SOTA NEWS APRIL 2015 - Part 2 of 2
NORTH AMERICAN SOTA REPORT from Skip K6DGW
Greetings to all from the New World,
Having been licensed for 62 years this year, I’ve seen several solar cycles come and go, I remember the famed Cycle 19 as a teenager, and I’ve witnessed a handful of large X-ray flares and a few geomagnetic storms, but I can’t remember a storm quite as severe [and long] as the one we had in the middle of March.
The A-index was over 200 for awhile, the Kp-index was at 8 for much of a whole day, and the higher frequency HF bands gave new meaning to the term “dead.” Locals at night on 80 sounded like LA, SM, OH, and TF on over-the pole paths. The good news was on 6 and 2 meters with strong auroral openings.
STATISTICS [as of 29 March 1810 UTC]:
Our numbers were down in all categories for March, possibly having a week punched out of the month is the reason.
Total Activations: 299 [325]
Nr Unique Activators: 109 [115]
Total Chaser QSOs: 3538 [4967]
Nr Unique Chasers: 192 [215]
Unique Summits: 245 [303]
2m: 89 (2%) [126]
6m: 0 (0%) [1]
10m: 109 (3%) [240]
12m: 88 (2%) [92]
15m: 273 (7%) [312]
17m: 269 (7%) [290]
20m: 1991 (56%) [2969]
30m: 286 (8%) [325]
40m: 432 (12%) [605]
60m: 0 (0%) [6]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 0 (0%) [0]
Unk: 1
CW: 2431 (68%) [2604]
SSB: 1014 (28%) [2231]
FM: 90 (2%) [129]
AM: 2 (0%) [1]
Data: 0 (0%) [0]
Other: 0 (0%) [1]
Unk: 1
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: Several to report this month …
How about a big round of applause for Jean-Francois, VA2VL, who has become the first Canadian Mountain Goat! A real achievement!
Mike, AD5A, also crossed over into Mountain Goat territory, the first in W5T. Congratulations Mike!
Also first for W5T, Bill, K5WI became Texas’ first Super Shack Sloth with over 10,000 chaser points.
Alan, AI0Q, became the 3rd Minnesota [K0M] Shack Sloth in March.
NEWS:
QRPTTF [“QRP To The Field”] is coming up on Saturday, 25 April. Paul, NA5N, has been coordinating this event for a number of years. He always comes up with a theme for it, this year the theme is “First Nations”
honoring Native Americans and Canadians. Two or three years ago, Paul added a SOTA twist to QRPTTF … operating from a SOTA summit is a multiplier.
Paul will be updating his web site soon with 2015 information although other than the theme, not much will have changed. It’s a super opportunity to get some S2S contacts in your log. Paul’s site is at
http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2014/ttf.htm
QRPTTF is open to everyone and is great fun. I will be out with my K2 and solar panel for a “green power” effort, hopefully from a summit somewhere around here.
KC5CW: We need a new award. Curtis has been making a variety of long trips in his Jeep activating summits in TX, OK, AR, and others, and we need an award based on miles travelled or maybe liters of gasoline consumed. 
It seems like Curtis is always on the road to a new summit.
Guy, N7UN, reminded me that NA SOTA Spring Activity Weekend will be
18-19 April. The last activity weekend was a huge success … it turned into an “S2S Fest.” Other SOTA Activity dates are:
13-15 Jun: ARRL June VHF Contest and NA SOTA Summer Activity Weekend
1-2 Aug: ARRL UHF, Rocky Mt Rendezvous, W7 SOTA, CO 14er
12-14 Sep: Sep VHF contest and NA SOTA Fall Activity Weekend
The CQ WW VHF contest is 18-19 Jul and could be another great weekend for VHF SOTA activity.
ROTM [Report of the Month]: Not an activation, this time from Elliott, K6EL, aka “Stat Rat.”
“It seems like yesterday that we had six goats, five of whom are pictured on the opening page of NaSota-Yahoo (WA2USA was stuck in the East)”
“Who’s next? KD5KC is holding off 'til June. W7JET and KXØR are about a hundred away and could be next, since they each live in the land of 10 pointers. Is that the full list of potential near NaSota goats?
