After yesterday’s activation of EA/NV-012 and EA2/NV-170, on 9th July 2023 I again drove into Spain to activate the two 6-point summits of Saioa and Zuriain. These are very easily activated as a pair and are almost always done together. To the starting point: Col de Sagardegi The starting point for this walk is on…

I returned to the Spanish Pyrenees in July 2023 to spend a couple more days activating the summits in Navarra, in the western Pyrenees. I was actually staying in a hotel in Bayonne, France and went back to F/PO-245 Xoldoko Gaina (which I had last activated in 2019) on 6th July. Then, on 8th July,…

After yesterday’s successful and sunny climbs of Pico de Orhy and Arthanolatze, I was looking forward to another easy day in the mountains on 31st August 2022 but it was somewhat more difficult. Urkulu EA2/NV-022 Overnight, there had been a substantial thunderstorm with rain in the Pyrenees and the drive into the valley from St.…

At the end of August, I was able to return to the Pyrenees to do a few new (to me) SOTA summits over a couple of days. On 30th August 2022, this trip started with a couple of mountains, the Pico de Ori and Arthanolatze. Pico de Ori EA2/NV-003 The ten point Pico de Ori…

With only a couple of exceptions, I haven’t been able to get out to activate any SOTA summits for nearly 2 years. Now only have we had the Covid lockdown, but then over the winter I have faced another (non-Covid-related) medical issue, which stopped me getting out. Now that I am recovering, and with some…

Equipment and category After months during which we haven’t been able to travel because of Covid-19, and with a load of annual leave to use up at work, I thought it would be good to get away for a bit of a break at the end of November. I booked a hotel in the main…

For the CQWW SSB contest this month, I wanted to be able to use a panadapter and found that I could use a FunCubeDongle with the Waterfall Bandmap and DXLog.NET contest logging software to do this. Why do you want a panadapter? First off, something on why you might want panadapters in amateur radio and…

For the last 15 years I have almost always operated CQWW SSB from M4A in the multi-single or multi-two categories. It’s one of the highlights of my year. However, with the current coronavirus situation limiting our ability to meet up, I found myself limited to a single operator entry this year. I decided to go…

My ‘lockdown project’ for during the recent coronavirus lockdown was to finally get myself on the QO-100 satellite. It was one of those projects I had bought various bits for but never had the time to assemble and sort them out. On Monday 27th July, I gave a talk about this as part of the…

During the ZC4UW DXpedition, Rob M0VFC, Dan M0WUT and I spent a morning doing a couple of local SOTA summits, largely so that I could tick off my fourth continent for the SOTA Explorer awards. It’s winter and we didn’t want to go too far, so we limited ourselves to two four-point summits, about 10kms…

Over recent years more than occasional comment has been made by some DXers about whether QSL Managers make money from sending out QSL cards. Obviously, not all DXpeditions have the same policies but a year after the VP2MUW expedition, here’s how our QSL finances stack up. Important note: I’m writing this in the interests of…

I’ve recently returned from a few days in Prague doing tourism and sightseeing. While the primary focus of the trip wasn’t radio, I noticed that there’s a SOTA summit on the outskirts of the city, which I had to go to. OK/ST-084: Ládví Getting to Ládví requires no car hire at all. If you are…

Xoldoko Gaina F/PO-245 (1 point) After the frustration of the Pic de Guilhers yesterday, I left my hotel in St. Jean de Luz early, with the aim of climbing Xoldoko Gaina (aka Choldocogagna) before heading to Bilbao for my return flight back to the UK. The path for this one starts in the village of…

Pic d’Issarbe F/PO-171 (4 points) I’d done the Pic d’Issarbe on my last trip to the Pyrenees, and it’s a lovely, easy four-point walk at this time of year. The site is a minor ski resort in the winter and as such has a car park which was almost deserted on this September morning. The…

I’ve recently returned from a few days in the Basque Country, which included a few summit excursions. Although I’m aware that I’m behind on writing up some of my other SOTA trips over the summer, I’ve decided to type up my notes on this recent trip first before I forget the detail. Aratz EA2/VI-003 (6…

I’ve now returned from a long weekend at the annual Ham Radio exhibition at Friedrichshafen, a beautiful city on the shores of Lake Constance in southern Germany. The normal way for British people to get to FDH as it has become known, is to fly to Zurich and take the train to Romanshorn before then…

Last year, for the late May bank holiday, I set myself the challenge of getting 100 SOTA points in the weekend in the Vosges area of eastern France, an area renowned for being an easy place to get lots of points fairly quickly. This year, in May 2019, my challenge was to do 120 points…

This week, I’m on the GT3PYE/P DXpedition to the Isle of Man with the Camb-Hams. As part of the trip, Rob M0VFC, Colin G4ERO and I have been activating all the SOTA summits on the Isle of Man. It’s perfectly possible to do them all in a single day, amassing 18 points from the five…

After tackling Pen Llithrig on a less-than-successful day yesterday, it was now Easter Sunday. Knowing the traffic would be bad on Monday, I wanted to get in a quick morning walk before heading back to Cambridge in the afternoon, ahead of most of the cars. Cadair Berwyn (GW/NW-012, worth 8 points) fitted the bill perfectly.…