side trip that allowed me a run up Ben Nevis in perfect weather while on a three week family trip thru Europe (Thanks again to all the chasers as well as local activators who fed me information while I was travelling). CEPT was what prompted me to upgrade to Extra so I could have full HF while in EU.
Due to the slow start to winter in the Sierra I was able (more like determined) to keep activating as long as I could. I had activations using Snowshoes, BC Snowboard and on one I used a snowmobile to get near the AZ, and then hiked the rest of the summit.
This was me on top of W7N/WC-003 with WC-001 behind me:
In the spring I went thru the level one of CWops academy and started activating/chasing via CW which helped my QSO count per activation as well as saved my activation a few times (those late night WTF was I thinking activations 
). It also opened me up to a whole new group of S2S/Activators out there! Finally got folks like WG0AT, KX0R etc in my log and even picked up JA/VK/ZL at different points during the Autumn ticking off a few other goals I have had all the while being QRP and portable.
This was the first year that I started activating with other SOTA-ers (I think that’s a word??) as more of a regular thing. I met up with N6DNM a couple of times, KI4SVM for some W4C/W4T activating, AA6XA, KE6MT, K6ARK W6PZA, KK6YYD, and K1LB for the local Tahoe/Sierra Scene. Always fun to see other folks gear and methods to learn from. On top of that I have started some Tahoe/Northern NV SOTA meetups just to get more of us together. I had been flying solo the first few years as an activator, it was nice to meet local and visiting chasers/activators, and we have more meetups planned to come. I helped spread the SOTA “sermon of the mount” to one of my local clubs after another visiting SOTA activator had made many contacts with some local hams while up on W6/NS-061.
Thanks to some other communications back channel methods I’ve also gotten into building antennas and dabbling some in radios too. I now use antennas I’ve built myself, and one day will head out with a QCX or some other self built radio to do an activation.
About half way thru the year I realized that over the couple of years of S2S my activator and chaser points were about even, so I set a new goal of managing my points to hopefully activate MG and chase SS on the same activation. So on that note with just a few days left of the year I still have a couple more activations I am going to do, but I am now looking forward to 2019. I am meeting @N0MAP in January in Charlotte for my MG activation, as well as hopefully picking up one of the VK associations in February. After that we’ll see what happens, but I am looking deeper into the NV/W7N mountains trying to find those hard to reach not yet activated peaks.
Hope to keep adding more and more of you to the log, and picking up associations and regions as I go along, but for now I’ll just say 73, de N6JFD Happy New Years!
My 2018 SOTA year.
I started slowly with only one ON summit in February.
In March I did my usual winter tour, with 7 summits in ON/ON and one in DM/NW.
High point of this trip was of course the presentation about SOTA I gave at the Bergheimer Funkflohmarkt, in GERMAN , which is only my fourth language … all went well and nobody left the room screaming 
Next came my biggest adventure … 3 weeks on Gran Canaria (April/May), activating 9 summits there, with my “high(est) point” of the year … Pico de las Nieves EA8/GC-001.
Back home, I had a short weekend with friends in Trier, but also could smuggle in 2 summits in DM/RP.
Then followed another 10 days on the road in May/June … going to Friedrichshafen.
Along the road, I activated another 25 summits, in 5 different countries.
I had a great time at the Hamradio fair,and of course met a lot of SOTA friends, both at the fair, and at the SOTA dinner.
And in September I went back for a long weekend in the Hochsauerland region in Germany, where I started with SOTA in 2014.
My first two summits have been deleted in the meantime, but I was able to go to three others that I did in 2015, and got two new ones too.
All info on my activations can be found on my blog
https://on7dq.blogspot.com/
So yes, 2018 was a great SOTA year for me … but wait !
2019 should be even better.
In my March winter tour I will get to the magical 1000 activator points and become MG.
I’m also less than 300 points away from the 10000 chaser points mark.
Still figuring out if I could get both marks on the same day, in the same activation … wouldn’t that be great ?
Other plans for 2019 are 3 weeks to EA7 and again the tour to Friedrichshafen. Should keep me busy enough …
Cu all on the bands !
73 - Luc ON7DQ
Hi All,
2018 has been my busiest year for SOTA for a few reasons. Firstly, because I’ve actually been able to go out consistently and secondly, because I’ve made it part of my Duke of Edinburgh Gold. I’ve been quite fortunate too, as SOTA allows me to tick off 2 areas of the award (Hillwalking - Physical; Amateur Radio - Skill).
With my new QTH in Sutton Coldfield, away from the LDs in Cumbria, I’ve been able to explore new regions and, as a result, hit 100 SOTA Completes. I’ve activated all summits in the Welsh Border and South Pennine regions, climbed all but 3 of the hills in South Wales and made good progress in North and Mid Wales. I’m now very much in the hunt for Mountain Goat, achieving 500 points at the end of July, as well as 100 Activator Uniques in May.
