Before SOTA

…I was interested in “Hilltopping” in order to get better rx conditions for my SWL hobby, from DXing low-power and RSL VHF broadcast stations, to achieving relatively noise-free condx for SWLing DX HF broadcasters and radio amateurs. You can see why SOTA kind of appealed to me!

In around July to December 2000 (or possibly the first half of 2001), I had an article about “Hilltopping” published in the old Radio Active magazine. This was the then new title for the old CB Magazine in those days, but prior to it being bought out by PW Publishing Ltd, and more recently merging with Short Wave Magazine to become Radio User.

If anyone has a copy of that issue stored away somewhere, or knows where I can get hold of a copy, I would be interested in buying it. For some reason, I cannot locate my copy. Sorry for the “off-topic”; I tried to make some kind of tenuous link!

I’m sure I’m not the only one to have been aspiring to higher ground for better VHF results before SOTA came along!

Still slightly OT, but I took my licence so I could get involved in SOTA and also found it useful for storm chasing.
Since getting my licence I am on more hills and mountains now than I ever was…
I blame SOTA now for getting nothing done on the weekends at home… hi hi

mmhhhh,
sota for me results in, that i have no more a shack at home since the beginning of 2007. beginnig in 2006 because of my trekking-tours in the black-forest. make trekking tours and running is my hobby for a longer time. and sota is the optimum for me to combine my trekking-hobby with hamradio.after now 7338 qso´s in sota i reduced my hamradio-hobby to qrv sota-only. i think i haven´t more fun with anything else in hamradio. and sota takes a lot of time and i have also a YL who needs time :wink: so sota only :wink: i also stopped all my contest-activities.only for my club-station i´m qrv in 3 or 4 CW-contests in the year with DL0BLG.
the increase of sota from my view :

27.2.2006 beginning with sota
27.02.2006 - end of 2006 = 2010 QSO logged on the summits
01.01.2007 - 31.03.2007 = 3934 QSO logged
01.04.2007 - 31.06.2007 = 5363 QSO
01.07.2007 - 03.10.2007 = 7338 QSO till now ( all on HF-QRP, no vhf )

  • spend a long time on the road and walks to the summits :wink:
    but i like it !

vy 73 Klaus DF2GN