Following the activation of GM/SS-126 Earl’s Seat we decided to knock out the neighbouring summit Meikle Bin, which is also a two point summit. I completed this activation with Douglas again, I twisted his arm to try Portable Logger (PoLo) rather than logging his contacts on pen and paper - I think the jury is out! 😐 As with my prior walks I tracked this using Strava, if you’d like to view click here....
With the forecast looking positive for the weekend, I planned my first SOTA activation of the year. I met again with fellow club member Douglas MM7DCD for this walk. We parked up just off the A875 as you enter Killearn and started the walk at Lettre Farm. This route avoids the climb over Dumgoyne. I tracked the route on Strava if you’d like to view, click here to view. There isn’t much of a walk in to this one and you make progress pretty quickly....
I had a small job to do for someone in Bathgate today unrelated to radio and had been advised previously that the Cairnpapple summit was a very easy one, a short walk from the car. Stopping by to complete the activation was a no brainer, I was joined by Brian MM1HMZ for this activation. My first mistake was arriving there ahead of Brian and setting up the antenna at the wrong summit!...
This week I opted to activate the Ben Bowie summit, I had other commitments to take care of in the afternoon and it’s one that can be completed in a morning so it seemed like a good choice. I was again joined by Douglas MM7DCD for this activation – Doug planned to spend longer at the summit and camp the evening so I completed the return trip on my own. Again the walk was tracked on Strava if you’d like to see the route I took....
Looking at the map to select my next SOTA Summit I decided to go with the next closest to my home which is GM/SS-222 Duncolm. I was happy to do this walk with fellow club member Doug MM7DCD who lives nearby and knows the area very well. The weather most of the week and the night prior was miserable with the forecast looking pleasant for our walk, we struck lucky and had outstanding weather conditions....
I’ve recently completed some upgrades to my gravel bike and upon realising I’ve done little SOTA activity recently, thought I’d take the opportunity to attempt an activation at the next summit closest to me which is GM/SS-236 Corse Hill at Whitelee Windfarm. Having cycled 60 miles the day prior I decided to load the bike onto the car and start from the Visitor Center car park. There are alternative ways to get to the summit that are closer, but this suited me better and allowed me to put the bike through it’s paces following the changes....
Thanks for reading my first post relating to the Summits on the Air (SOTA) part of the amateur radio hobby. On Saturday 3rd June 2023 I activated my first SOTA Summit at Blaeloch Hill in Ayrshire. This post however relates to my second activation at GM/SS-155 Hill of Stake in Renfrewshire on Saturday 17th June 2023. For those less familar with SOTA – This is an aspect of the hobby that recognises summits throughout the world, if an operator can achieve four contacts at the top of a recognised summit they have activated it and are known as activators....