Dom Smith

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.

After the three summits near my campsite yesterday, today’s four summits were a little further away.

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.

In December 2025, I was able to climb a couple of SOTA summits during a family holiday to Guadeloupe (FG).

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.

I returned to the Spanish Pyrenees in July 2023 to spend a couple more days activating the summits in Navarra, in the western Pyrenees.

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.

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.

With only a couple of exceptions, I haven’t been able to get out to activate any SOTA summits for nearly 2 years.

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.

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.

For the last 15 years I have almost always operated CQWW SSB from M4A in the multi-single or multi-two categories.

My ‘lockdown project’ for during the recent coronavirus lockdown was to finally get myself on the QO-100 satellite.

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.

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.

Over recent years more than occasional comment has been made by some DXers about whether QSL Managers make money from sending out QSL cards.

I’ve recently returned from a few days in Prague doing tourism and sightseeing.

Last week was Agile Cambridge, the annual, three-day, conference on Agile at Churchill College in Cambridge.

Xoldoko Gaina F/PO-245 (1 point) After the frustration of the Pic de Guilhers yesterday, I left my hotel in St.

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.

I’ve recently returned from a few days in the Basque Country, which included a few summit excursions.

Back in November at work, we ran ‘Reset Week’.

It’s time for a bit of work-related, personal news… My career has been one where I’ve followed a slightly unusual path, jumping at opportunities that have presented themselves.

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.

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 week, I’m on the GT3PYE/P DXpedition to the Isle of Man with the Camb-Hams.

After tackling Pen Llithrig on a less-than-successful day yesterday, it was now Easter Sunday.

I was up early, despite the long walk around Y Garn and Glyder Fawr yesterday, ready to head on another double-hill day, walking around Carnedd Llewelyn and Pen Llithrig y Wrach.

I’ve recently returned from what has become an annual tradition of spending Easter weekend away climbing hills for SOTA.

Enthused by a fairly easy 18 points yesterday on Pico Ruivo and Pico do Arieiro, I aimed to do two one-point hills today, but Penha de Aguia is a much more difficult hill, and so I only had time (and energy!)

Continuing my SOTA trip to Madeira, and following on from yesterday’s activations of Pico Ruivo do Paul and Pico Chao dos Terreiros, today I did two of the larger summits on the island.

Last week I spent some time on a family holiday in Madeira, during which I also spent three days in the hills doing SOTA activations.

Recently I saw a Twitter thread bemoaning the rise of ‘psychological safety’ as a phrase.

I’ve spent the last week with Rob M0VFC and Dan M0WUT on a DXpedition to Montserrat as VP2MUW.

This weekend saw the annual SSB Field Day event and once again I took part with the Camb-Hams at G3PYE/P.

As a result of the very hot weather we had during June and July, I haven’t been doing much SOTAing for the last few weeks but now the weather is somewhat cooler, I took the opportunity of the Bank Holiday weekend to travel to the Peak District to get a few

I’ve been pondering for a while about whether or not I should add my own opinions to the polemic about FT8, the now year-old digital mode that has taken the ham radio world by storm.

With 80 SOTA points in the bag from Saturday and Sunday, by Bank Holiday Monday it was looking likely that 100 points in a weekend might be achievable.

After a restful night, it was time to get up early for the second day of my attempt to get 100 SOTA points in a Bank Holiday weekend in the Vosges.

The challenge Before I post about the hills I’ve been climbing this weekend, I should probably explain why I’ve come to the Vosges, a very beautiful hilly area in Eastern France.

During this week’s Camb-Hams DXpedition to Islay as GS3PYE/P, three of us (G4ERO, GW2HFR and I) went to Beinn Tart a’Mhill, one of Islay’s one-point SOTAs (GM/SI-185).

After yesterday’s exertion, I woke with a very stiff leg and, first thing in the morning, I even found myself hobbling up the slight incline to the campsite toilet block.

The early May Bank Holiday weekend this year has seen some unseasonably stunning weather, so it seemed a pity not to head to the hills and get a few more SOTA points.