A rare first

Got a rare SOTA first (for me) today. I have been taking my Baofeng on my cycle ride to work this week. Today to my surprise I heard someone calling and it turned out to be M1EYP/p on SP-015 doing his daily duties. I was even more surprised that he could hear me. So there it is, a first SOTA chase from my push-bike.

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I thought it was going to be “first success using a Baofeng”. :slight_smile:

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Baofengs are excellent (terms and conditions apply).

The same thing happened to me when I was activating in VE7/GV (I forget which summit.) A local ham riding his bike around Stanley Park happened to have his Baofeng on and we squeezed out a contact before he lost line of sight. I believe he didn’t even stop riding, either!

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I have started taking a HH on my bike when I commute to work! Quite amazing what you can hear and how far you can get out with a simple setup

I use APRS on extended rides with my Yaesu FT1D and a 2m dipole on the pannier rack

Over the Xmas 2017 break I did a few rides to test my RX system at home (iGate G8XYJ-10, now licenced as MB7RLU) - Quite happy with the results

I suppose the clever thing to do would be to convert the dipole to a VK2ZOI dual band Flowerpot antenna, then monitor 433.500MHz and TX on 144.800Mhz

Hope that we have another SOTA cycling event for 2018

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I have also set up an iGate at home but there seem to be few people using APRS around here at the moment.

I still can’t believe you guys in the UK can get 4 contacts from a mountain top reliably on 2m FM! And I live near New York City. I am so jealous!

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One of my favorites was a “summit to horse” that I completed with Fred-KD0HBA while activating W7M/CL-142 a couple of years ago. It was totally random - Fred was out riding & happened to be packing his HT.

73,
Rob - AE7AP

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I use to be sea kayak mobile in the early years of SOTA, I worked one or two summits whilst paddling off the North Wales coast.

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I bet that had a great earth system if it was on HF.

Ed.

Only 2m FM unfortunately!

Yes, I hope we manage a cycling event in 2018. I did try a few ‘adverts’ last year but there was no response. I suggested a 10 day window to include 2 weekends when more activators are likely to be around - and to give some flexibility as I prefer taking my cycle rides (and activating!) in the dry.

Despite the nil response I cycled to activate the (very local) summit of Aconbury Hill (G/WB-024) on what I thought was a dry day in late August. I soon realised that the cloud was down on this massive 276m wooded summit which was not a good omen. As I slithered up the muddy track (having hidden the bike), the rain started… Getting 4 contacts on 2m fm took 30 mins and a further 20 mins for the last 2 on 70 cms. Why did I persevere? Sheer obstinacy and the knowledge it wasn’t going to be any drier on the way back to Hereford - and probably colder as it was mainly down hill! :cry:

Typing this has made me realise what a miserable activation it was - why am advocating another go this year?

Viki M6BWA

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