The alpine SOTA season 2015 being over for me it’s time for looking backward and forward.
What undouptedly will stick in my memory is the use of the MTR-3 on some of my activations.
This little rig - adjusted for about 3 watt on all bands - always worked flawless, nothing to complain about.
One thing not quite comfortable on alpine summits was to deal with the EFHW link for 30m. Will try to eliminate this disadvantage in the future (substituting the link by a mini trap).
Some stats (MTR-3, 3 watt, linked EFHW)
Activations: 30 different alpine summits
Total QSO: 2048
s2s QSO (no dupes): 211
DX: VK2IO, 27 NA/VE
Photos below showing my
MTR-3 backpack ready (763 g with 1000 mAh LiPo) and
OK Heinz, but Guy N7UN asked you for the “make and model of that watch” and you told him it’s an iROX Travel-M, thus implicitly you admitted it was a watch, didn’t you?
Just kidding.
I wonder why SOTA activators use clocks like this as I see a risk of it being blown off while activating on a windy summit or simply falling down a hill by accident.
Personally I use an old CASIO digital wristwatch which I only use on SOTA activations and it’s permanently set with UTC time.
I wear it on my left wrist and I use my left hand to hold the Palm Radio minipaddle together with my log notebook, so the watch is almost in front of my eyes while I’m working on the paddles and writing callsigns on the log with my right hand.
I’d like to read about other activators reasons for using one type of watch, clock, wristwatch or whatever you like to use.
Well I got curious. Am I in or not? So got it all out and weighed it. ATS4B, paddles, board, headphone amp = 420 grams. 20 meter dipole, lots of nylon string, and carbon 16’ pole = 560 grams. 980, I made it!! Oh darn it, no battery, my 1000 mah LiPo is 80 grams. 1060 grams !!! What to do? Do I count the pen? The extra log sheets?
W0CCA
A little O/T I guess, but still SOTA related. I guess a new thread might be worthwhile!
Anyway to start my post, I like the set up Heinz. I remember now that you asked me about the 3 band MTR some time ago, you obviously chose to get one and it seems like you like it! I’ve often admired those SIGG boxes in the outdoor shops! I haven’t checked for a while, but SIGG did some stainless steel stuff a little while ago. My wife bought me a steel bottle as a gift but it rusted after a very short time. SIGG customer services blamed far East production for poor quality and promptly sent me a new bottle from Switzerland. The replacement bottle has been fine. I love the aluminium bottles, I use them daily.
Right, Guru, on to time pieces!
I wanted a Casio Wave Cepter radio controlled watch for years, I told my wife, who promptly got me a Timex radio controlled watch! I ran the Timex for a long time and I still have it (still works too!), I used it as my main SOTA logging watch. A few years went by and my Timex got a bit scruffy looking. My wife then surprised me with a gift of a Casio Wave Ceptor! Apparently the price was too good to miss. I’ve been using the Wave Ceptor for a few years, replacing the battery twice. I replaced the battery myself but now I find that in minus C temperatures, the face fogs up on the inside. Other than this minor issue, the watch has been great and I continue to enjoy it and use it for SOTA logging. http://www.casio-europe.com/euro/watch/waveceptor/wv-200e-1avef/
I now have the MTR-5B rig and it includes a real time clock on it’s display. The clock keeps extremely good time, I’m amazed! The days of twisting my wrist to read my watch between QSOs might be over!
Hi Guru, well I just use an ordinary wrist watch, with white hands and a black face so that I can read it without my glasses
I note the time of the first QSO. If there is a stream of contacts, I then just note the time of the last one, and fill in the individual times later. It usually works out at about one per minute. I don’t feel the need to look at the time for every QSO, though I guess it would be nice to have a small clock constantly visible.