SOTA NEWS - JANUARY 2014 - PART 1 of 2
EDITORIAL – by Roy G4SSH
Happy New Year and welcome to the January 2014 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Andy MM0FMF, Skip K6DGW, AllenVK3HRA, Tom M1EYP. Kevin G0NUP, Mark G0VOF, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Sake OH2NOS, Serge UU4JIM, Ed. VK2JI, Marq CT1BWW, Marcin SQ9OZM.
31st December marks the end of the year and the end of myself as Editor of SOTA News, as I am standing down from the position after this edition. I have enjoyed the challenges of the job for the past five years and met many friendly SOTA members, both on the air and in exchanges of e-mails.
Unfortunately, a change of circumstances prevents me from continuing. My son has a terminal illness which involves me in much travelling between my home in North Yorkshire and a London hospital and this is incompatible with keeping up to date with various SOTA occurrences and editing the news. I need to devote my time to supporting my son and his family in their time of need.
I must thank all the contributors to the news for their support, both regular and occasional. Without you there would be no news.
I shall be taking a back seat for a while, but will still chase on occasions when I am at home.
In the meantime Skip K6DGW, the regular editor of the U.S / Canadian News has offered to step in as general editor in the short term, and all further contributions should be forwarded to him. (see U.S. News). Please support the new editor.
SOTA AWARDS FOR DECEMBER 2013 By Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager
Congratulations to all who made the lofty heights of Shack Sloth (1000 Chaser points) this month. Special mention to G3VXJ who has requested a trophy to commemorate chasing 5000 Unique Summits – getting that on a trophy was a work of art for the engraver! Particular mention to ON4FI for achieving 25k Chaser points and also prolific US Chaser K6EL for making “Superslothâ€.
VK3ANL became the second VK Mountain Explorer but achieved his by activating the five continental VK associations (VK2JI was the first but his included DL,OE and G). M0YDH joined a selective number of Chaser-Activators who have completed 100 summits.
Trophies
Shack Sloth
AB7YL Linda Adams
NA6MG Daniel Ducey
G3VXJ Robert Rylatt 5000 Unique summits
Certificates claimed
Activator
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley 250 points
N6KZ James Zimmerman 100 points
SO9ARK Jakub Bajer 100 points
Chaser
ON4FI Karel Naessens 25000 points
K6EL Elliott M Pisor 10000 points
YO2BP Zoltan Alexander Thury 5000 points
VK3FPSR Peter Rentsch 2500 points
M0YDH David Holman 2500 points
SQ9OZM Marcin Bajer 2500 points
VK3FPSR Peter Rentsch 1500 points
KK7EL Bruce Hammond 1000 points
YO2LIW Adrian Toplician 1000 points
YO2LGH Curtu Ioan 1000 points
EA2CW Mikel Berrocal 1000 points
K7ATN Etienne Scott 1000 points
KB2XX Paul Schwartz 1000 points
SO9ARK Jakub Bajer 250 points
SO9ARK Jakub Bajer 500 points
KA5PVB Charles Dobbins 100 points
VK2IO Gerard Hill 100 points
VK6MB Mike Beall 100 points
Chaser Unique
G6ODU Robert Gum-Wah Leong 2000 summits
YO2BP Zoltan Alexander Thury 1000 summits
VK3FPSR Peter Rentsch 250 summits
VK3AFW Ron Cook 250 summits
SQ9OZM Marcin Bajer 250 summits
VK3FPSR Peter Rentsch 100 summits
Mountain Explorer
VK3ANL Nicholas Lock Bronze
Mountain Hunter
G6ODU Robert Gum-Wah Leong Platinum
G6TUH Michael Morrissey Platinum
VK3AFW Ron Cook Bronze
VK1DI Ian Sinclair Bronze
Summit to Summit
K7ATN Etienne Scott Silver
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley Silver
SQ9OZM Marcin Bajer Red
SOTA Complete
M0YDH David Holman 100 summits
10th Anniversary
SQ9OZM Marcin Bajer GM Chaser
SOTA Complete award - confusion seems to exist about how to qualify for this award, it is very simple really, you need to have both activated AND chased a summit to “Complete†it. You cannot achieve this award by just chasing or activating, you have to do both.
UK amateurs will be aware of the postal chaos associated with the Christmas/New Year period and this year is no different. Consequently I have decided to delay posting some certificates and trophies until the New Year. It appears that there have already been delays in delivery of items I posted in mid-December so please bear with me as quite a few have not been posted and will not be despatched until 3 January (1 and 2 January are public holidays in Scotland).
