Sorry this is rather late. My SOTAWatch access hasn’t been approved yet. I and my daughters (the 13yo is KD2NHN) are anticipating activating Giant Mt in the Adirondacks tomorrow, August 29. Target time is about noon local; 1600 UTC. First up will be KD2NHN on 28.410. Will also try 14.300 and 7.200 after that. This our third foray into HF and first without our club and first SOTA attempt. No pressure or anything… Thanks - Don, N2SPW
It doesn’t need approving Don. You just register an account with your call sign and a memorable password and you are ready to go. Try it and you should be ready to roll.
I posted the alert. I will delete if I see that Don posts his own alert.
Good luck and have fun Don!
Barry N1EU
2 Likes
Andy, thank you. I must have done something wrong doing it in the first place. Thanks.
Barry, as usual we’re running behind a little bit (teenage daughters) and I’m grateful you put that up for us. We’re leaving yours up.
Thanks,
Don, N2SPW
Good luck and enjoy the hike, it’s a beautiful area.
Malen
VE6VID
Some equipment delays. Late start. Now shooting for 15:15 EST. Can’t believe we got a signal up here. Thanks for the good luck.
Finally made it on at at about 3:30. Nothing on 10m. 20 had nothing. 40 had a fair amount of traffic. Didn’t make any contacts. Oh, well. Will re-examine and try again. Thanks to anyone who tried to chase us.
Don, N2SPW
1 Like
For ssb activation, you should try and spot yourself to announce that you are QRV from the summit if you have cellphone coverage.
Barry N1EU
Barry - we tried. Surprisingly, we actually had service on a few spots in the trail but not near the summit. I’m having trouble accessing SOTAWatch also for some reason. This was a learning experience on many fronts. Obviously, I have a lot more homework to do. I do appreciate all of the advice given. One good thing to come out of this trip is my older daughter now wants to get her license after listening to several qso’s from across the country.
Don, N2SPW
Don, we can zap any SOTAwatch registration you have so you can start again, PM or email me to confirm.
In case you hadn’t twigged (it’s not obvious) but you need to register for this website and the database and SOTAwatch and the SOTA website. We’re working on a single sign on but not yet although Andrew VK3ARR has done lots of work ready for this.
So assuming we solve your SOTAwatch issue, you’ll be able to spot and alert which is important especially whilst the Sun is asleep and propagation is rubbish.
Take your SOTA gear and pack the bag you carry it in. Take it (and daughter) to a park/field and setup as if you were on a summit and see if it works. If you contact some of the NA SOTA guys before hand on their Yahoo email list I’m sure they’ll listen out for you. You can give your gear a complete psuedo-summit shakedown without too much hassle. You can also ensure you know what you’ve forgotten. Make 2 lists “must have gear” and “nice to have gear”. You can ensure you always have the “must take” and only carry the “nice to have” when you are doing a short hike.
Then go and have an ice-cream on the way home. 
1 Like
Don, I’ve run into spotting issues in th Adirondacks too. I haven’t been on Giant with a radio yet, but I would have guessed that it would have cell coverage. I’ve had the most success with APRS, however it’s not a sure thing either. I started carrying a 2m 4-element beam antenna for use when the roll-up j-pole isn’t getting to an i-gate. Kind of crazy, but getting spotted is so important.
I’ll be in the Adirondacks with my wife this weekend and from 1-9 Oct. If you’re in the region then we could coordinate to either activate together or simultaneously on separate peaks. Normally any hiking we do is a last minute decision, but maybe we could pre-plan something. I also typically get a couple winter activations in.
Kevin
SMS spotting will often get through in areas of marginal cell coverage, and SMS will automatically make repeated attempts to deliver the message in the background: Sota SMS format, help please - #5 by AB3TQ
I use the Android app SMS Template Plus (FREE version) to store a number of canned spotting messages to make it quick/easy to send a spot when I’m on the summit.
Barry N1EU
Andy - thank you. And regarding SOTAWatch, I’ve tried registering several times but keep getting the message that the log in doesn’t exist. The other log-ins worked fine once I followed the instructions. Any log-in zapping is appreciated.
Kevin - trying to get work covered on Sunday but not having much success. First week in October is unavailable due to work and training obligations, I’m afraid. We would have liked a joint hike. Keep an eye on the weather. Lake Placid, Keene Valley, and Wilmington are expecting near 100% chance of rain up to an inch.
Barry - thanks for the link. Gonna give it a try.