SOTA NEWS – AUGUST 2013
EDITORIAL – by Roy G4SSH
Welcome to the August 2013 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Andy MM0FMF, Barry GM4TOE, Panos SV1COX, Elliot W6EL, Skip K6DGW, Allen VK3HRA, Geoff M6PYG, Rob GM3YTS, Mark G0VOF, Dominik HB9CZF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob & Audrey G4RQJ.
DATABASE UPDATES - from Andy MM0FMF
The 12m Challenge Honour Rolls for Activators and Chasers are now
available. You can find these on the View Results menu. Until these
options were implemented you could only check your challenge score from
your own awards page. This has also been updated. Now the My Awards page
shows not only your Mountain Goat, Shack Sloth, Mountain Explorer,
Mountain Hunter and 12m Challenge status but also your top activators,
activations, chasers and chases.
My top chased summits: shows the top 10 summits you have chased.
My top chased activators: shows the top 10 activators you have chased.
My top activated summits: shows the top 10 summits you have activated.
My top activation chasers: shows the top 10 chasers who have chased your
activations.
We also had a short outage due to an update that failed and a file
getting locked against deletion on the database web server. The database
was down for about 2hrs in total. The most worrying aspect of the issue
was getting the support staff at the hosting company to understand the
problem. I’m still not 100% sure they understand what happened and what
was needed to fix the issue but I know how to avoid the problem
happening in future.
As usual there are a gazillion outstanding updates and fixes needed. The
current #1 is the cumulative “All W” association selection does not
select all the US associations. The code for this was a quick hack to
prove the value of the concept but it needs to correctly implemented so
I don’t need to change the code for every new association that is added.
I hope to sort this later in the week.
Andy, MM0FMF
Database Manager
New Association W8M - Michigan
A new US association for Michigan W8M is due for August 1st. However,
some IT issues amongst members of MT may actually delay the appearance
of the association on the database and SOTAwatch. Suffice to say, the
association will be valid for activating and chasing from August 1st.
Association Manager is Dave Wallick N8LBF
SOTA AWARDS FOR JULY 2013 by Barry GM4TOE, SOTA Awards Manager.
July has been another busy month for awards. I guess, that as SOTA grows, this situation will increase – at least it keeps me occupied! Congratulations to Miro,OM7SM, the latest claimant for the flagship Mountain Goat Award and to Andrew, VK1NAM, and Paul,VK5PAS, on their Shack Sloth awards. Jurg, HB9BIN, is rapidly moving up the Activator tables with his claim for 2500 points while in the Chaser table there is Phil, G4OBK, breaking through the 50k barrier and Robert, G6ODU and Jurg, HB9BIN, at the 20k level.
The summit to summit award is certainly grabbing a lot of attention especially in HB9, we now have a Gold claimant within less than 6 months of the scheme starting; congratulations to HB9BCB on this outstanding achievement. This, along with another Platinum Mountain Hunter, means that the MT now needs to look at where awards are going in the future, something I discuss later in this report.
The qualification period for the 10th Anniversary awards is now over but the awards will be available for the foreseeable future should you wish to claim them. The Cambridge based team of Martyn and Caroline, M1MAJ and M3ZCB, have managed an outstanding feat in that they have activated all Scottish Regions during the qualifying year (something not done by many GM activators) but failed at the last hurdle to Chase all GM regions (missing on NS). Even though they could have chased each other by moving out of the Activation zone, it seems that this would “not be cricketâ€; a shame as I am sure some locals would have made the effort to help if they had known.
Trophies
Mountain Goat
OM7SM Miro Skunda
Shack Sloth
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley
VK5PAS Paul Simmonds
Certificates claimed
Activator
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli 2500 points
HL2OLP Kim Chang-shin 500 points
MW0WML Gerald Davison 500 points
WH6LE Pete Larson 500 points
HL3QBN Hyun-dong Wi 250 points
M0RSF Chris Darlow 250 points
DS1RHX Hyo-jong Kim 100 points
6K2GNQ Chang-wu Go 100 points
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley 100 points
N0BCB Bryan Bibeau 100 points
K5RHD Randy Diddel 100 points
EN7JHF Viktor Tkachenko 100 points
Activator Unique
DL1DLF Jorg 100 summits
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli 500 summits
Chaser
G4OBK Philip Catterall 50000 points
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli 20000 points
G6ODU Robert Gum-Wah Leong 20000 points
MM0USU Andy McIntyre 1000 points
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley 1000 points
G6XBF Walt Lambert 1000 points
VK5PAS Paul Simmonds 1000 points
WA7JTM Pete Scola 1000 points
HL4ZFA Jason Vlasak 500 points
VK3GHZ Rhett Donnan 500 points
N6KZ Jim Zimmerman 500 points
VK5LA Andy Williss 250 points
VK3IFM Ian Morris 100 points
VK5HCF Col Huon 100 points
DL5XL Felix Riess 100 points
Chaser Unique
HB9BCB Heinz Baertschi 1000 summits
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli 2500 summits
SV2OXS Christos Tzioutzias 250 summits
Mountain Explorer
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli Silver
K5RHD Randy Diddel Bronze
Mountain Hunter
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli Platinum
WH6LE Pete Larson Gold
EA2BDS Marcial Vecilla Bronze
EA3HKY Casiano Lopez Arenas Bronze
EA3HLM Rosario Bermejo Gomez de Rozas Bronze
Summit to Summit
HB9BCB Heinz Baertschi Gold
MW0IML Barry Vile Silver
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli Silver
GW4VPX Allan Jones Red
MW0WML Gerald Davison Red
10th Anniversary Award
M1MAJ Martyn Johnson GM Activator All Regions
M3ZCB Caroline Blackmun GM Activator All Regions
M1MAJ Martyn Johnson GM Chaser
M3ZCB Caroline Blackmun GM Chaser
I had hoped that, by now, the simple rules and regulations that have been developed in the more than eleven years since SOTA first started would be well known. Unfortunately some participants in SOTA fail to comprehend the minimal conditions that have to be applied to make the issuing of awards by a volunteer organisation as simple and painless as possible. A great deal of effort has been put in by many people to develop an online database to record activations and chases, the various websites making access to the information simple as well as the alerting and spotting facility. Many volunteers have developed the General Rules and the various Association manuals containing all the relevant information to take part in this addictive aspect of our hobby.
The database exists for a reason (and this requirement was recognised by the founding fathers of SOTA). Part of the process of reviewing an award claim is a cross check of chaser records against those of the activators. Considering the large quantities of claims received each month it is just not feasible to cross check claims manually and we are just not able to consider copies of your written log as justification for a claim. Simply, if you have not entered your contacts in the SOTA database it is impossible to make a claim for an award.
Something else which is causing stress is the continued chase up of an award which has not been delivered. It is clearly stated on the FAQ page of the SOTA shopping site (where awards claims are made) that “the time it takes from placing an order to send out your purchase varies. We hope to send Certificates within 10 days of orders, Trophies can take 28 days depending on the engraver’s workload. Merchandise is usually despatched within 10 days. Holidays and personal workload may extend these timesâ€. Obviously, if an award is long overdue then you do need to contact me as items do go astray and emailed certificates have been known to end up undelivered.
