I am planning my first SOTA activation attempt in the next few weeks and would appreciate some advice. I have checked the nearest 5 summits, all easily accessible, and notice that all have more 2m activations than 40m etc. Hence I am thinking that my current FT818nd and Flowerpot 2m antenna should be good enough to activate with. However, I’ve not used the equipment much yet and am wondering if I would need a bit more power to increase the probability of making more contacts. The options I am considering are a cheap 50/80W 2m FM transceiver or a small amplifier for 2m.
Well it all depends where you are going as some areas of the UK have a lot more 2m activity than others.
There are tens of thousands of QSOs in the SOTA database made with a simple vertical antenna and a few Watts of 2m FM so so you are in good company with your current equipment.
Let us in on the secret of where you will be activating and people can provide more suggestions.
The amp every time. A high power FM rig will most likely be a mobile and it will eat your battery power, both on transmit and receive. Adding a linear to the 818 makes good sense as you get more oomph on all modes. I would add a small beam as well once you’ve developed your kit… .maybe a homebuilt one based on a design by Martin DK7ZB for lightness. Oh… and use some decent coax for VHF - 7m aircell works well and is a good compromise between performance and weight. BNCs rather than PL259s.
Hopefully work you on 2m sometime.
73, Gerald
(FT-817ND / KX3 with 2m internal transverter, Microwave Modules 25w linear, 5 element yagi (SOTAbeam SB5 - no longer available, but based on the 5 element by DK7ZB).
High transmission power is always a question of power consumption.
TRX with high transmission power are often high power consumers even in receive mode. The battery is quickly drained. You also need a battery that can provide the high currents when transmitting and does not give up.
If you want to operate it for a longer period of time, it quickly becomes bulky and heavy.
Some ideas for antennas with gain that are also easy to transport have already been described here.
e.g.
If you are interested in 2m DX, then you can look for a small power amplifier on the second-hand market.
As a guide… I use about 70 watts with the KX2 and a transverter and my small power amplifier…and with 8 Ah that is enough for about 2 - 3 hours in CW / SSB (depending on the transmission portion) - although the KX2 and transverter use very little power in receive mode.
For comparison, I just did a successful activation of Heath Mynd, G/WB-007 on 2m FM, using a 5w Yaesu FT65 into a ladder line Slim Jim on top of a 7m mast, with crappy RG58 coax and PL259 plugs. 14 qsos in the log, with three summit to summit into the Lake District… Plus QSOs into Oldham and Bradford. Your location is key here. 2m FM is relatively busy in this part of the world, but maybe not where you are.
Edit, forgot to say, whatever you do enjoy it, it’s good fun! Good luck.
Thanks, that sounds good, I was thinking that the amp is a more flexible option but was not sure. I will have a look the DK7ZB beam, good project for when the weather is bad.
Hopefully catch you on the air
Thanks, 2m DX would be excellent, though initially the plan is to keep it simple and build to a better capability with more experience. I have put myself down for the next CW Academy course starting in Septmeber so hopefully I will have activated a few summits by then
The guide you mention is very useful as am still new to the hobby
Hi Tony,
I have an FT818 and home made flowerpot antenna for 2m. In the 20 months I have been active in sota about 500 of my 1500 qso’s have been 2m FM with just 5w. All of my activations have been in Scotland but height has allowed some qso’s into England and even one in to Wales so my advice would be to try what you have first.
SOTA is quite addictive !
Andy
MM7MOX
That sounds like an excellenbt day out, 2m locally is pretty quiet but am hoping that its better from the summits though the “local” summits are more hills than summits
I use a Yaesu FT60 with a roll up Slim Jim on a sotabeams 6m mast, light & easy to pack, its not failed me yet, although on wendover woods & Win Green it came close, but they are not very high & surrounded by a lot of flat countryside.
If your going to go to the trouble of carrying the extra weight of the FT817 you may as well take an end fed or a dipole for HF in case 2m is quiet.
He’s probably driving to a gig or doing a sound check right now
Back to the actual subject…
OK, by now you will have read the joining in section on the website and also read the rules so you know how SOTA works. You will only get points for the 1st activation of a summit in a calendar year but there is nothing to stop you repeating the activation many times for 0 activator points simply to get practice at setting up and operating in different WX etc. I’m not sure how long you have been licenced and how much aon-air experience you have so practicing SOTA when you don’t worry about getting the points is a nice way to build skills before you spend money travelling further afield etc.
There is one point not yet mentioned… how are you powering your 818? The internal battery and 5W 2m FM will not give you a long operating window. You may want to look into some additional batteries etc. You can search on here for chapter and verse on addition batteries, there’s hours and hours of reading. If you do a search you can order them so the results are “most recent post first”. Do that so you are not reading posts from 2006 for technology longs since obsolete.
Hi Tony,
My advice, as this will be your first activation is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Use the gear that you currently have and only look to “improve” on it (amplifier, antenna whatever) after a couple of activations.
Others have made suggestions on what you might want to end up with, in this thread but (IMHO) it is essential to keep the first activations as simple as possible and make notes of what didn’t work so that you can address the things on a following activation.
Remember also that even just one contact from a summit means that you have activated it. With four contacts or more, you have “qualified” the summit and get the defined activator points.
The most important thing is to get out into the fresh air and enjoy yourself.
He’s been eating an Indian meal with me. Rest assured he will be on soon. Incidentally I made two contacts today from Foel Fenlli to Binsey using an HT with a rubber duck. That seemed pretty amazing to me.
Yes. I’ve worked many GW/NW’s, even a few GW/MW ones, from southern G/LD summits with my 2m FM HT (and RH770), but Binsey has those LD mountains in between.
Could be tropospheric scattering (even with simple verticals) or reflections near Binsey and using an over-sea path to N.Wales.
