There are plans for some of the Camb-Hams to be out in our van (truck) Flossie to play chaser. We thought of visiting a summit but there are none around here.
In reply to K2FR:
If the wx is bad here I will try and chase my first NA summit, I will be on high ground in the car with a 20m whip.
Now checking urls in my phone and just got qrpspots to work on it, Make as much noise as you can guys and hopefully I will hear you!
We thought of visiting a summit but there are none around here.
I guess Flossie’s mast is taller than most of your nearby hills…
How far away is your nearest SOTA summit?
In reply to M1EYP:
I am thinking along the lines of being QRV from 6pm (1700z) from Gun or Cloud.
Forgotten to put your clock back? We’re supposed to be back on Z now…
In reply to K2FR:
Im bringing my FT-857D with 2 large batteries which should give me 2-3
hours of high power on the peak… so Europe, expect to hear from me
I hope to be listening for North America at least some of the time this weekend…
Whats everyone else doing? any plans?
…in between working towards Intermediate, and maybe helping monitor a high altitude balloon launching from Cambridge. (Oh, and probably, it being that time of year, sweeping up a few million leaves if it isn’t too soggy…)
Sorry, I couldn’t resist a dig, but it’s mostly at having to change the clocks twice a year when it’d be so much less trouble just to pick a suitable offset and then leave them alone…
In reply to KD9KC:
so excited about it he went and passed his General ticket saturday.
He is going to buy an FT-817 too.
Good for him!
For a taste of the trail, read this story.
Sometimes it seems there’s no justice; all that, and it’s still only six points.
(…but of course it’s not really only about the points.) Good luck!
Good luck Andy. In my case, all my SOTA stuff (rig, battery, keys, connectors, feeder, antenna logbook, headlamp, GPS etc…) stays in my SOTA packback so I dont have to make sure nothing is missing. But, this is the case of an addict
Early on I brought up a suggestion that a point could be added for
each hour of hiking needed to reach the summit, or something…
That was quickly shot down - so I dropped the idea. I still think it
is a good idea - reward the hikers who activate the most difficult
summits. But it isn’t for me to decide. I can promis this - there
are some summits within 10 miles of here I will not activate. They
are just not worth the 4 points they give for the amount of hiking
needed.
I agree. The point system is too inflexible.
Here in the Adirondacks W2/GA, there are many listed 1 or 2 point summits that are trail-less. The summit might be a couple of miles from the nearest trail, and that is after you hike several miles on a trail to get to the ascent route. So the actual difficulty of getting to that summit could be way more than to a 6 pointer.
Then there are other summits that don’t qualify due to the rule for prominence based on the database used, even though the actual vertical rise from the trailherad or logical starting point is way higher than other summits on the list.
I suppose it isn’t worth losing sleep over, but it doesn’t seem right.
I really need to learn Morse code… I feel like im missing out on quite a few contacts because All i hear are dits and dah’s and cant make out words lol
Maybe that will be my winter project.
As for now, everything is packed up except for the batteries which are sitting on the charger getting happy. its cold here, ill probably be hiking in the morning in below freezing temperatures till it warms up some during the day… ugh! Cold and brrrrr!
Good luck everyone, I hope to make some S2S contacts
Why? You are doing a SOTA activation, surely the place to put your spots is on sotawatch.org?
Well hopefully that is where other people who hear me will put my spots!
I find sotawatch.org too difficult to use from a cell phone. qrpspots.com is very simple I just send an SMS message like:
“d qrpspots 14061”
… to twitter.
And my spot appears on the web page.
I know there is a SpotSMS gatway but I can’t use it, my carrier does not allow international SMS I know there is a SpotAPRS gateway too but I don’t have spot pin or spot code or anything for it and again the message is rather large.
I am working on a simple SpotAPRS gateway piggybacking on qrpspots which is much simpler to use but it’s not yet ready for prime time.
So for this activation at least, qrpspots is the way to go.
Hopefully someone will see my qrpspot and make contact with me on the air and then re-spot me at SOTAWatch. Thats what usually hapens at any rate!
Mike, our colleague probably tought Martin was not aware of Sotawatch.
This is about having fun. I can’t wait now! Gonna be sunny, around 4 degrees C (probably 0 or 1 on top) but I am lucky: theres a shelter on the summit I am going to.
I will definitly run 20 m but I will also scan 40 meters for you guys. Lets hope I have an S2S DX or not!
My cell doesnt allow any messaging but our Eu friends have always spotted us to help. Thanks guys and keep it up. Tomorrow’s gonna be great!
I know there is a SpotAPRS gateway too but I don’t have spot pin or spot code or anything for it and again the message is rather large.