What was your best SOTA moment, chase, activation or contact for 2013 any band or mode.
I’d be particularly interested in your 12m expeiences. This band produced some exceptional DX as well as what must have been a record number of North American and VK contacts …certainly from Europe.
The 12m band also found a number of exotic DXCC’s appearing in activators logs, one or two of them rare and possibly unique to SOTA activators in EU.
One of the highlights for me, was my 100th SSB contact with Rich N4EX.
I suppose all of them were memorable as I got home safe from them all.
I think Neil is right.
But one outstanding SOTA-experience in 2013 for me, was the trip to Wales in June. Thanks to Martin, DF3MC, for having the idea and taking me along this SOTA-tour.
The weather didn’t appear from it’s best nor was the number of QSOs awesome, but at least when the rain took a break and the clouds cleared up, I got a wonderful impression of the beautiful landscape.
Of course, the friendly welcome greetings of many UK-chasers during our activations of the NW-summits and the nice dinner with Tom M1EYP, Rich G3CWI and their families, including Jimmy M0HGY, must not be unmentioned.
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hello Mike and all of you
For beginning HAPPY NEW YEAR and be safe…
My best SOTA moment were the 14th and 15th july with Roger F5LKW for the WST and the 88 activator point in the French Alpine!!!
Thanks again Roger and RDV in July !!!
Thanks to all Chaser for helping us during the trip !!!
See you soon I hope…
73 Tof
Memorable moment from 2013 was EA2/VI-052 Urbina, with my Yaesu 817 power 5 v, in the strip 12 meters, made contact with VK2DAG, I put youtube link audio.
What was your best SOTA moment, chase, activation or contact for 2013
any band or mode.
Heh heh heh - hard to pick out a single event when the whole year was so good.
First Andrew- KD5ZZK visited in January, we did several summits.
Then 13 summits in Europe in June. 12 summits in Germany, and 1 summit in the Czech Republic. (104 points in 3 weeks!).
Then Curtis-KC5CW came for a visit in Sept. I nearly killed him on Mordor Mtn, but he did a TX and a NM summit.
In late Oct Skip-K6DGW came for two summits, one in NM and 1 in Texas. We had a great time.
Then Andrew-KD5ZZK visited the area again in Dec, and I got to do another summit with him.
27 Summits in 12 months. That is an average of 2.25 summits a month. A total of 216 points earned this year, that is an average of 18 points a month. Or right at 8 points a summit. Not bad at all.
With all of that, it is truly hard to pick a single event. But I think activating DM/BM-133, Bramberg in Germany was my favorite activation. It isn’t often you can activate a summit while sitting on the parapet walls of a castle about 1000 years old. They just don’t build them like that anymore.
Vy73 - Mike - KD5KC.
El Paso, Texas - DM61rt.
W5-SOTA Association Manager.
NA-SOTA info: http://na-sota.org/
The day Gerald G4OIG got dragged up the Galloway hills with me will be remembered for a long time.
Indeed Neil - I still bear the scars! Craignell GM/SS-178 the morning after was very pleasant as well, assisted by being able to drive home in the light - a rare event for me with the unique summits being so far from home.
Regardless of the weather conditions (from sub-zero snow, through horizontal driving hail, sleet and rain to 36C sunshine in the Algarve), I absolutely enjoyed every one of the activations undertaken during 2013. The trip to activate the 7 summits on Islay (GM/SI) was a particular highlight - it was great to be amongst genuinely friendly people, hear live Scottish folk music and walk beautiful rugged countryside. With the help of the regular 2m SSB chasers, all of the 7 summits were qualified on the band.
Orkney 2012 and Islay 2013 are going to be extremely hard acts to follow!
