How did the attempt yesterday go? I was out on a couple of summits and watching for your spots. Was hoping we could get a S2S.
You can program a CW CQ call into your KX2. Set up the antenna, pick a frequency in the CW portion of the band you want to use, send the automated message a few times. Look at https://www.reversebeacon.net/ to see if you were heard.
This will let you try how you rig the EFHW… probably as an Inv-L of some kind.
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I went to Hatcher Pass to ski but chose a peak that wasn’t a SOTA peak. Was mildly windy yesterday and didn’t think it was worth it to attempt MC-502 (Hatch Peak) which has no protection from S/SE winds once you’re on the ridgeline
I did activate MC-599 (the Butte) on the way home, it’s a 1-pointer and definitely the easiest SOTA peak around. It’s also surrounded by civilization so easy to work on the 2m. Unfortunately, it’s also in the path of winds coming down the Knik glacier. I did set up for HF but with the winds I knew I wasn’t going to activate more than 5-ish minutes so I didn’t bother spotting. Interestingly, I didn’t hear any other stations this time (well maybe 1 or 2 that were pretty garbled). I did get 4 contacts on 2m almost immediately, though. Had my wife using my 2m Yagi + HT
What peaks were you on? I assume the I-90 corridor or Olympic peninsula and everything up high has snow?
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I can imagine that Alaska in the winter would be pretty tough conditions for loitering on summits. Have you considered trying a ‘Parks on the air’ (POTA) activation, so you can get some experience with your new gear? There are a lot of ‘hunters’ (what we call ‘chasers’) with very good stations, so I expect you would get some action. Might be a good way to get some QSOs under your belt in a more forgiving environment.
We (WW7D and I) did a couple of summits up near Leavenworth (central WA). All the winter bonus eligible summits have feet of snow on them.
View from the first summit (Sugarloaf W7W/CH-195):
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Robert. As I said before, I activated a bunch of peaks near Palmer in the fall. Band conditions were not great but I ALWAYS got plenty of contacts on cw: all over us, EU, Japan, etc. try cw at 7 wpm and see what happens. If you put an alert on sotawatch you will be automatically spotted. That will help a lot. Also, put a note in your alert that you’re only comfortable at 7 wpm. Good luck.
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Very nice. I stopped in Leavenworth this summer along the PCT. The Enchantments just north of Leavenworth are absolutely stunning.
I actually met up with a guy locally on Friday and picked his brain while he did POTA. He had some massive (I don’t know, 20m tall?) mast and antenna set up off of his truck. Unfortunately, he said it was a really bad day as there was lots of QRM across all bands. I tried attaching my KX2 to his antenna and we got nothing. He only got one contact with his large ICOM (don’t ask me the model #, but I believe he said it put out 100W)
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Hi Bob
My YL Carine, HB9FZC and I are very active in SOTA and have activated more than 750 summits in the Swiss Alps over the last 10 years. We just made a post on our website with our advice how to start with SOTA: Ab auf die SOTA-Gipfel! Aber was brauche ich dafür? – Lutz Electronics, Schweiz
Mybe it’s a little help for you 
We wish you a good start and a lot of fun with SOTA 
vy 73 de René, HB9NBG + 73/88 de Carine, HB9FZC
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To the questions of propagation and band choice:
It wasn’t easy, but I chased eight Alaskan SOTA activations last year from Virginia. At least two of those contacts were QRP SSB on the activator’s side.
And, yes, they were all spotted, most likely self-spotted or RBNHole-spotted. Due to their rarity, I have a trigger in the HamAlert app specifically for spots of Alaskan SOTA summits – this is how I knew to get to the radio.
To give you an idea of the bands and times that got the job done, here are the log entries for those QSOs. Please excuse the formatting of the raw CSV log (date is DD/MM/YYYY, time is UTC):
V2,W4GO,01/06/2024,19:45,18MHz,CW,KL5AF,KLA/KS-648,1
V2,W4GO,19/06/2024,22:30,14MHz,SSB,K9ROB,KLA/AN-125,4
V2,W4GO,08/07/2024,23:21,18MHz,SSB,K9ROB,KLA/AN-161,4
V2,W4GO,06/08/2024,00:06,14MHz,CW,KR7RK,KLA/AN-169,4
V2,W4GO,06/08/2024,02:12,21MHz,CW,KR7RK,KLA/AN-167,4
V2,W4GO,26/08/2024,01:01,14MHz,SSB,AL5K,KLA/AN-167,4
V2,W4GO,06/09/2024,18:52,21MHz,CW,K7GUD,KLA/AN-167,4
V2,W4GO,06/09/2024,21:08,21MHz,CW,K7GUD,KLA/AN-169,4
You can pull up their activation logs to see what bands were most productive and which regions yielded the most chasers.
