I’m thinking about buying a pair of specialised gloves, to be well protected on activations in the winter period. In order to be able to use the touch screen of my tablet for logging and checking SOTAwatch, these should probably have no fingertips. What product do you use – or do all use gloves with tips cut off of your own with your scissors?
I’m living in Switzerland and won’t do any heavy duty activations in the winter period, so I don’t need protection against arctic temperatures.
. . . and any useful hints based on your own experience for using a tablet outside at low temperatures as a SOTA activator? What problems did you face, and what are your best resp. simplest solutions?
I really like the "convertible fleece gloves that have exposed fingertips along with a flap so that you can cover all the fingers like a mitten when you want to.
These are fairly thin, wool gloves, enabling me to send CW on an iambic paddle and also to use the touch sensitive screen on my phone. The tips of 2 fingers per hand are a conductive, material and colour.
These work down to abt -5C.
Regards
David
G0EVV
Hey They’re a good idea Barry!
I’ve tried the ones with conductive finger tips and the ones where the fingers are constantly open and normal gloves where I keep having to take them off and put them on again but I have never seen these “convertible gloves”. Great idea - pop the finger part open when needed and then cover up again afterwards.
Hello Markus,
I strongly recommend using a stylus to operate a phone or tablet in cold weather.I find the gloves with conductive pads are just too big for me to reliably operate a touch pad. With the stylus there is no need to remove a thin pair of inner gloves, which can be worn inside a pair of overmitts, to give you layers for your hand insulation. Same idea as layers for body insulation, you can adjust the layers for your task or weather condition that are present.
In Canada I would look for something like this. https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5008-394/Polypro-Liner-Gloves
with a thin wind and water-proof overmitt like this. MEC Valhalla Mitts - Unisex | MEC
By the way, the earlier post showed mitts that have a flap to uncover the fingers and thumb. In Canada they are known as Hunter’s or Shooter’s mitts.
Markus, I use Nortface etip gloves. These work fine but don’t expect that it works if you have to unlock your device with a fingerprint.
My wife has very cheap gloves made of wool. These also work fine.
Touchscreen gloves are available from £1.99 up to £22.99 for mountain equipment ones. Take a look at an outdoor shop they will sell them. I put a link on here on another topic regarding this.
When starting as an activator I looked for a solution as well.
A Swiss activator said he would put key and hand into his cap as protection.
Then I met a young guy presenting SOTA at a HAM meeting in Munich.
His answer was special: I need no protection for my hand. I am from Belarus,
it is much colder there.
In Germany he also would not need gloves while walking to the summit in
winter.
I have problems with cold fingers on bike and scooter already at + 10 C …
I find mittens with end cut off (actually, my wife crocheted mine for me) to keep my hand warmer and yet have better facility with fingers than finger-less gloves. - fred KT5X (aka WS0TA)
The same for me Mike - the car steering wheel is the main issue. I suffer from Reynaud’s and it doesn’t take much for my fingers to go white and lifeless. Being on blood thinning medication doesn’t help!
I used to use knitted fingerless mittens when activating and they were good for manipulating the rig’s controls,but they had obvious issues. Now I use Berghaus Spectrum gloves which are inexpensive yet provide insulation even when they are wet.
I used to use Millar Mitts years ago, I think they have recently been reintroduced. They were hard wearing and warm. For ultimate warmth you cannot beat the traditional Austrian Dachstein Mitts but you would have to take them off to use a touch screen or a key. Neither of these products are cheap, but you get what you pay for.
You can always try a pair of cycling gloves I purchased a cheap pair like the ones below in the link for £10. My hands tend to get cut up easily these days so I use them for the odd scramble to the summit or for activating with the mic or paddle.
Been using the same pair at work also for climbing and have lasted well over a year.
I got a pair of “WS soft shell mitten cap” from Snowlife, a local company, at a local specialized shop. I did a winter activation on HB/NW-019 the next day, and I got used quickly to do the forth and back of the cap - a good system in my opinion. The left hand with the microphone kept the cap forth and the fingers of the right hand did their job on the tablet with the cap back.
Let me gain more experience, these gloves should be good even if there is more winter than now. But my winter holidays take place only in two month’s time . . .
