Welcome to the May 2021 Quarterly News. Covid-19 is still seriously impacting many Associations but here in the UK we have made amazing progress to normality as I believe has also the US, Australia, New Zealand and some eastern Asian countries. Anyone want to give a perspective on their country? I have had my second vaccination almost 3 weeks ago so I am supposed to have reached as much protection as I will get, fingers crossed. Contributions are rather thin on the ground for this quarter but many thanks to Barry GM4TOE, Andy MM0FMF, Ken G0FEX. Allan GW4VPX, Simon G7WKX, Etienne K7ATN, Elliot K6EL, Oleh KD7WPJ and Guru EA2IF for their contributions. Have I missed anyone? We will start with the latest awards status from Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards February to April 2021
This report covers award claims for the period February to April 2021
The effects of lockdown, and restriction in Activations, is very obvious in the claims received but there are some significant claims this quarter.
Congratulations to Martha W0ERI with 150k Chaser points, outstanding and consistent chasing on her part. Significantly we have several claims from fairly new Associations in Indonesia and Taiwan with the first Shack Sloth in Taiwan â BX8AAD.
Please ensure you order the correct Award, I am not psychic and my crystal ball is broken!! The Activator and Chaser Awards are based on POINTS accrued, the Activator and Chaser Unique Awards are based on the number of SUMMITS and the SOTA Complete Award requires you to have both Activated AND Chased each and every summit claimed. If in doubt please ask.
Congratulations to all who have reached their own significant milestone
Trophies Issued
Mountain Goat
KB1HQS Stuart Thomas
LA9XGA Tor-Atle Sandal
CT2HOV Nuno Gomes
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht
JS1JNM Kensuke Orito
KM3A David Wise
Shack Sloth
6K5XZE ChulHwa Jung
JI1AVM Shinichi Kanamori
W7JKC John Calnan
LA9XGA Tor-Atle Sandal
HL5BMF Yonggyeom Kim
KF7WI Dwight Carlson
BX8AAD Gene Anderson
W6OBI David Fulmer
EA3Y Manel Lopez
Certificates Issued
Activator
KB1HQS Stuart Thomas 1000 points
IU1AUG Diego Chiari 1000 points
DL3TU Roman Brunel 1000 points
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht 1000 points
JS1JNM Kensuke Orito 1000 points
VK1DA Andrew Davis 1000 points
KM3A David Wise 1000 points
JI1AVM Shinichi Kanamori 500 points
EA2EHX Bidal Iriate 500 points
JR8MHA Katsuyoshi Aoki 500 points
HL5BMF Yonggyeom Kim 250 points
TI2YO Minor Barrantes 100 points
KE4EA David Ivey 100 points
HB9HCS Stefan Kirchofer 100 points
IV3GVY Maurizio Dose 100 points
YD3AJO Agus Wahyuono 100 points
KF6FLJ Vincent LeVeque 100 points
Chaser
W0ERI Martha Auchard 150k points
EA5K Miguel Campos 20000 points
G0FVH David Dolling 15000 points
K7VK Vick Applegate 10000 points
KF7SEY Troy Greenburg 1000 points
KE4EA David Ivey 1000 points
ZL3QR Geoff Gillman 1000 points
JI1AVM Shinichi Kanamori 1000 points
W7JKC John Calnan 1000 points
W4NLT Andy Kubishen 1000 points
DL8NDG Axel Bienefeld 1000 points
EA4EMC Miguel-Angel Fernandez Garcia 1000 points
HL5BMF Yonggyeom Kim 1000 points
KB7JJG John Gesell 1000 points
KF7WI Dwight Carlson 1000 points
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht 1000 points
SP9MTJ Michal Janecki 1000 points
EA4EMC Miguel-Angel Fernandez Garcia 500 points
G7WKX Simon Davis-Crane 500 points
K6MAA Aleksandr Muravev 250 points
KB9JMU James Adams 250 points
G4TPJ Richard Mepham 100 points
YC1ME Mawan Darmawan 100 points
YC1RIK Wandi Riswandi 100 points
XE1ELI Ricardo Andrade 100 points
YD3AJO Agus Wahyuono 100 points
YF3CLS Mujianto 100 points
Activator Unique
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht 100 summits
VK1DA Andrew Davis 100 summits
Chaser Unique
KD8DEU Allan J Van Brocklin 1000 summits
HL5BMF Yonggyeom Kim 100 summits
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht 100 summits
Summit to Summit
VK1DA Andrew Davis Platinum
HB9IIO Daniel Mottier Platinum
DL1CR Christopher Muenzer Platinum
DL3TU Roman Brunel Gold
DL6GCA Armin Kreutner Gold
HB9ELZ Markus Frauenknecht Silver
JR8MHA Katsuyoshi Aoki Bronze
SP9MTJ Michal Jarecki Red
Mountain Hunter
DL2YBG Klaus-Peter Dreessen Platinum
KF6HI Brian Hamerski Platinum
K6MAA Aleksandr Muravev Bronze
YC2VOC Galih Suryananto Bronze
YC1ME Mawan Darmawan Bronze
YC1RIK Wandi Riswandi Bronze
HB9LEK Martin Neukomm Bronze
I am hoping to re-stock Polo Shirts and Sweatshirts carrying a revised version of the SOTA logo, similar to the one on our hats, these will be available in limited colours and sizes until I establish potential demand.
