New licensee

Yes Gerald,

Didn’t know how best to pitch this statement - considering his multitudinal ‘Goatdom’ tendecies :smile:

(;>J

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Sounds like a serious disease… can you get inoculated? He might infect Iain… :joy:

Hi, Iain. Have you looked at the information for beginners on the website? Summits on the Air

The “Introduction to Chasing” is a bit light on detail but the “Introduction to Activating” is quite helpful.

Brian

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Thanx Jack

Il check your qrz, mine is quite empty just now.

I spend quite a bit of time just south of the Fort fishing etc

Be really good to learn from a Sota pro

:+1:

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Thanx for the laugh, very good

Think I’m already infected though
:joy:

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Yeah Brian I was up most of the night reading the Sota stuff
I now understand activators and chasers and the rules regarding activations

Many thanx for posting

Hi Iain
Welcome to sota hope to hear you from a summit soon.
A nice little summit to to activate for the first time and test your gear out would be Mount Eagle just North of Inverness SOTA Summits

73
Graeme

Welcome to the hobby. You just missed Martyn mm1maj and I activating in your area as we are now driving south back home after a rather too wet SOTA holiday based in Grantown-on-Spey. Activation reports of our soggy adventures should appear on the Reflector when I have time to write them. I was calling on 2m on all the hills we did and got 4 or more contacts to qualifiy all bar one on 2m. Martyn did HF on all except Ben Rinnes which was too windy.

If you aren’t already aware it’s worth calling on 145.575 as well as the 2m calling channel around Inverness.

Caroline mm3zcb but soon to be m3zcb.

Thanx Graeme

Il make this my 1st try, just getting gear ready😁

Thanx C for reply

Il probe end up trying everything to get the activations
Thankfully my rig has all bands
So I don’t need the hand-held

Weathers usually good up here, sorry to hear of ya soggy adventures
But u got the Job Done!

:+1:

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You need to practice setting up your station and checking it functions before you take it up a hill. No point driving and climbing only to find you cannot match the antenna. When you set it up, list what you used so you can use the list to pack ready for your activations.

And don’t forget that an important part of SOTA is the mountaincraft needed to ensure you stay safe when out in the wilds etc.

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Yeah I’m doing that today

Think il need to chop my antenna down to 40m band
It’s far too big to manage, need to get rid of some weight as well

I’m at Milton of culloden just now operating portable, but no luck

Tonight I will take my gear to Caledonian Canal and set up, then chop my antenna and get lowest swr on 7.100, be easier to manage

Thanx for reply

Having a few problems with my antenna matcher

:grin::+1:

Hello. And congratulations on your new endeavours. Sorry. I cannot help you either with a local club. You might try a yahoo or other online group to see if anyone is local to you. What rig do you have? I my self am new too but have activated twice this summer both time with my HT. seems as though the HF conditions were not favourable at all.

Best suggestion I can give you is go out to a local park or playground area or other such local space and try to practice . Setting up antennas working out the nuances of what works with your equipment is the first part. Then start to get ready for the extra weight your gear will add to the hike. Then pick something doable and close and grow from there.

My first trip was both memorable and almost a total failure. My HF radio and antenna did not match. No go. But my HT worked flawlessly with my slim Jim antenna. 50 km range. Not bad for mountainous country. The second trip was the same thing but I was able to get the first activation on the summit again with my HT. for reference I live on the coast of BC here in Canada. My HF rig is the 817 ND. Took it to the North West territories and was able to make contacts near San Francisco and Chicago so that went well. Have fun!

I am a few days late with this reply.

For some of my activations, I write up a little report about where I parked and what route I took.

If you go to the page for summits that have been activated several times, there may be a report by a previous activator with hints about parking, routes, and the activation zone.

This may help you determine good early trips to try out.

73,
Mark
N0MTN

Good afternoon

Was out this morning checking the gear, I was operating 40m and managed 4 contacts all before 11:00 am
Belgium France and Italian

This was with my chopped 80-10 efhw
Which is now 40-10

I will probably go back out tonight to another mark and check the antenna again with analyser see what difference is

Thanx for reply

Many thanx Mark

Il do that many thanx, and I hope to be activating soon in next week I hope

Work permitting

:+1:

Hi Iain,

welcome to SOTA. There is an established SOTA double GOAT living in Inverness MM0DHY, Adrian. Find him on QRZ.com (the QRZCQ entry is way out of date/wrong)!

My better half blames Adrian for inoculated me with the SOTA activating microbe, with some justification I might add. We activated the Old Man of Hoy together!

Adrian is recovering from an ankle injury but might now be persuaded to do a first activation with you. As Adrian is an established SOTA maestro I know this is perhaps the best way to get started.

Speak with you soon.

Thanks

Colwyn
MM0YCJ

Colwyn that be an ideal situation, learn from a pro, see what he does
What he uses
And how he does it

I’ve been out a few times this week with the rig, early morning Caledonian Canal
Been quite quiet though, with about 8 contacts from 89-17m

I’ve cut a dipole on 80m and one on 40m, and they work with low swr, on the bands up from that

Although il get round to adding clips so I have resonant halfwave on 40-10

Many thanx for reply

I’m busy learning morse code as well

Iain👍

Hi Iain

Welcome to amateur radio and SOTA! I live in East Daviot and as Colwyn said I am a double goat! I have been out of action since a climbing accident in February. Still rather limited in my walking abilities but range and fitness improving!

There is a local amateur radio club. IDARS (Inverness and district amateur radio society) that started up earlier this year. We run training courses. Should be running an intermediate course fairly soon if you are interested. We meet twice a month on Wednesday evenings. There is a facebook site you can find out more info.

I would be very happy to meet up and share my SOTA knowledge. When my foot is up to it a joint activation would be good.

You can contact me via email at dhyclimber@yahoo.co.uk.

I am off the French Pyrenees next week for a fortnight.

The next IDARS meeting is next Wednesday. Please email me for details.

I look forward to meeting soon

73
Adrian
MM0DHY

Cool thanx Adrian

A joint activation sounds good, don’t know about the intermediate, not got the brains don’t think

I’m in no hurry to get out, I’m quite happy running my qrp portable station from the. Banks of the cally canal and at the van in Glencoe area

The 5 watt output ain’t limiting me and I’m happy

Might take a shoot down the club it’s 5 mins away far Dalneigh

Just busy at work

Many thanx for reply

Get well soon

Iain