SOTA NEWS - AUGUST 2014
EDITORIAL – by Roy G4SSH
Welcome to the August 2014 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Andy MM0FMF, Skip K6GDW, Allen VK3HRA, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, John G4YSS, Geet PA7ZEE, Dennis ZS4BS.
THE 12m CHALLENGE RESULTS - from Andy MM0FMF
This was the first official SOTA challenge and I have to admit to drawing heavily for inspiration on the PP3 Challenge that had been running for some time. By its very nature, the PP3 Challenge was something most likely to involve home-brew and Morse and would have a less universal appeal. There was some considerable interest even by those not taking part and I started thinking about a challenge that was suitable for all SOTA people. Roll on October 2012 and after spending all day at a radio rally (hamfest) I was activating the small Black HillSS-253 in glorious sunshine. It was a perfect Autumn (Fall) day in the WX was perfect and the radio conditions were magic too. I worked several W7 stations on 15m and then tuned about 12m/10m listening to the worldwide DX on offer. One particular QSO I heard was a W6 who was mobile driving along the Pacific Coast working a ZS. It happened another walker was passing and was intrigued by the antennas and was also impressed hearing all the countries on the air. This made me realise that with the solar maximum due in 2013 if we chose a challenge for the higher HF bands it would coincide with the maximum.
I proposed a challenge to the MT that would use the 12m band as it was not a band of choice for SOTA activators. It shares all the benefits of 10m in that simple antennas/equipment can work the world when the band is open and that fewer people would have beams for this band than 10m, levelling the field for chasers. The period for the challenge was chosen as June 1st 2013 to May 31st 2014 as this should include Autumnal DX window, solar maximum and periods of sporadic E both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Whilst I checked the band was available worldwide, I failed to notice that access in VK was limited by licence class and not generally available. A shame as activity in VK was growing quickly.
Well, I’ll know for next time. We wanted every QSO to count, the challenge was to have 12m QSOs so we changed the rules on repeat activations for challenge QSOs. Instead of a summit only scoring for an activator once/calendar year, every QSO was worth 1 pt and every unique summit activated was worth 1 multiplier. This was too encourage activators to visit as many summits as possible but they could still climb their local summit to gain contacts which would add to their score. For chasers we decided that it should be the same, 1 pt for each QSO and 1 multiplier for each unique summit chased. The rules were quite slack, deliberately so and worked out quite well. There was very little pushing the rules, the only obvious case being one chaser who only chased his friend and used both of his callsigns. However, removing those QSOs from the score had no noticeable effect and so they were left in.
Initial reaction to the announcement of the challenge was positive and I then had to pull my finger out and get some code written to display the tables for the challenge once it started.
I was somewhat annoyed in that I was having no luck in getting a QSOs from summits during the first weeks of the challenge yet checking the 12m system in my garden showed it worked time and again. Finally for me the challenge got going when I was able to spend an entire activation on just 12m rather than jumping bands from 60/40 then 20/17/15. My initial contacts were with SOTA chasers but as conditions improved on 12m more and more of the QSOs were with random DX stations.
I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in the challenge. It wasn’t long before 12m became significantly a busy SOTA band and significant numbers of the more active chasers and activators were active on the band. It gives you a good feeling when you come up with ideas like this and they are well received and supported. Regular reports appeared on SOTAwatch of the exotica that had been worked and the super-DX that got away.
All modes were used, primarily SSB & CW but a few did have fun using PSK. I tried data modes in 2008 when you needed a laptop and I used a micro laptop to handle the digital side. Computing has moved on and many modern smartphones have the CPU power to handle data modes and these were used by several people. Antennas included 1/4wave GP or dipoles for activators. Chasers with rotary dipoles/beams had the edge which is only to be expected. It became apparent to me early on that 5W was plenty when the band was wide open but marginal a lot of the time. Being able to run about 30W made a significant difference to performance without a massive battery penalty. Stations running nearer 100W were obviously successful in being chased, simply more people could hear them! I did consider adding a small CB amplifier to my setup but in the end did the whole challenge QRP.
When started there were about 950 12m QSOs logged and by the time we finished that was around 56000. So approx. 55000 QSOs were logged on 12m during the challenge which is 150/day. 12m is now one of the best represented bands in the database. A consequence of the challenge is that activity was down on many other bands and this is why we are having a gap between the end of this 12m Challenge and any future challenges.
What wasn’t expected was that some SOTA activators who were no longer as active found the challenge something to get their teeth into and found it completely reinvigorated their SOTA interests.
So the results. Well they’ve been obvious for a while but we decided that certificates would be available on the following basis for both activators and chasers. Certificates can be claimed if your score is in the top 10 worldwide or if you are an association winner and in the top 25 worldwide.
This gives the following certificate winners.
Activators:
1 OK1DVM - 1st in OK
2 HB9BCB - 1st in HB
3 OK1DIG - 2nd in OK
4 G1INK - 1st in G
5 M1EYP - 2nd in G
6 HB9BIN - 2nd in HB
7 NA6MG - 1st in W6
8 DF2GN - 1st in DM
9 OE5IRO - 1st in OE
10 OE5RTP - 2nd in OE
12 EN7JHF - 1st in UR
13 EC2AG - 1st in EA2
14 WA7JTM - 1st in W7A
16 S57MS - 1st in S5
22 MM0FMF/P - 1st in GM
25 OH9XX - 1st in OH
Chasers:
1 N4EX - 1st in W4C
2 N7UN - 1st in W2
3 AE4FZ - 2nd in W4C
4 DJ5AV - 1st in DM
5 EA2DT - 1st in EA2
6 N1EU - 2nd in W2
7 W7RV - 1st in W7A
8 KG3W - 1st in W3
9 NE4TN - 1st in W4T
10 W4DOW - 1st in W4V
11 OH9XX - 1st in OH
12 G6LUZ - 1st in G
13 VE1WT - 1st in VE1
14 UU4JIM - 1st in UR
16 W0MNA - 1st in W0C
17 HB9MKV - 1st in HB
22 KK1W - 1st in W1
23 OK1DVM - 1st in OK
24 WA2USA - 1st in W9
25 ON4FI - 1st in ON
Barry GM4TOE will announce when these can be applied for.
A word of congratulations to our top activator Miro OK1DVM and chaser Rich N4EX, fantastic scores. Also thanks from me to who everyone who supported my idea for the challenge. Participation and interest exceeded my wildest dreams.
