Laurent
No problem, if you need any help, please let me know
Toru K
Dear Toru,
I just want to thank you again for your help, I got today an email from Ken that inform me that my license for operation in Japan is granted with the callsign JI1UOE.
I asked Ken about the area number that I have to add after my callsign for portable operation from SOTA summits. May be it exist a website where I can find a map to determine the number regarding the qth of operation.
With my best 73s
Laurent de F8CZI
2 Likes
That was fast, congrats & happy operation!
Hi Arnaud,
Merci également à toi pour toutes les informations que tu m’a donné et qui m’ont permis de démarrer ce challenge. Nous sommes maintenant très près du départ et il va falloir faire le choix du matériel à emporter. De toute façon, ce sera la solution “lightweight”.
Bon séjour en France pour tes vacances
73
Laurent
Hi Laurent,
Good to know that you got license!
Have a nice holiday and SOTA expedition!
Take care, mate,
Toru K
Super Laurent, bon sejour et attention a la chaleur et aux insectes en balade (beaucoup d’eau)! 
73,
Arnaud
Dear Toru,
I am now in Japan since 1 week and tried to activate 2 summits:
- JA/WK-009 that I had to abort at the half way because heavy rain and
- JA/SI-025 that I had not enough time before the last return of the cable car.
I will stay in Tokyo (Shinjuku) for 3 days and would like to activate summits in this area. Could you please tell me which summits could easely be possible
for one foreign people that not speak Japanese. I have a JR pass and will prefere train trip and of course walking. I will be grateful if you could give me some hints / informations about that.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Best 73
Laurent de F8CZI / JI1UOE
Laurent, try Tsukubasan, IB-003. Take Sobu or Chuo line to Akihabara, then Tsukuba Express to Tsukuba. About 90 minutes. From there it’s a 840 yen bus trip to Tsutsujigaoka and a ropeway to the summit. Take VHF, there’s not much room for HF.
Reverse your steps, but make sure you check out Akihabara as well.
Toru knows more out Kanagawa way, KN-022 and KN-023 seem popular.
Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR / JI1GBE
Oh, and ignore the magnitude 5 earthquake centred just west of there 
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for this information. I will try it tomorrow afternoon.
I can only work on HF band (80 to 20m) in CW with HB1B and MP1 Antenna.
73’
Laurent de F8CZI / JI1UOE
Hi Andrew,
I was yesterday on the Tsukubasan. But unfortunately I didn’t work any qso. I tried on 20 and 40 m band but heard nothing on both. I don’t know if the bands was closed or if I have problem with my equipment. I will flight back to France this evening with any SOTA valid activation 
.
By the way thank you so much for your information that help a lot. Maybe I will try agin if I come back again to Japan.
Best 73’s
Laurent de F8CZI / JI1UOE
This is really too bad. At least you tried and got out in the mountains. There is always some activity on the 2 bands you tried so you should have heard somebody for sure. Even when you hear people though it is not always easy to get people to answer CQ when you do not sound Japanese as some operators do not always feel comfortable with their language skills. I have had one instance where after a 5h+ hike on skis I could hear tons of people but could not make a single QSO. It is part of the learning process. You did not have a lot of time to play around with your set-up and equipment, so maybe next time for sure. Kudos for trying.
Hi Laurent
Is the MP1 the compact whip antenna with the adjustable base loading? Called a miracle whip? As far as I have observed the miracle has not happened for anyone using one of those. The losses are far too high. It’s a shame you were limited to that “antenna”. Better luck next time with a wire antenna.
As an experiment I suggest setting up an A/B test against a wire antenna. I think the value of the mp1 will be revealed.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
The MP1 is nothing like the miracle whip (aka dummy load). It is very popular for SOTA activations particularly with CW operators.
Thanks for the link. Looks like an interesting item. A lot more substantial than the Miracle whip I referred to.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
Hi andrew, that is the whip you may have seen on my backpack earlier this year. I have made contacts into VK3 on 40m when pedestrian portable with the FT-817 (single dragwire) so it does work, but nowhere near as well as a dipole of course.
Matt
VK1MA
Thanks Matt, I recall seeing it but didn’t take enough notice of it to remember the details.
Hi Laurent,
My recent activations in Japan didn’t go to well either (two weeks ago), so you are not alone! Our group hiked to the top of Mt. Fuji, JA/SO-001. We arrived for the sunrise, but the winds whipped up and it became unsafe in the activation zone. Could not put up the squidpole, tried 2m on a hand held without luck and decided to abort due to the high winds and chill factor. An activation on a lower summit, Rokko, only produced 2 contacts in two hours, so didn’t complete that activation either. I would have stayed longer, but my friends wanted to go.
Cheers,
Glenn VK3YY, JP3PBQ
Hi Laurent,
Sorry to hear that you could not get any QSO during your staying in Japan. If you QRV on CW then it is hard to believe no QSO even in weekday. I wonder why but perhaps antenna could be a reason? Language matters are yes still there but most of HF high band and 6m lovers do not have any problem for language. This language block is rather high in 40m and lower and over 144MHz. Not sure but this is my general feeling. 6m and high band is very calm on weekday.