Wrong-O, Buckwheat. VA2VL is 16 points away, and reaching goat does not appear to have been his main focus. For example, he has climbed Mount Royal two dozen times for a grand total of five points. Does that peak sound familiar? It looks down on Montreal, which was named after that hill, I heard. The only more casual activator is K6EL, with 70 points to show for 300 climbs (Aye, there’s method to me madness, tho).”
“Incidentally, the database shows WØCCA’s climb of Mt Ortiz took him to
999, making him potential goat #23 right behind AD5A. Could one of
Cap’s entries have been a six point peak when he actually climbed an eight? January matches his alerts. Didn’t look at December. Fixing the error would jump him into the correct position at #22.”
Update to Elliott’s report: I have it on good authority that Mike, KD5KC will be making Mountain Goat with his German friends on his and Monika’s trip to DL this summer – VA2VL did in fact achieve Goatdom status – and Cap, W0CCA is a victim of a small database glitch.
That’s it for now.
73 Skip K6DGW
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SOTA REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA by Allen VK3HRA
March turned out to be a quiet and challenging month for SOTA. Not due to lack of activity but due to an increase in portable activities.
The month started well. The VK Autumn SOTA Party on the Labour Day LOng Weekend. Several activators took advantage of the mild weather and extended weekend to complete several extended expeditions All safely returned well and with tales of adventure. For more detail checkout these blogs;
Andrew, VK1NAM spent four days of SOTA activity in the Australian Snowy Mountains (Kosciuszko National Park) - SOTA – Kosciuszko National Park | Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life
VK3BYD Warren, VK3WAM Wayne and VK3HRA Allen spent three nights deep in the Avon wilderness Area- https://vk3hra.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/09032015-vk3ve-103-vk3ve-022-vk3ve-043-vk3ve-044-vk3ve-037-and-vk3ve-027/
And while your there checkout VK3YY Glenn & VK3KAB Kevin ‘s 6 Alpine summits in a day, - Six Summits in the Victorian High Country | VK3YY
VK9N/VK7AN activated SOTA VK9/NO-001 Mt Bates (WWFF VKFF-392) - Norfolk Island, understandably very popular with chasers.
SOTA faces competition for 40M
Competition for 40m this month came from an increase in the number of listed World Wide Fauna and Flora (WWFF) parks as well as the annual John Moyle Memorial Field Day (JMMFD) weekend.
JMMFD is an annual competition designed to encourage and provide familiarisation with portable and field operations. SOTA operators are well placed to participate. Scanning the bands over the weekend revelled there were several stations that were combing SOTA or parks activation with JMFD. The results will be interesting as we expect SOTA operators to be well represented.
Increased National Park Activations.
WWFF, which originated in Europe, supports adding additional parks to an association once a threshold of activity for the existing ones has been reached. Mid March local coordinator VK5PAS Paul requested that an additional 57 South Australian Conservation Parks, 26 Victorian State and 7 Victorian Coastal parks be added to the WWFF VK scheduled. The process was quick and the eligible number of parks increased. Careful planning allows for operators to combine SOTA peaks within defined parks thus increasing the interest and number of potential chasers and number of contacts.
This increased activity will benefit SOTA DX contacts with European park hunters keen to get some of these new VKFF references under their belt.
Cheers
Allen
VK3HRA
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THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH 87 - from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ
The first of this month snuck into last month’s epic so on to the 8th and with a half decent forecast apart, from a cold wind, we set off to the north east of the Lake District to attack Lords Seat. On paper this looks a quick easy run but Lakeland roads, tourist traffic etc always cause minor problems. The Whinlatter forest park, known currently as Go Ape has good, albeit expensive, parking and is easily reached on the Whinlatter Pass road from Braithwaite which is a couple of miles north west of Keswick on the A66.The centre has seen a lot of changes in the last year and now attracts hoards of mountain bikers. The main car park has been hugely extended but was still pretty full.
Unlike most modern car parks the spaces are quite wide and allow easy loading of bikes, kit etc, they probably make up for it with the still high charges! The lower attractions would probably amuse family members not interested in SOTA for some time, woodland trails, zip wires, treetop walks and a café. As we were running late due to traffic we decided on four hours parking which came out at something over £5. This allows a pair of oldies to get to the top at a steady pace and do a VHF only activation and not overstay their welcome. The walk through the woods is fairly sheltered, a little steep in places but for the most part on logging roads. The summit itself is a grassy lump fairly steep sides and a bald top with no shelter. In the strong cold wind we took shelter on the leeward eastern slope and setup for VHF with the 4el yagi handheld at about 12ft. Just nine contacts on 2m FM including a s2s with Caroline (M3ZCB0 and Martin (M1MAJ) 0n NP-018 and later with Liz (M6EPW) and Colin (M0XSD) in Frizington. The latter twosome has not been too active recently so it was good to hear them back on the air. The usual call on 2m ssb produced no takers so we were back down to the car in good time.