Andy MM0FMF
SOTA AWARDS FOR JULY 2014 By Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager
Two new Mountain Goats this month, WH6LE and W4TZM, and Shack Sloths VK3TCX, AD4IE and VK2CCJ; many congratulations to all of them. There are other Chasers with very high scores in the tables this month: NE4TN on 10k, N6KZ and VK2IO on 5k and VK1EM on 2.5k, well done to all of them. It seems that once a year the South Korean Activators catch up on their claims and the list this month includes a good handful of Korean callsigns; considering they do not have a nearby country to chase easily this is no mean feat. How long before we have a South Korean Goat?
Trophies
Mountain Goat
WH6LE Peter F. Larson
W4TZM Tommy Mitchell
Shack Sloth
VK3TCX Ian Hoffman
Certificates claimed
Activator
HL3QBN Hyun-dong Wi 500 points
HL2IYQ Ho-gyeong Kwon 500 points
6K5XZE Cheol-hwa Jeong 500 points
6K5ZLH Wan-seok Jo 500 points
OE6PKF Kersten Pischler 500 points
HL2IYQ Hogyeong Gwon 500 points
SM0HPL Anders Wandahl 250 points
HL5ZBA Andrew Errington 100 points
DS1QKF Bo-gyeong Lee 100 points
DS1RGC Seong-min Hong 100 points
DS1SPT Kye-soo Jeong 100 points
WN6E Martin Scheidt 100 points
VK2JDL Philip Clancy 100 points
VK3IL David Giddy 100 points
DH7FK Felix Konig 100 points
K7ODX Ryan Etherington 100 points
Chaser
NE4TN Walter Beaton 10000 points
N6KZ Jim Zimmerman 5000 points
VK2IO Gerard Hill 5000 points
VK1EM Mark Cairns 2500 points
AD4IE Paul D Ponak 1000 points
VK2CCJ Clifford Hynds 1000 points
GM4NFI David Leckie 500 points
VK6NU John Coleman 500 points
VK6NU John Coleman 250 points
K6KNS David Sanders 100 points
W3MLK Martin L. Kirby 100 points
Chaser Unique
G0RQL Don Roomes 5000 summits
DD5LP Ed Durrant 250 summits
VK1EM Mark Cairns 250 summits
VK1EM Mark Cairns 100 summits
Summit to Summit
VK1EM Mark Cairns Red
SOTA Complete
G4OBK Philip Catterall 250 summits
G4OOE Nick Langmead 100 summits
Not a lot to report this month. The new Microwave award was announced on the reflector and has generated quite a bit of discussion. This is the first time SOTA has teamed up with another organisation (the UK Microwave Group) to run an award scheme. This is of mutual benefit to both of us because it should generate more interest in working on the microwave bands and it also introduces a new concept to SOTA, the provision of an award based on distance. I would like to make it clear that this award is available worldwide even if one party is a UK group, this does not influence the validity of this award. The only proviso is that the award is based, as far as possible, on bands that are available to most countries. There is no reason why individual Associations could not build on this idea and make awards available for bands which are only used in their country (220MHz and 902MHz in the USA and 4m in some parts of Europe come to mind here). Several Associations have their own Award scheme within SOTA and some are very challenging indeed.
The design of the certificate for the 12m Challenge is practically complete. Real work and staff holidays have got in the way of spare time to finalise it but they will be available in the next week or two. Application will be via the usual claim route and they will be available as either a pdf file by email or a printed version through the post.
It seems that whatever I do to try to make purchasing some of the merchandise simple without involving a real programmer to change the SOTA-shop website there is still the possibility to read into the words something which is not intended! The embroidered badges seem to be the cause of problems now; they are available with the SOTA logo or with ‘Shack Sloth’ or ‘Mountain Goat’ embroidered on the lower section. These latter two are ONLY available to people who have reached 1000 points in the Chaser or Activator tables and, to allow me to check the validity of a purchase, I ask for the purchaser’s callsign. This does NOT mean that you will get your callsign embroidered onto the badge – my manifold skills do not extend to needlework!
I have just received a new batch of polo shirts so most size/colour combinations will be available. The new embroidery is slightly different from the older embroidery incorporating a background to the logo. Until the current stock is used you may receive new or old designs when you make a purchase but once all stock goes over to the new design there will be a small price increase – not yet, but probably in 2015.
Activating this month has been rather hit or miss with band conditions, certainly I have struggled for contacts on my last two outings and I think others have found that the sky has been broken rather too regularly. Guess we are on the slow path towards a solar minimum. Still, the weather, in the UK at least, has been kind so mustn’t grumble.
Take care on the hills
73
Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager
SOTA NEWS FROM DM ASSOCIATION
After eleven years Andreas, DL2LUX, has resigned as DM association manager. He has passed his role to Michael, DB7MM, who already was working as DM/BM regional manager.
Roberto, DJ2AY, has taken over the role as DM/TH regional manager, again.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
Li-Po BATTERIES FROM CHINA - From John G4YSS
On 22nd May 2014 I ordered an 11.1V-10Ah-10c battery from China, via e-bay.
The cost was 35.13 GBP inc P&P. A month later, on 26th June, I received an email from the supplier telling me that after a recent tightening up of air-flight shipping regulations, all his dispatched batteries had been sent back to him. The email gave me the choices of cancellation or re-shipping via Sweden which would take a further 3 to 5 weeks. I chose the latter. I am hoping the battery will have arrived before the next SOTA news is published. I wanted this item for VHF-NFD on 5th July and thought I had ordered it in good time. Not so.
Since it’s capacity is 111Wh, it is possible that this big battery fell foul of the 100Wh rules if in fact they exist(ed) in that part of the World. Apparently Sweden is a more Li-Po friendly country than most! (For the time being, that is.)
73,
John G4YSS.
…
The email from China:
Dear Buyer
I am really so sorry to let you know today I have got news from our shipping agency that due to suddenly strengthened safeguard and custom check on sensitive product especially on the battery as dangerous products are forbidden on boarding in customs. So cause large number of packages were returned back. Unfortunately your parcel is also one of the returned packages. I’m really sorry to bring you this depressed trouble.
in this case, how you wish to proceed it please? A full refund or resend. If you prefer resend, we can change the shipping service to send goods by Sweden Postal Service SMOOTHLY which will usually takes 15-25 business days to arrive at you and it will not be returned back.
Much Appreciate for your understanding on this uncontrollable matter… look forward to your confirmation,
Best regards
Vivi
NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA by Allen VK3HRA.
lt has been another intense month for SOTA. The month started with the some of the best snowfalls and wettest days for a decade. There are still gale force winds with predictions of snow down to 500m for this weekend.