I only did 4 activations this year, and the best were more “least unmemorable” than “most memorable”, though they all had points of interest…
However, there were some memorable chases, and I think the top spot was catching John KK4NQQ on W4T/SU-043 (Hemlock Knob) at the end of November. I was using my KX3 at home (at its maximum of 12 watts), and the contact was on 12 metres SSB. Runner-up was catching Larry W6UB on W4T/SU-033 (Walnut Mountain) almost exactly a month earlier, again using my KX3 at home, but on 12 metres CW. Between them, those contacts gave me my first successful trans-Atlantic association.
A very memorable activation for me was of Moel Siabod, GW/NW-010 on the 9th June. Nothing out of the ordinary radio-wise, just a 2-metre FM activation using the FT-817 and a half-wave mobile whip which from a niche in the rocks two metres north of the trig point netted me 17 contacts and three S2S. The weather was glorious, the view sublime - all of the main spine of Snowdonia in a terrific panorama, but none of these are what made it memorable.
Back in the early '70’s my various hill-walking partners vanished in a diaspora of marriages and remote jobs. I joined the Mercian Mountaineering Club to gain new companions and new opportunities, coming rather later in life than most to rock climbing and snow and ice climbing. The Club rented one of a small terrace of quarryman’s cottages near the farm of Rhos, overlooking Capel Curig above the first steepening of the northeast ridge of Moel Siabod. We used to say that Siabod was in our garden, and on the work meets, after a morning maintaining the cottage we would often do a quick afternoon ascent, up by the scramble of Daiar Ddu and down the northeast ridge or vice versa. After I got married in the 1980’s and started a family such activities were no longer practicable and I left the club, only going back when I retired several years ago. By then the estate had taken the cottage back and the terrace has recently opened up as holiday accommodation as Siabod Cottages.
On the weekend of June 9th the club had a meet at a converted chapel just down the road to the track to Rhos, so it was time to renew my acquaintance with Siabod, the mountain that I have climbed more often than any other. Of course I am much slower now than I used to be, that first steep tarmac track was a bit of a trial! I lingered by the cottages, looking in my mind’s eye at ghosts of my past working on the roof, then carried on up the quarry road before leaving it to climb the shattered rock arete of the northeast ridge, noting with surprise that the many other walkers bypassed it heading for the lake and the harder way up. Invisible companions climbed with me, some dead, some moved on, they didn’t seem to mind that in my seventies I had to stop for a rest occasionally - but I do!
So there you are, an enjoyable mountain, an enjoyable activation, and a long ramble through my memories. Next time up it will be Tryfan, my second most climbed mountain!
In reply to G8ADD:
What a lovely piece of writing Brian, so clearly expressing feeling from the heart.
Siabod is a lovely hill, standing back from the main peaks a little, which allows such superb views. I can well understand your joy at revisiting it again.
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi Mike, I’ll go for my first overseas SOTA trip to southern Spain where I managed to activate three summits, each for the first time.
I’d pick out the day my wife and I walked up EA7/AL-009 Montenegro. We had a bit of an adventurous drive to get there followed by a walk up what was clearly a very infrequently followed route.
Everything worked well and I easily qualified the hill with 20 contacts, many of which were with friends back home.
It was a delightful day sat in the late summer sun, with fantastic views all around, especially to the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada, some of which I provided happy memories from a previous visit in winter conditions.
W7O/SE-116 in SE Oregon with Boyd KF7DDT on the very remote north end of Steens Mtn. 3.5 mile ridge walk thru several saddles in Africa hot conditions above 9,000 ft. No formal name for the summit, but it is adjacent to Kiger Gorge and Gunsight Notch so take your pick. After activating we found a stash of camping gear and food which had been buried under several layers of rock 20 ft below the summit cap (I was having visions of finding the loot from the infamous American hijacker DB Cooper). Scott W7IMC
My best SOTA moment of 2013 was taking young Saskia M6POE on her first activation.
Myself and Baz 2EØYVX, my wife, collected her from home and drove to G/SP-015 The Cloud. On arrival the whole area was covered in a heavy mist … or was it low cloud?