In the last couple of monthly reports I have announced a competition to identify the banner pictures on the revamped SOTA shopping site. The first entry I received described the photographs in comprehensive detail and demonstrates that MW0WML, Gerald, has an extensive knowledge of these hills. I can do no better than quote his description of each photo:
Starting from the first photograph in the snow with “Summits on the Air” banner: Ogwen Valley - Tryfan (GW/NW-006) on the left, Pen yr Ole Wen on the right. Looking West
Second picture: Loch Avon, Beinn Mheadhoin (GM/ES-005) to the left - looking down towards the Shelter Stone crag. Looking West. Taken somewhere near the saddle between Caringorm and Bynack More
Third picture: Summit of Ben Macdui (GM/ES-001), looking SW, Carn a Mhaim (GM-ES-013) on the left, then around right, Beinn Bhrotain (GM/ES-007), Devils Point, Cairn Toul (GM/ES-003), Angels Peak,
Fourth picture: Creag Meagaidh (GM/CS-002), Coire Ardair.
Fifth picture: Summit of Bynack More (GM/ES-010), looking SSW, from the left, Beinn a Chaorainn (GM/ES-011), Beinn Mheadhoin, Ben Macdui. The Barns of Bynack can be seen in the middle distance on the left of the picture.
Congratulations Gerald, your prize will be posted as soon as life returns to normal. I would like to feature photos which are not restricted to areas I have walked in so if you have anything suitable and which can be cropped to the format of this banner then I would be pleased to receive something suitable along with a description of the view.
Several very generous donations have been made this month which are warmly appreciated and will be applied to the running of the SOTA programme (not, as rumoured, towards the MT bar bill!!). Our thanks to everybody who has contributed.
Elsewhere in this monthly report you will have seen the announcement that Roy has to step away from editing this news letter for the foreseeable future due to very pressing family needs. He will be sorely missed but I hope he can return to being the monthly editor in happier times. Thank you Roy for all that you have done, our thoughts are with you, your son and the rest of the family at this time.
2014 rapidly approaches and, with it, a new SOTA activation year; may all your prospects be good and that everybody is able to enjoy taking Amateur Radio to new heights during the coming year
73
Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager
Congratulations from SOTA News also go to:-
Geoff, who has upgraded from Novice M6PYG to 2E0NON.
Alberto EA2DCA and Javi EB2FDT for obtaining “Mountain Goat” status.
Mikel EA2CW for passing 1000 chaser points.
David, HB9RVS on achieving Mountain Goat!
Dow, W4DOW on passing the 4,000 points chaser milestone.
Dave, G6DTN on reaching Shack Sloth using HF CW only.
Kevin, G7KXZ on reaching 100 activator points.
Scotty KG3W on reaching 10K Shack Sloth on 2nd December. All QRP to dipole antenna.
SOTA REPORT FROM FINLAND - by SAKU OH2NOS
I joined to SOTA community last July and I am very satisfied about that. This is nice hobby when you have time for it!
I am 56 year old and got my license 1986. First year I was quite active but when my first son was born everything changed as you know. Nowadays I have more time again. I have assembled two Jumas (TRX1 and TRX2) which started my Ham career again. Orienteering is also my hobby, which is the reason why going into the forest is easy to me.
I am living in Vantaa very close of Helsinki Airport. My free time house is located close to Jyränvuori (OH/JS-066). This is the reason why I have activated many times from there so far. Next year I will also visit a couple of other Summits in Finland. My plan is to keep couple of Summits from Kuusamo area in July, but let’s see.
Now I am trying to claim my first Chaser Award (250 points).
73, Saku
OH2NOS
SOTA REPORT FROM UKRAINE - by Serge UU4JIM
The year 2013 is a year of many Crimean (UT/CR) activations. Famous WFF team EO5JFF (consisting of Valery UU1JN, Victor UU7AX/EN7JHF, Alexandr UU2JW and Vladimir UU3JS) was very active for several years in WFF and URMA fields. Starting from February 2013 the team began radiating CQ SOTA from Crimean summits following SOTA rules. Since there are no team accounts in the program, along with EO5JFF call other personal call signs began to hit the air waves. The team organized first Crimean SOTA conference in May 2013. Our SOTA region manager Maxim UU4JDD presented SOTA perspective there. We set ambitious goal to activate ALL UT/CR summits in one year.
