SOTA Activation Reports 2005
Activation reports previously submitted  to the Summits On The Air Reflector

16th October 2005 - GW/NW-070 Great Orme.

As one or two of you may know I had been somewhat inactive in the realm of amateur radio for a number of years and turning out with Flintshire Raynet had covered most of my operating. Due to the change in the licensing, that allowed the old B classes access to HF, my interest was rekindled and I burst back on to the airwaves with a desire to make up for lost time. HF was/is fun and I started to collect DXCC, Lighthouses, Castles and Islands on the Air before discovering SOTA.

I was 17 and a half stone and had just been relieved to find that a dodgy trace on a heart monitor during a works medical was down to the equipment and my heart was okay. Everything was okay but that was no reason to be complacent, I needed to get fit. My wife, children and I already started cycling and swimming. SOTA reminded me just how much my XYL and I had loved walking prior to the kids. I wanted to get out and activate but I would have struggled and not enjoyed it. I started a diet and with the family started a training plan and graduated slowly from walking along the flat on beach fronts to doing Moel Arthur and each time I took the radio and worked a few activators.

I was itching to activate and on the 16th October 2005 with kids and mother in law in tow we went for a walk around Great Orme. I parked at the top carpark and we then followed a trail in a book we had which took us back down to the bottom and then up again. While the family got warm in the car I walked up to the summit and activated GW/NW-070 and worked a handfull of stations on my handheld. Including two Isle of Man stations, one on 2 metres and one on 70cms. Not bad for 3 watts on the rubber duck.