With SOTA it often happens that passing hikers, walkers, mountain bikers, paragliders etc. are interested in what we are doing and then ask questions. I think it’s a good opportunity to do a bit of advertising for amateur radio, to explain what SOTA is and I’m happy to take the time. However, it’s often the case that I’m in the middle of a QSO and can’t respond straight away. There are interesting flyers in German from Roman, DL3TU (https://dl3tu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/sota-flyer_v2.2.pdf) and from the “Draussenfunker” (https://lutz-electronics.ch/pdf/SOTA/Draussenfunker_Flyer_Amateurfunk.pdf).
Are there any more of these flyer ideas? I would like to make one myself and am still looking for a few suggestions.
Hi Marcel @DM3FAM and Martin @OE5REO
Thank you very much! I think both flyers are excellent to give to people who are already HAMs or know a bit about amateur radio. For these people the flyers are excellent and there are also HAMs who do a very nice job to spread the idea of SOTA: In fact Heribert, DK2JK is “responsible” I discovered SOTA because of his lecture at a QRP-meeting in 2022: KMZ-Schwarzwald-Baar
But when people ask me during SOTA the questions are more like this: 1. What are you doing here? 2. Why do you still do morse code? 3. Is it an expensive hobby? 4. Have you built this box yourself? 5. How far can you do contacts? And so on…
I think I will try to write such a flyer myself (and ofcourse show it here).
73!
Peter DL3NAA
Not SOTA specific but close enough for people who simply want to know “what you are doing” - this one (of a range) of free flyers from the DARC fits well and is well received when I hand it out on my activations to those “brave enough” to come up and ask what I am doing.
Otherwise - if you go down the page below to Publicity Items - Brochures, there are some that I have collected over the years (thanks to the various authors - these are not my work):
Some time ago I made a poster (DIN A4) to replace the flyers. I put it on the ground close to my operating position. It contains very basic information and a QR-code with the link to an info-page: Herzlich Willkommen
If someone approaches me in the middle of a pile-up, I briefly explain what I’m doing and ask them to scan the QR-code for more information. Most people do
And yes, it’s always the same questions:
What are you measuring?
Did you catch anything? (No, I tried to get the fishing line into the river down there, but it’s too short.)