Activators are still going out. Whist some there have been cancellations due to the weather other activators are well in their element. Brian VK3MCD has been claimed 14 summits in the North East and East Gippsland regions. VK2 activators are leading the charge into the hills with both VK2TWR and VK2QR activated at least 10 summits apiece in the Snowy Mountains, South West Slopes and Southern Tablelands.
Amateur Radio Victoria held a “Portable Master Class” on July 19 at ARV Headquarters in Ashburton. This well attended event was designed to educate and encourage Amateurs of all Licence levels to get “out and about” and enjoy the popular and growing activity of "going portable. Peter VK3PF, Peter VK3ZPF, Joe VK3YSP, Julie VK3FOWL, Terry VK3UP and finally Tony VK3VTH gave presentation relating to all aspects of SOTA as well as the various Award programs that are becoming increasingly popular in VK. This was the first ARV “Portable Master Class” and it is expected to become an Annual event with the sole purpose to entice Amateurs to “Go Portable”.
Whilst on the subject of encouraging operators to go portable, KRMNPA recently saw both Peters VK3ZPF and VK3PF, who both have been involved with SOTA in VK from the start, received awards for chasing and for activating all 45 Victorian National Parks. This is the result of several months (years) effort involving travel across the entire state.
The big event for this month was the VK1 Party day.
The VK1 SOTA Party planned for Sunday 27 July 2014 was well received attracted attention from all VK associations in Australia. Organised by Andrew, VK1NAM, This started in the VK1 Yahoo forum with a request for activators interested in a SOTA VK1 mass activation and eventually grew into the most active SOTA day we have had in VK, if not SOTA complete. It was not a SOTA party, it was SOTA frenzy. Of the 130 activations for this month, 32 were during this event. This involved activations from all states and at least three National park thrown into the mix.
Many took advantage of the UTC roll over to pursue S2S contacts. The run up to UTC rollover was bedlam with the band full of activators managing small pileups of “summit to summit” calls coming back from other activators and chasers seeking every window to gain contacts.
The reports of activity are still coming in but activators are recording 60 to 100 QSO’s across at least 6 states and up to 32 S2S contacts. This will end up with excess of 800 Activator QSOs and 500 S2S exchanges. There were 104 spots recorded during the Party period averaging of 1 every 2 minutes.
Highlights, VK1MA Matt and VK2HRX Compton recorded the first S2S contact on 23cm. There were at 10 Andrew 2 Andrew contacts. The finest piece of advice for any activator involves not cuddling the wildlife unless you like wombat poo.
Sunday was the biggest SOTA event for VK, to quote Ron VK3AFW a ‘SOTA Super Sunday’. Special thanks to all activators on the mountains and peaks some braving the chilly and icy cold conditions and to the chasers that made it a huge success. Big thanks to Andrew VK1NAM for the initiative, organising, promoting and participating in the SOTA Party. The consensus amongst activators is this event should become an annual SOTA winter event.
73’s for now,
VK3HRA Allen
NEWS FROM CANADA/U.S. - by Skip K6DGW
Hi All,
It’s been a busy July for SOTA over here in the New World, we’re up in all categories. Cycle 24 seems to be hanging around trying to make up it’s mind if it’s peaked or not, as I write this on 30 July at 2200Z,
SFI=152 A=5 K=1 and SSN=160, so it’s definitely still around.
STATISTICS [as of 2200Z 30 Jul]
NORTH AMERICA TOTALS
Total Activations: 524 [358]
Nr Unique Activators: 171 [112]
Total Chaser QSOs: 3607 [1263]
Nr Unique Chasers: 200 [135]
Unique Summits: 509 [481]
2m: 148 (4%) [23]
6m: 0 (0%) [0]
10m: 1 (0%) [3]
12m: 9 (0%) [10]
15m: 136 (3%) [36]
17m: 219 (6%) [64]
20m: 2341 (64%) [874]
30m: 141 (3%) [53]
40m: 609 (16%) [197]
60m: 1 (0%) [1]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 1 (0%) [0]
Unk: 1
CW: 2336 (64%) [912]
SSB: 1118 (30%) [327]
FM: 145 (4%) [21]
AM: 5 (0%) [0]
Data: 0 (0%) [2]
Other: 1 (0%) [1]
Unk: 1
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
Pete, WH6LE, has become North America’s latest Mountain Goat.
Congratulations Pete, a worthy achievement!
Congratulations are also in order for Alan, NM5S, and Dan, NA6MG, both of whom are now in the rarefied heights of Double Mountain Goat.
And my radio buddy Rich, NU6T, has reached Shack Slothdom, at last check, he had amassed 1,005 chaser points.
Mike, KD5KC, has done it again! For those who may not know about the Spartan Sprint, it is sponsored by the Adventure Radio Society on the first NA Monday of each month. During DST, it is from 0100-0300Z [Tue UTC]. They shift the UTC time by an hour during the winter so it’s always at the same local time.
You are automatically entered in the two classes: Skinny and Tubby. For Skinny, you submit your completed QSO count and the weight of your radio [everything between you and the antenna connector]. Your score will be computed in QSO’s/lb. Score in Tubby is your completed QSO count.
Mike, KD5KC, blew away the competition for the July SS with a Skinny Score of 206.10687 QSO’s/lb!! His radio weighs 0.131 lbs. It’s an ARS record and then some! He also tied for 2nd in the Tubby class with 27 QSO’s. Nice going Mike! He accomplished this from Sierra de Cristo Rey, W5N/PO-010, part of which is in XE. Consequently, I got Spartan Sprint points for working him, and 4 chaser points for SOTA too.
The details of his rig are a state secret of the Texas Republic, so he’ll have to make such disclosures as can be allowed, but I saw it last fall when in El Paso. It and plans then were rather cool.
Congratulations Mike!! Results at
The Adventure Radio Society: Results: July 2014 Spartan Sprint – click on the little spreadsheet.
NEWS:
It is becoming more and more common to link SOTA expeditions into other events such as Mike did. The Colorado 14er Event will be held on August 3rd. As the name implies, this event was originally focused on the 54 Colorado mountains that exceed 14,000 feet in elevation.
Recently, the event has been expanded to include all SOTA peaks in the state. The prime operating hours are from approximately 9 AM to noon local time (1500 to 1800 UTC) so that the activators can get off the summits before the typical afternoon thunderstorms, but activity may occur at other times during the day. Typically, there are dozens of summits activated, providing some exciting SOTA action. Two meter FM is popular during the event with the recommended frequencies of 147.42, 147.45, 147.48, 147.51 and 147.54 MHz. For HF, use the usual SOTA frequencies. For more details and operating guidelines, see www.ham14er.org
Fred, WS0TA [also KT5X] provides a little history:
“Rocky Mtn Rendezvous – The gathering was begun by Steve, WG0AT, and Guy, N7UN, in 2009. They decided to put a 14er (meaning a peak over
14,000 ft elevation) on HF in view of SOTA ops in conjunction with the Colorado VHF 14er Event. They repeated their efforts in 2010.”
