Yesterday I made a last minute activation on EA5/CS-013 or tried it.
I have a little experience on activations and have done three successful ones in the past.
So my gear is always ready and operational and I know how to set it up.
Yesterday conditions were that my wife was with me on the hike or, said differently, we hike a lot together but I usually don’t take my SOTA gear with me for obvious reasons. But I wanted to try it this time as the path was going through the above mentioned summit and she allowed me to do so.
I set up everything and started calling at about 1230 UTC around 060 kHz on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. Rig is a KX2 with ATU and antenna an inverted L sloper using a kind of SOTA mast.
But only got three answers and not from chasers, I am afraid. The bands seemed to be open.
And RBN shows that I was heard all over Europe (look for EA5Q/P).
I think I will have only one more chance to activate a SOTA with my wife, so I cannot afford another fiasco ;). In the end it took me 45min for the whole operation with no success. This is a show-stopper.
For those with more experience, what else should I do to guarantee the success next time.
Bad time of the day?
No spotting?
No announcement in advance?
Maybe some wrong antenna set-up and therefore too weak signal? RBN does not seem to confirm this.
Or is this just normal and can it happen at any time? Just bad luck.
Leaving my wife at home is not an option, and it’s true that she was not the culprit for not getting almost any answer to my calls. In fact se was very patient and waited all the time and helped me to set up the antenna.
Set an alert and RBN will do the spotting for you.
It happens from time to time. Also a solar flare could make HF impossible. So always have a VHF handheld as backup.
1 QSO is enough to log the summit (without points but at least that)
Contacts do not need to be made with SOTA chasers. You can log a contact with any licenced amateur operating within the regulations in their country of operation.
SOTA doesn’t rely on matching Activator and Chaser logs for valid contacts.
As Joe says, spotting is vital. You can self spot on your own phone (assuming you have Internet access).
My wife sometimes brings a book when she is with me on an Activation. I usually have about an hour before she gets bored. But… she now knows how to help me set up the mast and antenna and take it down again. So that speeds things up.
How long did you stay on one band? It may be you didn’t stay long enough to get spotted and reported on SOTA Watch etc and chasers didn’t have enough time to work you?
According to SOTAwatch, you didn’t spot yourself. If you don’t spot yourself on the page, the chasers cannot know that you are activating. You will get only random people scanning the bands, and since your signal is low power, almost nobody will come.
Spot yourself using:
your smartphone (most simple technique), I recommand Ham2K app, great for logging contacts and managing your activation
as a CW operator, just post an ALERT on sotawatch. When on the summit, just call CQ and RBN network will pick your call and a SPOT will be created automatically on sotawatch.
Thank you for all your replies so far.
I did not know the ALERT / RBN link, so this was definitely my fault.
In fact I have looked up my RBN spots (EA5Q/P) and there were 10 on 15m and 10m.
Unfortunately there was no internet connection, so self spotting was not an option.
And I made several long calls on each frequency, in fact I called for one hour in all the frequencies being able to complete only three contacts.
I will keep on reading you. Thank you for sharing your experience with me.
The spot will be posted on sotawatch only when the CQ is received by RBN within the time windows that you program in the alert.
You can also look at sotamat app on your phone and register on the website https://sotamat.com/. It’s a very good way to spot yourself when no cell phone service. How it works is fairly simple:
you play an FT8 command (containing name of the summit and frequencies) from your phone in the mic of your radio (set on FT8 frequency)
this command is received by the FT8 network and the sotamat server is posting a spot for you
As others suggested, Alert + Spot will help you a lot to be succesful next time for sure (and don’t disturbing your wife’s patience).
I see you operated at midday. Morning activation tend to provide the most EU QSO, while afternoon activation are usually less packed but opens oportunity for transatlantic DX.
One additional hint: I would avoid using *.060 frequencies. These are used by QRP slower operators who sit in the QRG willing to have long QSO. They eventually start calling CQ on top of you if they have noise in ther receiver.
That’s why most SOTA spots are usually seen a bit up or down, tipically 14.058, 14.062, in example.
In case you want a deeper read on how to plan portable activation, I have prepared some guidelines in my web page (in Spanish): Tutorial.
Cheers and looking forward to hear you on air.
73 Ignacio EA2BD
When I can’t get a spot out, I chase POTA activators. There is always a bunch of those out there on multiple bands and you can find them just by tuning around.
Hi Stefan,
Everything about announcing a SOTA activation has already been covered. I follow this sequence:
Post an alert before leaving home or, at the latest, from the parking lot.
For CW, the RBN will spot you automatically. For SSB, you’ll need to self-spot using your mobile phone (if you have coverage) or via SOTAmate, which requires setup and synchronizing with the server before leaving home.
Side note on keeping your wife happy: I once bought my wife a hammock for the garden. She brought it to a summit one day, and bingo! Now, while I set up my antenna, she sets up her hammock. Afterwards, she takes a nap, giving me 30 - 60 minutes of uninterrupted, high-quality operating time. Best gift ever!
This doesn’t work on summits above the tree line for obvious reasons - but my wife usually doesn’t join me there anyway.
We have a Garmin InReach and use it to send a message to SOTAmat. Satellite communication works every time. In the past we have also used APRS and our cell phone, but this requires your radio connecting to a gateway. We live in California, so don’t know if these work for you.
There is another option, SOTA Mate allows you to send a specially crafted FT8 message (assuming you can do digital) which will post a spot for you. It takes setting up and testing ahead of time, but I’ve seen it work. Of course, it helps if you have digital capabilities or at least a phone with FT8CN on it… more specifically an Android phone as I don’t think that software works on iphone (but I could be wrong). A DigiRig mobile and a supported radio are also crucial.
You don’t need any of those to spot with sotamat. Just tune on ft8 frequency on radio side, play the ft8 command directly in the sotamat app, from your phone’s speaker to the microphone of the radio.
Even if RBN picks it up, many chasers may not find it unless it appears on the SOTA watch. If you register it in advance on SOTA Aleart, it will automatically appear on the SOTA watch when RBN picks it up. I often use this method.
Also, I once encountered the Dellinger phenomenon at the summit, and at that time the UHF handheld that I had prepared in advance was very useful, and I was able to communicate with four stations without incident.
The app is synchronized with the smartphone’s clock, which is regularly updated to match the global time when you have cell service. Unless you’ve been out of range for more than a day, the phone’s internal clock remains accurate enough that you don’t need to adjust it manually (typically within ±1 second per day). If needed, the app also includes a manual calibration feature, just tap a button when you hear the start of an FT8 sequence.
Thank you to all.
You have been very kind spending your time to explain to me all options.
Now it seems clear to me that the two options are (assuming no internet connection is available on the summit):
SOTA alert on CW which works in conjunction with RBN. It posts your calls automatically once detected on RBN. Easy, useful and straightforward.
SOTA mat. iOS and Android app (https://sotamat.com, tnx Brian!) that allows you to send FT8 messages that instruct a node to forward a message to AB6D, who will spot you automatically (see the web for detailed and more accurate explanation).
I will definitely use method 1. in my next activation and try method 2. later once I have gone a short set up and training.
I hope to provide enough activation and summit points from now on to all of you.
