SOTA NEWS MAY 2015 Part 2

SOTA NEWS - MAY 2015. Part two of two.

SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

I have only one activation to report on this month, this was a night-time activation of CT3/MI-004 Pico do Areiro on Sunday 5th April. John G4YSS (CT9/M1NNN/P) took the opportunity to carry out eight activations during a holiday in Madeira & included a spell on Top Band at the end of a good spell on 7MHz & four QSO’s on 3.5MHz both CW & SSB.

Sadly, propagation wasn’t reaching any chasers so despite 25 minutes on the band no QSO’s resulted.

John’s detailed report can be found below:

G4YSS as CT9/M1NNN: CT3/ MI-004 Pico Areiro on LF, 05/ 06-04-15

Well done John & Thanks for trying 160m!

I received an email during the month from Mike N4VBV wondering what antennas activators use for SOTA on 160m. That is a very good question & I am aware of several different antennas that have been used successfully on the band from SOTA summits but let’s look at the most common.

Dipole: To erect a full size 160m horizontal dipole at a good height above ground does present some difficulties on a summit so a more usual configuration is the inverted-V. Where there is space, it is not too difficult to erect a full size inverted-V with the apex as high as your mast / pole allows. I personally use 9m of an 11m carbon fibre fishing rod that is strong enough to support the antenna & coax feed at the centre. With the ends of the dipole supported off the ground using either walking poles or suitable hill top objects (walls, tree’s, fences etc) this gives good results. I personally opted for a dipole as being a balanced antenna, the need for a good ground, radials or earth mat is significantly reduced when compared to end-fed or inverted-L type antennas.

End Fed Half Wave: Another similar sized option would be an end fed half-wave with associated matching network or suitable tuner. This type of antenna ideally will need a counterpoise, which could be quite long in itself, in the case of 160m.

Loaded Dipole: In terms of physical size, adding loading coils to an antenna designed for another band, 80m for example, can make setting up a little easier. John G4YSS uses an antenna of this type with slug-tuned coils at the mid point of each dipole leg. This arrangement works quite well with the adjustable coils allowing John to make adjustments to offset any de-tuning effect that different terrain can have on the antenna.

Inverted-L: As mentioned previously, an Inverted-L (1/4 wavelength) being a current fed antenna will require a decent ground / radials which could make setting up on a busy summit quite hazardous. However there is no doubt that this configuration does work quite well with an effective ground system.

Loaded Vertical: A full size ¼ wave vertical for Top Band would be around 40m tall so would be quite a challenge to set up on a SOTA activation. More commonly would be a shorter loaded vertical with associated ground radials. Ideally I would only suggest this configuration if you have a mast / pole at least 10m in length.

Kite / Balloon antenna: One advantage of an antenna supported by kite or balloon is that very long, or large wire arrays can be set up. Of course, this can be very tricky & you are at the mercy of the wind but good results can be obtained. With this type of antenna it is essential that some means of continually draining the static charge from the antenna is provided. A significant charge can build up in a very short time with Kite or Balloon supported antennas that can damage your equipment, or even you!

The information above mainly refers to antennas that are resonant, but with the use of a tuner many other configurations are possible, although results will vary. The old adage; “Get as much wire as high up in the air as possible” certainly applies on Top Band, although the one thing that has the biggest effect on how successful you are will be the time of day you decide to activate. Around Sunrise / Sunset or at night are the best times, the middle of the day will generally prove very challenging for anything other than fairly local contacts.

In any case, feel free to experiment, that is what Amateur radio is about!

Thanks John for the report & to Mike for the question!

At the time of writing, the following was the only Top band activation during April that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.

On 5 April, John CT9/M1NNN/P (G4YSS) Activated CT3/MI-004 Pico do Areiro & made 0 QSO’s (0 CW / 0 SSB)

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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NORTH AMERICAN SOTA REPORT - from Skip K6DGW

Good afternoon SOTA Folk,

Spring arrived out here on the NA Western Frontier and the sneezles are in full bloom [pun intended]. Actually, spring arrived in California a few days after Christmas this year. While the weather hasn’t been quite as pleasant elsewhere on the continent, it’s obviously improved over March. We are up in every category tracked. 20 m continues to hold the band lead, and the CW/SSB split continues to hold fairly constant.