Paypal have, yet again, changed their method of communicating to merchant websites which means that sometime you will receive confirmation of Paypal payment but no confirmation of the receipt of your order. I generally manage to logon to the shopping site to ensure these orders are correctly registered but would appreciate a âheads-upâ from you if you have not received this confirmation. Hopefully this will be sorted soon.
If you order certificates to be sent to you by email please ensure you use an email address which accepts incoming mail from the shopping site email provider. Gmail works but many personal email service providers block the emails. Similarly this can happen with the confirmation of the placement of your order. If I spot it I will let you know (by PM via the Reflector).
That is it for this quarter â stay safe on the hills and keep away from anybody carrying that infernal virus
73
Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager
From Andy MM0FMF.
News for Scotland
The lockdown restrictions have been easing over the month of April enabling much greater scope for activations. Before then there were a few lucky people who had SOTA summits within the vaguely described government limits who activated, but now travel anywhere in mainland Scotland is OK there are plenty of people getting out. By the time you read this the limit on staying away overnight should have been lifted and Jack GM4COX has plans to activate a number of infrequently activated Argyll summits.
A group of (relatively) new SOTA activators are now out regularly including MM0ZFG, MM0EFI and GM4JXP. Gavin GM0GAV has been out making use of a new off road bike to activate some properly remote summits.
Finally I expect to submit some GM summit changes. The have been lurking for years due to the generally low number of activators and activations happening but as there has been some noticeable growth then itâs time to get the changes in place. Expect to see the details published in May and the actual summit deletions to happen by the end of September/October 2021.
Andy MM0FMF
GM Association Manager
From Elliott K6EL
âHold that dateâ⌠October 16, 2021 is our ninth annual free SOTA lunch at ARRL Pacificon in the Marriott Hotel, San Ramon, California, hosted by K6EL. Details to follow in August.
Thanks,
Elliott
From Oleh KD7WPJ
SOTA give an opportunity to work with very low power stations.
In March during activations of North Chalone (W6/SC-149) and South Chalone (W6/SC-153) Peaks I made contacts with QRPP station NR0R. His power is only 100 mW (!). The distance is approximately 2347 km (1467 miles).
73! Oleh
From Simon G7WKX
Just a quick note for the news. I completed my first SSTV chase on 10th April, when I worked Tom M1EYP/P on his summit G/SP-013. Iâve attached a couple of pictures. My next target is an SSTV activation and ideally an SSTV S2S!
Images: 
Simon
From Ken G0FEX.
HB15SOTA
What a brilliant event, organised by the Swiss Sota Team, I have and still am enjoying this event.
It has been quite challenging at times with the conditions on the bands, but we all struggle on and try to make the contacts.
There is still a few days to go before it ends, but I as many others have really enjoyed the chase, it is not about who gets there first, but all about the taking part.
So from myself and I am sure I speak for many others, a big thank you to all HB15SOTA organisers and activators, very well done, it has been a pleasure to participate.
Thank you all : Ken G0FEX
ISLAND ACTIVATION - Shetland Isles
On the 1st of May 4 members from the Humber DX Amateur Radio Club will be travelling to the Isle of UNST they will be based in Norwick, and I understand they will be activating various summits on the Island they will be using GB0SI as their call, this will take place from the 1st of May until the 8th.
As you can appreciate the dates may vary due to ferry times etc.