When you place an order via the site you receive a confirming email, this is also received by me so it is pointless emailing me to see if I have received it. Emailing me asking where your certificate is three days after you have placed your order is also pointless as is emailing me 10 days and one hour after you pressed the button. In future, to minimise stress to me, I shall ignore all such communications; up to now I have responded explaining the situation but this just eats into any free time which is devoted to SOTA. Just so everybody can understand the MANUAL process of issuing an award here goes:
- I receive an email saying that an award has been claimed and I download the details from the shopping site
- The details are entered into the SOTA accounts
- The claim details are checked for validity and accuracy by interrogating the database
- Valid claims are entered into the award issue log and assigned a unique number
- The award is designed using a template on my computer and is then either printed or converted to a pdf file (if it is to be emailed)
- If it is an email claim I then send it to the claimant otherwise I have to address an envelope and then take it to the Post Office for despatch (a similar system is used for trophies)
All of this has to be done in my spare time, I am not retired and work up to seven days a week – sometimes I actually go on the air although this seems to be becoming less frequent of late. Please remember that all people associated with SOTA, whether the Management Team or the numerous individuals who are Association Managers are volunteers. None of us receive any payment for what we do but spend vast amounts of our leisure time providing the facilities for an amateur radio programme which rivals the best known in the World (such as DXCC or IOTA). We do it because we are passionate about SOTA and want it to go from strength to strength.
The SOTA awards programme is, in many cases, open ended (the Activator and Chaser awards have no defined upper limit), however when we introduced other awards we wanted them to be different so introduced milestones such as “Silver†and “Gold†and, at the time, it seemed as if these would not be achieved too quickly. However, the time is rapidly approaching when the highest level of some of these is being reached. The MT is in the process of discussing options but in a nutshell these come down to a limited number of scenarios:
a) Add additional levels (Rhodium, Diamond etc etc)
b) Let the top limit close the availability of the award and get participants to move onto other challenges in SOTA
c) Introduce sub-divisions so, for example, the “Worked All Associations†of the Mountain Hunter could be sub divided into “Worked All States†or “Worked All Europe†culminating in the Worked All Associations (which is of course a “moveable feastâ€)
What is not planned is the introduction of further awards, so for the time being what you see is what you can claim! I have received some input over the last few months on this subject and should you have a brilliant idea please let me know directly.
Finally I must thank the people who have made some generous donations towards the continued running of this scheme. Whether it has been a rounding-up of the amount sent in payment or a direct donation using the Paypal facility it is very much appreciated.
73
Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager
SOTA News also congratulates the following on their achievements:-
Juerg HB9BIN, who reached the score of 500 unique activated summits during the month. Juerg is one of our most prolific activators and can be heard almost daily.
Mike 2E0YYY on chasing all 76 GW/NW summits as S2S contacts.
Victor GI4ONL who almost simultaneously reached 1000 uniques chased (1320 in total) and 5000 chaser points, on the 12th July.
Liz M6EPW who achieved two milestones. 300 unique summits chased and 3000 chaser points as S2S.
Heinz HB9BCB for becoming the first to reach Gold level in summit to summit points, at 2500. (CW only).
Nik HB9CZE who qualidied as Mountain Goat on the 28th.
Andy MM0USU on becoming a Shack Sloth.
Bob G6ODU on passing the 20,000 Chaser points milestone
Phil G4OBK on passing the 50.000 Chaser points milestone.
John M6BLV on reaching 5000 chaser points.
Scotty KG3W on reaching 5000 chaser points
Jirka OK2BDF on reaching 3000 activator points.
Pete WA7JTM who became the first Shack Sloth from Arizona and
Tommy W7RV who became the second Shack Sloth from Arizona and
Tom N7AMA who became the third Shack Sloth from Arizona.
Jimmy M0HGY, on becoming the first person to have activated the highest peak in each of the five UK associations: G. GM, GW, GI and GD.
10th ANNIVERSARY OF SOTA GREECE from Panos SV1COX
On Saturday, 3rd August 2013, SOTA in Greece will be 10 years old.
On the same day we will try to activate as many different SV/summits is possible in all Greek Regions.
The activations will start around 9:00 UTC and will end around 17:00 UTC.
We feel the need to thank you for the warm response to every spot and call all these years and we hope that we, all, will continue enjoy SOTA to the maximum for many more decades in the future.
I hope to meet everyone of you on air on 3/8 !
(There will be activity also on 12m band).
We are happy to report that we will extend the event to Sunday 4th August 2013.
We will verify all QSO’s with a special QSL card and an anniversary plaque will be issued to every activator who activates a SV summit that weekend.
for the Greek SOTA
73, Panos, SV1COX
Assoc Manager
NORTH AMERICA SOTA ACTIVITY WEEKEND 2013
The annual North America SOTA activity weekend will take place September 7th and 8th, 2013, from about 1200 UTC Saturday to about 2359 Sunday. Look for us on the usual frequencies. That same Saturday is the Pike’s Peak downhill skateboard contest, and skin grafting is available on-site…no waiting.
Elliott, K6EL
CANADA / U.S. REPORT - by Skip K6DGW (added 9th August)
I apologize for being late with the July report, we were submerged in
our granddaughter’s softball tournaments for most of the month. They
won two and finished 5th in the last one, and we’re pretty much glad
we’re home now.
STATISTICS:
[I believe these statistics cover just the first couple of days in August. I’ve never downloaded the data past the end of the month and I can’t find 2013_07/ in the index so don’t rely on them for anything. If I can find July, I’ll post to the SOTA reflector]
NORTH AMERICA TOTALS
Total Activations: 28 [248]
Nr Unique Activators: 19 [82]
Total Chaser QSOs: 1056 [2296]
Nr Unique Chasers: 95 [146]
Total Summits Activated: 28 [231]
Unique Summits: 27 [173]
2m: 26 (2%) [52]
6m: 0 (0%) [2]
10m: 0 (0%) [4]
12m: 2 (0%) [8]
15m: 10 (0%) [62]
17m: 15 (1%) [92]
20m: 762 (72%) [1690]
30m: 30 (2%) [121]
40m: 211 (19%) [265]
60m: 0 (0%) [0]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 0 (0%) [0]
Unk: 0
CW: 607 (57%) [1623]
SSB: 423 (40%) [622]
FM: 26 (2%) [49]
AM: 0 (0%) [1]
Data: 0 (0%) [0]
Other: 0 (0%) [1]
Unk: 0
Apparently, 12m has yet to catch on. Solar conditions were mixed in
July, but 10m was open in the NAQP RTTY contest and actually, the 10m
lights were on this weekend for the NAQP CW too, just nobody there to work.
AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Eric reported that Jack, W7CNL, has quietly slipped over the 10,000 QSO
mark and is now in the fairly exclusive company of Super Sloths.