Tuesday 10th March and with the impending end of the winter bonus and a reasonable forecast we decided on a trip up Whitfell one of our more local summits. We always climb this hill from the high point of the Corney Fell Road where the notices saying that the road is closed tend to stay up all winter regardless. It is a high and lonely place with room for a few cars, the number depending on how much building rubble has been dumped there by the local cowboy builders! The alternative approach is from the Birker Fell road to the east but there is virtually no parking space and the local farmer is rightly upset by people blocking gateways and the farm entrance.
The usual, for this winter, a cold north easterly was blowing quite hard so with plenty of layers on we set off. The central section of the walk is quite boggy and as we picked our way through my phone rang. This is unusual as I normally do not get many calls so after much wrestling with bag straps and layers I retrieved the phone from my shirt pocket. Welcome to the Isle of Man it said! As we often do not get a signal on the hills on the island this seemed a little premature but then it is easily visible from the location. On the summit the wind was cruel and we took the unusual step for us of using the summit shelter, a strange structure which in spite of being made of a lot of rock and being very large only manages to hold two persons comfortably, luckily there were no visitors during our stay.
Sunday 15th March, no winter bonus and a poor forecast for the bigger hills so a local little one, Kirby Moor is a logical target. The logical approach for this fell is the Slate Road an old access route to the huge slate mining operation that removed almost half the area for roofing etc in the previous two centuries. Not content with this the hill is now host to a wind farm of about twelve machines. The good news is that the turbines are some 25 years old and past their best and set to be removed, the bad news is that their projected replacements are three times larger. The Slate road now acts as service access to the substation of the farm. It is surfaced along most of its length but is potholed quite badly in places. Access is permitted but parking that blocks access is frowned on. We usually park at the start of the Slate Road at SD 268 818 and walk up to make a better day of it. About a hundred muddy yards after the sub station is a gate where the road enters the wind farm proper, turn right along the wall and up a short steep grassy climb and you’re on the summit plateau. The summit, marked by a small pile of stones is across the plateau to the north and a service track passes close beside it.
Sunday 22nd March and a trip into the North Pennines and Great Knoutberry Hill attacked from the Coal Road between Garsdale and Dent. Look for a bridleway at SD779 880 with space for about five cars Walk along the bridleway to a gate with an old type kissing gate. In the wall on your left look for a stile consisting of two large stone slabs set horizontally through the wall and be thankful that access through the cattle pens and onto the hill can now be gained without using the slabs that always threatened to collapse the wall under your weight. Now under the ever present menacing gaze of the stone giant on the ridge follow the fence to the summit taking care to avoid the patches of bog which can be nasty in wet conditions. (A close inspection of the giant will reveal him to be just a pile of stones but a very clever illusion) As usual the wind was icy and blowing along the wall which offered little shelter. There is a high backed stone seat on the far side of the wall but it has a couple of problems. A) Other visitors tend to congregate there. B) The stone back seems set to crash at any moment on the head of an unfortunate occupant. We chose the wind and the wall!
Sorry to see we missed John G4YSS on his top band activities and shocked by the behavior of the geo cashers on Skiddaw. You are a patient man John. Interesting that you get thrown by call signs with number letter number format in CW, so do I. Blame it on learning numbers after letters instead of mixed in, wonder if you were the same?
Well that’s about all for now. Norbreck coming up, the oven will be lit soon, hope to see lots of you there.
Take care out there.
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
CW REPORT FOR MARCH - by Roy G4SSH
The first few days of March resulted in a scramble of HB9 activators to be the first to operate from newly listed HB9 summits, following the publication of the new ARM (Version 10.0) list for Switzerland. Heard offering these unique summits were HB9BIN, HB9DST, HB9BYZ, HB9CGA, HB9AGO, HB9AFI and HB9BHW.
The final two weeks of Winter Bonus provided an increased level of activations but this was offset by poor propagation conditions and lingering bad winter weather with bitingly cold winds, which resulted in a lower than average amount of alerts.
