The Saturday before Memorial day, I activated North Mountain (W7A/AW-060). On the way up the mountain, I noticed a young man hopping around and making weird noises. Didn’t take much notice until I got to the summit and was making contacts on 2 meters. I had put on Sota Watch that I was going to operate on 30 meters as well but as I was setting up my HF antenna, I noticed this same young man imitating me. Someone on the radio asked to the summit designation and I gave it to the phonetically and the young man starting copying what I was saying while hopping from rock to rock on the summit. It kind of creeped me out as he kept doing this so I abandoned my setting up, packed everything up, and headed back down the mountain. I usually get between 3 to 6 contacts on 30 meters and I’m wondering if I didn’t anything wrong by not changing my alert to let them know. I know I didn’t do anything illegal but wanted to make sure that I didn’t do anything that would be considered “bad form.” Thanks in advance for teaching this new guy the ropes.
We miss activations, turn-up early, turn-up late, work CW not SSB, and work SSB not CW and generally do what we want… we try to stick to schedules but stuff happens… at the end of the day it’s a hobby.
… but always for self preservation if you feel uncomfortable in situation get away from it… that is Active Self Protection.
I think you did exactly the right thing in beating a hasty retreat, Lyle. When you are unaccompanied in a lonely place, you can’t be too careful.
There have been a couple of occasions when I have been in the middle of an activation at a remote location and I have been “joined” by a group of - shall we say - undesirable people. In the circumstances, I too packed up as quickly as possible and headed back to the car.
The SOTA General Rules and conventions are very clear. Nothing in SOTA is more important than the safety of the activator. The mountains have many dangers, some weirder than others. Be safe, activate another day.
You hear better, you use less battery and you cannot hear @%#^heads
As long as you do not disturb anybody (setting-up in the middle of a path etc…) and go about your own business then you should be fine. Unless the guy looked like he was on the sauce or carrying a long knife or both, then I think you could have laughed it off.
No need to change your alert if something disturbs you to the point you just want to get off the summit in a rush. People understand that these spots are temporary and dictated by local conditions (including local chimps jumping from rock to rock).
