Hi everyone,
My name is Andrew and I’m new to SOTA. I did my first activation today at VE3/SO-113, in Ontario, Canada and I have to say it was…quite an experience and a very good test run for some larger summits that I’m planning on doing out west in Alberta this weekend.
SO-113 is a small summit but getting to the peak requires some bushwhacking. Overall I had a ton of fun and I learned a few things while I was out there, mainly:
If it can break, it will (Raspberry Pi screen, bluetooth keyboard, GPS dongle),
Operating in a dense forest/summit is a lot different than in a park or at a field day operation
I need to take more photos on these expeditions.
and…
Caterpillars love radio equipment (like…LOVE radio equipment…and operators too).
Overall, it was good fun and a success. I was only able to grab 6 contacts (which means I still activated it!), all FT8 on 40, 30 and 20 metres (I just didn’t have any success on SSB. Maybe this will push me to learn CW).
I hope to hear you all on the hill!
73,
Andrew, VE3YTP
I’d definitely encourage learning CW, and also point you to the CWOps and their CW Academy - an outstanding program that will get you working code at 20wpm character and no less than 10wpm Farnsworth in about 8 weeks. Additionally, when you work CW, I almost guarantee you will never not activate a summit due to a lack of people chasing.
Regardless, congrats and I look forward to possibly getting you in the log at some point as a chase or S2S.
Ants are on the majority of summits.
Anything that can snag/catch your wire antenna will, be it the smallest rock, twig, etc.
When you set up to be out of the wind, the wind will change direction five minutes later.
Congratulations on your first activation!
73, Peter KDYOB
It’s fantastic that your parents had the foresight to christen you “Andrew”, as, here in VK at least, it’s mandatory to be called Andrew, or, at the very least be awarded honourary “Andrew” status in order to activate…
73
John (non-activator/non-Andrew) VK4TJ
I’m heading to Calgary with work but I was going to try to drive in and around Canmore/Dead Man’s Flats and try to activate Pigeon Mountain (VE6/JF-033), Deer Park (VE6/JF-086) and Barrier Lake Fire Lookout (VE6/JF-088). Although I may skip one of those and go into VE7 land and activate Susan Peak (VE7/CP-085).
Hi Andrew and welcome to SOTA! SO-113 is a fun one.
I activated SO-113 back in August 2018 (using my Canadian callsign, VA3RRK) and likely followed a similar route as you - I began my hike at the Woodlands Trailhead and followed the ATV road up to eventually bushwhack up to the summit, roughly 5k roundtrip. My gps track is on the sotamaps tracks page. I remember it well because the bushwhack rewarded me with a nice case of poison ivy that stayed with me for the following week or so
Yeah, my track ended up being almost the exact same as yours. I didn’t hit any poison ivy (or if I did, my pants stopped it from doing anything) but I did end up going through a HUGE patch of thorns that cut me up pretty good.
Hi Andrew,
I was glad to catch you today on Barrier Lake Fire look-out. I was using the 2m radio in my car to chase you, sitting on my front-drive in Calgary. I tried rounding up more contacts, and I hope you made your activation before the weather closed in.
I noticed that you had posted an alert, but there was no spot.
The way I see it, your alert is what you intend to do; the spot says what you are actually doing while you are on the air. My experience is that it is hard to activate in the Canadian Rockies without a spot being posted.
I know that you have a couple more activations alerted, and we will try and get chasers watching for you, but if you can post a spot your chances of a successful activation will definitely be much better.
Hi Ian,
I didn’t have any service between my personal and work phones. In this case would my option be APRS2SOTA? Do I need to set up my callsign with the gateway for it to work?
And thanks again for that call today. I was doing CQs on my handheld as I was packing up in the rain. Our contact and the one with VA6QAS only happened because I walked 5 feet towards the other side of the hill. I’ll do a write up on the whole thing when I get back to Toronto on Monday.