Congratulations Jack!
Dan, NA6MG “North America Six Mountain Goat”] has made it to 1,000 S2S
points. Bill, W4ZV, reports:
“I was considering activating either today or Saturday. When I saw Dan
was activating a 10 pointer today and had 989 S2S points, I decided to
go today and try to be his first S2S. At 1621z I was ready and waiting
and put Dan at 1000 S2S (his 10 activator points and my 1 chaser point).”
“02/Aug/2013 16:21 NA6MG W4ZV 14MHz CW 1 10 1000”
“Considering how many points Dan has given me the past year, this was
truly an honor to be the QSO that gave him 1000!”
Congratulations Dan!
NEWS:
Elliott, K6EL, reports: “The annual North America SOTA activity weekend
will take place September 7th and 8th, 2013, from about 1200 UTC
Saturday to about 2359 Sunday. Look for us on the usual frequencies.
That same Saturday is the Pike’s Peak downhill skateboard contest, and
skin grafting is available on-site…no waiting.”
[Neither Elliott nor I are making this up, see
wheelbasemag.com/event-pikes-peak-downhill-skateboard-race-sept-8-2013
for more]
Fred, KT5X reports that we now have 6 North American Mountain Goats.
They are KT5X [WS0TA], W1DMH, KE5AKL, NM5S, NA6MG, and WA2USA. We also
have two activators, WG0AT and W7TAO, who use real goats in their
activations.
And, we have a new NA Association, KH6!! While Hawai’i is technically
NOT part of North America, it’s a US State and we’re going to claim it.
Guy, N7UN, the “KH6 Association Manager - pro tem” reports:
“The KH6-Hawai’i SOTA Association is scheduled to ‘launch’ 1 Sept 2013!
The Excel spreadsheets and the ARM document were submitted recently to
the SOTA MT team for review and processing. A total of 78 new Summits
over 8 Hawaiian Islands will be available. The database will update on
Sept 1st but it may be a few days before the ARM document gets posted to
the SOTA website ( Summits on the Air ).”
“We are working closely with Allen, KH7AL, who is excited about SOTA
Activations and getting a number of local ham radio clubs engaged in
SOTA activities. Obviously Hawai’i is a worldwide destination tourist
location for Europe, Japan, and the USA, especially in the winter time!
A great USA state for a SOTA-vacation!”
“A special thanks to Elliott, K6EL, for assistance in bringing KH6 into
the SOTA fold! Elliott has a number of friends who visit Hawai’i often
so expect to see KH6/K6EL on a Hawai’i SOTA summit soon!”
Mike, KD9KC, the spark plug behind the W5 Association and W5T
Association Manager is going to get a new call … KD5KC … to more
accurately fit the fact that he and his family are essentially permanent
residents of El Paso TX. I don’t know exactly what this will do to his
SOTA totals but I’m sure the MT will figure it out, they seem to figure
everything else out just fine.
REPORTS:
We’ve had some forays from NA back to the Mother Continent this summer.
Etienne, K7ATN, provided a report of his trip:
K7ATN EU SOTA “Expedition”
“The first few weeks of July I was in Europe - OH/ and ON/ - activating
eleven summits in Finland and two in Belgium. I packed very light with
a KD1JV MTR (~2.5W) for 40m and 20m CW and a small 2W HT. Antennas were
an EFHW for HF and the original duckie for the HT. Most QSO were on
20m with about ten on 2m FM and a few from Belgium on 40m.”
“I had the pleasure of meeting and activating two summits with the
Association Manager (AM) for Finland - Jaakko-OH7BF. Also on my last OH
summit I met another Jaakko-OH6FQI where it was a treat to work seven OH
hams on 144MHz FM, thanks to the members of his club in Jyväskylä who
turned out for our activation.”
“And in Belgium I was met on the terrace near the highest point in
Belgium by Peter-ON4UP the Association Manager for Belgium, and
Thierry-ON4TH. With them I activated two summits and learned the proper
hydration approach - before AND after the activation. There’s nothing
like Belgian beer - and enjoying the company of these two hams.”
“It was a often a challenge to copy new callsign prefixes in the pile
ups - especially the first few letters (some I think may have started
sending before I finished). Thanks to the patience of many Chasers all
over EU I made about 120 QSO while dealing with a few mosquitoes and for
one activation, slashing rain. I was glad to have five S2S (three with
Heinz-HB9BCB of course) and two QSO back to NA with Barry-N1EU.”
“The MTR performed well and raising my antenna with a rock and a string
was only frustrating a few times when I could not find a rock among
the moss and ferns of a Finnish forest.”
“Thanks to all the Chasers who worked me AND especially my hosts in OH
and ON land. I was also glad to get some great advice to prepare for
my trip from Toni-OH3T and Jean-ON4KJM. I’m glad to share our hobby
with all of these gracious people.”
It is currently 2245Z on Sunday, 4 Aug as I compile this report for Roy
and the “Great Colorado S2S Event” is over, but I received the following
report:
“Wow! What a great S2S Activity Weekend! Thanks to the many Activators
from W7 and W6, and of course, the W0 Mountain Goats in Colorado during
their weather-challenged 14er efforts. I’ve never seen so many W7 spots
on SotaWatch!”
“Great job Activators! I’m sure there were many Chasers with well over
250 Chaser points for the weekend! And many Activators scored huge S2S
points. Propagation was certainly much better for Saturday but a bit
more disturbed on Sunday until late in the day.”
“Thanks again. Let’s make the NA SOTA Day in September equally productive!”
Guy/N7UN, Scott/W7IMC, Dan/W7DDM
W7 Association Managers
That’s going to be it for July. Still trying to catch up on all the
things that didn’t get done.
73,
Skip K6DGW
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
SOTA NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA by Allen VK3HRA
With the winter weather coming there were gatherings of SOTA
participants held in VK1 and VK3. These are for off-air discussions in
a relaxed situation and held during the week keeping the weekend free
for activations.
There was a show and tell feel to the VK3 evening with maps, GPS and
bivy bags being shown as well as plans being made drawing on the
experience available on the night. VK1 SOTA enthusiasts meet in the
local football club and talked about batteries, backpacks, squid poles,
antennas, radios, explosives and additional summits to be added to the
vk1 summit list.
With experienced activators present there is plenty of free advice for
beginners. It’s a credit to the amateur community that knowledge is
shared with such enthusiasm.
The harsher winter weather has not slowed activations. There were
several activators taking advantage of school holidays to activate
Alpine summits. Being winter there was several activations completed
during harsh conditions with many a soaked activator enjoying the Aussie
bush. There have been no reports of injury reflecting the level of
planning going into these activities. Road closures and controlled zones
are slowing down the more extreme activations. Maps and blogs are being
reviewed with a concentrated effort being made to exploit the summits
within safe access. It is already evident that as experience builds and
activators share reports activations can be maintained during all
conditions.
