Last Sunday afternoon and evening we had another episode of pretty strong winds in my area. This was one more of the several strong wind days we’ve had this winter but it was the one causing my antenna rotator break.
My TH5-DX has got stuck beamming South to South-West. This means I won’t be able to chase any of the North American sota activations taking place on 20m most of my evenings (EA time).
In the current winter season, I fear it will take me some time to get a chance myself with leasure time, daylight, without family duties and a reasonably good WX to allow me climb to the top of the tower and get the rotator repaired or replaced.
With all this situation, I’m sitting in my shack hearing great signals coming from Latin America and wondering why we don’t see any sota activity coming from those countries yet. They have several hams and mountains.
Has anyone any idea of why and what is necessary to get hams in those countries aware of sota program and involved in it?
The same reasonning applies to New Zealand (ZL). They have a lot of hams and mountains but I haven’t seen/heard any ZL sota activity so far.
Maybe they were active at some time in the past, but I’m not aware. Bear in mind I just got into sota fever a few weeks ago.
Best 73,
Preparation of summit lists commenced in both New Zealand and some South American countries but I think the effort in NZ petered out and progress in SA has been slow but we still have hopes.
Just wondered if there had been any interest in the position of VK7 manager?
A bit of Googling shows there are 1144 named mountains in Tasmania. However, how many are Marilyns and how many Marilynis there are without a name is maybe something Jim, with his box of tricks, might be able to shed a bit of light upon?
The likely AM is Justin VK7TW, who is coordinating the mapping work. A quick look at the VK7 database on the SOTA_Australia Yahoo group shows that all regions now have a set of candidate summits & saddles, and that checking is in progress.
Other than that, I cannot assist with further information. I have undertaken the initial survey work for 4 of the VK7 regions and supplied that information to Justin.
Guru, As my colleague Brian says we have had approaches from amateurs in South America and from New Zealand. As of yet there is nothing to report. The task of creating a new association is quite major for any large and hilly country and is easier for a small place. It can appear to be an overwhelming task if you are putting something together when there are no other associations in your country. But once there is something, more helpers tend to come forward to work on expanding SOTA, activity breeds activity. This was the case in VK. Once the 1st association was active, work on expanding coverage grew dramatically. Only VK4,6,7 & 8 need to be completed. I say “only”, that’s an area about 2/3rd the size of Europe with a tiny population!
From a purely personal point of view, there are places in and around Europe that I would love to see with SOTA associations as they make excellend holiday destinations. For someone from a generally cold, damp and grey country like Scotland, the thought of combing SOTA fun with sun, warmth and a holiday is very tempting. For somewhere more exotic for a European, we have had some interest shown from some Carribean Islands. The thought of white sand, blue sky, blue sea, rum, SOTA and relaxing sounds like heaven to me.
In reply to MM0FMF:
Andy you would be welcome to come stay at my house in Clare and work a few summits in the colonies, not during our summer though you may get more sun and warmth than you desire. This summer the last 25 days 13 were over 40c none below 35c daytime temperature. We are over it here and you guys are under water.
73 de Ian vk5cz …
Guru, I second Andy’s comments about getting a new SOTA Association up & running. Thankfully, we eventually got VK3 running after a long gestation. I know that Justin and helpers in VK7 are working hard as time permits.
I gave a presentation on SOTA at the NZART AGM/Conference in May/June last year. It seemed to generate lots of interest at the time - I had people wanting to discuss SOTA with me for the rest of the weekend! However, the person with whom I had contact after the event via email seemed set on the idea of trying to document all of ZL at once, rather than considering my suggestion of “divide & conquer” - get one region defined and registered, then start work on the next region.
Hopefully, the ZLs will eventually get something progressed! Mind you, some of the summits will be extremely challenging!
In reply to MM0FMF:
Thank you, Andy, for your explanation. Without knowing the details of the necessary work to create a new association for big countries with many summits I can imagine and understand the huge amount of work needed.
Doing these things with our amateur available time and resources is something pretty hard to accomplish.
