Thanks to all chasers who have provided contacts for our recent (G0EWN) Welsh Borders and Southern Pennines activations.
We almost had a disaster when we arrived on Fair Snape Fell (Dec 13th!!) and discovered that the microphone had been left at Longridge Hill. However luck was with us for Rob ( G4RQJ) and Audrey happened to be activating the same hill (on HF) and Rob was able to lend us his microphone–FT817!! so we could at least complete the activation. Later I returned to Longridge and with great relief found the microphone exactly where I had left it–draped on the wall!!
This meant we could operate the following day to complete our intended set of activations with Easington Fell and White Hill. White Hill lived up to its name–there was a light covering of snow/ sleet by the trig point accompanied by poor visibility. Successful activation took us over the 500 activator points, which was the aim. So thanks again all,
Many congratulations Gordon on achieving half goatdom. It doesn’t seem that long since I first saw your callsign recorded on SOTAwatch - that was back in February 2008. Your average of 5.27 is very creditable indeed, particularly as the 95 summits activated are all Uniques.
I was hoping to bust 600 today but the weather was grim so I stayed in and fixed 3 sets of Christmas tree lights instead. So one and half hours of valuable day-off-work time expended over £5.98 worth of tat from China! See I understand economics and ROI. Can I have a job as a banker and get a big bonus please.
I’d challenge you to a race to goatdom but I’d lose as you’re averaging more points per summit than me!
In reply to G4OIG:
Thanks for your kind reply Gerald. The ‘uniques’ are down to my XYL who prefers to go to new summits rather than repeat ones we have done previously. However it gets exponentially more difficult with just uniques : o )
Best wishes Gerald and thanks for the recent S2S’s, 73s
In reply to MM0FMF:
Andy, thanks for your good wishes re the half goat. The weather on Monday was pretty poor to say the least, especially on White Hill.
Re the race to ‘goatdom’ you have a good head start at 600 points plus we ( me and the XYL) are trying with uniques and it just gets harder. Good luck with your quest Andy,
Best wishes and 73s, Gordon G0EWN
In reply to G0EWN:
Congratulations on the half goat Gordon, Pleasure to meet you both on Fair Snape and glad you found the mic ok. Glad we could be of some assistance.
Take care and enjoy the next 500.
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
In reply to G4RQJ:
Thanks for your kind words and a big thanks for the use of the microphone Rob. It was a great pleasure to met you both on the hill–pity we couldn’t have spent a little more time together chatting but the weather and circumstances were against us.
The microphone was exactly where I left it–despite lots of visitors to the top of Longridge. Conditions the following day were poor; we had continuous sleet on the short walk up Easington whilst over at White Hill sleet was replaced by snow and hill fog.
Have a great Christmas both and all best wishes for 2010. At some time I would be grateful for a run down on your HF SOTA antenna system; so far I’ve stuck with VHF but as we move further afield I will have to make use of the HF bands.
Thanks again for saving our bacon on Fair Snape—we would still be short of a few points without the use of the mic,
Congrats on the half goat Gordon (have you decided which half you’re having?). Thanks for the s2s too, we heard you just as we’d arrived at NW-044 and did a handy smash’n’grab.
In reply to M1DTJ:
Chris it was a great pleasure to have quite a number of S2S’s in our last set of activations–glad that the ‘handy’ was indeed handy!!! Have a great Christmas and best wishes for 2010–looking forwards to many more contacts next year,
In reply to G0EWN:
Congratulations on you achieving your half goat.I have a long way to go to catch you up.I know exactly what you were up against with the wx on Easington fell I was out walking the dog when I worked you with my hand held.All the best to you and your wife for Christmas and the new year from Geoff and Joan.
In reply to G0EWN:
Congratulations on mountain satyr / faun status. 100 activator points seems quite hard to attain to me, never mind 500.
What’s half a shack sloth? A year and a week after starting amateur radio with a S2S QSO with MW1AVV/P from the Wrekin involving something called SOTA, I passed 500 chaser points with a QSO with Gerald OIG. Thank you all for listening for my often weak signal and putting up with my gaffes. SOTA is a marvellous thing. I’ve learnt a lot and met or spoken with some super people.
My walking companion Alastair has become M6ALR. He’s a house husband and, on finding that his daughter finishes school on Friday lunchtime instead of 3-15pm, has called off this week’s joint activation.
In reply to G6MZX:
Geoff, many thanks for helping our SP activations to be a success and bring up the 500 activator points. It was great to know there was a number of people around monitoring–especially on the Monday. Yes the weather was very poor for Easington and also White Hill—par for the course in winter–at least the wind wasn’t overly strong.
Looking forwards to many more contacts Geoff in 2010–
Best wishes for a great Christmas and New Year to Joan, yourself and please pass on the same to the others we worked close to your location,
