You shouldn’t have any trouble with the FT-818. It has a Superhet receiver. The roll-up J-Pole should do quite well.
Since Brasstown Bald is the highest peak in Georgia, at 4,784 feet, you will be in range of many stations who monitor 146.520. From that elevation I have worked mobiles in Atlanta, with a HT and duckie.
Be sure to post an alert and spot. I will listen for you.
If you contact me via email, listed on QRZ, I have a quick-start guide to SOTA that I can send to you. I call it a SOTA Primer. I will send it as a PDF.
I hate to bother you, but wanted to make sure you saw the post from MM0FMF. He is one of the SOTA administrators and said your SotaWatch account is good to go so you should be able to post spots and alerts. Please scroll up to read what he said.
Marshall:
I was glad to make a contact with you yesterday. I was just
scanning the bands and heard you call and had no idea you
were on a SOTA. I asked if you were and finally got it figured
out. I did post your activation for you. Glad to help out.
Looking forward to hearing you activate more.
John Paul // AB4PP
Ron,
Thanks for working me while I was on the mountain. It was cloudy the whole time at least until we went to the parking lot and it cleared up. Still it was a good time and I appreciate everyone’s effort to make this successful!
It was an exciting event. I sent up the EndFedZ antenna and connected everything. Lots of lessons learned. First the new batteries I had in the DSP were dead. Then the LDG AT had a cracked tune button. Lucky for me that I just removed the broken or failed devices and made 12 contacts across 20, 7, and 2 meters on 5 watts. One of those was a S2S contact with K4AAE on NG-023.
The pack was heavy. Next time the extra stuff gets left behind! I am not use to wearing a backpack for most of the day and I was sore, LOL.
The XYL joined me with hopes to see the leaves changing in the mountains but it was cloudy/foggy most of the time we were on top.
AB4PP - Thanks for posting me on the new frequency! The first three frequencies I tried, someone would open up and the QRM was terrible so I had to move over. For most HAM’s this isn’t an issue but I do not have a cell phone to let everyone know exactly where I am when QRM chases me around!
It sounds like you had a good time on Brasstown Bald. Hopefully your fist activation won’t be your last.
I appreciate you thanking me for the contact, but I did not hear you. I listened for you on all your frequencies, but I live in the doughnut hole from north Georgia. Often I am too close for HF or too far for VHF. If conditions are good, I sometimes can hear activators in that area on 60 meters. I did hear several stations chasing you, but I couldn’t hear your side of the conversation.
My friend Walt, NE4TN, has a call similar to mine. Is it possible that you worked him instead of me?
I will go back to my paper logs and confirm. Thanks for trying! We all run into this same issue at least in GA. I’ve been trying to talk with someone in MS but my signal goes right over their heads…
Ron, You are correct NE4TN is in my log. I guess that I noticed the ending TN and thought it was you. Thanks for the correction and maybe next time we will make contact!
I second the FT60R suggestion. My VX6R while being a awesome radio cannot compete with the much cheaper (but no less robust) FT60R. RF overload is a real thing and spending a days effort to activate a Peak and not succeeding because of front-end RF overload is a bummer! If you really get into SOTA consider a 2M RF filter.