Later we found that many Crimean summits are located on the territory of strictly prohibited access of national wildlife reserves. Other are occupied by military forces. But you know… it made us even more excited about reaching the goal. Team efforts made more than we could expect. 47 out of 52 summits are activated in the year 2013! Our activation stories are published on the web site http://www.cqdx.com.ua/p78.htm . Although our region has very unfortunate point system in SOTA programme with average point-per-summit rate less than 4, we still enjoy climbing our beautiful mountains.
The most active member in our team is Victor EN7JHF, aka UU7AX. Starting from 2009 he operated from Crimean Mountains. Since his activity was on VHF, there were no big results achieved. He is in EO5JFF team since April 2012 for WFF activations. They activated all 24 WFF areas in Crimea since that time, and all on foot. Victor personally activated 46 SOTA summits this year and received first in Ukraine 100 point SOTA Activator certificate. His photo gallery is here: http://foto.mail.ru/mail/uu7ax/_myphoto/ . There you can see what one can do with 10W, inv-V, 7 Ah accu, sneakers and energy, being 64 years old. Victor is greatly excited about 12 m Challenge. You can contact Victor en7jhf@mail.ru .
In the year 2014 we hope to see more local people involved in SOTA program. We prepare SOTA presentations for Ukrainian hamfests. In few months new National Mountain Program should be started through http://wff44.org.ua/ . We do our best to record/photo all our routes and activities, since roads, parkings or shelters are not developed here. That will path the way for future activations. We thank each one who call us, and especially those who make SOTA program running! Merry Christmas!
73! EO5JFF team
SOTA REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA
SOTA - A new part of the amateur radio hobby for me - by Ed VK2JI.
I only returned to the amateur radio hobby about 3 years ago having
been away from it for around 35 years. My first area of interest was
VHF/UHF contests but as I now had HF access as well, it wasn’t long
before I got interested in club level HF contesting as well. Then
followed the opportunity to be part of a DXPedition team to Lord Howe
Island, which I enjoyed greatly and it honed my HF contesting
operating skills at the same time (little did I know that handling
pile-ups was going to come in handy later). Alongside contesting I
ventured into Amateur Radio Satellites and Digital Voice on HF using
the open source FreeDV mode.
It was only at the beginning of 2013 when I finally found my “niche”
in Amateur Radio, when I stumbled across a SOTA operator on 40m ( Al,
VK1RX ) who took the time to explain a little to me on air and then
pointed me to the SOTA website for more information. It took a while
before I really started to chase activators but by late April, I
started with gusto and the rest, as they say is history. I have just
passed 2000 chaser points and the rate of gathering points is
increasing. It took me until mid September to get my first 1000 points
but the second 1000 was achieved on November 30th with a contact with
Andrew VK1NAM. Six months of “real” chasing for the first 1000 and
only three months for the second 1000.
This rate reflects the increase in number of activations in VK and of
activators. I am proud to call myself a member of that great group
since early July.
My entry into activating was a little different to most however. As
my home association (VK2) wasn’t active until (as it turned out)
September, and as I had a holiday in Europe planned, I took advantage
of this with my first activation being in England, followed by two in
Germany and one in Austria. Upon returning to Australia, I was even
more eager to expand my SOTA participation and worked with others to
classify summits for VK2. Thanks to the great organising skills of
Andrew VK2UH and the efforts of the MT, the association of New South
Wales (VK2) was fully active with the whole state classified on
September the 1st. Since August I’ve been able to also activate
summits in VK1, VK2 and VK5.
Apart from the excitement and achievement I have felt in the hobby,
what has stuck me the most is the camaraderie and eagerness to help
shown to me by all involved in SOTA both in Australia and in Europe
during my visit there.
I have the honour of being the Hunter region manager of the VK2 SOTA
association and am active in presenting the award scheme to others
either in club presentations or at “SOTA Stalls”.
I find the discussions that take place both on the local
SOTA_Australia Yahoo Group and the SOTA reflector serve to not only
improve the understanding of newcomers like me but act as a way to
improve small points within the scheme.
This is also a facet of the amateur radio hobby that changes from
time to time. Initially activations in Australia only occurred during
the day however now after some requests from chasers and activators in
other parts of the world, we are trying to get activations at easy to
access summits in the early evening our time, to be able to overlap with
early morning in Europe and when the propagation works out make some
European chasers very happy.