No AM activations for the month [:-), someone posted an AM alert for K7MK on W7I/SR-142 a few days ago, but it turned out he was not on AM but apparently was on top of 40 m AM net he couldn’t hear. One of these days, someone will take a photo on the summit and transmit it via SSTV to his chasers. Some of you may take that as a challenge, you know who you are.

STATISTICS: NORTH AMERICA TOTALS
As of: 28 Apr 2015 2020 UTC

Total Activations: 402 [299]
Nr Unique Activators: 132 [109]
Total Chaser QSOs: 5517 [3538]
Nr Unique Chasers: 215 [192]
Total Summits Activated: 423 [300]
Unique Summits: 304 [245]

2m: 120 (2%) [89]
6m: 0 (0%) [0]
10m: 68 (1%) [109]
12m: 40 (0%) [88]
15m: 650 (11%) [273]
17m: 272 (4%) [269]
20m: 3250 (58%) [1991]
30m: 397 (7%) [286]
40m: 717 (12%) [432]
60m: 0 (0%) [0]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 0 (0%) [0]
Unk: 3

CW: 3441 (62%) [2431]
SSB: 1959 (35%) [1014]
FM: 116 (2%) [90]
AM: 0 (0%) [2]
Data: 0 (0%) [0]
Other: 1 (0%) [0]
Unk: 3

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

Bill, K5WI, has made Super Sloth in W5T. Congratulations Bill! In fact, Bill is so far the only Super Sloth with over 10K chaser points in the W5 Galaxy [a term I just made up].

Jean-Francois, VA2VL, has become the first Canadian Mountain Goat showing 228 summits and 1,002 points.

Congratulations to Luc-ON7DQ / KF0CR on his first activation in NA, and welcome to the US Luc.

NEWS:

We had a number of first activations in April, commensurate with a number of people introducing themselves on the NA SOTA Yahoo group.
Mark, KT5WX; James, K7MK; and Scott, K7ZO successfully drank the SOTA Kool-Aid.

And a big welcome to Andrew, VK3ARR, who has been activating in the W4 Galaxy while visiting here.

Pete, WA7JTM, reports:

“Arizona SOTA ops are getting close to a couple of milestones, that just may finish up either this weekend or next weekend, that you may find noteworthy. If not this month, then maybe in next month’s news.”

“Brian, W7JET, will achieve Mountain GOAT status very soon. He is planning to activate enough 10 point summits between this weekend and next to put him over the top. He would be Arizona’s 2nd Mountain GOAT.
He is currently at 959 points. AZ SOTA members will celebrate his achievement soon after he becomes a GOAT, at a Pub to be named later.”

“WA7JTM (wait a minute…that’s me!) will definitely reach the 200 unique summits activated level this weekend. I am currently at 199 summits activated, all of them are unique summits. I have never activated the same summit twice…199 activated, 199 unique, and 126 of those are first time activations for those summits.”

“Now the bad news… my “unique streak” will come to an end on May 15th, when the Six and Ten Meter Challenge starts. New challenges require new strategies…and there are too many close-in peaks to ignore for the challenge. I will also save a lot of gas!”

W5 Galaxy 5th Anniversary: Hard to believe it’s been 5 years since Mike, then KD9KC, did the dirty work and got W5 into SOTA. It soon proved to be somewhat unwieldy given the extent of the 5th US call area, and it was split into 5 Associations based on the states in the call area. Sadly, Louisiana has no summits, even at P100 standards.

I don’t know yet what sort of celebration(s) are planned, but I’m sure something will happen. And, Mike, now KD5KC, has plans to become the second W5T Mountain Goat, but will do it in DL on their visit this summer.

ACTIVATION OF THE MONTH: This one is just too good to pass up [:-)) We have group of activators who travel, sometimes long distances, to bring off interesting activations. KT5X, KC5CW, KD5ZZK, W1DMH, and others really take Activation Trips seriously. From Curtis, KC5CW:

“Dave, KG5EIU, and I drove out to NM ahead of Andrew KD5ZZK to get some Activators Anonymous, our AA group, time.”

