First ever activation for me this evening, of G/SP-011 on 2m FM with a UV-5R with nagoya whip. Bargain basement kit, I get the limitations and do intend to upgrade once I’m sure SOTA is for me.
I only managed to make one qso with good report. A second station did come back to my call but was well within the noise. I called cq regularly for an hour and tired different locations on the summit (a broad hill with population centres within VLOS).
I’ve logged the activation, but of course I get 0 points.
A few questions:
Can I return to the same summit and try again to secure the points, or is that it for this calendar year?
I was calling at 1900-2000 local time on a Saturday evening. When is usually best to maximise the chances of 2m FM contacts? (appreciate this will vary depending on location, looking for general guidance/experience here).
Yes you can activate each summit as many times as you like in each calendar year, but you only get points on the first occasion when you make at least 4 contacts.
As for times when activations are best made, that is a local variable but it always pays to post an Alert to sotawatch at least a few hours before the activation time, preferably a day or more.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
(PS. Thanks for adding your name to your reflector profile)
You should be able to update your profile on here to show your name which will help people welcome you in a more friendly and personal manner.
Andrew’s answered your first query.
WRT the 2nd - my tuppence is: https://sotl.as/ is a great resource for planning. In addition to the mapping you can also check what bands have been the most used from summits. The summit pages on the database also offer lots of helpful advice including routes and even what type of soup to take (in joke - you’ll work it out). Take the best antenna you can - generally the best bang for your buck, though be wary of overloading your radio if transmitter masts are nearby. Post an alert on SOTAWatch a couple of days ahead as Andrew says. Then if you’ve got a phone signal at the summit post a self-spot for your frequency when on the air. You should be fine on 2m in the SP area.
I highly recommend joining an established activator for a joint activation. We’re generally a friendly bunch. It’s great to have someone who can answer questions as the come up.
Welcome to SOTA. My first two activations only got one QSO each so keep going.
You can activate a summit as many times as you like (I’ve activated G/NP-028 17 times so far this year). As Andrew says you get the points the first time you get 4 contacts. For summits with a seasonal bonus (in G that’s those that score 2 or more points) you could activate it in summer for 2 points and then come back in December, get another 4 QSOs and get the additional 3 points.
I suspect a Saturday evening is not the best time for 2m. To be honest I find 2m a bit hit and miss - sometimes I get many stations calling and other times I am happy that I got one. I should say that 2m is secondary for me - I always start on HF and by the time I do 2m I have already got the points in the bag and so if I don’t get replies to my CQs quickly I stop rather than keeping calling.
Another factor is that summits in an area can vary quite a lot with how successful they are on 2m. This can be because they have a large plateau on top making it harder to get the signal out in all directions. Others are just in the right place to get a signal to several towns without another hill being in the way.
Raising your aerial a few metres will help massively. A short fishing pole and a home made slim jim or flowerpot will make a big difference in getting your signal out. Having said that I have managed 100 miles with just the stock rubber duck on my handheld. It was summit to summit so the height at each end helped and there was probably a lift on.
HF makes it much easier to get contacts, CW even more so. There are a number of relatively cheap rigs that can do SSB and combined with a wire aerial you will have a lot of fun!
Well done for trying so hard for so long. (I would have given up after 30 minutes). I would imagine most people including radio amateurs are doing other activities on a Saturday evening. I have activated only on HF at that time so had access to many more chasers and in different time zones.
Did you alert? Self-spot? Also, when risking a failed activation, I would tune 2m for other QSOs and break-in politely asking for a quick QSO with both / all parties. Do the same for local repeaters. Ask them if they can hear you on input.
You might want to consider using a 2m J-pole, Slim Jim or flowerpot antenna on a 6m pole.
For me the choice is on a whim. But if it’s raining or threatening to rain, I will do the reverse. Leave the HF kit in the rucksack, do 2m FM hoping to qualify the activation and go to HF if I don’t get 4 or more QSOs.
