Possible?

Old Reflector
1

I just need 13 Chaser Points to complete my Shack Sloth award, and 5 more Unique Summits to complete my 250 Summits Chaser Award.

Will it be possible to achieve this by the end of the year, which is my personal target? There are not many activations shown in the Alerts List for the last two days of December!

I shall have to hope for good weather and a few unexpected activations!
:slight_smile:

Happy New Year,
Walt (G3NYY)

2

In reply to G3NYY:

Entirely possible - even likely.

73

Richard
G3CWI

3

In reply to G3CWI:

Hi Richard!

I hope you are right!
:slight_smile:

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

4

In reply to G3NYY:
Hi Walt
I will do an activation on 31.Dec together with Kjell/LA1KHA, probably only
Holtankollen(LA/TM-049) 1 point. If Kjell has some skies we might do Brunane(LA/TM-070)2 points. Weather-forecast seems to be good, but cold (abt.-10C)
This will sure not be enough points for you, but there will be other activators also (I hope).
HNY and 73 de
Aage / LA1ENA

5

In reply to G3NYY:

Hi Walt!

I am sure, you will be able to reach your objectives!
I had to leave for a few hours today at high noon, therefore I missed several activations that theoretically I could have reached. Furthermore I obviously can not reach QRP VHF/UHF FM only activators located several hundred kilometers distance from me. Despite of this I made 9 SOTA QSOs today; 8 of them were new summits, and collected 32 points.
Up to you, Walt!

73: Joska, HA5CW

6

Your Uniques objective may prove more difficult but the SS will be easy.

73

Richard
G3CWI

7

In reply to G3NYY:

Iā€™m hoping I can get out again before New Year and VHF fun day. Depends entirely on the weather as it snowed 3 times again today, at least another 1cm accumulated. That wouldnā€™t be a problem apart from the fact it fell onto icy roads which made driving fun!

Iā€™ll see which of the easy hills around here are uniques for you and pick one of those as my main objective if the WX is conducive.

Andy
MM0FMF

8

Many thanks to all!

Iā€™ll be monitoring HF/LF all day on 30th and 31st December, but I have no VHF/UHF facilities at home (except very local range, about 20 km).

To Joska: Today I made 12 SOTA QSOs; collected 37 chaser points and 8 new Unique summits. (I could not hear DG0JMB/P, and I missed HA5AZC/P because I had to go out at 14:30 UTC.)

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

9

In reply to G3NYY:

I have got reinforcements. Could be a smorgasbord of points on offer tmwā€¦ Watch the alerts for an update later.

73

Richard
G3CWI

10

In reply to G3CWI:

I have got reinforcements. Could be a smorgasbord of points on offer
tmwā€¦ Watch the alerts for an update later.

Excellent news! Iā€™ll be watching/listening!
:slight_smile:

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

11

In reply to DC7CCC:

Thanks for the nice QSO and SOTA points, Mario! I hope your WX will soon be better. Here today we have only rain!

Nice video!

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

12

In reply to G3NYY:

Here today we have only rain!

Weather forecaster him tell lie thenā€¦ we have a couple of centimetres here in Northampton and we are supposed to be on the fringe!

All the best for getting SS by the end of 2009. I will be keeping an ear open for the Macclesfield lads from a day on the SVR, that is if we are not snowed in. I need 4 points on 2m to get my VHF/UHF SS.

73, Gerald

13

In reply to G3NYY:

Hi Walt

Shack Sloth will be no problem on HF - around 75% of activators do not send alerts because they do not want the pressure of meeting a self-imposed deadline, so you are almost certain to hear unscheduled activity from HA/HB/OK/DL. Norby LX1NO may also remain active with SX 10 pointers.

The 5 unique summits may be a bit touch and go.

Good Luck

Roy G4SSH

14

In reply to G4SSH:

Hmmmm. You are more optimistic than I am, Roy.

I couldnā€™t hear F/DD6DO/P or HA5CQZ/P today and there has been no other activity.

It seems my scepticism was well founded. Still, thereā€™s always tomorrow ā€¦
:wink:

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

15

In reply to G3NYY:

WX conditions arenā€™t good here. Thereā€™s a big thaw going on which has made the driving much harder. Soft slush almost defeated my carā€™s 4WD capabilities in B&Qā€™s car park of all places! It was easier driving on the crunchy snow/ice mix. Itā€™s also become very breezy and gusty here. It feels cold and damp now whereas last week it felt fresh and pleasant even though it was much colder. The cloudbase is around 500m. The WX for tomorrow is very similar.

The upshot of all that is that it doesnā€™t sound too appealing to go out tomorrow. The forecast looks better for New Yearā€™s Day which doesnā€™t really help you. But again it looks like the WX will improve for Sunday and VHF Fun Day, which is nice as the power lead for the 23cms rig turned up this morning and so now I can get a whole 1W of RF! Iā€™m checking for alternate hills with LOS paths to NP/LD/NW hills just in case Queensberry access is just not on.

Andy
MM0FMF

16

In reply to G3NYY:

Hello Walt

Having decided not to go to Shropshire at 0600 this morning, Tom and I tried hard (but failed) to reach the summit of Black Hill - conditions above 450m were not good.

We went to the Stalybridge Station Buffet instead; ā€œChristmas Pudā€ ale excellent. Sorry.

Photos to follow.

73

Richard
G3CWI

17

In reply to G3NYY:

Sri dr Walt, did my best last 3 days, now back home ( worked you 3 times ! ).

HNY

73 de Hans ON/PA3FYG/P ,(ON/ON-001), PA3FYG/P ( PA/PA-002 +003)

18

SP-002 (failed)

A few photos:
Imgur

A video shot at the point that we decided to abort:

73

Richard
G3CWI

19

In reply to G3CWI:

You are SNOTA qualified dr Richard !!

73 de Hans PA3FYG

20

Looks like every UK SOTA expedition that embarked today ended up in an abandonment! To be fair to Richard, he was eager to press on further than Oakenbank Clough (where we turned around), but I managed to persuade him with the following observations:

  • I had fallen over five times in the last ten minutes.
  • We (I) werenā€™t going very fast, and certainly wouldnā€™t be in the AZ by our agreed ā€˜turn-aroundā€™ deadline of 1pm.
  • We had lost the path (the Pennine Way) and were going the wrong way.
  • The snow was coming down quickly and covering evidence of our outward tracks.
  • The wind was blowing hard and creating some rather nice snow drifts.
  • The Stalybridge Station buffet bar offered a much more pleasant afternoon ahead than anything on Black Hill (which was actually white) ahead.

So to Stalybridge it was, where we found the station bar packed, but still enjoyed excellent service as well as good beer and food. On the motorway later we spotted the matrix signs advising of the closure of the A628 (Woodhead), so it was probably a good job we got out of there when we did. We had gone for the ambitious long southern walk-in from there after learning that the A635 (Wessenden) road was closed first thing.

It all seemed so much easier when I did that approach as part of the Pennine Way in August 2006! Compare these photos with Richardā€™s above!

http://tomread.co.uk/black_hill_2006.htm

Tom M1EYP

BTW, Crowden YHA has indeed moved to new premises.