I became a licensed ham in 1994, when I was 15, but hadn’t really been into the hobby because I was financially dependent on my parents, who didn’t understand nor support me being a ham.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2015, so I decided to do whatever I want to achieve in my life sooner, while I still physically can. Therefore I “resumed” to be a ham by getting a Class 2 license in the beginning of 2018. My physician says that I should exercise as much as I can, and she recommended hiking, so here I am.
I did two activations on local summits of BV-NT036 and BV-NT040, I really enjoy what I saw during the journey and QSOs up there, I think I will do more activations and maybe some chasing at home. I also got a FCC license, which enables me to operate in most of the countries in the world. I plan to activate on JA/HS-160 and JA5/KC-18 in early April of 2019.
Thank you SOTA, for organizing such a good system.
BX2AFU / W1LLI / JJ1PDQ
My Man-pack based on FT-857D, RHM-7350 antenna and tuned counterpoise:
I hope to attempt a S2S QSO with you at some point. I will be out activating on 20m FT8, CW & SSB early morning UTC in the next couple of days - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
I have been interested to notice some FT8 activating from BV and JA recently, so thinking about setting up an activity session. Something like 0600-0900z on 20m, see if we can make some DX S2S contacts.
I like the idea of FT8 S2S, however my legs and knees are still sore from yesterday’s activation, and the weather will not be ideal for the coming holidays.
I plan to activate again on UTC 0200, December 29.
Hello Willis and welcome back to Amateur Radio and also to SOTA. I like your thinking and logic. You have joined a good crowd and you’ll get a lot fitter as you go along. When there’s a target it’s not as painful. Enjoy yourself!
73, John.
Welcome Willis,
I really like your setup, I always wanted a pack-man.
If you want to share other pics o reports, it will be a pleasure for us to read about it.
I hope to contact you in the next activations.
Have fun!!
Tom, sorry, my CW proficiency is far from operational, still working on it. But I did hear you sending your call sign today,
I will work on that harder, hopefully I will be able to do CW QSO in the near future.
Today’s activation has a perfect ending with @ZL1BYZ
Thanks for letting me know you could hear me - that’s really encouraging. When will you next be QRV from a summit at this sort of time in the day? You could try CW you know - virtually all the chasers and activators on CW in SOTA are incredibly encouraging and patient, and will tolerate mistakes, requests for repeats etc. So much so that the best way to work on your CW is to actually use it as an activator. That’s what I did and it really accelerated my progress. My first SOTA activation was 10wpm and the chasers were fantastic with me!
But, for the next S2S sked, I will have a working OTG adaptor cable - I’ve already put the replacement into the Exped Drybag with the other kit!
I’m free for a sked at a simiilar time most days over the next week.