Congratulations go out to VK’s newest sloth - VK1MA Matt
The current activity brings more into the SOTA fold with new activators
for the month including,
VK3IL David
VK3FABY Peter
VK3BHR Phil
VK5OQ Keith
VK3LED Colin
VK3YAR Ray
VK3XL Mike
100 activator points achieved by
VK3FMDV David
VK3KAN Rik
VK1DI Andrew
VK1NAM Andrew
VK3MCD Brian
And 100 Chaser points by,
VK3FMDV David
VK3IFM Ian
VK1MBE Andrew
VK3XY Dean
73 for now,
Allen VK3HRA
A WB CHALLENGE WITH PACE by Geoff M6PYG
Are you a really keen SOTA Activator ?
If so, then read on and see if our summit bagging challenge is to your liking Over the weekend of 13th / 14th July G4OBK/P Phil ] and M6PYG/P Geoff ] set ourselves the challenge of bagging 14 SOTA summits in the SP /CE and especially the WB areas . All the summits are Marilyns, none are particularly difficult to climb . The challenge was to bag 8 summits in a single day while covering 165 miles by road , mainly along Welsh country miles of twisting , narrow lanes with very few opportunities for overtaking and many opportunities to practice reverse driving .!
Our challenge went something like this :
I met G4OBK at Macclesfield Station at midday on the Saturday having travelled by train from my QTH in the Malvern Hills . First summit was Shining Tor SP-004 ] followed by more " walks-in- the -park " namely Gun SP-013 ] , The Wrekin WB-010 ] and Walton Hill CE-002 ] . We had no problem in qualifying all four summits on 2m FM / 5 watts and our rucksack special vertical dipole antenna . We always “go light” on these expeditions and in the hot conditions this always pays dividends . We can usually go QRV within 2 minutes of arrival at summits !
The next day Sunday ] was our real challenge day . G4OBK navigated and I drove . We left QTH at 05.03 z and headed out for our first summit , Bredon Hill CE-003 ] .
Travelling at pace , eating on the hoof and executing all summit ascents without stopping we succeeded in bagging all 8 CE/WB summits in the day as detailed below :
WB-003 Bredon Hill 6 QSO’s 5 watts
CE-001 Cleeve Hill 6 QSO’s 5 watts
WB_019 May Hill 6 QSO’s 5 watts
WB-021 Ruardean Hill 9 QSO’s 5 watts
WB-013 Garway Hill 12 QSO’s 30 watts
WB-020 Burton Hill 6 QSO’s 30 watts
WB-023 Hegdon Hill 8 QSO’s 30 watts
WB-022 Seager HIll 5 QSO’s 30 watts
The best DX on our 2m FM trip was Derek 2E0MIX @ 295KM 184 mls ] Whitehaven with 5 watts from Bredon Hill CE-003 ] . A real thrill this for a fellow WOTA enthusiast !
From View Edge WB -018 ] on our last day Monday am ] the best DX we had was with non-SOTA Chaser Selim M0XTA @ 225 Km 140 mls ]Chigwell , Essex .
Back at QTH circa 20.00z , we had completed the ascent /descent of 8 summits , climbed 1,543 ft , walked 8.5 miles and travelled 165 miles in 13 hours !
A great day … anyone up for the challenge … Memory Map track log of our route available on request .
It then only remained to crawl out of the sack again at c. 0530z on Monday and head off in convoy for our last two summits , WB-018 View Edge and WB-015 Callow Hill.
We used 30watts on 2m FM again to garner 6 and 7 QSO’s respectively . Shook hands with G4OBK and set of for QTH circa 10.00z .
In conclusion, for Phil and I , sotaring is all about summit-bagging challenges wherever they are . The Welsh Borders offers some absolutely beautiful and peaceful countryside peppered with hills of no great majesty but on the right day , some stunning views .
Thanks to all our Chasers and especially Matt 2V0MDJ ] and Stuart G0LGS ] who were keen enough to meet up with us on Cleeve Hill and who were a great help on several summits in helping us to qualify them .
73’s to all
Geoff M6PYG
GMDX CHAIRMAN TAKES UP SOTA ACTIVATING - Rob GM3YTS
When I retired 6 years ago I bought an FT817, with a view to activating some Summits. I am a fairly keen hill walker and go out most Wednesday’s with a group of guys. However I have never taken the radio with me on these trips as I didn’t want to hold my companions up on the summits.
However, last week after 6 years lying in it’s box I took the FT817 out and switched it on! I suppose the catalyst for this was the previous week when I had taken a 2 metre handheld with me up Meall na Fearna (GM/SS-035) near Ben Vorlich and made the required four contacts, one of whom was jack GM4COX. When I got home this then led me to the SOTA web site where I read all sorts of interesting stuff.
I then thought I should give this a go, so I e-mailed Phil G4OBK and Jack GM4COX who both gave me very useful tips on rigs and antennas; however knowing the vagaries of the hills in Scotland, I needed to learn more and phoned Jack GM4COX for information. To cut a long story short we arranged to go out on a hill together so that I could see a serious SOTA station in action! The hill we chose was Ben Ledi (GM/SS-023) a Corbett near Calendar in the Trossachs simply because it was nearby me. I didn’t want too long a day as I was off to Friedrichshafen early the next morning.
We climbed up via the Stank Glen so that we could complete a circuit, and arrived at the summit within 10 minutes of Jack’s estimation of our ETA. The weather was just perfect, sunny, fairly warm and no wind. Just ideal for erecting antennas and activating a hill. I watched Jack setup the 2mtr ground plane and the 20 metre vertical in order to pick up tips for my own future activations. I then went on 20 CW with the FT817, while Jack went on 2m FM. I was lucky enough to make just over 20 QSO’s five of which were summit to summit.
Interestingly enough, when I was at Friedrichshafen I met PB2T who I worked from the top of Ben Ledi and he was on a summit in Luxembourg as LX/PB2T/P.
So I am now sorting things out for my next SOTA adventure, which I hope will be quite soon. I have the SOTA pole, the antenna, the rig and some decent batteries so look out for GM3YTS/P
By the way I thought I was mad with my various Amateur Radio activities but being out with Jack certainly made me realise I was quite sane in the scheme of things!
73 Rob
GM3YTS
SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF
Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.
No fewer than seven activators had successful QSO’s on Top band this month, a fantastic number for a summer month.
First up on Saturday 6th July was John G4YSS who once again camped overnight on G/NP-008 Great Whernside to give points away in the RSGB VHF National Field day that was taking place that weekend. As in previous years, John also activated the summit on 160m using the Scarborough Special Events Group call sign, GV0OOO/P, this time with a “V†prefix to celebrate the centenary of the RSGB. This is the 11th year that John has activated this summit over the VHF NFD weekend & as usual he did not disappoint the Top Band chasers as he put 160m on the air on both Saturday evening & Sunday morning.
