You’re right Paul. Both my 817s top out at 4.5W. One had the old PA till it expired from which I learnt a wise lesson which is to “drive ye not the antenna which is nowt but a piece of broken RG174 for surely as night turns to day your PA will expire and the magic smoke will escape”!
The old PA was bit less gainy on VHF than the new one but both of them show markedly less power on VHF when the volts drops. HF hits max power with about 9.2V ISTR but VHF needs well over 10V.
Delighted to hear you are joining the band of SOTA activators and chasers. You asked for basic info so that is what I shall offer. Working only on 2m fm I find many operators will answer my call more readily if I call ‘CQ SOTA, CQ SOTA, CQ SOTA’ and then give my call sign (with the /P at the end) followed by a couple more CQ SOTAs. Then, after a reply, I quickly check that the caller is really replying to me and THEN I ask him (it is usually a him ;but not always) to QSY to my chosen frequency which I have already checked is free. So now we are going backwards … if on a band with a calling channel then find a vacant frequency before calling so you have somewhere to go. On bands without a calling channel then you will have had to find the vacant frequency frequency so that you can call on it. (I did say I was going to be basic!)
Now why do I get more replies by adding the SOTA to the call? Not necessarily, in my experience, because the caller is a chaser and wants the valuable point(s) I am offering but because the listener realises that I have bothered to stagger up a hill of some sort, the weather is probably awful and he feels he should help me to get my contacts and to be free to descend as quickly as possible. I have lost count of the number of people who say ‘I don’t normally bother to reply but I always do for SOTA people’. It can also be because the contact has heard of SOTA but doesn’t have a clue what it is and wants some info… but this can take some time. Once you say you need 4 contacts from a hill to score your point(s) and you need some more, most contacts will take the hint and cut it short. Others are just curious to know where you are. By the third or 4th call, without a response, I add the SOTA reference for the hill in the hopes that some chasers are listening and they want to chase this particular hill.
Hope this is a help. I endorse the warnings that you have to keep yourself safe and be suitably equipped as you may be spending more than an hour (or two?) on the top of a hill rather than pausing for 2 minutes to enjoy the view, shivering and then walking on. A last tip - when approaching a summit do try and imprint on your mind (or even use a compass??) in which direction you have approached. In 2 hours time you may wish to return to your car so choosing the same path down might speed up the descent. I have had to be turned round and pointed in the correct direction many times - and this is especially important, of course, in poor visibility.
I look forward to some summit to summits when you visit the Welsh Borders in due course.
Then, after a reply, I quickly check that the caller is really
replying to me and THEN I ask him (it is usually a him ;but not
always) to QSY to my chosen frequency which I have already checked is
free. So now we are going backwards … if on a band with a calling
channel then find a vacant frequency before calling so you have
somewhere to go.
To add a little to this, if your rig has two VFOs then set VFO A to the calling frequency and VFO B to your selected channel, then you can switch quickly between them using the A/B button that is on many rigs. If you are using a rig that doesn’t have two VFOs then you can put either the calling channel or the QSY channel in the memory and switch between them. As sure as eggs is eggs, if you click through the channels by the time you get to your chosen channel the calling station will have already been calling for you!
I’ve been watching the spots and alerts regularly.