For SOTA and VHF enthusiasts this coming weekend is the January ARRL VHF contest starting at 1900 Saturday and running until 0300 UTC Monday…so ends Sunday evening here in AZ.
I will be out on a summit Sunday morning for a few hours (weather permitting) as a QRP Portable on 6/2/432 (and HF SOTA also when the action on VHF dies down).
Give it a try…even if u only have FM (there is a class for that now).
73
Pete
WA7JTM
W7A
Yeah - I’ll be on from home and hope to chase activators in my neighborhood. From a summit there will be a lot of folks delighted to work you on 50.125 and 144.200 MHz SSB, other bands too if you have the gear. (FT-817 and the stock antenna for three bands can work great.) There is a bit of activity on 2 meter FM; 146.52 or 146.58 too. Know your grid square as that’s the exchange.
VHF contests are a great time to activate a summit where you don’t want to deploy an HF antenna (like winter) and give you a chance to work the locals. See the rules at http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf.
Enjoy! Etienne-K7ATN