“I just got back to my hotel room at 3am to write this (still living in a hotel a month after our house flooded). and now I’m thinking maybe I should write this activation report tomorrow.”

“I will say that you should read Andrew’s articles on sotawatch.org prior to driving out onto summits that have the word “Wilderness” in their name. There are no gas stations, and the range on my Jeep is not quite enough to get from just before Carlsbad to the ridge north and Camp Wilderness and still make it to the closest gas station in Mahill.”

“Unless, that is, you drive down all the way to Mahill in neutral on the downhill parts, use the momentum to get you part way up the hills, and try and maintain momentum by power sliding over the cattle guards on the blind corners of the slick gravel roads. The 16 gallon gas tank [per the manual] will actually let you put 16.1 gallons of non-ethanol blended gasoline, maybe ethanol takes up more space? Just kidding on that last part, not on the 16.1 gallons going into the 16 gallon tank.”

“Andrew had been up for a whole 24hours driving from work when we left him on the north ridge summit where he was camping and he said he would take a 2hr nap and come tow us to the gas station if we needed it. I doubt we could have gone 1 mile further.”

“Enough of that… we had a great time, I made it to #1 in W5T for unique summits (as of today with 86 uniques) and 657 activator points puts me still WAY behind the two MG’s of W5T, yea yea, Mike O isn’t a MG technically but he COULD have been a LONG time ago, he just wants to get his goat at a tavern on a German mountain with a bunch of his buddies.
I won’t be pulling ahead of him by his trip by any means.”

"Here’s what we activated over 3 days:

18/Apr/2015W5N/CN-001 (Camp Wilderness Ridge)
19/Apr/2015W5N/SC-005 (Benson Ridge)
19/Apr/2015W5N/SC-006 (9695)
19/Apr/2015W5N/SC-011 (Wofford Lookout)
20/Apr/2015W5N/SC-007 (Monjeau Peak)
20/Apr/2015W5N/SC-034 (Moon Mountain)"

“We got to ‘almost’ 10k feet on 9695 and on our way down we were hit by a snow storm. Moon Mountain has great views but was a good hike for me and Dave. Wofford Lookout was ‘supposed’ to be a 300 yard hike but it was more like a 3000 yard hike. There was snow in the AZ on some of these summits, this was one.”

“This weekend I’m trying to work in Newton County HP w5t/nt-039 on the way back home from my daughter’s wedding in Biloxi. It’ll be a stretch but I’ll try.”

That’s dedication Curtis!!

That’s it from the New World, SOTA continues to grow.

73,

Skip K6DGW
North American SOTA Reporter Dude

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SOTA REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA - from Allan VK3HRA

Hi Roy,

It was a month of poor weather but we still went out and activated SOTA summits.

Enjoy your “Tour de Yorkshire” cycle race.

We have two new Goats this month - Glenn VK3YY and Kevin VK3KAB both achieved 1000 activation points to claim SOTA Goat status this month.

Glenn’s and Kevin SOTA adventure began over a 3-day KRMNPA activation hike to South Point at Wilson’s Promontory. In the hike party was Wayne, VK3WAM. Wayne did a fantastic job of promoting his newly established SOTA association in VK3 to all during the hike and afterwards Glenn and Kevin signed up to do a three day hike with Wayne to activate six summits in the Alpine National Park north of Licola. In fact of the five amateurs that went hiking together for 3 days at Wilson Prom in April 2012, three are now SOTA goats.

SOTA appealed to Glenn, as it seemed like a perfect combination of hiking, radio and navigation, something to get us out of the shack!
Glenn has become a hiking gadget nut, trying to squeeze every gram out of the stuff we carry on our backs as well as home brewing a lot kit to take out on SOTA expeditions.

Kevin who was already into hiking, camping and four wheel drives and now SOTA had supplied a list of places to find a visit with a radio. A FT817, Lifo batteries and home made Buddipole vertical were quickly acquired and so armed was off activating summits solo or in conjunction with Glenn. Not content to be a fair weather only activator, there is always a bothy bag in his pack to keep the rain, hail and snow off.

