A question for our Swiss (and French/German) activators.
Keith VA3QF will be working in Switzerland for several months next year, and hopes to get involved with SOTA. He says “The next plan is to determine what would be the best antennas. I have a collapsible HB9CV for 2m (it’s over 30 years old!) but the HF antenna is giving me a bit of difficulty. On many of the Swiss peaks there are no trees for a wire antenna and the ground is solid rock so driving in guy stakes for a vertical would be a problem too. Any suggestions as to what the other SOTA people tend to use?”
As such big mountains are well outside my experience, I would be grateful of any advice to pass on to Keith.
Who knows? If he really enjoys SOTA, he may be encouraged to start an Association back home in Canada.
I think the HB9s use mostly a long wire with counterpoise. Everybody on this reflector already know that I am using a low loop antenna with T1 ATU on 40 m - 17 m
BTW the first avalanche victim this season already last Wednesday in Diablerets. He was a snow boarder going off-piste. Some weeks there are no victims and on others there can be 4 - 8 persons depending on many factors - the weather being probably the most important.
There`s a few UK summits that are all rock - GW/NW-003 & 005 spring to mind. On these I use the usual SOTA pole set up, but rather than pegs, I use a self tightening loop arrangement on the guy ropes. I loop the guy rope round a handy sized rock, pull tight, then position the rock as necessary making guy pegs redundant. Of course - if you go high enough in HB9, even in summer you will find snow to accomodate your pegs.
I a was lazy and just bought a buddistick (with 3m long telescope) that I fix to a photo stativ.
These antennas work perfectly even in the worst of condx on 40m and higher, no need to carry long poles / long wires onto higher DL alpine summits. Small footprint, low weight, small size, easy and fast to build up / tear down in less than 5 mins.
Low height/weight also means no fixture ropes are necessesary.
I am mainly intersted in HF activity, the most intersting band beeing 40 m.
I am using a 1/4 wave vertical or depending possibilities slooping lw. with 3 or 4 radials on a 10 m telescoping fibre glass mast ( on tougher climbing summits 8m version )
On many of the Swiss peaks there are no trees for
a wire antenna and the ground is solid rock so driving in guy stakes
for a vertical would be a problem too.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
I might try operating from a local ski-hill (not SOTA-sanctioned!!) once I get my station sorted out, just to make sure everything is OK. If so I will post details here - but it won’t be until Jan/Feb at the earliest and then only if the weather cooperates.
I just cancelled my activation today. It is raining here and I do not expect that the weather is much better 100 km from here.
There are no sanctions in SOTA. Amateur radio is always experimental, so there is no problem to announce coming activation and later cancel it due to what ever reason. Though it is preferable to remove the alert from SOTA watch that can be done.
