It feels really good to be back on the bands.
After what turned into a pretty full-on year, I finally dusted off the SOTA kit and came out of the gates strong for the NYE/NYD (UTC) activations with a trip up to the iconic Telstra Tower / Black Mountain in Canberra, VK1/AC-042. There’s something about that first CQ from a summit after a long break that just hits differently. Same nervous excitement, same quick mental checklist (spot posted, battery happy, wind behaving), and then the familiar rhythm returns as the first callsigns come back.
2025 has been largely swallowed by my role as Captain of a NSW RFS Communications Brigade. In short, it’s been a year of leadership, training, readiness and making sure our comms capability is solid when the operational tempo ramps up. It has been meaningful work, but it also meant my “radio time” shifted heavily from hobby to service, and I’ve genuinely missed getting out for the simple joy of activating and chasing.
One of the biggest chapters this year was deploying to Canada for their wildfire season, including a deployment to Alberta, as the first Australian radio operator to ever deploy there. It still feels a bit surreal to type. It was a different environment with different systems and expectations, but the core of the job was familiar: calm, disciplined comms, problem solving, and being useful when things are moving quickly. The big skill SOTA taught me is what I call mental buffering: holding the callsign in your mind while you type, recognising voices, and keeping fast contacts tidy and accurate. That exact mental muscle came in handy working with up to 25 helicopters a day for 30 days in Canada, where you’re juggling rapid comms, priorities shifting on the fly, and you still need to be crisp and reliable every single time.
Today I pulled in around 30 contacts all up, and I want to say a genuine thank you to everyone who was out and about and took the time to work me. Chasers made it happen, and it was a cracking way to start the year. I’m keen to keep the momentum rolling and get a few more VK1 summits in the log as time and weather allow.
Wade