There have been winter activations by snow shoe to Mt Torbreck, Mt St Phillack and Talbot Peak. The latest activations have been multi summit / multi day using a road trail motorbike to gain access.

The SOTA bug has spread to Jodie Kevin’s wife. Whilst Jodie was waiting in the car for Kevin to return from Talbot peak she was looking at an FT8900 thinking “I would know where he was if only I had a license for that thing”, now Jodie is VK3FJAT and they have been activating summits together. As a result she has recently passed the 100 point mark.

Congratulation to both Glenn and Kevin for Goat-hood and we look forward to more activations.

Pictures -

S2S Europe to Australia ANZAC Day Saturday 25th April

Plans were made by Gerard VK2IO and Robin 9H4RH to promote S2S contacts between Europe and Australia. April the 25th was selected. This is a special day in Australia being ANZAC day. ANZAC day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations”. Australian amateurs are allowed to use special AX/VI prefix on this day. VK100ANZAC and VI6ANZAC special event stations participated.

It was looking good with several stations from both sides committing to the day then the weather started to play up. In the week running up VK3 was wet with access to national parks restricted earlier in the month due to weather but areas in VK2 had storms delivering hail, rain causing flash floods, which closed major roads, caused electrical blackouts and even some building collapses. Perth escaped the bad weather this time with periods described as ‘perfect SOTA weather’. Just goes to show how big this country is.

Anyway not to be put off, wet weather gear was found, tents packed (the boothy bag was not going to cut it) and plans including several plan ‘Bs’ were executed.

The weather didn’t improve for Saturday. One storm in particular managed to upset Gerard VK2IO on VK2/CT-012 after passing though Nick VK2AOH was on VK2/CT-011 and Andrew VK1DA on VK1/VC-040 before that.

Whilst 40m was S9 noise, 20m was open and there were SOTA station everywhere. CW and SSB contacts a plenty were to be made with the pile ups on CW being a new experience for several VK activators. The biggest challenge was working through the chasers and activators for a contact.

Not just SOTA activations but park activations were also adding to the demand.

Whilst not all EU to VK S2S the reports indicate that players included HB9BIN on HB/BE-087, 2E0YYY and G7LAS on G/CE-004, YU1WC on YU/CS-043, AC1Z on W1/HA-029, VK2AFA/P on VK2/HU-093, 9H4RH/P on 9H/GO-001, VK3JBL on VK3/VC-016, AX2IO/P on VK2/CT-012, AX2IB/3 VK3/VE-165, VK100ANZAC
(vk1da) on VK1/AC-040, VI6ANZAC (VK6NU) on VK6/SW-039, G6GGP on G/CE-002, VK3HRA on VK3/VC-024, EA2BD on EA2/NV-119, VK2AFA/P on VK2/HU-093, OE5AUL/P and OE5YYN/P on OE/OO-118, OE5EEP/P on OE/OO-117, G0NMD on GW/NW-053, HA10SOTA/P on HA/KD-048 and DG3NEU/P on DM/BM-047.

Apologies if I missed anyone and thanks to all the chasers for their patience and perseverance and to everyone who took part in what was, for me great fun and a very memorable experience.

A great result showing how far QRP can travel and how much activators will put up with. Keep May the 23rd free, as it appears we are likely to try it again…

VK9NT - A group of Australian amateurs will be activating Norfolk Island. The activation will commence on 24th April 2015 and end on 5th May 2015. For more details please visit the web site http://vk9nt.odxg.org

Cheers

Allen
VK3HRA

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SOTA CW NEWS FOR APRIL 2015 - by Roy G4SSH

Propagation (or lack of it) made activating and chasing particularly difficult during the month of April. There were occasions when entire bands were dead and there were times when contact was lost mid-way through a QSO.

Highlights of the month:-

On the 3rd April, South African chaser John ZS5J made contacts with EU activators, Rolf HB9DGV on 24 MHz CW, Tor LA9XGA on 28 MHz CW and Peter OE5AUL on 28 MHZ SSB. These being the first SOTA points in John’s chaser log for 2015. John noted strong QRM from Radar on 24 MHz.

