SOTA Training Afternoon a Success

Hi There,
Rather than drive a considerable distance to the nearest listed summit and then slog all the way there on foot to discover my gear doesn’t work, I thought Id have a short drive to some local open space near to where I live and practice set up and put some calls out. So yesterday afternoon I did just that.
I took my Baofeng GT3-TP HT and my Leixen vv898s with my home brewed vertical antenna.

Here’s a video of my exploits.

Cheers

Andy
M6UAW

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Hi Andy

I enjoyed the video. It’s going to be a learning curve but you are on your way so enjoy your first SOTA activation when you finally take the plunge. I would also investigate using HF which will enhance the SOTA experience…something tells me that you probably have a communications background?

Good Luck and I hope our paths will cross on the bands.

73 Allan GW4VPX

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Hi Andy,

I enjoyed your video too, thanks for sharing. Having a test run not too far away is a good idea, especially when it involves a brew up! I smiled at your calling channel gaff, I’ve been there done that, as many of us have I’m sure. It seems funny to be chased off it having called without reply for maybe an hour, but it is accepted good practice to move as soon as contact is established.

I hope to catch you on the air before too long, a Summit 2 Summit would be nice.

73
Adrian
G4AZS

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Hi Allan,

Unfortunately HF is beyond my means at the minute due to budgetary restrictions, although as I’ve mentioned on my introduction topic, I hope to be getting a kit to build soon either the BITX40 or the UBITX. I may also be able to loan some equipment from my club.
I spent 14 years in the reserves and signalling played a predominant role all the way through, working all bands voice and data, I even dabbled in a bit of morse but this wasn’t practiced very often.

73 Andy
M6UAW

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Hi Adrian,

The call on 2m was almost instant, it was the local repeaters (70cm) that were quiet after my arrival on site. I didn’t film my last contact (on GB3DS after the 2m call) with a member of my local club as I was eating my lunch. I was ill prepared for the change off the calling frequency, but will learn from it and move on. I’ve been working at my QSY(??) drill this afternoon so I can just press a button and have a preset frequency ready.

73
Andy
M6UAW

2 Likes

Good video Andy and welcome to the hobby. Excellent idea to test your gear locally before climbing a summit and finding a problem. Also, your CQ calls will yield better results when you call ‘CQ SOTA’ as you make yourself more desirable as chasers want the points/WAB/trig point etc.

73 Chris M0RSF

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