Greetings, All!
I am looking forward to a great weekend ahead. To kick things off, I am planning my trip up Granite Mountain (W7W/WH-110).
I plan to reach the summit around noon if all goes well. I’ve posted my activation alert, but it’s showing an odd message “Not Recognised.” Any advice on getting the word out to others about my attempt to get some chasers?
Be assured that the summit alert is properly posted. The “Not Recognised” refers to your callsign as being associated with a named SOTA activator. Likely some info when you registered with SOTA. 73! Mike, WB2FUV
Welcome John,
Will keep an eye out for your spot.
Ken
Thank you, Ken. I am pretty new on the SOTA scene; pretty new to HAM radio actually. I am considering one of two antennas. Any recommendations are welcome.
Option 1: The MP1 SuperAntenna, a vertical that will cover 20m, 40m, and 2M/70cm, or,
Option 2: SOTAbeam Inverted V Dipole tri-bander 20-40m
By the way, I will be operating QRP (~10w) from my IC-705.
John,
If there are a lot of trees around, then radiation from the horizontal will be less affected at frequencies above 8 MHz, e.g. 20M. If your setup location is in the clear, then the vertical will be fine
Ken
Hi John,
You can fix the ‘not recognized’ by logging in to https://www.sotadata.org.uk/ and then click your callsign in the upper right, click ‘update account’ from the menu, then on the ‘Edit Account’ screen make sure all your info is in there correctly. Hit the blue ‘save’ button (even if you make no changes, hit the save button). Your name will now show up on SOTAWatch.
WW7D and I will be out Tomorrow and hope to catch you S2S. We are doing Hawkins Mountain and/or High Esmeralda. I would go with the dipole if you have the space on that summit - much better than the vertical. We almost always use an end fed (EFHW or EFRW) and sometimes a linked dipole.
Good luck and hope our timing works out for an S2S tomorrow.
73,
-Josh
Thanks for the advice, Josh. I’ve taken the necessary steps as advised. Let’s see if that fixes the error.
In the meantime, I will take the advice and carry the EFHW; it’s much lighter, anyway. I like the vertical because of the 2m option. But I can always carry my HT, for that purpose. I’ll keep an ear out.
I posted a test spot for you and your name did show up… all is well. Good luck with your activation Tomorrow.
Have fun with the activation tomorrow! I’ll be paying close attention to how your gear setup works as I have aspirations of similar first activations throughout the Cascades.
Hey, All: another question for you. Are there 20m and 40m freqs that I should default to when activating a summit? Should I stick to specific freqs when operating on QRP?
My advice would be find a clear frequency on the summit then Spot yourself as being ready to call CQ. Sometimes if you Alert a particular frequency then go out on the summit it may be already in use. The chasers will find you if you Spot in real time.
Have fun regards
Ian vk5cz …
Thank you, Ian. Excellent advice. Doubtful I’ll have cell coverage, but if I do, I will update my alert with a self-spot. Good call. Also, I read your post about the inverted v, great work. I am convinced and will bring my dipole instead of my vertical.
