I had a chance meeting today with Dave GW8NZN on Moel y Gamelin GW/NW-042.
We arrived at the summit within minutes of each other, and after introductions and a nice chat, Dave set up on 2m, and I on 60m.
Dave in action:
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Nice to speak to you both today Adrian!
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Hi,
I did, but not physically, as a chaser, no, not really as a chaser, just by going up and down the bands looking for any station to make contact with. So in 2019 having no knowledge of the existance of SOTA I had 15 stations in my log (53 points).
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My earliest chance encounter was with Charlie G0PZO in June 2006, just 4 months after I started activating. This was in the parking area for The Wrekin G/WB-010. It just so happened that we arrived at the same time and during a chat on our ascent we discovered that we were both going to activate using 2m SSB. I deferred to activate using FM and we managed to activate the summit at the same time. More chat on the descent.
Since then there have been 4 more by chance meetings:
July 2007 - Aberedw GW/MW-022, when I met Neil MW0ECX who was just completing his activation
September 2009 - The Cloud G/SP-015, when I met Tom descending after his activation
July 2010 - Hownam Law GM/SS-197, when I met Jim G0CQK just as I was almost back to my car
August 2010 - Yarlside G/NP-019, when Richard G1JTD and his XYL came up to the summit while Paul G4MD and I were activating. We descended together down a steep more direct route that was much quicker than the one that Paul and I had planned.
A couple of people have timed their visits to the summit to coincide with ours:
February 2013 - Criffel GM/SS-130, when Mark MM1MPB came up to the summit to activate alongside Paul and myself. We descended togetherā¦
April 2014 - Black Mount GM/SS-158, when Jack GM4COX was on the summit before Paul and myself
Then there were the āsupport actsā:
September 2008 - Easington Fell G/SP-012, when Mick M0PVA met us at the car after our activation, complete with soup! 
November 2008 - Boulsworth Hill G/SP-008, when Mike G4BLH came to the parking spot to meet us after the activation
January 2009 - Shining Tor G/SP-004, when Steve G1INK came up to the summit to meet us, after which we convened to the pub. 
There have been numerous occasions where we have made arrangements during an activation to meet up with people in the evening, usually over a pint or two. All these encounters have been a real pleasure and have added greatly to the SOTA experience.
73, Gerald
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What a brilliant memory you have Gerald!
73 Phil
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Random encounters are:
Robert GM4GUF on Tinto GM/SS-064 May 2009. He was just finishing a 2m SSB activation when I arrived. Robert is a fellow SHF / uWave man. We had a quick chat and he left me to the DC bands that day.
I met Ulrich DF8KN on the summit of Pico do Ariero CT3/MI-004 October 2012. I was doing the 1st SOTA activation of Madeira and had a proper mad pileup (I had to work split) when Ulrich approached me. He told me he had activated from the same spot a few years back but was impressed with the size of a SOTA pileup for one of the 1st SOTA activations from Africa.
Arranged meetings include Barry GM4TOE and Jack GM4COX on Tinto summit 2010. I canāt remember whose equipment but I borrowed one of their radios for 4 QSOs. And yourself Gerald after our first introductions to Galloway ground. October 2007. The WX was awesome, early October and 20C. I planned to quickly snaffle Craignaw and Mullwarcher on my way down to my contest groupās site. Hahahahaha. I remember you saying when you saw my plans that it looked an impressive walk and I thought, pah what a lightweight Gerald is. Then I did Craignaw GM/SS-096 and realised how difficult easy looking summits are down there. You did another Galloway hill or two and neither of us have been the same since. I still remember thinking that the short way out was through the awful ground and a river crossing. Or the longer way, an extra km, around Loch Neldricken. The ground was slightly less horrific. I think I got back to the car and mainlined 2L of water and sat in the tailgate for 30mins tripping on endorphins. And I still have its neighbours to do, Iāve been putting them off for 14 years 
EDIT:
And I forgot bumping into Phil G4OBK on my way up and his way down Blencathra G/LD-008 in September 2012 and Graeme MM0HLQ (but he was 2M0GIL at the time) at the summit of Meal Gainmheich GM/SS-134 in Feb 2011.
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Even if you disregard the pre-arranged meetings and joint activations, this is still something that has happened 10-20 times a year for the last two decades. I considered briefly ploughing through my website pages and cataloguing all the chance meetings for this thread. Very briefly. The end.
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I wish! No thatās not true - I can remember who I met where, but the dates didnāt come from memory. I had to look those up. I think the biggest surprise was Neil MW0ECX on Aberedw. As I approached the summit I could see the top of a pole. VHF Field Day was running at the time and I panicked thinking I was wasting my time if there was a contest group on there, but thankfully it was just Neil. Phew!
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Yes indeed, I can see the contest site in my mind - thatās what comes from working in a visual profession for over 50 years! I had activated Cairnsmore (Black Craig of Dee) GM/SS-170 and White Top of Culreoch GM/SS-245. Neither put me off, not even the wet feet and chest high heather on Cairnsmore. The thing was, I really did enjoy that activation. The endorphins when I got to the summit were off the scale! 
I still have Mullwharchar to activate, plus the newbie Kirriereoch of course. Maybe this will be the year. I am now armed with no less than 3 different types of midge deterrent. 
Goodness me, Meall Gainmheich - almost worthy of Galloway. A never-again summit. 
People who have not done Cairnsmore or Meall Gainmheich will think weāre a right pair of wimps.