“In 2011, they were joined by Fred, KT5X, who did three 14ers, Sunshine
[W0C/RG-031 I think], Redcloud [W0C/RG-002], and Handies [W0C/SJ-001].
In 2012, Frank, K0JQZ, joined the above three.”
“In 2013, Fred managed to gather all five of North America’s first five operators to qualify for Mountain Goat, and between them, they danced on more than ten peaks between them, most over 14,000 ft, and formed a significant camaraderie as well.”
“In 2014, all of the following are expected to be in the Arkansas River Valley activating 14ers: Mtn Goats KT5X, NM5S, K1JD, and KD5ZZK, plus WG0AT, N7UN, AD5A, W0CCA, K7SO, N0BCB, NN5K, W0CP, KC5CW, and likely others. Look for a plethora of HIGH ALTITUDE activations beginning Tuesday, July 29, and stretching at least until August 3.”
“Altitude, steepness, and rains forecast will make these activations very challenging to say the least. With the exceptions of Pikes Peak, and Mt Evans, there are no roads, and ascents are typically more than
1,000 meters.”
Saturday, 2 Aug is the North American QSO Party, Sunday the 3rd would be a great time for the rest of us to climb a mountain and work these guys for a bunch of S2S QSO’s.
REPORT OF THE MONTH:
Kevin, K4KPK, submitted this months’s report:
“I had the day off from work and since the weather forecast was clear, I headed out to activate Wine Spring Bald (W4C/WM-018), Siler Bald (W4C/WM-024), and Wesser Bald (W4C/WM-058). It was the ugly, the adequate, and the flat.”
“The Ugly: Wine Spring Bald is a drive-up 10-pointer with good condition dirt roads, and it was near my other summits. That’s all it has in its favor. It is covered with towers, guy wires, and concrete buildings surrounded by a gravel lot and it has broadband QRM on 20 meters and 2 meters. KB1RJC picked up my call on 20 despite the SOTAWatch glitch and re-spotted me. Thanks!”
“The Adequate: Actually, Siler Bald is quite pretty. My map shows a dirt road that runs near it, and I read that the Appalachian Trail passes near it and I assumed they were one and the same. Oops.
Fortunately, the parking area was quite busy and I got my route adjusted before I got into trouble. The hike morphed into about 30% more distance than I’d planned. KB1RJD picked up my call on 20 despite the SOTAWatch glitch and re-spotted me. Thanks! For some reason, I had almost no 40m traffic – perhaps it was due to the SOTAWatch glitch.”
“The Flat: I have a falling phobia. It is sorta like a fear of heights, but it only happens when I can imagine falling. Wesser Bald has the remains of a fire tower which has been converted to a 30’ high observation tower. It took me 44 minutes to hike the 1.4 miles to the summit. It took almost another 10 minutes to climb the stairs.”
“If you’ve ever seen a cat that has been bothered just so, the cat gets very flat. It will creep around with its entire body very low to the ground. That was me on top of the tower. I wanted off that tower in the worst way. Then the wind picked up and I wanted off more.”
“Ironically, there was a huge turn out of chasers! Every time I said I was done, somebody else showed up! Propagation was great on 20 meters
– having the base of my antenna 30’ in the air probably had a lot to do with that. 40 meters was full of QRN from Hurricane Arthur, with S8 peaks. A big thanks to chasers who turned out despite SOTAWatch’s glitch, QRN, QRM, and a very antsy activator.”
That’ll be it from the western hemisphere for this month. Many of the activation reports are being posted to various blogs which allow photos of course. Generally speaking, I don’t have time to track each one of them down.
73,
Skip K6DGW
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
SOTA NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA - from Dennis ZS4BS
July has been a quite month down here in South Africa – must be the winter weather!
Dennis, ZS4BS, operated the Bloemfontein ARC call sign, ZS4BFN, for the Winter QRP Contest on 19 July from ZS/FS-018 Naval Hill. Naval Hill in the middle of South Africa? Yes, during the Anglo-Boer War, the British forces had some naval guns on the hill to protect the town of Bloemfontein from attacks by the Boer forces.
Eddie, ZS6BNE, of Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio (RaDAR) fame, has been looking at a number of new summits in the North West Province. The ZS SOTA team are busy going through the Association Reference manual and checking on summits (we have lost one!) to ensure the coordinates are correct and in the correct province. We are also looking at adding new summits as well. This will take some time, but we will then cover more of the country.
There is some interest from Namibia for SOTA and hopefully we can assist them in setting up an Association.
Greetings
Dennis, ZS4BS / 7P8DG
“Your transmitter must have a fault; there is smoke coming from my speaker!â€
IN PRAISE OF THE ELCRAFT KX1 by Geet PA7ZEE
On the 1st of July this year I activated in Poland SP/PO-001. On this summit there is an observation tower of 35 m. By throwing a wire down to the top of a tree, it was the first time that I worked with an top fed vertical in a SOTA activation.
The reason I write to you is that I miss my favorite rig in the introduction ‘Learn how to get involved’.
That rig is the KX1 from Elecraft that I build myself from a kit. I build this ‘Magic Box’ with a build in ATU and 4 bands CW. Although its limitations in power (3 W) en CW only, it has advantages to the FT-817.
First the weight and dimensions. My whole radio stations including antenna and counterpoise, logbook and manual fits in a small camera bag. The KX1 is transported in a soft padded lunchbox.
See http://www.adventure-radio.org/ars/pages/back_issues/2003_text/1103_text/N7CEE.html
Very important is the current draw of the KX1 during receive: 34 mA compared with the 450 mA of the FT-817. On the internal battery of the FT-817 the power is 2,5 W; even lower than the 3 W of the KX1. The ATU of the KX1 is designed for very simple aerials.
My friend Gerard PA1AT was working an Italian station from a summit in Germany. During the QSO he noticed that his mast with the antenna wire was down. Meanwhile the QSO continued and was successfully finished without any interruption.
Hopefully you will mention also a in few words the KX1 in the SOTA introduction, not for advertising but for the benefit of other Hams.
