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