Summit to Hang Glider QSO

Last Saturday I decided to activate Mingus Mountain W7A/AW-010. I was working on HF when a fellow ham approached me and introduced himself. After a little chat he told me that he was going to fly a hang glider from the summit. I asked him if he had radio with him? Yes was his answer, so we agreed to make a contact after launching. While he was flying high above me, I made contact with the hang glider pilot Randy KD7DYN on 2m-fm with a report of 59/59. Beside one summit to airplane contact last year, this is my most unique SOTA QSO in my log book.
I want to share some pictures with the SOTA community, taken by my XYL.








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Uber-cool! You must be rightly made up with that contact :smiley:
Mark.

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Hi Attila,
Thanks for sharing this nice story with great pictures and congrats for the rare QSO.
73,

Guru

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Very unusual. Well done. Just hope he wasn’t in the AZ.:grin:.

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Very cool!

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That’s :sunglasses:. I was once /MM from inside my Land Rover whilst on a ferry. Yeah, pretty poor compared to this.:smiley:

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Attila, a very cool contact to get into your logs!

Dan KC7MSU

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Brilliant QSO potty he couldn’t have landed on another summit and activated it.!

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Really cool! There is a group here in Northern California that does parachute mobile operations. I may have to try and activate a nearby summit (they work on 2 meters) on a day when they announce a jump.

Steve, W6SAE

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The next announced parachute radio in that location will be October 15th and 16th from Byron airport, near Pacific-Con in San Ramon, CA. One year, I worked them whilst seated at the annual Sota lunch.

Elliott, K6EL

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AWESOME! Memorable event. Someone should have recorded
it for you. Would be something to listen to over and over.
JohnPaul//AB4PP

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Thanks for the information! I’ll note that date on my calendar.

Steve, W6SAE

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Awesome. Definitely a very unique contact!

I used to fly light aircraft (sadly I couldn’t afford to keep it up…my PPL has expired & I haven’t flown for several years). I always wanted to try 2m from an aircraft & see how far I could get with an aerial at several thousand feet above the ground!

There’s a guy from the local club who flies. He’s often said that he wished that he could run 2m FM from his plane.

Unfortunately amateur radio from an aircraft isn’t legal here in the UK.

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With a weak signal mode, some power and antenna gain, about 4/3rds of the horizon distance.

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