Like most websites, I'd like to use an analytics cookie to understand anonymous data about you and your browser. Is that OK? Privacy policy...
After yesterday’s long day, my final full day in the Vosges targeted a final three 10-point summits to reach my objective of 100 points in three days. Boule du Diable (est) (FL/VO-173) This is another summit that goes on the list of not-very-interesting forest walks in the Vosges, sadly. Starting from a fairly large carpark…
After the three summits near my campsite yesterday, today’s four summits were a little further away. The first two start from a location about 40 minutes’ drive from Xonrupt-Longemer, and the other two are another 40 minutes beyond that. I did Le Launchenkopf and Klintzkopf as a circular walk but note that access to Klintzkopf…
I returned to the Vosges region of eastern France in late August 2026 with the aim of getting 100 points from hills I hadn’t activated previously. I stayed with my caravan at the Domaine de Longemer campsite in Xonrupt-Longemer and the summits I chose for my first day were all just a few kilometers from…
In December 2025, I was able to climb a couple of SOTA summits during a family holiday to Guadeloupe (FG). FG/BT-011 Morne à Louis I had planned to climb this 6-point hill after visting the Parc de Mamelles Zoo (which incidentally is well worth a visit – allow a couple of hours to walk around…
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…
aka: How Cambridge 105 Radio’s technical team has responded to the challenge of our studios being closed by the coronavirus pandemic The current coronavirus crisis brings a particular challenge for broadcasters. It’s at times like these that both the information, and the company, that we can provide become all the more important. This has been…
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…
