From another thread, I see that the SotaGoat App will tell you when you enter the AZ (subject to confirmation of criteria other than height etc, as discussed in the thread)
Linking that to WSJT-Z and FT8 would let you set up all the gear inside a rucksack, with a pedestrian mobile antenna of some sort.
As you entered the AZ, it could start making contacts. You keep walking, and it stops making contacts as you leave the AZ. For those rare summits where a permissive path exists, but no right to stop and sit down. Or just for the fun of doing it. You could even make a video of it.
One of my FT8 activations was on the edge of woodland, amongst dry bracken. This produced a lot of dust as I was setting up, some of which settled on the nice shiny Surface Pro keyboard. As the sun set, the temperature dropped and dew settled on everything, turning the bracken dust into a sticky soup.
The most difficult part of the activation was explaining this to the owner of the laptop when I got home
I’ve done PSK31 once, 2007 I think. I had a proven working setup, used it in the shack. Should have worked out of the bag but still required faffing about for 25mins to make it work. Then I could hardly read the screen. At least modern tablets and phones are sun readable!
I’ve done plenty of 13cms activations now. That’s easy to set up, antenna cable to transverter (N and SMA can’t mix them up) transverter to 817 (SMA and BNC, can’t mix them up), PTT lead (3.5mm jack to 8pin miniDIN can’t mix them up), power lead. Set 817 to 432MHz USB and power to 0.5W. ]Trivial. Do you know how many times that has gone wrong? There’s 4 SMA sockets on the transverter and I’ve plugged the antenna into the ext. ref LO, or the RX only sockets, I’ve set the radio to 144MHz, and failed to set the power low. AND I HAVE A CHEAT SHEET OF NOTES and still foul up with excitment
This has resulted in red lights when TXing… instant drop the mike and find the fault warning. No TX signal. No RX signal from GB3CSB which is audible over most of Southern Scotland. It always results in a tightening of the chest and racing pulse till the “user error” is located. And I know what I’m doing!!
I’d expect it would take 5 attempts at least to go from “working system in the shack” to “working system in the garden” to “working system on a summit” so that it just works. That’s before you throw in bad weather etc.
Off to the office now to apply a deft slap to a recalcitrant server that is in “Grand Old Duke of York” mode… it’s neither shut down nor booting up but in some limbo state
I see where you are coming from, Tom. I assumed an orderly parade formation of 100X100men, no allowance for broadness of shoulders or projection of beer gut, allowing each man 2m to the right and forwards except for the front rank and right column which have nothing to space from.
My answer assumed each man to be extremely thin (zero width) - so that will need factoring in. In the same tradition of maths questions that talk about “An uniform rod” or “a smooth surface”.
Your square model, even on these ridiculously lean principles, would demand 40,000m^2 Brian.
The crystallographic part of my brain (barely used since I graduated in 1980) threw the term “hexagonal close packed” at me. Of course, that would refer to a three dimensional solid, so I stopped it right there.
There’s an episode of The Young Ones in which Vivian says repetitively “I’m bored bored bored bored “ ( you get the idea).
This thread started off with a link to a video with the admonition “don’t view it” and has yielded some very funny comments.
Thanks everyone. I have protected the few synapses still in my brain by not succumbing to the clever teacher’s reverse psychology and have not watched the video clip. You can’t trick me into learning, sir.
Yes, if you cast your eyes down a Ham club membership list I think this comment would hold up. I would also include things like adding your own macro to the WSJT app as a bit tricky for many. SOTA folk are much more inquisitive and willing to try new stuff and test themselves out of the shack I reckon so are not that representative of the Ham community.
Compton
Tom,
I have a 90 second attention span, so whatever was in the video after that was not watched.
You are clearly suffering from the lockdown. I extend my sympathy and hope you recover.
The auto function made me uncomfortable. Boeing software?
Definitely -5 stars, the worst SOTA video ever. Good bits further in eh? Pull the other leg Tom. And no I’m not watching any more.
WSJT Z. Did Joe write that? I don’t want my computer/ tablet to decide who I am going to call or work. I might be pretty useless but I do need to make some decisions otherwise why bother? I might as well be dead!
The Z presumably is for zzzzing. Ie sleeping on the summit, within the activation zone of course
The naysayers for FT8 were right. I apologise to them.
Its sad to see how far some of our greatest ops and programs have fallen.
