Here i need to talk about a remarkable achievement and perhaps about a proper expedition in Tuscany.
On September 23rd, as I do every Monday, I launched the software programs to check if in the past week any New Ones have been carried out in order to update the SOTA TUSCANY CHALLENGE ranking.
I notice that there have been completed some by 2 individuals, HB9HXJ Tabea and HB9EVF Thomas, and following standard protocol I send the, an email to inform them about the SOTA TUSCANY CHALLENGE program and to congratulate them for their activations. Tabea replied mentioning that they had read about the challenge on the Sota Reflector and were on holiday for two weeks in Tuscany, planning daily activations.
The next day I checked again to find out they had activated 3 New Ones, meaning that Thomas, who had already completed three activations in 2019, had had reached the first milestone of 5 New Ones. Therefore, I sent another email to ask him to confirm their address so that I could send the patch to Thomas.
Tabea replies and asks me to hold the shipment because they planned to be active also in the following days of their stay.
I continued to follow their progress, and by the end of their holiday Tabea and Thomas had completed 15 New Ones, all of them with I/TO references. I would like to repeat: 15 New Ones.
This means that they had earned patches for 5, 10, and 15 New Ones, but I was absolutely not even prepared for this last one and I sent it to be processed last Friday. Therefore, they will receive it in a few days with a new postal shipment. I hope they will forgive me.
In conclusion, I like to think that part of this last achievement is also due to the SOTA TUSCANY CHALLENGE program, but above all, the motivation shown by Tabea and Thomas is a clear acknowledgement of the entire SOTA movement, which has created a wonderful synergy between the passion for radio and the mountains.
Grazie Tabea and Thomas