SOTA News for Sep 2018:
Greetings! Mark, G0VOF, is taking a holiday and I’ve agreed to fill in for him and collect as much SOTA News as I can. I’ll post a notice on the SOTAWatch reflector regarding the deadline for monthly input about a week or so before the end of the month. You can email any items to k6dgw@foothill.net and photos as attachments to the email are also welcome. Please do not spend a lot of time formatting inputs, that all seems to get “adjusted” when I post.
It is just fine if you prefer to post your area or association news directly, we need to make this as easy and simple as possible in Mark’s absence. Most of the news I received for this issue is from “The Usual Suspects” in North America, but I’ll work with anyone who would prefer I post for them. So… on to the news:
EUROPE: Luc, ON7DQ, made an enviable trip to Gran Canaria earlier this year and made progress toward the Gold Mountain Explorer Award. His report with some great photos is at https://on7dq.blogspot.com/2018/04/on7dq-gran-canaria-sota-tour-aprilmay.html. He activated nine summits for a total of 52 points.
NORTH AMERICA: I’m still suspicious of a problem in my statistics generator. We again show 3 VLF QSO’s which I really doubt. I did see some chatter on the NA SOTA group regarding 1240 MHz, so I think I believe that one. I don’t know if 70 MHz is authorized in Canada, but it isn’t in the US.
NA Statistics for Aug
Produced: 08/30/2018 at: 19:27:58 UTC
Total Activations: 837
Total Activators: 250
Total Chaser QSO's: 9212
Total Chasers: 352
Unique Summits: 592
BAND # PCT
VLF: 3 ( 0.0%)
3.5MHz: 67 ( 0.7%)
5MHz: 261 ( 2.8%)
7MHz: 1423 ( 15.7%)
10MHz: 914 ( 10.1%)
14MHz: 5208 ( 57.6%)
18MHz: 434 ( 4.8%)
21MHz: 109 ( 1.2%)
28MHz: 60 ( 0.6%)
50MHz: 14 ( 0.1%)
70MHz: 1 ( 0.0%)
144MHz: 510 ( 5.6%)
433MHz: 17 ( 0.1%)
1240MHz: 14 ( 0.1%)
MODE # PCT
AM: 4 ( 0.0%)
CW: 6111 ( 67.2%)
Data: 1 ( 0.0%)
FM: 531 ( 5.8%)
Other: 3 ( 0.0%)
SSB: 2433 ( 26.7%)
Awards and Achievements: The Herd of NA Mountain Goats just got a LOT larger …
Mark, K7MAS, became the second Mountain Goat in the W7W Association on 9 Aug. Darryl, WW7D, the W7W Association Manager reports: “In 2011, Mark did his first SOTA activation, and his only activation for that year. He did a few more over the next couple of years, but really took off with the activations in 2014. Today, he completed his 156th activation and his 100th unique summit. Not one to shy away from effort, Mark activated Tamanos Mountain, W7W/RS-015, in Mt. Rainer National Park. The 10 mile [16 km] RT, 3,000’ [916 m] gain hike was made more difficult by a Puget Sound heat wave combined with smoke from numerous fires. Mark’s enthusiasm shined through the thick haze that dampened the views.” https://djholman.csde.washington.edu/ww7d/TamanosMtn2018/
And, Darryl, WW7D, also achieved Mountain Goad status on the same activation with Mark.
Peter, KD0YOB, also reached Mountain Goat status in August, activating217 peaks over 3 years in the W0C, W7Y, K0M, W0D, and W9 Associations.
Doug, W1DMH, reports that Jim, KK1W, became a Mountain Goat on 19 Aug.
Lee, N7LP, joined the W7A Mountain Goat herd on 26 Aug. His activation buddy Jim, K7JFD, anticipates getting his antlers in Sep.
Tom, K6TAA, who has climbed many 14’ers in Colorado, Africa’s Kilimanjaro, and several 17’ers in South America achieved Mountain Goat with an activation of W5N/OT-004 in August. His activation buddies were John, K1JD, and Fred, KT5X.
While Tom is in the spotlight, Fred, KT5X, reports: “The 4th NM Iconic Peaks award goes to Tom, K6TAA. He has activated eight of the ten peaks. the eighth was Sierra Blanco which has the most prominence of any NM peak peak, over 4,000 ft (1,219 m) of prominence. He activated it in the clouds, fogged in, with his wife, Valerie.”
On the chaser side, Tom, NQ7R, who chases from Casa Grande AZ slipped past 15,000 chaser points and by the end of Aug his total is 16,673, over 16 Shack Sloths!
Fred, KT5X, reports that Bruce, W2SE, has been awarded New Mexico Century Award #7 for making 100 QSO’s with stations activating W5N summits.
News:
Word was just received in Aug that Bob, W2CKL, passed away in September 2017 at the age of 38. Bob was a 2-time Mountain Goat and, at the time of his passing, he held “Last Activator” status on 39 summits in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains.
Pete, WA7JTM, announced the "W7A 10-point S2S Madness Day on 30 Sep 2018. At least 24 summiteers will have at least 20 W7A 10-point summits on the air, and the number will probably grow by the end of the month. Pete will post details here on the SOTAWatch reflector.
Etienne, K7ATN, has posted the Pacific Northwest SOTA Newsletter for Sep/Oct at:
Management Changes: Elliott, K6EL, the NA MT representative reported on some Association Manager changes: “Two of our top Association Managers, AE9Q and W6PNG, have moved their residences and consequently resigned their AM positions. On behalf of the MT, I thank them very much for their super work for SOTA.” We are pleased to announce appointment of the following as new AMs and assistant AM:
W4A: Ron, N4SFR - AM ronlagrone@hotmail.com
W6: Rex, KE6MT - AM rex@vokey.org
W6: Jamie, N6JFD - Asst AM jfdahl@gmail.com
We welcome them to our admin and thank them in advance for their volunteer service."
Alerts: If you’re looking for the rare Alaskan KLA Association summits, Scott, WA9STI and his wife, KB6LAS, will be activating KLA/KS-622 (Lookout Mountain) on or about 6 Sep. He may be able to post a SOTAWatch alert via APRS.
That’s the SOTA news that has made it to Sparks NV. Many thanks to this month’s contributors: ON7DQ, WA6MM, WW7D, NS7P, W1DMH, WA7JTM, KT5X (WS0TA), NQ7R, K7ATN, and WA9STI. Until next month,
73,
Fred [“Skip”] K6DGW
Sparks NV USA
SOTA News Reporter Dude