Andy HB9JOE was active on a mini expedition to Luxembourg as LX/HB9JOE and the Netherlands as PA/HB9JOE on the 4th 5th and 6th of April.

There was plenty of SOTA Island activity during the month This included:-
Tom M1EYP and son Jimmy M0HGY active from the Canary Islands,
John M1NNN active from Madeira Island.
Jürg HB9BIN active from Mallorca,
Phil G4OBK, Nick G4OOE and Dave G3TQQ also active from Mallorca.
Also heard were EA6/DF8KY and EA6/OE6DOE.

It was also a pleasure to hear Robin 9H4RH active from Gozo on the 25th and David 9H3DS from Malta on the 27th. Finally David G0EVV on both summits 27th-28th.

Chris ON6ZQ was active during the month, working his trade mark “Split” style operation from multiple summits, usually on 10 MHz.

With the arrival of (occasional) milder spring weather conditions there were numerous multiple summit activations in a single day, such as DL/HB9AGO, DL/PA0SKP, OK1DVM, DL/HB9BRJ, DL/HB9AGO, EA5/DK1IO, OK2PDT, OK1MLP, OK1DVM and OK1DST.

I commenced my regular summer visits to see my daughter in Cornwall this month (55 minutes flight from Manchester Airport to Newquay). I leave enough compact equipment there to enable me to quickly set up a station and chase a few SOTA’s when my presence is not required. This consists of an FT-897D with an FP-30 mains tray power supply underneath (designed to be used in place of an internal battery) and an FC-30 clip-on automatic antenna tuner, plus a palm paddle.

The antenna is a problem due to a “no-external- antenna” restriction so I use a 6 foot indoor vertical with tapping coil, which gives me 7-150 MHz coverage. This works well enough to chase SOTA’s throughout Europe, with the exception of 40m where the background noise level is S8, though I can hear and work some G stations. Thank you to the 100 SOTA activators that I contacted between 14th-19th April.

The higher the band the better the short antenna performs of course, and I have worked some DX with the set-up, such as JA, V51, 7Z, ET, LU, A6, PS, YI and R1ANT in the Antarctic.

Located on a cliff top overlooking the English Channel does have advantages over my home set up in North Yorkshire.

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One of the problems with menu-driven rigs is the difficulty in quickly changing the CW speed. (which is one of the most used requirement for a CW op). It is so time consuming to have to call up the correct memory and exit during a QSO that most CW operators resort to keeping the speed at their normal setting (typically 20 wpm) and inserting longer gaps between characters in order to QRS.

Many people do not know that you can adapt the FT-897 and FT-857 to have an instant CW speed control on the front panel (I am not sure if this works for the FT-817). The procedure is as follows:-

  1. Enable extended Menu Mode No.001
  2. Select menu 57 which selects the function which is engaged when you press the MEM/VFO CH knob
  3. Turn the main dial to select CW SPEED
  4. Exit memories

Now when you want to change CW speed you just press the MEM/VFO knob once and turn it to increase speed faster or slower, then press the knob again to exit. Takes about 2 seconds.
73
Roy G4SSH

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SOTA CW ACTIVATORS SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE DATA BASE ABOVE 7 MHZ DURING APRIL 2015 - from Kevin G0NUP. This file produced on 29 April 2015.