It’s hardly difficult. Sotawatch is open in a tab anyway. Click the drop down for spots in last 3 days. Ctrl-F. Start typing 2e0 and there it is at 18:44 Sat. Took much longer to write this message.
I knew what you were saying but a beginner might not understand why you said that if they don’t realise repeater contacts are not valid.
Welcome to SOTA Max. I hope you enjoyed your outing despite not qualifying the summit. I’m sure you’ll soon be back for more!
I think that you were probably just a victim of timing with respect to only making one contact. Saturday evening is generally a bad time for making contacts. From around tea time the number of people in their shacks reduces considerably. It is not so apparent on HF of course as people in other countries are on different times.
You have received some excellent advice from others. Just one additional thing to note is that the UV-5R is prone to blocking where there is a local RF source. It probably wasn’t a factor in this case, but beware of summits with radio installations. A bandpass filter helps. It also doesn’t have a particularly sensitive receiver, at least the two that I own don’t. Then I rarely use them.
Not being a Harry Potter fan (though my wife and kids are) a local ham had to point out what that term means. There are many interesting and often funny posts scattered around this reflector on interactions between SOTA activators and other hillwalkers (not to mention cows and other animals).
The vast majority of mine were good with many people showing curiosity as to what I was up to. Don’t make your explanation too long or detailed or their eyes will start to glaze over and their companions will start to back away slowly.
Someone used this term here a few days ago, and it resonated as all my kids are big Harry Potter fans. TBH most of my interactions with the uninitiated have been positive so far, and one person got so interested on the summit that by the time we met again in the parking lot he had done his entire research into SOTA and ham radio licenses
Typically for slightly more mature activators like me, a 50kg (112lb) anvil is the standard. As I think you’re still reasonably young you may want to consider a heavier model.
I’ve seen people make activations work with a whip antenna and manage to get >= 4 QSOs, but I’d strongly recommend an external antenna to plug into the radio for an activation. Personally I use a 3 element yagi and I get fantastic 2m VHF results with it (I’m talking I expect a pileup on every summit in G and GW at this point - especially when I point it in the direction of the urban centres in NW England). If you’re interested in that route I recommend the Arrow 2 yagi antenna. Intended for satellites, but it’s fantastic for SOTA when you clamp it to a tripod.
As has been mentioned, put up an alert before your activation. Ideally at least the night before. Additionally, spot yourself when you get on the air using your phone. The PoLo logging software has the facility to do this for you. This goes straight to chasers’ devices and tells them you’re activating right now and on what frequency/mode. Failing that, if you’re out of service range for your phone for example, if you manage to make a contact you can kindly ask them if they can spot you on the frequency you made the contact. There’s a chance they might not be able to - for example if they’re operating mobile - but if a chaser has the facility to do so they’re almost universally obliging in my experience. Avoid spotting yourself on S20 - check a frequency (say .575 for example) for use and if it’s available go to S20 and call CQ SOTA and ask people to QSY to .575 for contacts. Spot yourself on .575 too. If you run dry and need (or want) more then go back to S20 and call again. You can spot yourself again too if you wish when you do this.
Welcome to SOTA. Sorry you didn’t have good luck on your first attempt and good luck for the future.
I think this was your major issue rather than any equipment. Regular chasers are not listening at that time as it is unexpected.
However, if you had posted on here something along the lines of “Hey guys, I want to go out and do my first activation on Saturday evening on 2m from Freeholds top, posted an alert on Sotawatch and then spotted on Sotawatch” you probably would have been snowed under with a pileup.
Like other have said, if your are going to do something unusual, make some noise about it and there will be people there.
Now if you had gone between say 10am and 1pm you wouldn’t have had to do any of that as I would say its within the window of normal 2m activity for Sota.
I think people have a vision of sota that involves big mountain expeditions and lots of planning but sometimes they are just a nice evening walk in the countryside with a handheld.
Then I rarely use them.
