The 2018 W4 SOTA Campout was a huge success! Pat, KI4SVM, deserves kudos for a great event! The base camp location at Roan Mountain State Park, TN was a super choice as there were so many area summits to choose from to activate. It was wonderful for each of us to meet so many activators and chasers whom we had heard on the air. We had a Chili Dinner on Friday night where Dean, K2JB, prepared a huge pot of his famous chili and dutch oven cornbread, and many sides and desserts were furnished by other SOTA folks and spouses.
Thanks for posting, Dave! Nice to put some faces on the call-signs that we know so well.
Hope band conditions will be better for the next one.
All best, Ken
Great job everyone, enjoyed working many of you. Propagation not the best for me in the midwest. Thanks again for all the time and effort put into the campout. Stay safe on the peaks.
73 and GL
Bill WB0KIU
I also hated to miss it and hope to be there next time. It was fun chasing yall (even though band conditions were…challenging), but it would have been more fun to be there in a tent with you.
I was up on Mt. Shaw from 10:20am to noon Saturday hoping to make a bunch of S2S contacts with you guys, but I never heard anyone. Oh well. At least I succeeded in the activation and had a good day in the mountains.
We had a great turnout and I want to thank everyone for coming out and making this such a fun event. It’s too bad that propagation didn’t favor a lot of long distance S2Ss, but you should have heard the activity on 2m! It was truly insane at times with several summits coming online at the same time with multiple activators on each summit and the rest of us trying to get them, not to mention that there are a number of VHF chasers in the area. But we managed to suffer through it.
And a big congrats to the two activators who achieved Mountain Goat during the campout!
It was good working you on 40M for once. It makes a big difference
from a Summit and not from the flatlands where I live.
Hope to work you some more in the future.
Johnpaul/AB4PP
My first group activation. I have only done a few before this.
One was a bust and the others were mediocre compared to
this event. I am thankful to all who helped me wade through
the long weekend. I learned a lot and have a long list of items
to get ready for my next activations.
I also learned the usefulness of a handheld. I did not give it much
thought before this weekend event.
I have a greater respect for the FM on the handheld too. I did not
realize there were so many new ops on the SOTA events. I now
realize why there is so much use of this mode.
This being my 50th year in ham radio I now have a greater respect
for the hobby and more especially for my SOTA friends.
Hi Chris KG6CIH, I was on Elk Knob W4C/EM-005 with my XYL about 1700z so I just missed you. Great 1.9 mile hike with nice views. Glad to hear that you activated Shaw! Looking forward to a backpacking trip with you sometime. Let me know dates that are good for you. I’ll be back in NH on May 3rd. 73 Bob AC1Z
I posted this in nasota but this thread is much busier.
Many thanks to all of you. I chased on Thursday and Friday, I was stuck at work over the weekend. Lots of chaser points gained. I got my 100w rig back in service just in time!
It’s amazing how different signal strengths were on 40m. Hopefully everyone got a chance to compare kit and learned something from each other.
Please let me know what worked, what didn’t work, and other tips and tricks for organizing one of these so I can incorporate your ideas for the planned W2/GA activity I’m organizing this fall. You can email me or post here, I’m good on qrz. Hopefully some of you make the drive up to join our party!
Hi Ron and welcome to SOTA. I will be glad to put you on the mailing list we are using, but I don’t expect a big campout like this one till next year. If you do Facebook, there is a Southern Appalachian SOTA group (or something along those lines) that has a lot of active members from your area.
Pat, thanks for the quick reply. Did not expect there to be another campout real quick. Not much of a Facebook fan myself, but I do have an account. I will look the group up.
I sure enjoyed some good chaser contacts, plus a few choice S2S contacts from here in Colorado. It was fun to look up the summits and see where they were!
I grew up in Knoxville, TN, and I learned to hike in the Smoky Mountains. That’s a fine place for SOTA, and a wonderful time of year.
KW4JM - Scott