It was a pleasure to hear Serge RV9DC, active from a brand new association (Russia Urals) on the 6th March.
Chris ON6ZQ was working a pile up of chasers by listening “UP” whilst on an expedition around ON and DL on the 8th February on 10 Mhz. This worked very efficiently because Chris sent his call and “UP” after every single contact. He was also active as F/ON6ZQ on the 22nd.
Miro OK1DVM was busy on the 10th, activating numerous summits in the DL/SX region of Germany.
Also on the 10th, Jürg HB9BIN spent almost the entire day on BG/OW-022 demonstrating Amateur Radio, and SOTA in particular, to a bunch of students.
Aage LA1ENA was heard active as EI/LA1ENA from Ireland. Unfortunately propagation was poor, with long-skip preventing me from hearing Aaage on 30m for most of the time. Peter GI4ISJ was active from Northern Ireland and Victor was active as EI/GI4ONL.
John G4YSS was active as GX0OOO/p on a four-peak expedition around the Lake district.
Phil G4OBK and Nick G4OOE embarked on an ambitious 5 day Benelux expedition covering F, ON, LX, and PA. Working split (up1) on CW they managed to control the pile-up’s in very efficient manner. (See report from Phil G4OBK). Using 30w output and activating simultaneously on two bands, they were often the loudest signals on the band. The only minor problem that occurred was on a couple of a occasions when they cleared the pile up so fast that they got ahead of their Alerted schedule and the RBN became confused and spotted them as being on the precious reference. However, to counteract this they sent the reference at frequent intervals. To many chasers this was a textbook operation.
On the 26th Gerald F6HBI and Alain F8FEO operated simultaneously on F/AM-348 to cover all bands and repeated this procedure from Italy as I/LG-303 on the 30th
Jürg HB9BIN operated in a similar manner on the 27th whilst on HB/AR-012, together with Paul HB9DST.
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SOTA CW ACTIVATORS SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE DATA BASE ABOVE 7 MHZ DURING MARCH 2015 - from Kevin G0NUP
This file produced on 3Ø/March/2Ø15,
Mode: SOTA CW on 1ØMHz: activity for March,
AE7AP, DF3MC/P, DJ2FR, DJ9MH/P, DK7MG/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9DPR/P, DL/ON6ZQ/P, DL4MHA/P, DL6AP/P, DL6MST/P, DL8DXL/P, DL8DZL/P, DL8RL/P, EA/OE5EEP, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, EA2IF/P, EA4MZ/P, EI/LA1ENA/P, F/G4OBK/P, F/ON6ZQ/P, F5LKW/P, F5UKL/P, F6FTB/P, F6HBI/P, GØHIO/P, G3RDQ/P, G4ISJ/P, G4OOE/P, GI4ISJ/P, GWØHIO/P, GW4AZS/P, GW4ISJ/P, GXØOOO/P, H9CKV/P, HA2VR/P, HA5CLF/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HA6QR/P, HA7UL/P, HB9/F5HTR/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BFC/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CLT/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9DST/P, HB9IAB/P, HB9TVK/P, I/F6HBI/P, K1JD, K6HPX/P, K7ATN, K7JFD, K7SO, KE5AKL, KJ4RGH, KXØR, LA1ENA/P, LA5XTA/P, LA9XGA/P, LX/G4OBK/P, MØMPM/P, M1BUU/P, MMØFMF/P, N6JZT, N7CW, N7RR, NA6MG, NM5S, NN5K, OE/DF3MC/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE1HFC/P, OE3CHC/P, OE3HPU/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE8SPW/P, OH2NOS/P, OK/DL6UHA/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2PDT/P, OK3EQ/P, OK4IT/P, OM/SP9AMH/P, OM3CUG/P, ON/G4OBK/P, ON6UU/P, ON6ZQ/P, PA/G4OBK/P, PB2T/P, S52CU/P, S53XX/P, S57XX/P, SP9AMH/P, VA2VL, VK2IO/P, WØCP, W2CKL, W6AH, WA2USA/P, WA7JTM, WA9STI, WB5USB, WSØTA, YO/HA8BE, YO2BP/P
Mode: SOTA CW on 14MHz: activity for March,