Ken
From Allan GW4WPX
Radio Tales from Wales by Allan GW4VPX
As Wales eased out of lockdown many within the country including myself made tentative steps up on to local summits and it was so nice to hear the voices of regular chasers and to get the occasional Summit to Summit with fellow Welsh activators. The real difference took place when the border restrictions between England and Wales were eased then a flurry of activations took place and I noted that it was reminiscent of the âgood old daysâ with summit to summit contacts coming thick and fast and Iâm happy to say it is still ongoing.
The new Facebook group entitled GW SOTA (Summits on the Air ) has really taken off and itâs good to see so many in the group taking an active part in uploading all sorts of interesting information and activation reports of their exploits on the mountains in Wales after lockdown. If you regularly operate SOTA on the mountains in Wales then please do join the group and share your experiences. You can also tap into the activation experiences of members that have been in SOTA for a long time and know the best and appropriate routes to the summits in Wales.
Iâm keeping an eye on the SOTA database as there are a few who are working hard on the mountains of Wales to try and attain Mountain Goat in the not too distant future. Ian 2W0IWM managed 500 activation points a few weeks ago so well done Ian and we look forward to seeing you progress to Mountain Goat.
Ian 2W0IWM on Fan Fawr GW/SW-005
All - Please send me a brief report and especially some pictures of your activation so that I can include them here.
Useful Blogs and SOTA Mapping (most of these are now up to date)
If you are intending to visit Wales to activate a summit the following blogs contain valuable information.
Information on routes to our summits in Wales are also on SOTA Mapping https://www.sotamaps.org and is an useful and essential first port of call.
Simon G4TJC continues to find new routes in North Wales with historical links and they can be found on his blog http://g4tjc.blogspot.com/
Allan GW4VPX continues to add reports and routes to âRadio Tales from West Wales and beyondâŚâ [https://gw4vpx.blogspot.com/ ]
Phil G4OBK ⌠a wealth of information http://catterblog.blogspot.com/
Tom M1EYP âŚsummit info as well as useful advice on places to stay and eat [http://tomread.co.uk/] (click on his link to SOTA on his website).
Andrew M1CJE http://blog.m1cje.uk/ well worth a visit with interesting presentations and information linked to summits in Wales
Paul M0PLA http://m0pla.blogspot.com/ well worth a visit with interesting presentations and information linked to summits in Wales
Facebook:- GW SOTA (Summits on the Air)
73 and Stay Safe âŚ. Allan GW4VPX
From Etienne K7ATN
On 17th April we had unexpectedly beautiful weather for a âWillamette Valley Summit-to-Summit Party.â We had 31 Activators on 22 summits making hundreds of contacts over about an hour and a half to work most all of the permutations. Tim-N7KOM posted a trip report and he looks quite relaxed on the fire lookout catwalk:
Devils Peak 2021 WV S2S Party Snowshoe | pnwsota.org.
From Outside Magazine: Inside the Summit-Obsessed World of Ham Radio â âItâs like biathlon, but for geeksâ https://www.outsideonline.com/2421479/ham-radiohobby-summit.
See the photo on the last page with the âVery Difficult Trailâ warning.
All of the PNW newsletter can read at http://www.pnwsota.org/sites/pnwsota.org/files/downloads/K7ATN/PNW%20SOTA%20Newsletter%20Apr-May-Jun%202021.pdf
Final Comment
Well that is all for this quarter unless I have missed something of which someone will remind me. A little bit thin this quarter so I would like to encourage Association Managers to consider submitting a brief report from their association to share with the rest of community even if only a line or two.
Some of you may have noticed that the report of activity in Spanish speaking associations that has previously been a regular feature has been missing recently. As Guru EA2IF tells us, SOTA software changes have meant that a new process needs to be developed to produce the data that Guru requires. Andy MM0FMF is very busy with current work but is looking to find time this year to set up a data provision.
Change your Call Sign - Do not register your new call sign. Post to the reflector and we will update your current ID. Why should I not just delete my existing account and register again? Well firstly If you have ever posted you will most likely find that you cannot as we have set some parameters because posts in this Discourse software are directly linked to your userid/callsign and if your account is deleted these dissappear leaving holes in any topics to which you contributed⌠Next your account contains an invisible record of what you have ever read and where you are in any topic or thread. (we cannot see that) so with a new registration, that would be lost and you would be back at square one, having to wind your way through every topic to re-establish where you are up to. If we change your call sign all your current posts and reading lists are retained with your new call sign.
Till next quarter stay safe. I hope that we can all return to nearer the normality that we had before this pandemic.
73 Jim G0CQK