I realise with SOTA starting in 2002 I am very much a “late comer” to
the party, but I’m finding it a great party to be at!!
Long may it continue
73 Ed
VK2JI / G8GLM
SOTA REPORT FROM SCOTLAND - MM0FMF’s year in review.
It’s been quite an eventful year here. I’ve swapped from a relatively go-anywhere SUV to a get-you-there-fast sporty car. You become infinitely aware of the perilous state of the roads when you have no ground clearance and rock hard suspension. But I still seem to be able to get to most parking spots, you just have to travel very slowly on the bumpy bits and choose the line carefully.
Like many who still have to toil at the coal-face 5 days a week, I can only get out at weekends and the start to the year seem to have far too many nice weekdays and rotten weekends. Coupled with some late snow it felt like I was confined indoors all the time. I managed a quick sortie to GM/NS land to bag a variety of summits. If you’ve not seen the amazing countryside in NS-land you really don’t know what you are missing. The highlight of the trip (apart from a personal tour of the Glenmorangie distillery) was to stand on the summit of Breac-Beinn and be able to see the North Sea to the East of me and The Minch & thus Atlantic Ocean to the West. I was able to have another wee expedition to the summits around Ballater & Braemar later in the year. Craigendarroch and Meall Alvie being the best.
Mrs. FMF tore her Achilles Tendon in early July and ended up sporting a variety of plaster/plastic casts for 11weeks. She’s making a fine recovery but now, 6 months later, she’s still not 100%. As a result my early morning Sunday departures were stopped. I was needed for some taxi duties as no buses run on Sunday and my youngest needs to get to work. I couldn’t set off till about 10.00am so I switched from picking summits which involved a long drive, long walk and climb to bagging many of the wee 1pt summits I’d been ignoring. What a treat I had when I discovered summit after summit that were so enjoyable even if only worth a single point. The stand out summits being Hownam Law, Rubers Law, Newtyle Hill, Birnam Hill (King’s Seat). Now I was blessed with splendid weather on all of them but I would recommend those 4 to anyone who visits GM/SS.
I only managed to bag 5 Munros this year: Beinn a’Chocuill & Beinn Eunaich as a pair, Beinn Achaladair, Beinn an Dotaidh and Lochnagar. All are fairly straightforward apart from Lochnagar being one drag of a drive down the glen from Ballater and a 19.5km round trip which is hard on the plates-of-meat!
The Blackpool Rally was great as usual. I was able to catch up with Geoff G6MZX (& xyl Joan) and Geoff suggested Whitbarrow as a nice wee summit to bag on the way to his QTH. What a gem and a cracking recommendation. Again a lovely day and one with a simply gorgeous view North to snow capped Lakeland summits.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mm0fmf/8870890159/
After Friedrichshafen, where I caught up with many European activators/chasers (and Ed VK2JI/G8GLM), I stayed with Edwin HB9ZAP for a few days. Swiss hospitality was wonderful and we did Santis HB/AI-001.
Sat in the snow in July at 2502m with a view of spiky Alpine summits to die for and Edwin’s KX3 & antenna to play with was one of the highlights of my year. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mm0fmf/9212270074/
Of course the 12m Challenge has had quite a huge effect of SOTA activations. It’s been taken up by more people than I expected and I hope that if you’ve not been tempted by 12m, the change in many activators habits has not upset you. Some fantastic S2S DX has been worked with many EU<>VK S2S contacts taking place. The right idea at the right time I think. Though I’ve still not managed a VK S2S or chaser contact yet.
I’d like to thank all my fellow activators for the S2S contacts I have had but especially the chasers who have made this SOTA year seem so very enjoyable.
Database changes
I have to admit to hardly remembering what has changed over the past year. The big change was me cracking open my wallet and buying a new PC.
Despite working at the forefront of semiconductor design and having access to all sorts of uber-computers, my home PC was a 10.5year old museum piece. It was finally replaced with a shiny quad core i7 monster that is so fast things seem to happen before you’ve asked for them! It used to take 15mins from deciding to work on the database to completing the load of SQL server, SQL management studio, VS-2010 and building and launching the database locally. Now it takes less than a minute!
I’ve made a number of style changes, fixed many bugs, implemented SOTA Complete and 12m Challenge scoring, improved My Awards and added My Statistics. Well on the way is SWL support.
Another major change was the hosting update at the hosting provider. The old server was struggling under the load and database service was becoming patchy. The new server has speeded up displays by huge amount and administration has been much easier due the speed improvement. My inbox is empty of problem emails which is different to earlier in the year when lots of you were having issues. The change went relatively smoothly. I was expecting the worst but that didn’t happen.