Saskia was very keen to get going and had her rucksack on before we had even finished getting ours out of the car.
We got to the trig point but continued on a short way as we had decided to set up on the rocky area about 30 metres further along.
As Baz and I were erecting the antenna Saskia was becoming a little concerned at the amount of mist/cloud as visibility was down to a few feet. I told her she was perfectly safe with us but her safety was not the thing causing her concern.
What was bothering her was the ground and the air were soaking wet and she said that radios don’t like getting wet because the smoke might get out of the box … and once its out you can never get it in again!!
Bless her, she remembered something that one of her tutors had said on her Foundation course.
We reassured her that everything was fine as we had a small lightweight stool on which we could sit the radio.
Fortunately a light wind came and started to blow the mist away and visibility improved markedly.
We had Baz’s FT-817 set up powered by a 7.5Ah slab, connected to a 2m dipole set vertically about 12ft up on a fibreglass fishing pole. We felt that 2m FM was the best option for Saskia’s first time.
Soon she was calling CQ SOTA, getting replies and enjoying herself.
Every chaser that she spoke with was very patient with her, bearing in mind she was 9 years old and activating for the first time.
Thanks to those who responded to her calls, you helped to make a little girls first SOTA activation a successful one and she left the summit very happy indeed.
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Looking back through my SOTA logbook for the year at all the contacts, I am very grateful to everyone who has taken the trouble to call me. Hearing a friendly voice - or CW fist - really is the icing on the cake after a good climb.
Best moments:
My first visit to Snowdon GW/NW-001 on 21st June. 30 contacts on 2m FM and two on 12m, G0VOF and MW0IDX. Heard PY2VA, but he couldn’t hear my 2.5W. Low cloud most of the way except for one fleeting moment, so I will have to return to see the views! Easy Llanberis path last time, maybe Pyg track next…
Aran fawddwy GW/NW-007 on 12/07/13. 7 contacts on 2m FM, 5 on 30m CW. Nothing heard on 12m. One of the hottest days of the year. I soaked my hat and shirt in the stream on the way up, bliss! Paused in the shadow of a rocky outcrop along the ridge to drink, eat and rest for a few minutes. Glorious views from the summit and a real sense of achievement. Intended to activate Glasgwm on the way back, but aborted because I was running low on water. I like to get back to the car with reserve bottle unopened, but this day I opened it as soon as the car was in sight! I will return :o)
Meall Buidhe GM/WS-084. Just utter, utter hell from start to finish!
For some reason though - I really enjoyed it. Even in the 6 inch fog visibility, midges eating me to the bone, ticks stuck to my arms and the mice in the bothy!
If you’d have told me a few years ago, when I first heard you from Shining Tor Mike, that it would lead to me doing that - I’d have said you were nuts! ;)))
A really lovely hill on a gorgeous warm sunny day. Felt a bit naughty accepting the winter bonus as I sat there operating in my T-shirt!
24th July 2013 - Snaefell GD/GD-001
Great joint activation with Jimmy M0HGY, Edward 2E0NSR and Liam. With this, we completed the GD association. 103 QSOs including a pile up on 12m PSK31.
23rd November 2013 - S2S Gun G/SP-013 to One Tree Hill VK1/AC-035
17000km S2S on 12m SSB with VK1MA/P
28th December 2013 - The Cloud G/SP-015
This activation included a 12m PSK31 QSO with Matt VK2DAG.
Some terrific walks as well:
27th February 2013 - Maesglase GW/NW-029
28th February 2013 - circular including Tarren y Gesail GW/NW-033 and Tarrenhendre GW/NW-036
1st March 2013 - Cadair Idris GW/NW-008
22nd July 2013 - Slieau Freoaghane GD/GD-002
10th August 2013 - Allt Fawr GW/NW-025
29th September 2013 - Esgeiriau Gwynion GW/NW-031
Probably the quality of the steak pie and chips in the summit restuarant on Snaefell swings that one as the overall highlight!