In the less than 3 months since I met and learnt about sota program activities, I’m very well impressed with the great organisation, the human team and the nice atmosphere the SOTA MT and all participants have managed to create and keep not only running but also growing.
It’s good to hear that you have already started contacts to start some SOTA association up in SA. Should you think I could be of any help in such mission, let me know and I’ll be pleased to check that out for you. Although it’s true that my leisure time is extremely short currently.
Best 73,
In reply to VK3PF:
Thank you, Peter, for your answer.
I agree with you on the idea of starting a region first and then let that the activity and SOTA fever spreads around and encourages other regions to get defined and registered.
It’s easier that way and the chances for sucess are greater.
Yes, I know ZL has the New Zealander Alps and most or at least many of those summits should be extremely challenging. However, I’m pretty sure there will also be other minor peaks a bit easier to conquer for an averaged ham radio mountaneer.
I’ll keep looking forward to seeing/hearing some ZL sota on the air soon.
Best 73,
Only VK4,6,7 & 8 need to be completed. I say “only”, that’s an area
about 2/3rd the size of Europe with a tiny population!
The current VK4 is indeed short of the full region and I am sure that Dave VK4OZY will be following that up but the current VK4 area is the majority of the NQL population . However VK8 is virtually ready and I am optimistic of a 1st March start-up, thanks to the work of Jack VK2AXL a.k.a. MM0AXL and Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH. I am aware of work in VK6 but I can’t remember who are involved.
Jim G0CQK
I agree with you on the idea of starting a region first.
One of the difficulties of starting with just one region of a potential association, is establishing a reasonable points banding level for the potential whole association. Remembering that SOTA is intended to be fun, the points banding for each association is considered on its own so as to offer a range of points that take account of the terrain. Starting with just one region without considering the rest of the terrain could result in a points allocation that was not ideal. I am not going to go into the mathematics but if there was a proposal for Tibet that started with just the Everest region, which would start at the normal top level of 10 points, and the region was assigned “normal” points distribution, imagine what that might mean for the lower summits elsewhere if they were in a region added later.
Just for a simple comparison, we have in GM/WS-001 a 10 summit of 1344m or 4408ft but we also have a SOTA association where the terrain surrounding the summits averages 4800ft with roads, towns, airports, schools and everything else.
Jim G0CQK
For someone from a generally cold,damp and grey country like Scotland,
the thought of combing SOTA fun with sun, warmth and a holiday is very
tempting.
Andy
MM0FMF
SOTA? Check!
FUN? Check!
WARMTH? Check!
Holiday? Name the day, I will pick you up at the Airport.
And you only need to get here, we have a place for you to sleep. Come hungry, the finest T-bone (about 1kg) around is only 80km from my house, but worth the drive. Ask Curtis.
El Paso, where we have two seasons. SUMMER, and CHRISTMAS!
Vy73 - Mike - KD5KC.
El Paso, Texas - DM61rt.
W5-SOTA Association Manager.
Here am I in what can only be described as a sodden and windswept country, my garden has been too wet to work on for the better part of two months, we’ve just had a day of torrential rain, this evening the wind removed a ridge tile from my roof, and you tell me how marvellous your climate is!
In reply to G8ADD:
You sir are also most welcome to visit. As is any SOTA operator. I assure you, you would NOT be the first G-station to stay in the bunkhouse. A family of 4 with G3KFN was the the first. He came so often we started calling him K3GFN.
Vy73 - Mike - KD5KC.
El Paso, Texas - DM61rt.
W5-SOTA Association Manager.
In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Brian,
My rotator is not anymore disturbing my ability to work NA SOTAs.
Last Saturday afternoon I climbed to the tower, loosed the bolts of the rotor clamps to the mast, hand rotated the antenna to Northamerica, lifted the mast a little bit, blocked the mast rotation with the specially purposed locking bolt at the end of the tower and removed plus took down home with me the non working rotor.
I’ll look at it one of these days when I had the time and mood for that, but in the mean time, WOW, I’m again able to have fun trying to chase the NA SOTAs and I’m doing so.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