After several QSO’s on VHF with Field day stations John set up for Top Band with his usual IC706-Mk11G & 80m link dipole with slug tuned loading coils for 160m. As it was after sunset the band was in reasonable shape, although noisy at my location. I heard John’s first calls on 1832 KHz CW & straight away he had several callers, & as they were much more distant than me I sat back & listened while John worked them. After me, another 3 chasers made it into the log on CW before John decided to try SSB. After working him & spotting him, he was called by Don G0RQL in Devon & Brian GV8ADD in Birmingham who to my surprise actually sounded louder in Blackburn (approx 53KM from Great Whernside) than John did. Despite conditions evidently being good there were no more calls using SSB so John returned to CW & made one further QSO, bringing his tally for Saturday evening to 10 QSO’s (7 CW & 3 SSB).
Early on Sunday morning John was QRV on 160m again however, daytime conditions were established & only two chasers made it into his log on CW, Mark GV0VOF & Roy G4SSH. I also had a nice SSB QSO with John a little later, but his Sunday morning tally remained at two qualifying QSO’s.
As usual, John has provided a far more detailed report than I can include here which can be found at:
http://www.sotawatch.org/reflector.php?topic=8299
The next activator on Top Band was active later in the evening of Sunday 7th July. Klaus DF2GN/P activated DM/BW-228 Hummelsberg & made a fine total of 3 QSO’s on 160m, all using CW.
Tuesday 9th July brought an activation by Dan OK1DIG/P of OK/US-030 Solanská hora & saw Dan make 2 contacts, again using CW.
Just over a week later on Wednesday 17th July we were treated to a joint activation of OE/ST-261 Hochanger, by Barbara OE6BID/P & Peter OE6PID/P who each made 5 QSO’s this time using SSB.
The following day ON/ON-028 Noordelijke terril Waterschei, was activated on 160m by Peter ON4UP/P.
Peter writes: “, I activated ON/ON-028 using 160m only. ON/ON-028 is a former slag heap and definitely the most beautiful SOTA summit of Belgium. I managed to make 4 SSB contacts: ON, DL and PA. The equipment I used was an FT-857, a 17Ah slab, a 6m vertical with a loading coil at the base. Output power was 100 watt.â€
Peter has included the photo below:
“On most of the Belgian SOTA summits you don’t have the feeling of being on top of a hill: you are sitting in the middle of a dense forest where you arrived almost without any climbing. Can you imagine the feeling we (ON’s) have after climbing 125m to reach the summit of 028 and the reward of the 360° spectacular view?â€
Thank you for the report & nice photos Peter!
Next up, on Sunday 21st July was Jozef OM6TC/P who included Top Band during an activation of OM/TN-005 Suchý vrch. Jozef made 2 contacts, both using CW.
The final activation on the band at time of writing took place on Monday 29th July when John G4YSS, using GC0OOO/P included 160m in an activation of GW/NW-040 Tal y Fan. I received the information below from Roy G4SSH:
“I was surprised to receive a phone call from John about noon today advising that he was on GW/NW-040 and ready to go on 1832 KHz. I hastily put on a spot and phoned Phil G4OBK, who managed to work him. I had no copy, which was not unexpected at noon, but I made the contact later on 3.5 and 7 MHz. John later told me that he made 4 QSO’s on top band, which was surprising considering the heavy static crashes. John is in Wales for the next couple of days, using GC0OOO and may activate another couple.â€
Thanks for the information Roy; I look forward to John’s report in due course.
Thanks to all who ventured onto the band from a summit this month.
At the time of writing, those were the only Top band activations during July that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.
On 6th July, John G4YSS (Using GV0OOO/P) activated G/NP-008 Great Whernside & made 10 QSO’s (7 CW & 3 SSB).
On 7th July, John G4YSS (Using GV0OOO/P) activated G/NP-008 Great Whernside & made 3 QSO’s (2 CW & 1 SSB).
On 7th July, Klaus DF2GN/P activated DM/BW-228 Hummelsberg & made 3 QSO’s using CW.
On 9th July, Dan OK1DIG/P activated OK/US-030 Solanská hora & made 2 QSO’s using CW.
On 17th July, Barbara OE6BID/P activated OE/ST-261 Hochanger & made 5 QSO’s using SSB.
On 17th July, Peter OE6PID/P activated OE/ST-261 Hochanger & made 5 QSO’s using SSB.
On 18th July, Peter ON4UP/P activated ON/ON-028 Noordelijke terril Waterschei & made 4 QSO’s using SSB.
On 21st July, Jozef OM6TC/P activated OM/TN-005 Suchý vrch & made 2 QSO’s using CW.
On 29th July, John G4YSS (Using GC0OOO/P) activated G/NW-040 Tal y Fan & made 4 QSO’s (Details unknown at present).
As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk
Until next month,
Best 73,
Mark G0VOF
MY MOUNTAIN GOAT !!! from Dominik HB9CZF
Hello Roy
Today we achieved our 74th QSO for the SOTA program. With Uli, HB9CGA
and 2 QSO later, I achieved MG status with 1002 points. Many thanks for
your dedication.
It all started many years ago when I was in South-Wales for Xmas and I
was studying the map to identify some hill with a view. Fortunately no
long wait and the SOTA program was introduced and suddenly I had a goal.
My first hill was Sugar Loaf, GW/SW-011 followed by many 1 pointers in
GW/SW. I thought I will never manage to reach 1000 activator points.
Later I was studying the map again and if draw a 50km circle around my
home-QTH in HB9 I can see 17 10-pointers in DM/BW compared to 50
1-pointers in HB9.
I took the advantage of DM/BW and built a plan to get to 1000. As soon
as the hard winter 2013 was over I headed many times to DM/BW and ticked
them off. After the heavy rain period (especially in DL) the weather
changed for good with wind from the East. This meant no thunderstorms in
the Black Forrest for many weeks. Usually in June/July/August time frame
thunderstorms build up over Black Forrest (DM/BW-001) and prevent any
extended activations.
For the past two weeks my XYL and 2 QRPP were away in the UK and I gave
my challenge an additional push. Four full days last weekend plus 2 1/2
days this weekend added 45 SOTA hills with 386 points to my total. Since
the start, all activations have been in on HF in CW with initially a K2
and later I upgraded to a KX3.
Since I included a fair amount of activity in GW/SW I can easily compare
with DL and HB. In GW the weather was the main concern. Around Xmas it is
always wet and very windy (I almost drowned my brand new KX3 on GW/SW-006)
In DL and HB I had no issue with rain (I can count the raindrops with
two hands) and wind was never an issue either.
Highlights were always mountains with a view (including my
HB0-expedition) and for the future I will concentrate on the many
neglected 1-pointer in HB9, hi. And in GW/SW I have to climb GW/SW-004
and -008.
Tnx again, 73 es gl de Dominik, HB9CZF
BTW Roy: Our very first QSO was on 9th Dec 1984, just a few days after I
passed my CW exam on 21 Nov 1984 at the age of 17.
THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 55
At last it’s time for the annual visit to the Isle of Man. so with a car full of walking kit and radios off we go. Taking the car for more than five days can be an expensive business but for the sota hills and walking transport is pretty much a necessity. The best option is to avoid weekends and Mondays and Fridays that attract a premium and travel overnight. The boat out of Heysham has a last reporting time of 1230am and arrives in Douglas around 6am. It is usually pretty quiet and you can sleep on the couch seats in the main lounge. I (Rob) being a gentleman of mature years regard this as a test of ageing and when I can’t manage it it’s time to worry. Audrey, being a sprightly young thing has no such problems.
July 3rd. First sota trip was to Mull Hill GD-005, just a short visit before our evening meal. Mull is a fascinating place particularly if you are into WW2 remains or ancient stone circles. We decided on 2m first and found conditions rather odd with qsb on usually good sea paths (wx related) and not a lot of chaser activity. An hour produced just twelve contacts before dinner brought the activation to an end.
July 4th. Cloudy start but by lunchtime bright and warm and we headed for GD-003 South Barrule. Very warm at the start so we decided on T shirts with warmer kit in the bags, no little shelter as it was late in the day. There are three false summits to this one but at least you can see the very tip of the trig column from the second. The summit has remains of an Iron Age settlement and was the place from where legendary Manannin Mac Lir held sway. His main, gift, a cloak of mist to protect the island from unwanted visitors and to prevent favoured guests from leaving. This is our favourite summit and arriving on top has a warm homely feeling about it. Today however, in spite of the warmth lower down there is a cold wind over the summit with little useable shelter and we are soon kitted up for winter and still not warm. The HF bands all play nicely but 2m is once again a little short of chasers.
July5th and the Manx National Day, Tynwald Day. We visit the ceremony at St Johns as usual but again there is no Radio Club presence which is a shame as we used to enjoy meeting and chatting with the members. As usual we activate GD-004 Bradda Hill in the afternoon. The climb up the northern slope from Fleshwick is the usual hard slog. The head high vegetation and the steep path are best blitzed and take pensioners about 20 minutes of hard graft. The views from the summit are superb however and compensate for the hard work. Note, the descent is almost as bad as the climb. As this is a difficult summit with very limited access, as we set up the gear we were very surprised to see a car parked close to the cliff edge with doors open and apparently unattended. We decided not to investigate further at this point but to keep a watching brief. Condition wise 5MHs and 10MHz were not playing but 7 and 14 made up for it. As we were finishing off a woman came over from the car, intrigued by what we were doing and delighted to hear of the more distant contacts. Turned out to be friends of the farmer and were celebrating a birthday with champagne on Manx National Day and he had allowed them to drive up through the steep fields with the locked gates. They left just before us and it was obviously not the route for the faint hearted or those without a high clearance 4x4. We headed off down the notorious Fleshwick Bay path!
July 6th and Slieau Freoaghane. A lovely hill and a great walk. About a mile up the Green Road after the end of the plantation look for a stone marker rather like a small gravestone on your right. The path through the heather to the summit starts just opposite this and is often cunningly disguised as a small boggy stream. The various translations of the name of the hill include Hill of the spring, Hill of The Blueberry or Hill of the Heather. The latter seems perfect, heather was even taken from here to help restore Bradda Hill, devastated by a huge fire a few years ago. The summit is open with a trig column, a very large pile of white stones and a wooden pole which used to carry a navigation light for aircraft. We set up camp close by the white stone pile to be greeted by a totally broken sky and 1 hours calling produced no contacts whatsoever. 2m came to the rescue; we reverted to HF after 2m dried up but still zero propagation.
July7th Snaefell. We spent the best part of a day here using the fishing shelter set up on the eastern side of the NATS building. This is the more modern of the two technical buildings at the summit and is metal clad which seems to help VHF into the mainland. A great way to spend a day.
July8th and an evening visit to Mull Hill. Positioning seems all important on this one The usual favourite spot by the large pillbox can be poor on 2m and we have found that the roof of the smaller pillbox generally does better. Both boxes are surrounded by quite deep grass and with twilight advancing we decided to set up on the concrete square close to the larger box with the antenna set on the grass beside, thus avoiding the worst of the midges etc. This was not a good choice as we struggled on vhf and the flying invasion was so intense that we abandoned ship after 45minutes and headed down to the Sound, a truly beautiful place at the extreme south of the island overlooking the tide race channel between it and the small Calf Island. Here we watched the sun go down over the sea with no midges
July 8th a second visit to South Barrule, this time with the shelter which proved necessary as the weather is really warming up and the wind dropping so a bit of shelter is needed. 5MHz was poor and without a spot chasers are becoming hard to find, think the high qrm levels in urban areas are having a marked effect.
July 10th The return to Bradda Hill. The heat is really oppressive and with no wind the climb through the high vegetation is hard work. As before we tried to blitz it which seems the best option as there is little comfortable stopping on the way up. Total flat calm on the summit and we set up by the pile of stones at the summit. This turned out to be a big mistake because as soon as the pileup started on 40 so did the invasion.
The midge onslaught started and the only escape was to keep walking. Carrying an FT 817 and battery connected to an antenna, sending cw from a key strapped to a thigh, shouting log info while walking and swatting is not a pretty sight, nor is it a lot of fun so sorry for the fairly short cw session. VHF was slightly easier but not a long stay!
Jul 11th and a late evening trip to Mull Hill. This time we set up close by the smaller pillbox on a small short grassy area at the south west end of a concrete slab, possibly the remains of officers quarters Here was just enough room for the 20m dipole and as darkness drew on it produced two stateside contacts and one Spanish. VHF from here was pretty reasonable for the time of day and we ended up watching the sun drop into the sea and clearing up in the dark. We will explore the possibilities of this location again in the future.
Jul 12th. This was a blistering hot day by UK standards, in fact by any standards (the RAF took us to some hot places over 14 years) and we set off up Slieau Freoaghane with a very heavy load of water and the small shelter. This proved to be a good decision as the walk up was an energy sapping exercise and with no wind or shelter the summit was a hostile place to stay. The half tent gave shelter from the direct sun but the lack of any breeze made the atmosphere very heavy and we decided to stay put and operate. HF was good into Europe but nothing stateside. We were conscious that N4EX needed just this one to complete all GD with us and persevered but the sky was not having any of it. We reverted to 14 MHz cw after vhf but no stateside and eventually we had to strike camp and head down
July 14th and we set out for a long activation on Snaefell. We took the shelter again and wound up being there about 5 hours. A good deal of this was spent chatting on 2m which we enjoy so sorry if the delays got in the way but we do try to work everyone that calls us eventually. On 40 cw I greeted the pile up with DL? as I thought I heard it. Back came another pile up and 10 DL’s later I realized the band was well open into DL! Thanks gentlemen sorry for the chaos.
That was the final GD activation for this year and early reports suggest that about 10 stations won our little certificate this time round. Things are a bit hectic at the moment but should settle down next week and we can get back to normal service.
All for now, thanks for all the support during the GD trip.
Take care out there
73 Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
ADMIN PROBLEMS - by Roy G4SSH, Editor.