Thanks for the many message of thanks I receive and for the reports of bugs and improvements. It makes the job easier when you know people like what is happening.
And thanks for my personalised SOTA cap, a thank you from a happy user.
I shall wear it at the next rally with pride.
All the best for 2014 from Scotland
Andy, MM0FMF
Database Manager
SOTA REPORT FROM PORTUGAL by Marq CT1BWW
Since beginning of CT-SOTA only few activators still working on activation summits.
But we can see good prospects growing here for NEW coming year 2014.
Still Missing activation 1 Region (BA Beira Alta) to complete all CT Regions
Very good activations from John CT1BHG was the first CT Activator to get
100 Points.
Since The last report some improvements to activators. NEW 4 activators can see whom we welcome, here are the callsigns: CT1DTE, CT7ABE, CT1END, CR7ABI.
We created a flyer, custom activator Manual to be plasticised with lots of useful information, contacts Relief, information on repeaters, signage on the mountain, etc.etc. SOTA CT Coordinators (Dave, CT1DRB, Peter CT7AEZ and myself) are still working hard on promotion SOTA Program on Ham meetings and Radio Scouting Meetings
Because it is difficult to convince the importance of hunters especially in VHF and UHF but also in HF 10 Mhz and 7Mhz. We decided to change the disclosure policy and now we will work to get more activators that’s because at the end those will be proven chasers.
Thanks to Peter CT7AEZ, John CT1BHG, to joining us to introduce Trails on Sota Mapping, it’s more easier to visitors and other activators to get the summits For visitors please look to the SOTA Mappings Tracks, a great Tool for planning a activation, please select Region and Summit and you will find a track .
During this year we had some visitors from EA, G, GM, W, HA, OE, S5 some of them with good activations. Thanks to EA1LQ, G8TMV/P, MM0CWJ/P, HA2VR/P, , OE5AUL, OE5YYN
Some info about callsign for visitors can be seen on the SOTA-CT website
(www.sotaportugal.com) if you have a CEPT License no other license is needed just follow instructions for prefix / Category CT7/, CS7/ and CR7/ and getting on the air, If you come from other countries without CEPT agreement please contact ANACOM Or visit our website.
If you are interesting to receive any info from SOTA CT, please send us e-mail and we will introduce you on our data base email for correspondence and news.
Good luck to all of you - and vy 73
Many Success for NEW Year
Marq CT1BWW
Summits-On-The-Air
Portuguese Association
Visit us:http://www.sotaportugal.com
“Mountains and Radio are Not enough!”
SOTA REPORT FROM POLAND - by Marcin SQ9OZM
The SOTA community in Poland noticed some growth in numbers during 2013. As of today (December 29th) there are 78 activators (77% more than 9 months ago) and 107 chasers (55% more) in SP. Most activity takes place on 2 meters FM, but the number of HF activations is growing steadily, giving the foreign SOTA chasers more occasions to log these elusive SP summits.
The SOTA SP Association Reference Manual update was published on 1st June 2013 and brought a cleanup of the summits list: some were removed (mostly due to P150 rule), some were added, the coordinates and names of a few dozen were corrected. As the result we have now 221 valid SOTA summits in SP, one less than in the previous version of the ARM.
On 4th of August 2013, Bartek SQ9OJN became the first activator in SP to achieve the honorable title of Mountain Goat. It took him a little over 2 years. He visited 75 summits, some of them more than once, and worked only on 2 meters FM. Bartek is an English teacher by trade and holds a Novice licence, thus his choice of bands is limited. Since getting the MG he added 80m and 10m gear to his set and is making good use of it - and of good propagation - recently logging SSB contacts on 10m band with some North American and Australian chasers.
The runner-up for the 2nd Mountain Goat title is Darek SP9DPM, with 839 points.
In the 9 months since my previous contribution to SOTA News, 15 SP chasers became Shack Sloths: SQ9KCX, SP9DPM, SQ9IAW, SQ9MDF, SP9HML, SQ9NOT, SQ9MDN, SP9VFG, SO9EWA, SQ9TCK, SQ9JTK, SP2AEK, SQ9RNR, SQ9RNT and SQ9APD. Our top chaser SP8RHP achieved 10x Shack Sloth on 19 May 2013 and by now his score is well past the 12000 points mark.