I thought it might be fun to sum up my year in “Award Show” format, so here goes…
Stupidest Moment:
Few contenders for this one, including the many times I had to run back to get the antenna that I’d forgotten to take with me, AGAIN! The winner by far, though, has to be the the circular walk I did, taking in Glasgwm (GW/NW-015) and Aran Fawddwy (GW/NW-007) at the end of September. A beautiful 7 hour walk was thoroughly enjoyed (tough start, but otherwise very pleasant, highly recommended), only to realise when I got back at the car that I had left the damned thing unlocked! Nothing was taken and, to be fair, the car park wasn’t overly busy, but lessons were learnt that day! Kudos to the people of Wales who allow idiots like myself to be able to do such silly things…
Daredevil Award:
2 contenders for this one, one being sat on Great Coum (G/NP-011) at the end of July with lightning incoming (eek!), but the winner was doing the Snowdon Horseshoe (Yr Aran GW/NW-019, Snowdon GW/NW-001 and Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008) in 60/70mph gusts at the start of this month. The weather wasn’t as bad on the first 2, but I was very much in the open on Y Lliwedd. I don’t mind challenging weather; I embrace it, but the cliff face on the North side of the summit, combined with the wind pushing me from the South, made for a very shaky activation. Needless to say, I wasn’t up there for long!
Longest activation:
For those who don’t know me, I don’t have an SSB setup - I purely work on 2m FM, so activating can be difficult at times. None more so than Y Golfa (GW/NW-061), done on a Sunday in Mid-August. It took 2 and a half hours to activate the summit (QSO 1 13:21, QSO 4 15:40) but, as it’s set in the middle of a golf course near Welshpool, the weather was glorious and I was on a relaxed schedule, I was in no rush anyway.
Favourite summit:
I don’t know why - maybe it’s the lack of people, maybe it’s the picturesque views - but, for me, Bredon Hill (G/CE-003) is the place to go to relax. I went up there with a friend at the end of last month and, upon seeing the views to the North West, she said, “If you were to draw a typical countryside scene, this is what you’d draw. A river meandering across the page, small villages scattering the paper and, right at the back, a line of mountain peaks with a sprinkling of snow on top.” The place is so peaceful and it’s just a lovely place to sit and do a little bit of radio - a lesser known summit hidden in the Cotswolds.
Favourite picture:
Easily Red Screes (G/LD-017). It’s 45 minutes of never-ending steps, but the views at the top are why I love and miss the Lake District.
Best Moment:
Mid-May, I was in the throws of my South Wales blitz and, on a little summit (Allt Yr Esgair GW/SW-023), with obvious clearance only really to the North West, I worked my first EI station from a SOTA summit. For others, continental stations are no biggie, but to me, this was a huge deal, as I only have a small 2m setup, which does surprise me from time to time. Conditions had been perfect and it was the last hill of the day, so I had a beaming smile all the way back home.
Stat attack:
Total summits = 104 (2 x 10 pointers, 9 x 8 pointers, 11 x 6, 12 x 4, 23 x 2, 47 x 1)
Total points = 365 (inc. 60 Winter Bonus)
Total QSOs = 811
Equipment:
Yaesu VX-170 Handheld
Original 3 element SOTABeam
It’ll take me a few more years to get to MG, but that’s my next main target, as well as continuing to tick of uniques as I go. Thanks to all the chasers and other activators who do this crazy thing called SOTA; it’s a joy to be a part of it and my thanks go to the MT who maintain, promote and expand this wonderful hobby.
Enjoy the festivities and have a cracking New Year!
Jordan M3TMX
Hi, Jordan.
I think you (have) had two hills mixed up here 
G/CE-003 is Bredon Hill - Tewkesbury area - pleasant rural views
Bardon Hill is G/CE-004 - Leicestershire - huge quarry hole on W side.
Merry SOTA for 2019
73,
Rod
Edited after correction above.
Whoops… Now corrected - thanks for spotting it!
Cheers, Jordan!
Could hear EYP s2s with you but no-one else at all.
Have a good day.
73,
Rod
For 2018 I set myself a goal, I wanted to have one activation per week on average, which allowed me to take a few extras when WX were good and vice versa. Today I reached my 52nd activation (there are more in the list, but they are overnight stays which I only count as one). In total I visited 40 unique summits all over Southern Norway, and one in Sweden. There was a total of 1193 QSO’s, mostly on HF with my Xiegu X108g.
I activated with both my own callsign and special event callsigns like LM10SOTA and LM90NRRL, which always brings a bit of extra fun.
Thanks to all chasers and other activators, and happy new year!
I completed three of the four goals I had made last December (2018 is a coming - #16 by AA6XA):
I activated 121 peaks in 2017, and my count is at 122 now (Dec 28), with more planned for the last few days of 2018. Maybe in 2019 I’ll be able to beat my 2018 record.
I’ve activated in some new areas of CA, but still haven’t gotten a peak in each of the regions. I need to take a trip down to the desert down south.
