First 3k Summit
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Having had a total knee replacement 24 months ago, my #1 2026 goal is to complete a 14 km return hike to VK1/AC-002 Mt Gingera.
Andrew VK1AD
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My SOTA goal for 2026? Simples! To be here for SOTA in 2027!
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My targets for 2026:-
Get 12 Activator points & achieve semi (or is it demi?) Goat status. Try & obtain a further 100 points to get to 600. I only managed 89 last year so it could be a struggle.
Get about 125 Chaser points to reach Super Sloth status-this shouldn’t take long, plus another 1000 to get to 11,000.
Build on my S2S total so far of 725 points. I would like to get to 1,000 at least before old age stops me activating!
Edited-have some fun with this year’s Challenge!
But most of all, my aim is to enjoy my mountain activities plus the fellowship over the air with like-minded folk!
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After barely being able to walk for the last few months of 2025, I’ll soon be using SOTA as a form of physiotherapy… as soon as the snow melts. The routes will be shorter and easier at first, but I still hope to earn a few winter bonus points.
Otherwise, I’ll pick up where I left off (there’s quite a bit left undone): exploring areas I haven’t been to yet and activating summits I haven’t been. ….and that’s already happening in our Swiss neighborhood!
I’ll start in the first week of March with CT3/MI. ……..and I’m still missing a few summits in the northern Vosges and the southern Palatinate Forest; then I’ll have completed both ranges. (Whether I’ll ever complete FL/VO and DM/RP is another story.) …and maybe again Italy? I didn’t go there at all last year… (Am I the only one who feels like the years are getting shorter and shorter?)
In total, I’d like to activate 50 summits I’ve never been.
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Although I’m quite well-equipped for 2m /P actions from my backpack (approx. 500W ERP), I won’t be participating in the challenge. (Perhaps there will be a 2m activity day sometime… then I could imagine offering points from the southern Black Forest or the southern Vosges Mountains for a few hours.)
My interests this year lie in the opposite frequency range… I’ll be active on 160m and 630m at the summits. In recent weeks, I’ve built a transverter based on Chris @DL1CR’s design and soldered together a QCX Mini for 160m. Currently, I’m still working on a small PA for 160m, which should give me 50-60 watts from 27 volts (two Eremit batteries in series) using two IRF510.
Summary: Entering new territory again - in terms of regions and frequencies
73 Armin
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Hi Don,
No!! your’re my top chasers 
I look forward to working you S2S
73 HYN de EI2IAB Marty
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- MG.
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Mine is simply to get out more.
WIth 9 activations (6 of the same summit) it shouldnt be too hard.
More 23cm and everything else is a bonus.
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My goal is to get excited and motivated for another year of the same summit lap of 45 summits.
Do I want to pester the land owners again in 2026 for access permission, and drive 8000 km again to get around the summits. Pay a fortune for accommodation and fuel, keep the services up on my UTE and buy new tyres and running expenses for a reliable vehicle to take out in the desert.
The walk up and radio part is the easiest part of SOTA for me. Having good equipment and antennas built up and keeping my old body as fit as possible with lots of other exercise when not doing SOTA also adds to the strain or “fun”.
I get those butterflies in the belly every time I need to call a land owner to ask permission wondering if they will grant permission or not and I have been doing it for every summit on private land every year since 2012.
Lots to think about if you want to take part in SOTA successfully to attain the pinnacle of the activity of Mountain Goat.
Go for Gold.
Regards Ian vk5cz 
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Time to book a plane ticket and come to Europe. Mountain is public territory here. No private owners, no calls, no detour. 
My 2026 goals are very similar to 2025 goals:
- I learned CW and activated summits in CW but didn’t dare to spot myself yet. I went only for s2s CW chasing, so far. Last step maybe for 2026: spot myself in CW mode.
- activate the two 001 summits that I failed to activate last year. Both at a few hundred meters from the top.
- 20 activations minimum. I have to stop finding excuses to not go. I always regret afterwards.
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I take my hat off to you! I think if I had to work that hard I’d be doing something else. Good effort!
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For us who live in the low lands of Europe, it’s the same story when it comes to travelling lots of kilometers to become that desired mountain goat 
In my next life I want to be born in Switzerland!
73, Martin - PE1EEC
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Continue toward the long term goal to activate and chase every publicly accessible summit in W4V. I currently stand at 130 activated and 174 chased in W4V. The remaining ones are getting ever farther from home and deeper in the brush. Having activated 22 uniques in W4V last year, a good target for this year might be another 20.
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Make at least one chase daily, also an objective last year. I occasionally miss a day, in which case I issue myself a pardon and make up for it with two or more chases the next.
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In the spirit of the Challenge, get set up for SSB and CW on 2 m at the home station, and optionally, in the field. Having just checked off both goals last week with the purchase of a well-loved-but-fully-functional FT-817, and having just interfaced it to a TE Systems linear amplifier, it’s onward to …
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Make at least one, and ideally many, chases on 2 m SSB / CW. Should be doable as there are a dozen or so popular summits which I routinely work on 2 m FM from home. And a few local activators are equipped for these modes.
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Activate at least one summit on 2 m SSB / CW. This will be complicated by the fact that I only activate uniques. All the slam-dunk VHF summits in my area are ones I’ve already done.
73,
Matt
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Get yourself or use a club callsign. Then you can use that for repeat activations without affecting your own personal call.
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Please Explain!
I have activated using the club call ZL6QRP on the occasions when I accompany others to a summit I’ve done before. But I do not log those contacts. It that what you’re referring to? Or can we log club activations separately? Sneaky feeling that was against the rules.
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We always suggest people log everything and let the database work things out. But if people only want to activate uniques then that doesn’t work. They log the repeat activations and they don’t have a 100% unique record. If you log using a different call then the QSOs still go in your account but it’s much easier for you to know which activations to ignore. i.e. all your repeats done as ZL6QRP are easier to filter than having to remember which activations (summit or date) to ignore. You can do this if you export your log as CSV and play with a spreadsheet program to filter out the different calls.
No you can’t do it using the DB so it’s not a perfect solution, you have to do some faffing about yourself. But it’s better than not logging the activations because we have more QSOs to analyse for whatever we are analysing and you have a complete record of your activities.
If you do this don’t claim a certificate with “All Uniques”, or some such, unless you do the donkey work and provide the evidence.
Life is too short (and challenging) for me to search through the database for you
Complete G/SP (3 summits to go)
Some new GW/NW summits
150 Activator points
Shack sloth x2
Paul @M0CQE Summit top send off activation (details to come)
Alan
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The “Unique Summits” counts are clearly identifiably countable and worthy targets, but I find the desire to maintain a “100% unique” record a mite strange, and as for not logging a valid activation in order to keep that “100% unique” record in the database…
… for me, it falls into the same class as those, back in the day, trying to ensure every QSO they logged had that un-lamented “confirmed” chase asterisk.
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