More power to your elbow. If I were retired and could afford to get around Europe (without hassle from the XYL), then I’d be doing the same. You have certainly left me (and others) in the dust with regards to Completes and you are breathing hard on my shoulder on Uniques as well. Best get a few more under my belt. 
Have a safe trip back all of you.
73, Gerald G4OIG
Hi,
Well see what happens.
You will not be coming back to better weather!
Well done on the completes 
Torrential rain right now in Sussex. Will watch ‘Masterchef’ on TV and then do a couple of computer jobs then…
Night night
Mike
Morning all. Victor GI4ONL is heading back to the airport for an early plane to Belfast. Marcin SQ9OZM has kindly offered Victor an “airport transfer service” (Thank you Marcin), so I have a few spare hours before returning the hire car to the depot at Krakow airport. So I hope to qualify two or three summits on 2m FM on my way there and have alerted accordingly.
73 Phil SP/G4OBK/P
Have a good, timely and safe trip home Phil.
73 Ed.
Good morning all, unfortunately my trip to SP is almost over. I am now checked in at Krakow airport without any problems with all the gizmos, I had to have my chargers and leads scanned separately because I left them in my carry on bag. Everything else went through with no questions about the lipos or radios.
Thanks to all the chasers over the last week sometimes in difficult conditions, and a special thanks to Marcin SQ9OZM for all his help before and during this trip.
73, until the next time…
Victor SP/GI4ONL
Thanks Ed. Yes, we had a good flight with Ryanair back to Leeds. I got home at about 9.15pm thanks to Nick G4OOE our driver. I got to gate 18 at Krakow airport to board the plane with 30 minutes to spare after completing 3 VHF FM activations by winding my way from the Gorce National Park boundary where we stayed, to the airport in Krakow.
Victor GI4ONL drove for most of the 1050 KMs during the 7 day SOTA Tour and I thank him for that, We got on very well indeed, we are well matched in the speed we walk and in the way we operate - I had only met Victor once before briefly at the Blackpool rally in 2015. I hope we are able to team up for some more overseas trips before we hang up our walking boots and retire from activating. Hopefully this is some years away, but you never know how long the enthusiasm and ones health will last out…
73 Phil
You forgot to mention our similar level of insanity…
CQ de SP/G4OOE/P
We have had a very good week in Southern Poland and I would like to thank Phil for the planning of this successful operation. He spent days researching tracks and routes from various sources and we were able to download them onto our smart phones and choose which ones we were able to complete comfortably. Our objectives were much more modest than those of Phil and Victor. We were happy to activate several summits in the area and try whenever possible to work Phil and Victor to give Phil his completes and of course us all S2S contacts.
Yesterday, our last day in Poland, Phil somehow managed 3 summits, put his hire car through the car wash and hand in the vehicle and still catch the plane!
My laptop was just too big to take on this trip along with everything else so I haven’t added anything to this thread until now.
Although we went our separate ways during the day, we met up on most evenings for a meal and some good banter.
L to R - Nick SP/G4OOE/P, Dave SP/G3TQQ/P, Victor SP/GI4ONL/P, Phil SP/G4OBK/P & Pete SP/M0HQO/P
Our day off sightseeing in Krakow showing horse drawn carriage
Victor was a great help showing me how to use ViewRanger properly by getting the coordinates of the track accurately and using the Satnav to take us directly to the start of the track. I made a couple of major mistakes early on during the trip but by the end of the week I think I had mastered the technique. Victor also showed me lots of “must have” gadgets like his large American single paddle key that he straps to his thigh for activations letting you key with thick gloves as well as allowing the FT817 to be under cover for protection. Then he showed me his Ultra Pico Keyer allowing use of memories to send calls and procedure. Finally we got to see his satellite tracking device that allows you to send a spot to SOTAwatch via satellite (very useful if no mobile signal), This device also has an emergency button that sends your position to a monitoring station.
Our accommodation was absolutely perfect for this kind of SOTA holiday and Victor had certainly picked a winner.
Pod Jaworzyna, Koninki
View from Pete’s bedroom
There were many highlights of the trip but one that sticks out in my mind was the day Pete, Dave and I went to SP/BZ-034. We met a Polish walking group that was being led by a character wearing a Sherrif’s star. He insisted on us tasting 3 different kinds of vodka! We really enjoyed our short time together.
L to R Dave SP/G3TQQ/P, “The Sheriff”, Nick SP/G4OOE/P, lady, Pete SP/M0HQO/P, Sherrif’s deputy and xyl
Our last activation on SP/BZ-082 during snow storm
Thanks to all the chasers.
Hopefully, some of us will be activating Snowdon next week.
73
Nick
Thank you for the flowers Nick! It was a pleasure to help us all accomplish what we did, and allow Dave G3TQQ and Pete M0HQO to taste their first overseas SOTA Tour such as the one we completed yesterday. I haven’t counted the SOTA Completes up yet, but without you three guys operating I would have returned much poorer with Completes than I did.
The secret was the 6 Ps, which we kept reciting through the week:
_Proper Preparation Prevents P* Poor Performance…_**
I have to comment about Victor and his strapped to the knee Morse Key and watch - an unusual style of operating, but it works really well for him. See him here in action on SP/BZ-005, sorry about the absence of a sidetone, but Victor was using headphones and the HB1B Transceiver that belongs to Marcin SQ9OZM, who it must be said with thanks, provided us with valuable information and good company when we were in Poland.
73 Phil
FB Phil - I am still adding photos to my original post so keep looking at it - hi hi! (I have only just remembered how to add them!)
G3TQQ
Well, a truly splendid trip with many QSOs, plenty of fun and plenty of beer !
Many thanks to Phil for his hard work.
Also many thanks to Nick and Pete for doing all the driving and allowing me to snooze peacefully in the back seat !
Thanks to all our chasers and I look forward to the next trip
73 Dave
Fame at last…
Today Victor and I are teaming up with Marcin SQ9OZM. We will activate SP/BZ-005 and BZ-006 on CW and SSB.
It was a very nice walk in good company, with a few SOTA points as bonus. Many thanks, Phil and Victor!
73!
Marcin SQ9OZM
P.S. My pictures from that day: Turbacz & Kudłoń | Flickr