They say that bad luck or disasters usually come in three’s, so I may have one more to come.
Early in the month there was a family crisis, when my grown-up eldest son was rushed to hospital for a life saving operation. This has involved me in journeys to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London (some 200 miles distant) during the month, to visit him and assist his wife and young daughter.
He remains seriously ill and I am dividing my time between my home QTH in North Yorkshire and London, therefore SOTA will have to take a back seat for a while if necessary. I am sure that readers will understand if SOTA News is sometimes a few days late being published and the CW report section is a bit lighter than usual. I shall continue to chase when at home because this helps to pass the time and takes my mind off other problems.
The second crisis was my computer which locked-up in mid-month then steadfastly refused to even switch on. Fortunately my youngest son, who lives in the next village, is quite computer savvy and managed to coax it back to life with the advice that at the ripe old age of 10 years it was time for a new model.
This was agreed, magazines and specs checked and an order placed. This will be delivered by the end of July. Meanwhile I will continue with this old machine which I am unwilling to switch off just in case it refuses to start again. I will publish the August SOTA News then change to the new computer and do battle with the unfamiliar operating systems.
Here follows the July SOTA CW report which will be incomplete due to my frequent absences. My apologies if I have missed any person or expedition.
CW REPORT FOR JULY 2013
The school holidays are here, with an associated increase in SOTA activations, especially cross-border expeditions throughout Europe.
The 12m challenge has really caught the imagination of activators and chasers alike. Propagation on this band was vary variable and directional during July, often opening up for just a few minutes at a time, with an S9 signal sometimes vanishing in QSB before a QSO could be completed. A great many activators have been returning to the band at frequent intervals on the off chance that they will hit a peak time, with considerable success.
The wide band multi-tone which appears at intervals arrived on 40m on the afternoon of the 24th, causing QRM from 7029 to 7033 KHz and making SOTA QRP stations inaudible to many chasers. It normally moves on after about 4 days but is still active as we go to press on the 31st. At my QTH it is S7 during hours of darkness, fading out around 0700 and returning around 1500.
Etienne K7ATN continued to activate OH/JS summits at the start of the month.
OK1DIG continued activating up to 10 SOTA’s per day checking 24 MHz on every activation, as was Heinz HB9BCB and Miro OK1DVM.
HB9BIN Jurg undertook a huge expedition to 12 SOTA’s in DM/BW region between 8-13th July and continued activating from Germany until the end of the month.
There was a fantastically successful French tour of 5 x 10 pointers in a single day on the by Roger F5LKW, Bob F5HTR and Gerald F6HBI, to the delight of chasers.
It was a great pleasure to see many OE and HB9 stations moving up to 10 and 14 MHz during the month. N1EU was heard working Chris OE3CHC at 0958z on 14061 KHz on the 8th.
On Thursday and Friday July 11 & 12th a team of 4 operators (PA3FGA, PA5MW, PC5A, PD5AX) went on a two day hike and try to activate five x 10 point summits for the first time.
PC5A operated on an expedition activating 5 x 10 pointers on 11th-12th July.
Bob 9H4RH, made his annual pilgrimage to Malta & Goza and was active at daybreak on 14 MHz at 0430z for the early birds.
Roger F5LKW undertook a record of 9 SOTA’s in a single day on 14th and is now considering a 10 summit round in the not to distant future.
Nik HB9CZF was in Germany activating up to 8 summits per day during the month,
which he termed “SOTA Hoppingâ€. On the 22nd Nik activated from 4 different countries, F, OE, HB and HB0. For the last spectacular activation of the day Nik found a summit where three country borders met, allowing him to give chasers HB/GR 338, HB0/LI-002 and OE/VB-123 with the minimum of movement to position himself for the contacts. Nick avoids the problem of multiple alerts being incorrectly spotted by the RBN net by alerting as DM/BW-??? then listing the summits to be activated on the comments line. When the RBN alerts as DM/BW-??? it is up to the chasers to listen for the reference.
As a result of these many activations Nik qualified for Mountain Goat status on the 28th July whilst on DM/BW-363.
There were two highly successful expeditions to the Isle of Man during the month, first by Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, then by “Team Tom†M1EYP, with Jimmy M0HGY, Liam and Edward 2E0NSR.
There was a welcome return by Norby LX1NO, heard activating ON/ON-027 on the 28th July, with his trademark DX-style of operating.
SOTA CW ACTIVATORS SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE DATA BASE ABOVE 7 MHZ DURING JUNE 2013. By Kevin G0NUP
This file produced on 27 July 2013.
Mode: CW on 10MHz: activity for July
DD1LD/P, DF2GN/P, DF3MC/P, DJ2FR, DJ3AX/P, DJ9MH/P,
DK1DU/P, DK1IO/P, DL/HB9AFI/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BHW/P,
DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/HB9CZF/P, DL/HB9DST/P,
DL2DXA/P, DL4MHA/P, DL6AP/P, DL7VDC/P, DL7VKD/P,
DL8MBS/P, DL9MDI/P, EA2BDS/P, EI/G4DDL/P, F/G3VQO/P,
F/HB9AFI/P, F/ON6ZQ/P, F/YO9CB/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P,
F5UBH/P, F5UKL/P, F6AVE/P, F6HBI/P, G3RDQ/P, G3VQO/P,
G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, G6DTN/P, GI4ISJ/P, GM4OIG/P, GV0OOO/P,