Running QRP SSB, you’re not likely to work many chasers in eastern North America. However, if you’re spotted on 20 m through 10 m, I’ll make an effort to work you. My home station has the advantage of a rural, low-noise location and a rotatable beam antenna for 20 m through 10 m.
73,
Matt
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Thanks! This is useful and also reassuring. Impressive some of them managed that with QRP SSB
Can someone check me here and make sure I’m not doing anything explicitly wrong.
I’m trying to test the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) in my backyard. Have my antenna set up on the mast, off the ground, and the KX2 operating @ 10W on 14.032MHz. I programmed in the following CW: “CQ CQ CQ DE AL5KA AL5KA AL5KA” and have it repeat that message every 4 seconds @ 15WPM.
I’m looking at the RBN here: RBN - Reverse Beacon Network
Watching for my callsign to appear in the ‘spotted’ column or on the map. Nothing. Tried both night and day.
Is there something I can do better? Or is it just that my weak signal + distance from beacons means I’m going unheard? When I check the “show spotters” box on the RBN I would assume that shows me all of the possible beacons on the map. The nearest ones I see are all the way in southern BC, Canada
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That should work. I just listened and heard a VE3 station having a QSO with someone on 14.032, and he was pretty loud. You might try calling CQ on 14.060, which is the QRP area on 20 CW.
Also, if you don’t get any hits on 20 then try 17, 15, or 10.
P.S. if you are trying it at night then also try 40. At night 40 goes long and I’ve had QSOs with people around the world.
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Looks like 10 is working right now, so you might give it a shot. If you check the band boxes it will show you some useful data… here is with just 10 checked:
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You can also try websdr’s. Those are radios receivers connected to the internet, broadcasting what they hear. They are very helpful to test your setup. When you want to check your audio or make sure your radio is actually transmitting.
You can find them on different maps like this one:
https://rx-tx.info/map-sdr-points
This one http://wl7no.ddns.net:8074/ in anchorage seems to work.
Set up your radio in the garden, make sure you select the proper frequency and mode on both radio and websdr. Transmit in your microphone while listening at the websdr.
If you are relatively close to the station, let’s say <1000km, I would try 7mhz LSB. If you are further away, try 14mhz usb.
If you cannot ear yourself, try a few different sdr’s. If no feedback from.any station… Maybe you have a problem in your setup.
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Mistake I sometimes make with my KX3 is forgetting that I have to enable VOX to get it to actually transmit. Luckily, on the KX3 there’s a little red light that lights up when there’s actual RF being generated…
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I’m not sure if it’s critical for RBN, but your CQ is missing a " K" at the end.
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It is not. In fact you don’t even have to call CQ. I’ve had RBN pick up my call from me just sending my call a few times trying to get an S2S!
May I suggest updating of the Introduction to Activating and Guidelines for Activators to better describe self spotting and the methods that this can be done?
The Guideline for Activators was published in November 2005 and there has been changes in how one can self-spot, and the benefits of such, in the past 19 years.
Updating these may help new activators better understand the tools that are available to assist them.
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Thanks. I used the webSDR in Anchorage and heard myself on 10, 20, & 40m. At the same time I had the RBN page up and didn’t see myself at all. On the RBN 10m seemed to be doing quite well at the time and there was a station near me that was spotted. I guess my set up isn’t strong enough to reach the RBN. Maybe it would be if set up on a peak, I guess I’ll have to try that sometime. At least I know I am transmitting as the SDR heard me
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I see an RBN hit for you. 18 mins ago, you were picked up by VE6JY on 14.060.
Very likely I could chase you on 20 right now, and probably other bands too. 17 is hot Today.
Oh I see that now but only when I type “AL5KA” into the spotted search bar. I guess I missed it? I was watching the map and doing “ctrl+f” to search for AL5KA on the page