The 12m challenge is not very popular in SP, with only 4 activators scoring any points. Kuba SQ9SHR is currently in the lead with 363 points. 11 chasers joined in so far, with SP9AMH leading the classification.
Summit to summit contacts are increasingly more popular. Our local leader of the classification, Darek SQ9RNR, is doing quite well: with 1571 points he is at the 7th place in the worldwide S2S classification.
The 1st SOTA SP Rally took place in the first October weekend, in Danielka (western part od SP/BZ region, near the borders of OK and OM). For the first time activators and chasers could meet in person. The rally was organized by our association manager Bartek SQ9APD and gathered over 15 SOTA-heads, including Tomek SP9ITP, Bartek SQ9APD, Bartek SQ9OJN, Wojtek SQ9PBS with XYL Agata SQ9PBT, Kuba SQ9SHR, Milosz SQ9PND, Marian SP9DEM, Pawel SP5MNC with XYL, Marian SQ8JMZ, SQ9OKZ, Romek SQ6ODK, Przemek SQ6ODL and Kuba SO9ARK with his father SQ9OZM. Few others joined in with a short visit: Darek SP9DPM, Wieslaw SQ9IAW and Piotr SP9VFG.
After dark we shared stories and drinks by the fire, talked about our gear, watched some pictures and movies, and listened to an excellent lecture on avalanche safety by Tomek SP9ITP. Saturday, 5th of October, with beautiful, calm and sunny weather saw us taking to the hills. More than a dozen of SOTA summits were activated that day, the number of S2S contacts was record-high. The next day was also plentiful in activations, but the weather was not as good.
Some pictures from the SOTA SP Rally can be seen here: Zlot SOTA SP 2013 | Flickr
Pawel SP5MNC made this film while activating SP/BZ-011 during the rally: SOTA 2013 - aktywacja Wielkiej Rycerzowej (SP/BZ-011) - 2013-10-05 - YouTube
A reminder: there are 3 months left to make the QSOs needed for SOTA SP 5th Anniversary Awards.
The rules are available at http://sota-sp.org/5th-anniversary-sota-sp-award/
On December the 1st the winter bonus period has started. In Poland we need to climb quite high for the extra 3 points, only summits above 1200 m ASL qualify for the bonus: all 10-pointers and approximately 1/3 of 8-pointers. Nevertheless, some activators have already scored the bonus points, notably Kuba SQ9SHR and Tomek SP9ITP. I have chosen an activation movie by the later as a winter greeting from Poland: Jaworzyna i Pusta - YouTube The clip is from the previous winter, this one has not brought us that much snow yet.
Happy New Year and best 73 from SP!
Marcin SQ9OZM
SOTA REPORT FROM ENGLAND - THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 60
Not much of a view this month, due to a variety of excuses; a trip to Germany, no SOTA, but a nice quick visit to the Museum in Munich and the club station there, two bouts (one each) of the current flue like virus going the rounds and high winds and heavy rain for a whole month do not make for an active SOTA calendar.
Sunday 29th and at last a half decent day so a repeat activation of local one pointer -Kirby Moor. We always walk up the Slate Road, the local track that leads up onto the edge of the summit plateau. It is driveable up to the transformer house if your car has good ground clearance; ours does not and with pothole damage bills at £400 for the year; discretion is the better part of valour.
The summit plateau is a large open moor with ugly windmills and the high point is a pile of stones at the opposite corner from where the path brings you out. There is some shelter to be had from the actual summit mound, which is just as well; the wind farm is not there because it’s a calm spot. Once set up we found that the FT 817 was sulking and would not run on the band, which will need looking at. 40m was in a strange mood and we couldn’t raise a single contact, but 30m and 20m were playing once we were spotted, not stateside though.
2m was on good form and as usual we stayed too long, three hours, and became quite cold in spite of good insulation. We walked back across the moor and I (Rob) managed to trip on a root and head butt the planet quite successfully, seismic reports are awaited. As we came to the edge of the plateau we met a twitcher (bird spotter) who was bivvied there. He said “you two must be hardy to stay out there”- we were just thinking the same about him.
That’s it for this month; sorry for the lack of activity. We just wish everyone a Very Happy New Year thanks for all the QSO’s, spots and friendship. We look forward to doing it all again next year.
Take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
The number of contributions received this month caused the word count to go over the permitted item length on the Reflector, hence the need to split the news into two parts - Ed.
…SOTA News continues in Part 2…