SOTA CW on 10MHz,

AD5A, CT7/EA2IF/P, DF3MC/P, DJ2FR, DJ9MH/P, DK1WI/P, DL/F5HTR/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/HB9CGA/P, DL/HB9DPR/P, DL/HB9DST/P, DL/HB9JOE/P, DL/M0HDF/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL/ON6ZQ/P, DL/PA0SKP/P, DL/PB2T/P, DL2DXA/P, DL2HWI/P, DL4KCA/P, DL4MHA/P, DL8DXL/P, DL8JJ/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, EA4MZ/P, EI/G4AZS/P, EI/PA9CW/P, EI7KH/P, F/HB9BQU/P, F/ON4EM/P, F5LKW/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G0HIO/P, G0VOF/P, G4AFI/P, G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, GW0HIO/P, GW4ISJ/P, GW4SGX/P, GW4TJC/P, HA10SOTA, HA2PP/P, HA5AZC/P, HA5BV/P, HA5CLF/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HA7HF/P, HB9/F5HTR/P, HB9/M0HDF/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9DST/P, HB9EWO/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9TVK/P, K0JQZ, K1JD, K6CMG, K6EL, K6HPX/P, K7ZOO, K9JWV/P, KE5AKL, KF0CR, KG3W, KT0A, KX0R, LA1EBA/P, LA1ENA/P, LA5XTA/P, LA9XGA/P, LX/ON6ZQ/P, M0HDF/P, M0IML/P, M0LEP/P, MM0DHY/P, MM0GYX/P, MM1BUU/P, MM3BRR/P, N0PCL, N5XL, N6JZT, N7CW, NA6MG, NK6A, NM5S, NN5K, OE/HB9DST/P, OE1HFC/P, OE1MVA/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE8SPW/P, OK/DL6MST/P, OK/DL8DXL/P, OK/DL8RL/P, OK1DDQ/P, OK1DPU/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BTK/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2HIJ/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2SAM/P, OK2VWB/P, OK3EQ/P, OK4IT/P, OK8DDR/P, OM/HA5AZC/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4DW/P, ON/PA7ZEE/P, ON6ZQ/P, PA/HB9JOE/P, PB2T/P, S51RU/P, S52CU/P, S53AAN/P, S53XX/P, VA2VL, VE2DDZ, VK2AOH, VK5CZ, W0CCA, W2CKL, W2CKL/1, W3ATT, W5ODS, W6AH, W7USA, WA9STI, WB5USB, WS0TA, YO/HA8BE, YO2BP/P, YO9CB/P, YO9FWO/P,

SOTA CW on 14MHz,

9H3DS/P, 9H4RH/P, AA5CK, AC1Z, AD4IE, AD5A, AE5KA, AX2IB/3, AX2IO/P, CT1BWW/P, CT1DBS/P, CT7AGR/P, CT9/M1NNN/P, DG5WU/P, DJ2FR, DJ9MH/P, DK1WI/P, DK6YM/P, DL/F5HTR/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/HB9CGA/P, DL/HB9JOE/P, DL/M0HDF/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL/ON6UU/P, DL/PA0SKP/P, DL/PB2T/P, DL0OEK, DL2DXA/P, DL3TU/P, DL4FO/P, DL4KCA/P, DL8DXL/P, DL8JJ/P, DL8MLD/P, EA/OH2NOS/P, EA1AER/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, EA2IF/P, EA4MZ/P, EA5/DK1IO/P, EA5FV/P, EA6/DF8KY/P, EA6/HB9BIN/P, EA6/OE6DOE/P, EA8/M1EYP/P, F/HB9JOE/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G0HIO/P, G0POT/P, G0VOF/P, G3NYY/P, G3RDQ/P, G4AFI/P, G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, GI4ONL/P, GW0NMD/P, GW4ISJ/P, GW4TJC/P, HA2PP/P, HA5AZC/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HB9/F5HTR/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CKV/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9DST/P, HB9EWO/P, HB9HVK/P, HB9IIO/P, HL4ZFF/P, K0JQZ, K1JD, K6CMG, K6EL, K6HPX/P, K6TW, K7ATN, K7JFD, K7SO, K7ZOO, K9JWV/P, KD7WPJ, KE5AKL, KF0CR, KG3W, KK1W, KQ2RP, KT0A, KX0R, LA1EBA/P, LA1ENA/P, LA5XTA/P, LA9XGA/P, M0IML/P, M1BUU/P, M1EYP/P, MM0FMF/P, MM1BUU/P, MM3BRR/P, MW0MPM/P, N0PCL, N1EU, N1FJ, N1IDN, N2GDS, N5XL, N6JZT, N6KZ/P, N7CW, N7KRN, NA6MG, NB2T/P, ND7PA, NK6A, NM5S, NM5SW, NM5TW, NN5K, NU7A, OE/HB9DST/P, OE1HFC/P, OE1MVA/P, OE1WED/3, OE1WIU/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OH2NOS/P, OH3KRH/P, OH9XX/P, OK/DL6AP/P, OK/DL8DXL/P, OK/DL8RL/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2SAM/P, OK4IT/P, OK8DDR/P, OM3CUG/P, ON/PA7ZEE/P, PA/HB9JOE/P, PA0SKP/P, PB2T/P, S51RU/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S57X/P, SM/DK7MX/P, SQ9SHR/P, SV2NCH/P, VA2VL, VK100ANZAC, VK1DA, VK2AFA, VK2AOH, VK2IO/P, VK3BYD, VK3HRA, VK3WAM/P, VK5CZ, W0/G3JRH, W0CCA, W1EJ, W1ZU, W2CKL, W2CKL/1, W3ATT, W4EON, W4TZM, W5ODS, W6/DL6UHA/P, W6AH, W7JET, W7USA, WA6KYR, WA7JTM, WA9STI, WB5USB, WB7TJD, WD9F, WK5T, WN6E, WS0TA, WW7D, WX4TW, YO/HA8BE, YO/HA8LLH, YU1WC/P

