Incorrect Spots for W5O/OU-016 25 Aug 2017

I was spotted by RBN a couple of times early today for W5O/OU-016, but I was NOT on Pine Mountain at the time. I had planned an activation but discovered that the road has a “Posted Private Property No Trespassing” sign about 4 miles away from the summit. A truck was coming out when I arrived and I asked the driver if I could go in, and he said no, so I decided to cancel the activation. Rather than delete my Alert, I updated it to explain that it was “cancelled” in the comments.

A while later I stopped at a state park and did a WWFF activation. Apparently the RBN recognized my calls and spotted me. I had thought RBN would only spot if the CQ’s included “SOTA” but apparently it only needs to see the call. So in hindsight, I should have just deleted the Alert.

I know of at least a few SOTA regulars who responded to my calls from the park. I apologize for causing any confusion!

(Note that earlier in the day I did activate W5O/WI-025, Chimney Hill, and those contacts are all valid).

Thanks and 73,
Keith KR7RK

That’s correct. CQ SOTA is not reliably passed through the RBN by the various relays, nor do people reliably call CQ SOTA, so it just does a string match on the callsign.