I’ve activated in new associations: W4C, W7N, W7A, TF, W1, and W5T were new for me this year. One more next year and I can get my Mountain Explorer Silver!
I still haven’t made any microwave contacts, but hopefully 2019 will be the year.
I’ve passed 700 activator points, and if I can keep up the same rate, I should get my MG around this time next year. Most of my activations were fun. There are so many great peaks in California, and I’ve started making a dent in climbing all of them. I’ve met some new activators and chasers, and gone out with some of them on joint activations. Hopefully next year I’ll keep up the trend and meet more SOTA enthusiasts.
Thanks to all the chasers, who make all this fun possible!
Jeff aa6xa
2018 is my first year for SOTA both as an activator and chaser and have found it to be amongst my most rewarding endeavors in amateur radio. It has the added fringe benefit of better health as all the hiking and outdoor activity is good exercise. Many thanks to Scott KW4JM for getting me engaged and frequently my hiking and activating companion. I started in October of 2018 - and so far activated 14 summits including a first time activation of Panther Mountain W4C/WM-060. I am also almost at 500 milestone as a chaser (just 41 pts to go). I also got to meet W4C association manager Patrick Harris KI4SVM and he is great promoter of SOTA and a great guy to boot. All my activations are recorded in my blog - https://ny4g.blogspot.com/ and you will find a great many photos of the views from the different summits there.
I also built a 4 band linked dipole for 60-40-30-20m bands much like the SOTABEAMS version and nine weighs in at 370g (including feedline). I used powerpoles instead of allgator clips. I also am testing and comparing my various SOTA antennas using WSPRlite Classic from SOTABEams. So far, my go to antenna is the LNR 40-20-10 EFHW which I have used in 12 of the 14 activations. I have used the LNR MTR twice but I will try the linked dipole next. So far, my most frequently used rig is the KX3 (13/14activations) and I have also used the K1 once in 2018 (4 band version -40-30-20-15). I like the K1 which is lighter and will likely use it more in 2019.
Best moment - QSO with New Zealand station ZL1BYZ on 20m while at the summit of Panther Mountain.
Two memorable photos from the rainy day activation of Wine Spring Bald W4C/WM-018 and of my SOTA station at the summit of Lickstone Bald W4C/CM-012
Just adding in a few photos from the year.
LA/HL-199 Kongsfjellet, IOTA EU-055
LA/RL-062 Boknafjellet on a cold day
LA/TM-001 Gaustatoppen
LA/BU-093 Raudsteinvarden, amazing scenery
LA/OL-001 Galdhøpiggen, Norway’s highest at 2469 meters
One of my favorite moments, meeting real SOTA Goats on LA/OL-184 Kvitberget
Kjetil, sorry I can only click “like” once for your photos!
Sounds like a great 2018 year Jeff. Wish you the best for the new year.
Ariel NY4G
My 2018 year in SOTA I started with activation of SB/BZ-001 - Beskid Mountains Queen
Then activated number of summits in SP and OK… - on the photo below trekking to OK/MO-002
In March I activated G/SE-013
and a few summits in DM - on the photo below is DM/BM-154
In April I activated summits in OK/VY and OK/ZL - on the photo view from OK/ZL-045
In May I activated summits in OK/KR, OK/MO and OK/ZL - on the photo OK/KR-063
as well as OM/ZA - on the photo OM/ZA-015
In June I activated summits in SP and DM - on the photo SP/BZ-014
In July I activated summits in DM, SP and OK - on the photo is DM/HE-007
In August I activated summits in OE/TI, OK/KR and OK/KA - on the photo OE/TI-315
In September I taken a part in OE5 SOTA day
and activated summits in OK/JC and OK/MO - on the photo OK/MO-003
In October I activated summits in OM/ZA, OK/OL, OK/PA and SP - on the photo OM/ZA-023
November was month of activations in OK/VY, OK/JC and SP - on the photo OK/VY-001
December was month of activations in DM, SP, OK and OM - on the photo OK/JC-121
and OK/MO-001 seen from OK/OL-001
During year 2018 I activated 268 summits, logged 4594 contacts, 440 of them are S2S.
Thanks to another activators and chasers.
73, Jarek SP9MA
I close my first full year in the SOTA program with 59 activations, with 585
CW/SSB summit to summit qsos. Considering that I bought my used FT-817 only in February, it does not seem bad at all.
I built several antennas, tuners, even paddles, and all this gratified me a lot.
2018 brought the 60-meter band to Italian Hams … I’m happy to have made the
first Italian activation in this band.
As a chaser, in 2018 I connected 3265 uniques, 4874 in total, and even here,
given my geographical position that made me miss many activations in France,
Switzerland, Austria, Low Germany,Slovenia and even Italy, it seems a good
result, obtained with a 12 meters longwire mounted on the side of the house.
I hope in 2019 at least to equal these results.
A big thank you to everyone, chasers, activators and managers of the SOTA
program…Happy new year!
73, Fabio IK2LEY