73 de Geert PA7GEE
THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 68 by Rob and Audrey G4RQJ
At last it is time for our annual visit to the Isle of Man, the weather is set fair so off we go to Heysham for the overnight sailing to Douglas. Many folk are put off from visiting the island by the cost of the ferry trip with a car but the overnight midweek prices are much more reasonable. Heysham is only 25 minutes from the M6 and all you need to do is arrive there by 1am and wake up in Douglas at about 5.30am Cabins are available at cost but sleeping in the seats is practical and free. On the return trip the ferry leaves at 7.45pm and you’re back in Heysham at 11.30pm for a quiet drive home. All this gives you two extra days holiday if you can stand the pace. It’s our test for not getting old! A car is really a requirement for SOTA activity as several start points are well away from public transport. A bike would be an option for those so inclined.
By teatime SOTA fever has set in so off to Mull Hill for a quick activation. Mull Hill is adjacent to Cregneash village in the south of the island on a not too frequent bus route. Easiest climb is from the minor road to Port Erin at the southern end of the village, room for a few cars and a landrover track leads fairly gently to the summit, either of the forks half way up will get you there. The summit is home to the remains of a ww2 RAF radar site, mostly gone into the heather by now, just the tracks, concrete foundations and a couple of large pillboxes remain. The larger of the two is in reasonable condition and useable if it happens to rain. The smaller one has arguably a slightly better vhf takeoff to the chaser populations in G, GW and GD but can suffer more from breakthrough; the roof makes a pleasant perch on a nice day. Today it is occupied by local youngsters enjoying the sun so we set up alongside the other pillbox which has a nice grassy banking all round. Just a quick 2m activation sees half a dozen in the book before trade dries up and we head off for dinner and to make up for a forty eight hour day.
Wed 2nd and off to Sleau Freoaghane a little visited fell in the north east of the island.
Not an easy fell without transport, a green road passes close and may help cyclists but quite a long haul. The Green Road is the start of the climb from where it crosses the B10 a couple of hundred yards west of the B22 junction, room for a couple of cars. Follow the green road north past the plantation on your right. After the plantation the lane takes a large S bend at the end of which, on your right is a small brown parish marker, like a small gravestone, easily missed. The path to the summit, indistinct at first, starts across the heather from opposite the marker. A warm sunny day but a strong wind on the summit has us experimenting with hang gliding until we eventually get the half tent pitched. 7 MHz and 10 MHz were not playing but 14 MHz made up for it.
Thu 3rd and cloud sitting on the summit of South Barrule which is close to base camp. We kept a watching brief in Castletown (Nautical Museum, Castle and costal walks) and area until the cloud lifted then off to the start point at the “round table†a crossroads (A22 and A36) high on the fell with no public transport From here an obvious path leads directly to the summit via a couple of false summits. Legend has it that Manannán mac Lir, Sea god rules from the summit of South Barrule controlling the weather. He is a jovial deity fond of tricks which explains the mist returning to the summit as we climbed. This hill too has fortifications from an Iron Age settlement to a defendable strongpoint against invaders through the ages. We soon set up the half tent but the wind was too strong for the full height antenna and we were reduced to the 14 MHz up antenna with the centre at about 15ft resulting in not a lot of contacts. As we descended the mist cleared the top and the wind dropped, Manannans little joke?
Sat 5th and Snaefell time, the sensible start is from the Bungalow on the TT course. We once climbed all the way up from Laxey but not any more. The tram from Laxey climbs to the summit via the Bungalow, fare is about £15. The walk up is pleasant; the last ten minutes are the hard bit. The summit has a café, two radio masts, associated buildings a trig and a viewpoint so plenty of shelter if needed. We set up the half tent in the lee of the aviation authority building, an area which is quite free of tourists. A nice four hour activation with all bands working. Had several nice chats with fellow walkers including a group of Marilyn baggers who were heading over to Sleau Freoaghane and planning on the awful route from Montpellier we suggested the alternative as described earlier. Hope they got on ok.
Mon 7th Visit to the ancient annual Tynwald ceremony, then on to Bradda Hill. This hill has a reputation in SOTA circles as a hard work one pointer, it is however one of the finest view points on the island. Often confused with Bradda Head it lies in the more northerly end of the same escarpment and is quite a bit higher. Basically there are two routes:-
1 Follow the cliff path from Bradda Head, fine if you can handle exposure which is quite severe.
2 Follow the cliff path from above Fleshwick Bay to the north. Parking is not easy at Fleshwick indeed the road there is not the greatest, steep and narrow with no passing places. We have an alternative start which adds about a mile extra walk along a green road Park at the small car park at Bradda East and follow the lane at the top right hand corner along to a green road skirting a large plantation Where the plantation ends Hell begins. Maps show a path through the plantation, they lie! The path is a direct climb up the steep and over grown hillside about 25 minutes of struggle, starting like a scene from African Queen with head high fern and bracken, always steeply upwards and narrow. Suspect there is some exposure but if you can’t see it, it can’t hurt you! When the wall at the top is reached the view opens out and has to be seen to be believed. Now follow the cliff path on your left, bit exposed but manageable and a detour to the left can avoid it. The summit is to the left of the main path with a large pile of stones. Gorgeous day today and a perfect long, long activation in the sun. Allow almost as much time for the descent as you will probably need it.
Tue 8th and a long stay activation of Mull Hill. We captured the other pillbox but although it seems better for VHF it is difficult to get a good run for the HF inverted V. The lower HF bands were poor and the higher ones not a lot better - typical summer daytime even 2m FM was in the doldrums, maybe too hot for people in the shack.
Wed 9th Descended a couple of Manx glens which are a little like one pointers in reverse but always a pretty beach to yourselves at the bottom Dhoon in particular can be recommended. An evening activation of Mull Hill followed. With HF in mind we cornered the larger pillbox and there was a little more activity on lower hf but 20m struggling with deep qsb . Still a few faithful chasers about on 2m fm later.
Thu 10th Repeat of Snaefell in the sun, perfect.
Fri 11th Repeat of Sleau Freoaghane without the wind. We noticed that since our previous visit, a stone arrow had been laid out opposite the small brown marker where the path sets out across the heather, maybe our Marilyn baggers from Snaefell?
Our hosts’ parents have Canadian roots and close friends of theirs lost a son in an air crash high on this lonely hill during ww2 so we walked to the steep northern side to spend a few minutes in contemplation. The crew are buried at Jurby church, visible in the distance as a white tower on the coastal plain.
Sun 13th South Barrule again, the weather perfect and we did not need the tent Once again 20m was not playing only Manuel EA2DT popped up briefly through the deep qsb. Earlier in the morning we visited the excellent Manx Aviation Museun at Ronaldsway worth a trip particularly if you’re ex mil.
