Introduction
Amateur radio is all about having fun, and sometimes it’s fun to track everything you accomplished in a year. 🙂
2025 was a particularly eventful radio year, as I laid out a goal to activate 50 SOTA peaks. I also got more involved in the amateur radio community, joining both Skyview Radio Society (K3JMW) in Kensington, PA, the Frankford Radio Club contest group, and meeting more local activators. I also became member #3772 of CWOPs after finishing the Advanced Course with Phillip NE0S.
What follows is a slightly deeper dive into my SOTA, POTA, and contest stats for the year. This is mostly for my records/personal entertainment, but I am also posting it here because what else is a blog for?!
SOTA
| Activator (2024→2025) | Chaser (2024→2025) | |
| Activations/Chases | 70→123 | 261→568 |
| Uniques | 61→106 | 231→470 |
| Points | 232→582 | 1483→3160 |
| S2S | 385→1035 | — |
| Completes | 14→33 | — |
SOTA took the main share of my amateur radio focus this year. My goal was to average one activation per week. I just made the goal, managing to get out for 53 this year, making this my most SOTA-active year yet. I ended the year with just under 600 activator points, getting ever-closer to that Mountain Goat milestone! I scored my second and third Shack Sloths with 3000 chaser points and renewed focus on scoring completes, pulling up to 33. I also got past 1000 S2S points near the end of the year!
I traveled a bit, activating in Canada, both in Ontario and Quebec, as well as England! In the US, I operated from Wisconsin (W9), Nevada (W7N) and Utah (W7U). It’s been a good year for getting to new peaks and associations.
I also started to connect with the SOTA community a little more this year, which I had not done much after coming back to SOTA in 2024. I was in DC in March for the Cherry Blossom Festival, where I met up with WN3F Roy for a joint POTA activation, and have chased him many times on SOTA peaks. I’ve also got a few more “locals” that chase me on summits as I’ve spent more time on 40m, particularly Eric VA2EO in QC and JB KC1MXB in ME. Those of us who do SOTA in western PA are organizing a bit more, and I’ve now met Dale N3HXZ, Jim KJ3D, Dan NM3A, Jody K3JZD, and Dan KC3TVC.
I also got the university club W3VC to work their first SOTA activation in Ohiopyle State Park (W3/PT-004 Laurel Hill) during Fall Break. It was a great group activation, and for several students, their first HF contacts were made here!
- Milestones:
3x Shack Sloth
1000 S2S Points - First Activations:
W3/SV-080 1370 - New Associations Activated:
G, VE2, VE3, W7N, W7U, W9
POTA
| Activator | Hunter | |
| Activations | 87 | — |
| Parks | 69 | 800 |
| QSOs | 2725 | 1185 |
I usually do POTA activations as an incidental activity to tack on to my SOTA trips, but I had a few outings specifically for POTA this year. I’m interested in eventually activating all the PA State Parks and PA state forests. I also am interested in hunting all the PA references, including (maybe…) the 300+ game lands.
This year, I had overnight camping trips in Reeds Gap SP and Trough Creek SP in PA. We also stayed in Zion National Park, which was an amazing place to relax and also to goof around a bit on the radio. I also camped out in Blue Knob State Park to operate the PA QSO Party, where I got the 67-county sweep, and got ever closer to a POTA kilo for that park (>600 QSOs will do that!).
- PA State Forests Activated: 8/20
Remaining: Clear Creek, Cornplanter, Delaware, Elk, Lackawanna, Loyalsock, Sproul, Susquehannock, Tioga, Tuscarora, Weiser, William Penn - PA State Parks Activated: 17/124
New Parks in 2025:
US-1386 Mont Alto
US-1346 Cowans Gap
US-1337 Caledonia
US-4359 Jennings Environmental
US-1412 Reeds Gap
US-1381 Maurice K Goddard
US-1360 Hillman
US-1387 Moraine
US-1428 Trough Creek
US-1372 Laurel Summit
Remaining: Too many to list 🙂 - PA References Hunted: 130/490
- Activated US States: 12/50
New States in 2025: DC, NV, UT, WI
Remaining: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, OK, OR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WY
Looking Ahead to 2026
Next year, I’m hoping to work the weekly CWT to improve my contesting skills, hoping to work the 80 required for the silver level of participation. I also am planning to keep getting out for SOTA and get to new peaks, even though I’ve done most of the ones in my vicinity, but still going to some of my favorite repeat peaks to get ever closer to that mountain goat milestone! Most importantly, I’m hoping to do fewer of these activations solo, engaging more with the ham community through SOTA group campouts and joint activations!
Tom Zajdel 