Two days ago I chased callsign 5B4AMX who was calling CQ SOTA on 20m FT8 from Cyprus. Their grid square was given as KM65. However they never spotted, and they never transmitted which peak they were on.
Did anyone else get 5B4AMX on that activation, and know which summit that was?
My QSO with them was logged at 2026-08-15 at 04:54 UTC.
5B4AMX is an alternate callsign for LZ2HM. Neither one shows any SOTA activation history. I have emailed them but not heard back.
KM65fa is 5B/CY-045 Kokkinovouppos.
That corresponds with the location Andrey 5B4AMX has marked on his map on qrz.
There has, as far as I can see, been no activator’s logs submitted for that peak since May 2025. Let’s hope he submits his log soon, otherwise this is starting to look like a pirate.
73 Ed.
Nice, that’s a good bit of detective work there. I had missed that there was a “User supplied” lat/lon on his QRZ page.
Could be a pirate, but seems a rather obscure goal for anyone to mimic this activation. I’m hoping he’s just without internet access at the moment and will upload a log when he’s able.
I took a screenshot of PSK Reporter at the time, showing the coverage he was getting. It was convincing for being in the correct geographic area at least.
Slightly off topic but you mentioned the summit ref wasn’t transmitted in the FT8 calls. Is that possible? I had a go using this nice this week but realised while qFT8 encorages the word SOTA in the CQ, you can’t tx the ref.
Does the system rely on a spot?
Not being able to state a ref feels like not completing the sota exchange. Though my CW QSOs when spotted rarely include it either (but do if I chase s2s).
I was wondering this same question. I decided to play with FT8 while on one of my regular summit camps on G/LD-025. This was only my second time using FT8 on a summit, the first time I blew the finals on my QMX.
I was particularly pleased to see the Cyprus station calling CQ SOTA, and we managed what I thought was an FT8 S2S…but after checking the logs for Cyprus summits when I got back, I realised it might not have been a real activation.
I know that Tom M1EYP does tx an additional freetext message after the normal ft8 qso exchange.
In the 2m FT8 activity contests he generally does it when he sees a call he recognises as a regular chaser. Its normally along the lines of “SOTA G/SP-015”
Nobody else has logged a chase for this station in the last days.
Yeah, freetext messages would be the only way to send a reference. And that means working within the 13 character limit – which is fine for just a summit ref, but in most cases would not be enough space to include both your callsign and the ref.
I’ve seen activators attempt that maybe once or twice with FT8, but usually they just rely on spotting.
As for it being a valid SOTA exchange, the only requirement per the SOTA general rules is that “QSOs must comprise an exchange of callsigns and signal reports”. Sending summit identifiers is strongly recommended but not required.
I also worked 5B4AMX on 8/15 @ 0026 UTC. I was quite surprised to see him calling CQ SOTA on 20m FT-8. I quickly checked the SOTA Watch page but nothing was spotted. As they say, work first, worry later. I gave him a +04 and he gave me a -09. His grid on QRZ is listed as KM65fa so possibly he was at the closest summit 5B/CY-045 ? I hope one of us can solve the mystery. This would be my first SOTA in AS so really made my night. Just need a SOTA in AN now LOL
Brian N2BTD
That’s what I do as well if I’m quick enough to swap the message before the next cycle, which can be fiddly on my phone. Some software lets you put a - or / in the free text but some don’t in which case I don’t know if it shows up at the receive end correctly so I tend to use the format “SOTA GW NW043”.
I’ve just checked qFT8 and the SOTA suffix and locator are still there from the recent activation. If the app requires permission for each time location is gained, this will happen. So for some software it is easy to mistakenly look like a sota activation of that was done recently.
For the one in question, the DX cluster shows the same location for multiple days. Is conclude, without any other info, this is a simple operator mistake. I’ve learnt to check those two details from reading this thread.
BTW qFT8 had only 4 chars it the suffix so no ref possible. The manual states a free text field is in the protocol but not implemented. So good spotting is key.
TBH I’m in two minds about ft8 and sota, having sat racking up contacts without touching the kit on a hill when other modes were not possible, but that is a different thread and a personal choice. Maybe I’ve “reached the age”.
I don’t use qFT8 so I’m not sure if I follow. Would this situation you’re describing with the app cause it to accidentally call “CQ SOTA” instead of just “CQ”?
Hi, yes. If I enter SOTA in the field (which allows only 4 chars) it will remain until I change it. So if come home and use the same app to operate it will TX with SOTA in the CQ call. To be fair, the full text is presented on the screen during transmission so I would have to not be paying attention. But given the auto nature of operation it is possible.
The same for the location which comes from GPS or manual. If auto it is four uppercase characters. If manual it also remains until changed.
So I could easily appear to be activating my last summit for ten years if I paid no attention to the app.
Ah, I see – so it might call CQ SOTA just by virtue of retaining old data in the fields.
In this case, that adds further mystery. Neither 5B4AMX nor LZ2HM shows any SOTA activation history, when searching on sotl.as. So calling CQ SOTA as a “leftover” setting from a previous activation seems less likely for this person.
Perhaps there is a clue in the timings. These would have been at 03:26 and 07:54 local time. Night-time / early morning operation of over four and a half hours on a summit, even one as benign as this?
Hopefully an answer will shortly be forthcoming. I looked at KM65fa and it certainly covers more than the summit.