Mon 14th A dull day but we need to do Bradda again for a double clean sweep. Things are reasonable until we enter the cloud and mist at the top of the steep bit, then the rain kicks in, not your namby pamby rain real old style heavy weight rain with a bit of wind for effect. We stagger up to the summit and hide by the wall There is so much rain it’s like transmitting under water and the reports from the six we do manage to raise on 2m fm reflect this . Enough is enough and we squelch off down the now wet and slippery path. Liz our hostess recons it is Mannnans tears because we are reaching the end of our stay and he does not want us to leave.
Tue 15th Last day but we cannot resist a last trip up Mull Hill This is of necessity a short vhf only trip. We sit on the pillbox and look back on a great holiday as usual, 31 consecutive years now and next year is booked. We visit the stone circle at the far end of the military remains A beautiful Neolithic burial ground looking to the sea and Port Erin. Years ago an old chap seeing us coming down asked if the old men sang to us as they sometimes do, curiously we had commented to each other about hearing music on a previous visit.
Sun 27th and back to reality with a trip to Fountains Fell The weather today is cloudy and we are forced into waterproof and the summit is in cloud. This clears as we arrive at the stone pile but still a chilly breeze and as the temp has dropped 12 degrees since the sweltering heat of the previous two weeks we just bash on in the waterproofs which turns out to be a good idea. The HF sky is totally broken with deep long fades but four stations suddenly come up to 59 including VE1WT but they soon fade back into the mush.
Well all for now, about five stations qualified for our little†Worked all GD4RQJ/P Summits 2014†details will follow.
Take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF
Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.
Two activators ventured onto Top Band during July from two separate summits with both enjoying success.
First this month was John G4YSS, (using GX0OOO/P) who camped overnight on G/NP-008 Great Whernside on the 5th& 6th July. This was the 12th consecutive year John has done this in order to take part in VHF National Field Day. Of course John also activates the summit for SOTA & likes to offer the summit on Top Band & HF for those interested. This year there was an added difficulty in that the Tour de France passed very close to this summit with the ensuing road closures & diversions that inevitably involves.
Despite this, John managed to navigate to his chosen parking spot without too much delay & was set up camp on the summit in good time. After working a few VHF NFD stations on 144MHz John switched over to 160m & commenced calling CQ on 1832KHz for his alerted time of 2200z. Both me & John knew that Phil G4OBK would not be around as he had been very busy in Harrogate with the Tour de France so I was very pleased that the band seemed in quite good shape, with my local noise not as bad as usual. I answered John’s CQ & we exchanged 579 reports both ways. It was nice to hear John working another three familiar calls on CW although I could not hear much from the chasers through my local noise.
After being sure I had heard John a couple of minutes earlier on 1843KHz SSB during a gap on 1832KHz CW, a couple of minutes later I did hear John announce a QSY to SSB so spotted him on his usual SSB QRG. Thankfully, as with CW the band was in pretty good shape & I did not have to struggle to hear John, giving him 57. If CW is a struggle through my local noise then SSB would be very difficult so I utilised one of the numerous Web SDR’s so I would be able to listen to both sides of John’s following QSO’s. It was very nice to hear more familiar chasers working John & especially nice to hear John working HA5TI, who I could not hear at all, even via the web SDR. Pista seemed very pleased with the contact, as was John!
Once there were no more calls on 160m, John went back to 144MHz before retiring for the night. On the Sunday morning, John used 80m rather than 160m which would give him a bigger footprint in daylight conditions.
As usual, John has provided a very comprehensive activation report that can be found here: Hiking in the mountains: tips for beginner hikers - Mountain Day
Next up, on Saturday 19th July and a very welcome return to activating for Klaus DF2GN/P on DM/BW-228 Hummelsberg. Klaus has been absent from SOTA for a couple of months & it is very nice to see him back out on the hills.
This was an evening activation & Klaus made 9 CW QSO’s on Top Band out of a very fine total of 76 QSO’s across 160/80/40/30/20 metres. Klaus has kindly sent in the following activation report:
“Conditions were not good and the band was in bad shape. The thunderstorms over the north of France made it not easy to work UK stations and the QRN was very heavy overall. Despite this, it was still possible to make 9 contacts, all in CW. I also tried SSB, but signals were too weak with a lot of static crashes on the band. Maybe some more chasers could try to work activators on Top band, even if they have not very good antennas. Sometimes it is possible for me to work chasers with smaller antennas, it all depends on the antenna I have in use…
I made 9 Contacts with 6 DXCC´s on Top band with assocs. DL,G,I,OE,OK and PA. My output was about 50 Watts into a 29m long inverted L antenna, with the vertical part about 18m high. This time I only had 6 radials at about 2 meters over ground…
vy 73 Klaus DF2GN/pâ€
Thank you very much indeed for the report Klaus, the Inverted L seemed to work very well. Welcome back
Thanks & well done to John & Klaus.
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 5 July, John GX0OOO/P Activated G/NP-008 Great Whernside & made 10 QSO’s (4 CW / 6 SSB)
On 19 July, Klaus DF2GN/P Activated DM/BW-228 Hummelsberg & made 9 QSO’s (9 CW / 0 SSB)
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
WHAT OF THE (SOTA) FUTURE - 5 - by Roy G4SSH
The easy way to feel ten years younger - get a dog!
A recent survey has shown that owning a dog helps you to feel 10 years younger than your age, researchers say.
A dog not only keeps you more active, it makes you mentally fitter, a St. Andrews University study found. Those with dogs did as much exercise as someone a decade younger. Researcher Dr Zhiqlang Feng said that It is well known that pet ownership may alleviate feelings of loneliness and depression but one area that has received little attention is the effect of dog ownership on the physical activity levels, especially of the older person
The strong bond between man and dog may also help owners overcome concerns about walking in bad weather or walking alone.
It would appear that many SOTA activators are regularly accompanied on expeditions by their faithful canine companions. I know of a few dogs (and goats) who have probably qualified as Mountain Goat many times over. As an example, Lutz DJ3AX is always accompanied by Benny. To this day Lutz always closes a contact with me by signing as DJ3AX/MM - not Maritime Mobile, but 73 from his faithful Mountain Mutt whom I now know is with him on the summit.
It is almost four years since we last had a survey of Mountain Mutts. Any changes, updates or additions to the following list will be welcomed. Please send me an e-mail direct so as not to fill up this news report, - with callsign of the owner - name of dog - breed and any comments. I will not acknowledge individual e-mails but will publish a list at intervals. Please put SOTA DOG in the subject title.