GV3VQO/P, GW0HIO/P, GW4AZS/P, GW6DTN/P, HA2PP/P, HA2VR/P,
HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HA7UL/P, HB9/DF2GN/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P,
HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQB/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9DGV/P,
HB9DST/P, HB9EWO/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9SVT/P, HB9TVK/P, I/F6HBI/P,
I/OE7PHI/P, IX1/ON6ZQ/P, K0JQZ, K6EL, K7ATN, K7SO, KR7W,
KU6J, KX0R, LA1ENA/P, LA8BCA/P, M/PB2T/P, MC0NRC/P, MM/OE5EEP/P,
N1EU, N4SR, N5XL, ND0C, NS7P, OE/DJ2FR, OE/DJ9MH/P, OE/DL4MHA/P,
OE/DL8DXL/P, OE/HA3HK/P, OE/HB9AFI/P, OE/HB9BHW/P, OE/HB9CZF/P,
OE/S52CU/P, OE2SNL/P, OE3CHC/P, OE3HPU/P, OE3KAB/P, OE5EEP/P,
OE6RDD/P, OE8SPK/8, OH2NOS/P, OH9XX/P, OK/DL2DXA/P, OK/DL6UHA/P,
OK/DL8DXL/P, OK/HB9DST/P, OK/OM3CUG/P, OK1AU/P, OK1DDQ/P,
OK1DIG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1FFU/P, OK1JAX/P, OK1LV/P, OK1MLP/P,
OK2BDF/P, OK2BMA/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2HIJ/P, OK2SAM/P, OK2VWB/P,
OK3EQ/P, OK4IT/P, OM/OK2BDF/P, OM/OK2QA/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4EX/P,
OM4WY/P, OM6TC/P, OZ/LA1ENA/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S51HU/P, S52CU/P,
S53X/P, S57X/P, S57XX/P, VA2OTA, VA2SG/P, VE2PID/P, VE7DB,
W4ZV, W6AH, W7TAO, W9FHA, WA2USA/P
Mode: CW on 14MHz: activity for July
AC7MA, AD5A, CT1BWW/P, CT1DRB/P, DF2GN/P, DF3MC/P, DJ3AX/P,
DJ9MH/P, DK1IO/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P,
DL/HB9CZF/P, DL/OE5EEP, DL1RNN/P, DL2DXA/P, DL6AP/P,
DL6UHA/P, DL6WT/P, DL7VKD/P, DL8MBS/P, E73DU/P, EA1AER/P,
EA1XN/P, EA2BD/3, EA2BDS/P, EI/G4DDL/P, F/G3VQO/P,
F/HB9AFI/P, F5HTR/P, F5UKL/P, F8CZI/P, F8FEO/P, G4ASA/P,
G4ISJ/P, G6DTN/P, GI4ISJ/P, GM3YTS/P, GM4OIG/P, GV3TJE/P,
GV3VQO/P, GW0HIO/P, GW6DTN/P, HA2PP/P, HA2VR/P, HA5LV/P,
HA5MA/P, HA7UL/P, HB0/HB9CZF/P, HB9/DK7ZH/P, HB9/MM0FMF/P,
HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQB/P,
HB9BQU/P, HB9CKV/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9EWO/P, HB9HVK/P, HB9SVT/P,
I/OE7PHI/P, IV3/DC8MH/P, K0JQZ, K1JD, K6EL, K6TUY, K6TW, K6XM,
K7ATN, K7JFD, K7RR, K7S, K7SO, KA1DBE, KB9FKO, KD7CJV,
KD7WPJ, KE5AKL, KK1W, KR7W, KU6J, KX0R, LA1EBA/P, LA1ENA/P,
LA5XTA, LA8BCA/P, M0CGH/P, MC0NRC/P, MM/OE5EEP/P, MM0FMF/P,
MW0BBU/P, MW0IML/P, N1EU, N2GDS, N4SR, N5XL, N6JZT, N6KZ/P,
N7CW, N7RR, N7WM, NA6MG, ND0C, ND7PA, NE1SJ, NK0E, NM5S,
NS0TA, NS7P, NX1P/P, OE/DJ2FR, OE/DJ9MH/P, OE/F8CZI/P,
OE/HB9AFI/P, OE/HB9CZF/P, OE/PC5A/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE1MVA/P,
OE3CHC/P, OE3HPU/P, OE3KAB/P, OE4UFB/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P,
OE5HCE/P, OE8SPW/P, OH/K7ATN, OH2NOS/P, OH7BF/P, OH9XX/P,
OK/DL2DXA/P, OK/OE5EIN/P, OK/OM3CUG/P, OK1AXB/P, OK1DDQ/P,
OK1DIG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1FFU/P, OK1JAX/P, OK1LV/P, OK1MLP/P,
OK2BMA/P, OK2BTK/P, OM3CUG/P, OM6TC/P, ON/K7ATN/P, OZ/LA1ENA/P,
S5/DC8MH/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S52CU/P, S53X/P, S57XX/P, S58R/P,
SM/K7ATN, SV1COX/P, VA2FDT, VA2OTA, VA2SG/P, VA2VL/P, VE2JCW,
VE2PID/P, VE3EMB, VE7DB, VK1DA/3, VK5CZ, W0CCA, W0EA, W3ATT,
W4TZM, W4ZV, W6AH, W6UB, W7TAO, W7USA, W9FHA, WA2USA/P,
WA7JTM, WA7NCL, WB5USB, WG0AT, WH6LE, WS0TA
Mode: CW on 18MHz: activity for July
CT1DRB/P, DF2GN/P, DJ9MH/P, DL/HB9CZF/P, DL8MBS/P, DL8WJM/P,
F5UKL/P, G3VQO/P, G4ASA/P, G4ISJ/P, GI4ISJ/P, GM4COX, GM4OIG/P,
GV3VQO/P, GW6DTN/P, HA2PP/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P,
HB9BQU/P, IV3/DC8MH/P, K0JQZ, K6XM, KD7WPJ, KU6J, KX0R, LA1ENA/P,
MM0FMF/P, N2GDS, N6KZ/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE3CHC/P, OE3HPU/P, OE5EEP/P,
OE6WIG/P, OH6FQI/P, OK/DL8WJM/P, OK/OM3CUG/P, OK1DDQ/P, OK1DIG/P,
OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OM3CUG/P, OM6TC/P, S5/DC8MH/P, S53X/P,
S57X/P, S57XX/P, W4TZM, W4ZV, W7TAO
Mode: CW on 21MHz: activity for July
DF2GN/P, DL/OE5EEP, DL/OK2QA/P, DL8MBS/P, DL8WJM/P, F5UKL/P,
G4ISJ/P, GI4ISJ/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BQU/P, K0JQZ, K6XM, KU6J,
KX0R, LA1ENA/P, MM/OE5EEP/P, MM0FMF/P, MV1EYP/P, N5XL,
OE5EEP/P, OK/DL8WJM/P, OK1DIG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OM6TC/P,
S52CU/P, S57X/P, VK5CZ, W4ZV
Mode: CW on 24MHz: activity for July
DF2GN/P, DL/HB9CZF/P, DL/OE5EEP, DL2DXA/P, DL4MHA/P, EA2BDS/P,
F5UKL/P, G6DTN/P, GW4AZS/P, HA7UL/P, HB9/DF2GN/P, HB9BCB/P,
HB9TVK/P, KU6J, LA1ENA/P, M1BUU/P, MM/OE5EEP/P, MM0FMF/P,
MV1EYP/P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE2SNL/P, OE3CHC/P, OE5EEP/P,
OK/DL2DXA/P, OK/DL8WJM/P, OK1DIG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P,
OM6TC/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S52CU/P, W4TZM, W7TAO
Mode: CW on 28MHz: activity for July
F5HTR/P, LA1ENA/P, NA6MG, OK1DIG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P,
OM6TC/P, S57X/P, S58R/P, WH6LE
CONTESTS DURING AUGUST 2013
The following scheduled contests are expected to cause severe QRM to SOTA activity, especially on the 40m band. Activators should plan accordingly with alternate spots/bands. This is not a complete list of contests.
3rd 1200-2359 EU HF Championship CW & SSB
10th -11th 0001-2359 Worked all EU CW DX Contest
17th-18th 0001-1600 SARTG WW RTTY Contest
24th- 25th 1200-1200 YO DX Contest
25th 1300-1630 SARL HF CW Contest
SOTA News is normally published around noon UTC on the last day of each month but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.
73
Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk
U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka “Skip” on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net
Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com
