It has now been just over 13 years ago that I stumbled across N6IZ on Mt. Shasta doing a weird “SOTA” activation thing - at least weird in the fact that I’d never heard of it before! I was immediately hooked and started “chasing” summits running my usual QRP levels (3-5 watts). In the last year I’ve had a bit more time to chase summits since I am now semi-retired. (At least that’s what they tell me!)
Thanks to 6710 contacts with 1164 different intrepid activators on 3104 different summits, I just hit 40,000 chaser points. I know that total pales in comparison to others, but for me, with limited operating time due to work up until a year ago, I’m kind of proud of it. And this was all done with five watts or less. (It turns out that QRP is another of my apparently incurable, and somewhat masochistic afflictions.) Since most activations are done with QRP too, it makes for a lot of 2 x QRP contacts!
I still have fond memories of the WG0AT videos in the early years that cultivated my growing SOTA fascination and motivated me to activate some summits of my own. Thanks Steve! As a flat-lander in the prairies of SW Minnesota, I have few opportunities to get to the mountains. But SOTA has allowed my family and me to combine our shared love of hiking in the mountains with QRP activity! I sure would like to get MG eventually, but that may need to wait until I’m fully retired and can spend more time in the Rockies and Black Hills which we dearly love.
It is amazing how much the SOTA activity has increased in the last 13 years, but it is great to hear some of the same folks on over all those years. I’ve really enjoyed “the ride” and fully intend to keep chasing and occasionally activating summits.
SOTA has provided an outlet for my desire to get on the air and flex my five watt muscles when the DX propagation was so dismal. And now with improving conditions, I’m having fun working SOTA DX again!
Thanks again for all the contacts and the opportunity to be part of a great “family” with a common interest!
Congratulations, Randy! Thanks for all the chases, and hope to hear you again on satellites if I can get my butt in gear and point my antenna to the sky again.
Thanks Michael - it has definitely been a journey! I appreciate all the summit activations and the sat QSOs, including sat ops from summits! I look forward to more in the future!
73, Randy
Hopefully in the next couple weeks, I don’t want to really go out again till winter bonus points cause all the summits I have to do are mostly 2 pointers right now and I don’t want to do them twice hihi. But I will alert when I am going out and hope to hear you call!
@ND0C Thanks Randy for sharing. You’re an inspiration!! I have a long way to catch up to you. I just started SOTA activations and I only have 10 points. I’ll be on another summit this weekend. I can hardly wait
Randy, It’s not only about the points, it’s also about the great people you meet and get to call SOTA friends along the way. We are like you and have to travel to get any activations done, but we’ve also met a lot of great people and look forward to meeting other SOTA people on our trips.
Congrats on the 40K chaser points. Keep on having fun.
Thanks for the kind words Jeff and welcome to a great bunch of folks that love talking to and from mountains! One word of caution: this SOTA thing is very addictive. “Abandon hope all ye who enter in!”
I look forward to hearing you from that summit this weekend. Last weekend I was playing in the CQWW DX Contest, so didn’t do any chasing, but I’ll be on the hunt this weekend!