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk
K9 LIST - SOTA DOGS as at September 2010
OWNER…………………NAME OF DOG……BREED
2E0XSD…….Colin…………Abby……….Border Collie
…………………………………Bobby…Collie cross Springer
DJ3AX………Lutz………….Benny…………………………
DK1HW………Wolf…………Nelson…………Cairn Terrier
HB9ZAP…….Edwin……………Rauhaar-Dackel
G4OBK………Phil………….Treacle.……Cross Border Terrier / Lakeland Terrier.
G4YSS……….John………….Jess……………Cocker Spaniel
GM4TOE…….Barry…………Tommy………Black Labrador
GW8OGI………Ian……………Hari……………German Shepherd/Collie cross
Comments received from owners:-
My dog Hari, a German Shepherd/Collie cross, has accompanied me on all except a couple of my SOTA activations. He’s an invaluable navigational aid; he can always find the easiest path up and of course remembers the way down too! Sadly he doesn’t seem too keen on radio as he just curls up and goes to sleep while I’m operating. Ian GW8OGI
I have nearly always been accompanied by a dog on my SOTA expeditions. In
the early days (up to Mountain Goat) it was Jo my Labrador bitch that
features on several SOTA photos (now gone to that great kennel in the sky).
Nowadays I have Tommy, again a Black Labrador, who is a great soft pussy of
a dog but great company. Like Jo he is trained to the gun but only
recognises Grouse, he has absolutely no interest in Pheasants, but is in his
element on the hills round here nosing the birds into the air. Both dogs are
(were) small working Labs (Sandringham Labs for those who are into this
subject) but with unlimited energy and appetites - a favourite morsel being
sheep poo!
I sometimes have my son’s Springer with me - completely un-tire-able and also
barking mad. Her main claim to fame, which some chasers may well remember,
was when she was bored and kept bringing me stones to throw for her while I
activated the hill. After several fetch and throw of stones she planted
another stone in my hand, so I thought, which I clasped firmly before
throwing it - unfortunately this was a handful of sheep poo. I am sure you
can visualise the event. The dog sat there with a “I knew you weren’t paying
attention” grin on her face! I almost breached the terms of my licence that
day by using rather robust language!
Anyway, a dog is the best walking companion, only ever goes at your pace,
never grumbles and will snuggle-up and keep you warm if necessary; and all
for a handful of biscuits. Barry GM4TOE
All my SOTA (& indeed WOTA) activations have mainly been Dog Walks
up hills with radios. The names of my dogs are Abby - a Border Collie and
Bobby - a Collie cross Springer. Colin 2E0XSD
We have SOTA Logo’s and SOTA Flags - Perhaps Barry knows a manufacturer of coats for SOTA dogs? (Embroidered MM where appropriate).
73
Roy
CW REPORT FOR JULY 2014 - by Roy G4SSH
The start of the school summer holidays in mid-July resulted in an expected rise in the number of SOTA activations but this was offset by the continuing problem of poor HF propagation, causing activators to struggle to qualify a summit and chasers having problems reading weak and fading signals. The poor conditions and seasonal rise in background noise level resulted in very few activations on 7 MHz being audible at my QTH during the month. For most of the time I was even unable to copy DL/HB9BIN/p Juerg with his 10w on this band and as I write this F/HB9AFI/p is totally unreadable on 7032 KHz. I am grateful for activators who also use10 and 14 MHz, although even these suffered many days of crashing QRN from frequent thunderstorms across Europe.
July and August is the peak month for cross- border expeditions as activators use family holidays to activate in another country, with DL being the favourite destination. There were also many single-op expeditions and just as many multi-op, multi-band activations.
Amongst the CW highlights Juerg HB9BIN was active almost on a daily basis, from his own country, plus DL/ and F/, Rob & Audrey G4RQJ were very active during a week in the Isle of Man. Klaus continued with his frequent antenna tests on all bands from 1.8 to 28 MHz, John G4YSS (using GX0OOO/p) camped overnight on Great Whernside, there was an expedition to Clear Island, where many of the top activators were active using EJ7NET (or EI/ own calls), Kurt was active using his own call HB9AFI and also F/HB9AFI, Jirka OK2BDF was heard active from the UK and Stephan DM1LE was very active with his own call plus OE/ and there were quite a few activations from OH-land during the month.
Norby was again active, mainly at weekends using DL/LX1NO, Andy MM0FMF was a regular activator of some remote Scottish SOTA’s, Andy DK5ON was heard operating from EA6 and on the 16th there was a deluge of French callsigns active with Andre F5UKL, Tof F5UBH, Bob F5HTR, and Jean F6EAH all heard calling CQ SOTA. Tof was also heard later on a mini expedition of his own activating 3 x 10 points summits. R7KFF was also heard active at weekends from the Ukraine.
73
Roy G4SSH
SOTA CW ACTIVATORS SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE DATA BASE ABOVE 7 MHZ DURING JULY 2014 - from Kevin G0NUP
This file produced on 28/Jul/2Ø14,
Mode: SOTA CW on 1ØMHz: activity for July,
