After a long period of chasing I have started to activate again. Last Thursday saw my first cycle SOTA which allowed me a shake out of kit and procedures and a very enjoyable time was had. Today on returning from a weekend in London I decided to take advantage of the sunny Sunday weather and go for cycle SOTA 2 of this year. All kit checked and packed, lunch and flask ready and a well prepared set off to Seager Hill in Herefordshire. A beautiful cycle ride and arrival at the trig point, antenna and radio kit ready to go. I consulted my mobile phone for the SOTA reference. Phone not working. No SOTA hill reference. No SOTA activation. One morse chat to a FISTS member and old friend as stroke portable and that was it.
There are definite advantages to being a Luddite. Pencil sharpened at both ends and a notebook which is what I use. However I relied upon, through habit, my mobile to provide me with information. Fortunately I only had a 20 mile round cycle ride and had not travelled afar and at great expense for this SOTA activation. Next time I shall write it all down and treat the phone as a secondary device to pen and paper. I may be long in tooth but a bit short on something else perhaps. I hope my folly is of help to others. Here’s to my next adventure.
73’s,
Ian
G4WTF
In reply to G4WTF:
Been there, done that (who hasnt?).
Though not always on a SOTA expedition, on various outings I have forgotten: a pen, writing paper, the battery, a power lead, the key. Last one redeemed by tapping two wire-ends together! But then, I once went fly-fishing and realised half way there I hadn’t put the rods in the car…
Definitely something missing here, but I can’t remember what it is…
Les
In reply to G4WTF:
I always write down reference, summit name, grid locator and height of the summit on top of my log sheet at home before starting. So even if all electronic gadgets fail I still have this information. This is also handy during activation so I always give the correct reference in the QSOs.
Apart from that I have the references saved as waypoints in my Garmin Oregon. So I can look it up there, too and even navigate to a second summit in case of an unplanned second activation.
Of course the Garmin can fail, too, but at least it does not require any infrastructure. Well the GPS may fail but the maps and waypoints are still available.
Self-spotting is the second aspect. Without spot in SOTAWatch activating in SSB can be hard. So apart from my mobile phone I experiment using APRS as means for self spots. Seems to be a viable supplement.
73 de Michael, DB7MM