We have it better organised now. Better operating tents and we now have several strips of LEDs, about 50 LEDs in parallel on a strip of plastic, takes about 2A at 12V and produces plenty of diffuse light to operate on. Also the old cruddy contest laptops are a lot newer and fasterā¦ no waiting minutes for the old steam powered UHF laptop to get up to speed 
We hope to do a lot more contesting this year. This is my last planned year of full time work and I want to do a lot more contesting this year. One of the contest crew retired Nov 30 2021 and so he will be a lot more available as he wont be manning the pumps at weekends any more for his job. Itās just a matter of putting mind into gear and buying enough burgers and booze for the weekend. The WX does help. If you are in the area and weāre out you know you can come and say hello. You can also experience the fully loaded K3 plus a pair of Kuhne transverters on 2m in full diversity mode. Thatās one hell of an improvement over the old FT-736 we used to use.
Gin & tonic + bitters for an aperitif. (n.b. 13cms PA in background)
Meat and veg
More drinks, tea, coffee, beer, gin. The whisky is out of shot.
K3 + single Kuhne. See there is radio as well as food and booze!
I hope to plan a mass doing of this one, stay tuned.
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Which contest group is that Andy? And do you have any vacancies? 
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This has only happened to me once. On November 27, 2015 I met Steve WI2W on Bare Mtn, W1/CR-014. I heard an incredibly loud signal on 20 cw, my radio could barely handle it. I had gone beyond the 1st summit into the little dip between it and the next bump on the ridge, so I did not see him and I didnāt know we were on the same summit until I asked him on cw where he was.
As I started packing up Steve came along and found me and we had a nice chat all the way down to Rte 116.
Steve, is, by the way, the person who had given me my 1000th chaser point not long before, when he was doing an activation from NJ. So meeting him was special that way.
Al N1AW
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I can barely operate a radio when Iām sober. Ahā¦
Thereās an idea.
Strong westerly winds forecast tomorrow, so the plan is for Mo to drop me off on the Old Military Road that runs over from Crathie (HM Queen Elizabeths other house) to Strathdon. Iām going to walk back home via Mona Gowan and Morven, as itās a completely west to east hike and both summits have shelter. I may as well take a bottle of Malt with me. Happy to share if I bump into any other SOTA types.
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I think you also have another new one to activate as well Gerald which is White Hill GM/SS-289 if itās still your intention to activate all GM SOTA summits south of Glasgow/Edinburgh (excluding those SOTA summits on the Kintyre peninsula). I think Andy MM0FMF still has these SOTA summits to activate as well to him to activate all GM SOTA summits south of Glasgow/Edinburgh (excluding those SOTA summits on the Kintyre peninsula), but I believe that he may have given up with this given the horrible ground on the summits he has left to do.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Yes. I had started trying finish them end of November 2019 but had an incident with a hole full of icy water. The issue Jimmy is they are all a 2h30 minimum drive across rubbish roads. So not only are they quite strenuous walks but they have 5hrs of driving on top. Really I want to stay nearby, drive down, bag Craiglee, stay overnight, have a nice meal and some beer, bag Lamachan the next day, drive home. That was the plan. Then we had 3 months of rubbish WX the first 3months of 2020. Then this COVID lark happened and made travel and staying away difficult. So hopefully as the WX improves and COVID subsides, I can pickup where I left off. That leaves Mulwharchar but there should be sufficient people to make a group activation (so we can all get the chase as well) viable.
What about the new two? Well Kirrierioch is a bit of a brute and again is a long drive and makes another night away worthwhile. Iād bring the big boyās toys down and do some microwaves on a repeat SOTA on the way back to make it worthwhile. White Hill is a simple enough walk it can be snaffled on a trip to/from Englandlandshire sometime as itās a quick divert off the motorway.
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Kirrierloch will be a bit interesting to get to. For a safe bet Loch Trool ā Merrick ā Kirrierloch. But there are more interesting routes if there is a dry spell.
For Mullwharchar, Craiglee and Lamachan trips I slept in the van at Loch Trool carpark and got an early start. It was very quiet, I arrived about 21:30 or later and was on the move by 07:00.
Craiglee and Lamachan could be done on the same trip under ideal conditions but it would be a bit brutal and you would have to skip GM/HSS-131 - Curleywee which is a delight.
To keep on track for this post, on these summits you wonāt meet anyone SOTA or otherwise. You could be lucky and meet the Mountain Goats.
73 de
Andrew G4VFL
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Indeed, but that is a mere pimple which can be picked up en route. Actually to my mind itās a pity that a new summit designation was required as there is very little difference between Hightown Hill and White Hillā¦ two green hillocks on farm land accessed up a muddy track.
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I actually disagree there Gerald, Hightown Hill GM/SS-273 was the first of the 3 GM SOTA summits that me and my dad Tom @M1EYP activated on our GM daytrip back in June last year and was an easy summit for us to bag also. White Hill GM/SS-289 is therefore another easy GM SOTA unique for us to bag when we either next to a daytrip a GM activating some GM SOTA uniques or on en route to wherever we will be staying if the next time we bag some unique GM SOTA summits happens to be when we will be on a SOTA holiday in GM. This is similar to when Muncaster Fell - Hooker Crag G/LD-055 was relocated to Muncaster Fell G/LD-059 as both of them had very little height difference as well, but the drop between like Hightown Hill GM/SS-273 and White Hill GM/SS-289 is about 30m so therefore out of activation zone.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Jimmy - I think Geraldās frustration probably comes from thinking heād āfinishedā a geographical area for unique SOTAs only to discover that it now contains a new hill he needs to do. A bit like what happened to us regarding LX!
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Thatās not correct Tom as I knew Kirriereoch was being added to the list and I hadnāt activated Mullwharchar anyway. What I am saying is that I consider it unfortunate that the change was one between two grassy knolls just some 300 metres apart. I suppose White Hill has the interest of it being a hill fortā¦ which suggests to me that the ancient people knew it was higher!