DF2GN/P, DF3MC/P, DF8KY/P, DJ9MH/P, DK2AB/P, DK7MG/P, DK7ZH/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/HB9JOE/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL/ON6ZQ/P, DL1ASA/P, DL2DXA/P, DL2ZBO/P, DL4FDM/P, DL4MHA/P, DL4TO/P, DL6UHA/P, DL7VKD/P, DL8WJM/P, DM1LE/P, E7/DF8KY/P, EA1XN/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2IF/P, EJ7NET/P, F/DL9MDI/P, F/G4OBK/P, F/HB9AFI/P, F/MMØDHY/P, F/PA1AT/P, F5HTR/P, F5UBH/P, F5UKL/P, F6AVE/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G3RDQ/P, G4ASA/P, G4OBK/P, GD4RQJ/P, GWØHIO/P, GW4AZS/P, GW4ISJ/P, HA2PP/P, HA2VR/P, HA3HK/P, HA7UL/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CPS/P, HB9CPS/QRP, HB9CZF/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9DST/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9JOE/P, HB9TVK/P, I1/HB9IIO/P, IV3RJH/P, K1JD, K6EL, K6HPX/P, K7ATN, K7JFD, K7SO, K9ZMD, KB9ILT, KE5AKL, KF7PXT, KR7W, KU6J, KXØR, LA1ENA/P, LA5XTA/P, LA8BCA/P, MØIML/P, M1EYP/P, MM/OK2BDF/P, MMØDHY/P, MMØFMF/P, MMØGYX/P, MWØHJV/P, MWØIDX/P, N1EU, N6JZT, NA6MG, NM5TW, NN5K, OE/DF3MC/P, OE/DK7MG/P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/DL8DZL/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE/HB9BIN/P, OE/HB9JOE/P, OE/OK2PDT/P, OE1MVA/P, OE3CHC/P, OE5EEP/P, OE6PKF/P, OE6RDD/P, OE6WIG/P, OE8SPW/P, OH/OM4DW/P, OH2NOS/P, OH6FQI/P, OK/HB9JOE/P, OK/OM4XA/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1HCD/P, OK1JAX/P, OK1LV/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BMA/P, OK2BTK/P, OK2KGE/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2SAM/P, OK2VWB/P, OM/HA5CQZ/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4AA/P, OM4DW/P, OM4WY/P, OZ/DL2DXA/P, S5/DF8KY/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S52CU/P, S53XX/P, S57X/P, S57XX/P, SM/LA5XTA/P,
SMØGNS/P, SMØHPL/P, SP/OK2VWB/P, SP3LRS/P, VA2VL, VE2DDZ, VK2AET/P, VK2IO/P, VK3AFW/P, VK3CAT/P, W4TZM, W5ODS, W6AH, W6UB, W7TAO, WA7JTM, WA9STI, YO2BP/P
Mode: SOTA CW on 14MHz: activity for July,
AB7YL, AC1Z, AD4IE, AD5A, AE7AP, AMØ2IF, CT1BWW/P, DF2GN/P, DF3MC/P, DF8KY/P, DG5WU/P, DJ2FR, DJ3EI, DJ9MH/P, DK2AB/P, DK4RX/P, DK7MG/P, DK7ZH/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL1ASA/P, DL2DXA/P, DL2ZBO/P, DL4TO/P, DL6AP/P, DL6UHA/P, DL7VKD/P, DL8WJM/P, E7/DF8KY/P, EA1XN/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA4/K1TNT, EA5FV/P, EJ7NET/P, F/DK7FH/P, F/G4OBK/P, F/HB9AFI/P, F/HB9AFIP, F/MMØDHY/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P, F5RGY/P, F5UBH/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G3NYY/P, G4AFI/P, G4ASA/P, G4OBK/P, G4TJC/P, GD4RQJ/P, GWØHIO/P, GW4AZS/P, GW4COX, GW4ISJ/P, GW4TJC/P, HA2PP/P, HA2VR/P, HA3HK/P, HA7UL/P, HB9/AD5A/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9IAB/P, I1/HB9IIO/P, IV3RJH/P, K5WI, K6EL, K6TW, K7JFD, K7NEW, K7RR, K7SO, K9ZMD, KA1DBE, KA2ZEY, KB4BKR, KB9ILT, KCØYQF, KC7DM, KC8SQC, KD5KC, KD7WPJ, KEØAGQ, KE5AKL, KF4LXB, KF7PXT, KK4VR, KR7W, KU6J,
KXØR, KX7L, LA1ENA/P, LA4CIA/P, LA8BCA/P, M1BUU/P, M1EYP/P, MMØFMF/P, MMØROV/P, MWØHDF/P, MWØHJV/P, MWØIDX/P, MW1EYP/P, NØBN, NØOI, N1EU, N2GDS, N6CK, N6JZT, NA6MG, ND7PA, NE1SJ, NF1R, NM5S, NN5K, NSØTA, OE/DG5WU/P, OE/DK7MG/P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/DL7UZO/P, OE/DL8DZL/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE/HB9BIN/P, OE/OK2PDT/P, OE/OM1HI/P, OE/S58R/P, OE1MVA/P, OE3CHC/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE6RDD/P, OE6WIG/P, OE9AMJ/P, OH/PB2T/P, OH2NOS/P, OH6FQI/P, OH9XX/P, OK/OM4AA/P, OK/OM4XA/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1LV/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BMA/P, OK2BTK/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2KGE/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2PYA/P, OK2SAM/P, OM1HI/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4AA/P, OZ/DJ5AA/P, S5/DF8KY/P, S52CU/P, S53XX/P, S57X/P, S57XX/P, S58R/P, SMØGNS/P, SMØHPL/P, SP/PA7ZEE/P, SV1COX/P, VA2DXZ, VA2SG, VA2VL, VA2VL/W1, VE2DDZ, VK2IO/P, VK5CZ, WØCCA, W1ZU, W2CKL, W4EON, W4TZM, W4ZV, W5ODS, W5QC,
W6AH, W6UB, W7JET, W7TAO, W7USA, WA6ARA, WA7JTM, WA7NCL, WA9STI, WBØUSI, WB5BKL, WB5USB, WH6LE, WSØTA, YO2BP/P
Mode: SOTA CW on 18MHz: activity for July,
DF2GN/P, DJ9MH/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL4TO/P, DL6UHA/P, DL8WJM/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G4ASA/P, GD4RQJ/P, GW4AZS/P, GW4ISJ/P, HA2PP/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9JOE/P, K1JD,
K6EL, K6HPX/P, K7ATN, K7NIT, K9ZMD, KI4SVM, KR7W, KU6J, KXØR, MMØFMF/P,
MMØGYX/P, NØBCB, N1EU, NE1SJ, NM5S, NSØTA, OE/DF3MC/P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE3CHC/P, OE5EEP/P, OH2NOS/P, OK/OM3CUG/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BMA/P, OK2BTK/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2PYA/P, OM3CUG/P, OZ/DJ5AA/P, S52CU/P, S57X/P, S57XX/P, SMØGNS/P, SMØHPL/P, W4TZM, W4ZV, W6UB, W7TAO, WB5USB, WH6LE,
Mode: SOTA CW on 21MHz: activity for July,
DF2GN/P, DJ9MH/P, DL/HB9AGO/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, DL/OE5EEP/P, DL1ASA/P, DL4TO/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DPR/P, HB9JOE/P,
K7NEW, K9ZMD, KA2ZEY, KB9ILT, KD5KC, KR7W, KXØR, NØOI, NE1SJ, NM5TW, OE3CHC/P, OE5EEP/P, OK/OM3CUG/P, OK/OM4AA/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BWB/P, OK8WW/P, OM3CUG/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S52CU/P, S57X/P, S58R/P, VK5CZ, W4TZM, W5ODS, W5QC, WA7JTM,
Mode: SOTA CW on 24MHz: activity for July,
DL/HB9BRJ/P, EA2BDS/P, F6HBI/P, GD4RQJ/P, HA2PP/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CPS/P, HB9CPS/QRP, HB9CZF/P, HB9JOE/P, K1JD, K7NEW, OE5EEP/P, OH/PB2T/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OM4DW/P, W4ZV
Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for July,
DF2GN/P, DL1ASA/P, GD4RQJ/P, HA2PP/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9CZF/P, OE5EEP/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BMA/P
73
Kevin G0NUP
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
South America input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za
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