AC1Z, AD5A, CT1BWW/P, DF3MC/P, DF8KY/P, DJ9MH/P, DK7MG/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/OK1DVM/P, DL2FMK, DL6MST/P, DL8RL/P, EA/OE5EEP, EA1AER/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, EA2IF/P, EA4ESP/P, EA4MZ/P, EA5FV/P, EI/GI4ONL/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P, F5UKL/P, F6FTB/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, GØHIO/P, G3RDQ/P, G4ASA/P, G4GIY/P, G4ISJ/P, G4OOE/P, GI4ISJ/P, GWØHIO/P, GW4ISJ/P, H9CKV/P, HA/OHØFM/P, HA2VR/P, HA7UL/P, HB9/F5HTR/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9BYZ/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CKV/P, HB9CLT/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9HVK/P, HB9IAB/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9TVK/P, I/F8FEO/P, K1TNT, K4ADV, K4KPK, K6CMG, K6TW, K7ATN, K7JFD, K7NEW, K7RE, K7SO, K7ZOO, KD7WPJ, KE5AKL, KF7PXT, KH7AL, KTØA, KV4RH, KXØR, LA1EBA/P, LA1ENA/P, LA9XGA/P, LX/G4OBK/P, MØHDF/P, MØMPM/P, M1BUU/P, MMØFMF/P, MMØROV/P, MWØECX/P, MWØIDX/P, NØTA, N1IDN, N6JZT, N7CW, N7RR, NA6MG, ND7PA, NE1SJ, NF1R, NG7A, NM5S, NM5TW, NN5K, OE/DF3MC/P, OE/DG5WU/P, OE/DL9MDI/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE3CHC/P, OE3HPU/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OE6DOE/P, OE8SPW/P, OH/LA9XGA/P, OH2NOS/P, OH9XX/P, OK/DL6UHA/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK3EQ/P, OM/SP9AMH/P, OM3CUG/P, OM6TC/P, ON/G4OBK/P, ON/PA7ZEE/P, ON6UU/P, PA/G4OBK/P, PB2T/P, RV9DC/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S53XX/P, S57XX/P, S58R/P, SP9AMH/P, VA2SNL, VA2VL, VA6/GI4ONL, VE7DB, VK1DA, VK2AFA, VK2IO/P, VK5CZ, WØCCA, WØCP, W1EJ, W1ZU, W2CKL, W4EON, W5RST, W6AH, W7JET, W7TAO, WA2USA/P, WA7JTM, WBØUSI, WB5USB, WD8LQT, WSØTA, WX4TW, YO2BP/P, YU1WC/P
Mode: SOTA CW on 18MHz: activity for March,
DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/ON6ZQ/P, DL8DXL/P, EA/OE5EEP, EA2BDS/P, EA4MZ/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G4GIY/P, GW4ISJ/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, K1JD, K6HPX/P, K6TW, K7ATN, K7SO, KXØR, LA9XGA/P, MMØFMF/P, MWØIDX/P, N7RR, NA6MG, OE3HPU/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OH/LA9XGA/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P, RV9DC/P, S52CU/P, VK1DA, WØCP, WA2USA/P, WA7JTM, WA9STI, WB5USB
Mode: SOTA CW on 21MHz: activity for March,
AD5A, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/ON6ZQ/P, EA/OE5EEP, EA2IF/P, EA4ESP/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, GW4ISJ/P, HA2VR/P, HA6QR/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9TVK/P, K1JD, K7NEW, K7RE, K7SO, K7ZOO, KD7WPJ, KTØA, KV4RH, KXØR, LA9XGA/P, N7CW, NA6MG, NE1SJ, NM5S, NM5TW, OE3HPU/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, ON6ZQ/P, S52CU/P, VA2VL, WA2USA/P
Mode: SOTA CW on 24MHz: activity for March,
EA2IF/P, EA4MZ/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, HA7UL/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, KA5QQA, KD7WPJ, LA9XGA/P, NA6MG, NE1SJ, OH2NOS/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, S52CU/P, WØCP, W6AH, WA7JTM
Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for March,
AC1Z, EA2IF/P, EA4ESP/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, K6HPX/P, K7ATN, K7JFD, K7NEW, KD7WPJ, NE1SJ, NF1R, OE3HPU/P, OE5EEP/P, OK1MLP/P, VA2VL, VK1DA, WB5USB
73 de Kevin
G0NUP
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SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.
Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk
U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka “Skip” on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net
Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com
South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za