SOTA CW on 18MHz,

9H4RH/P, AC1Z, CT9/M1NNN/P, DF3MC/P, DK1WI/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL2DXA/P, DL3TU/P, DL4MHA/P, EA2BDS/P, EA4MZ/P, EA6/HB9BIN/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G0HIO/P, G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, GW4ISJ/P, HA10SOTA, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9IIO/P, K0JQZ, K1JD, K6CMG, K6EL, K6HPX/P, K7ZOO, KD7WPJ, KT0A, KX0R, LA9XGA/P, M1BUU/P, MM0FMF/P, MM0GYX/P, N0PCL, N1FJ, N5XL, NA6MG, NK6A, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OH2NOS/P, OK/DL6AP/P, OK1MLP/P, OM3CUG/P, S52CU/P, W3ATT, W5ODS, YO9FWO/P, YO9IJP/P,

SOTA CW on 21MHz,

AA5CK, AC1Z, AD5A, AE5KA, CT7AGR/P, DF3MC/P, DK1WI/P, DL/F5HTR/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL3TU/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2IF/P, EA4MZ/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G0HIO/P, G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, K1JD, K7ATN, K7SO, K7ZOO, KD7WPJ, KQ2RP, KT0A, KX0R, LA9XGA/P, M1BUU/P, MM0FMF/P, N1EU, N1FJ, N5XL, N6KZ/P, N7CW, NA6MG, NB2T/P, NK6A, NM5S, NM5TW, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P, OM1AWS/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4DW/P, PA0SKP/P, S51RU/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S57X/P, VA2VL, VK3CAT/P, W1ZU, W5ODS, W6/DL6UHA/P, WG0AT, WN6E

SOTA CW on 24MHz,

CT7AGR/P, CT9/M1NNN/P, DK1WI/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, HA5LV/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9IIO/P, KD7WPJ, LA9XGA/P, N5XL, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, S52CU/P, SQ9SHR/P,

SOTA CW on 28MHz,

AC1Z, CT9/M1NNN/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G4TJC/P, HA10SOTA, HA2PP/P, HA7UL/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, K1JD, KD7WPJ, LA9XGA/P, N5XL, OE/HB9DST/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OK1MLP/P, PA0SKP/P, VK3CAT/P,

73 de Kevin G0NUP

============================================================

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


6 Likes

Hi,
thanks all contributors for a very nice bulletin.

Dear Roy, glad to see your /A setup. Very nice results with such a small indoor antenna. Chasing under such condition is giving a lot of fun, I guess…
In summertime I also use something similar when visiting some relatives and I’m shocked when I can chase Sota running simple wire indoor antennas with my FT-817 :blush:
Maybe we coud request for having a special extreme indoor chaser score added in the database, hi. Or to create a S2I category (Sota to Indoor…).
I also carry a paper log there, and it takes time when going back home to upload…
Keep on doing so well. Take care and HPE CU soon.
73 de Ignacio