Your SOTA Goals for 2025!

People
41

Hmmm. Wonder how many of these I can do?

  • Reach Goat x 4.
  • Visit EI and GI.
  • Pick up some more Association in mainland Europe during the summer.
  • Finish my remaining FL/VO 10 point summits.
  • Get well past 700 unique summits.
  • Get another continent, probably Asia via a trip to Cyprus.
  • Pass out of my CWOps CW course… gulp, now I’ve made it public
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42
  1. MG x 1.4 - It took 10 years for MG so adding another 140 points in 2025 seems a reasonable target.
  2. Qualify each summit on FT8.
  3. Release an updated VK port-a-log - it’s been 3 years since the last major revision. (this was also in 2024 goals)
  4. Activate and qualify a summit in VK3/VG region
  5. Activate and qualify a summit outside of VK3
  6. Activate and qualify a summit on 160m
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43

Not really goals but things to try:

  • Activations on 80/160m SSB
  • More activations on 23cm (need to find and use a better /P 23cm rig than an IC9700)
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44

Keep your eyes open on eBay. You often see older stuff going for peanuts from SK sales. In my case I got an early SSB electronics set of modules from an SK sale. But… the guy handling the sale had had no luck trying to shift it as it needs a bit of work. I got for an excellent price. There’s no 23cm c/o switching so at present you switch from RX to TX by moving the antenna from 1 BNC to another. Likewise you need to move the 144MHz IF cable between two BNCs. Also the tin plate boxes were missing lids etc. But it works and makes 1W out on 23cm all modes. I think it wants 1W drive on 2m. So it’s a bit of a faff but it gets you a usable system and 1W from a hill to some simple antennas is a viable system.

Or you could punt about £170 for an SG Lab transverter which is good value for money. Or if you are feeling flush, a Kuhne DB6NT tansverter but they are not cheap. €545 + shipping new!

There’s lots of kit gathering dust so asking on some of the for sale boards can bring in interesting offers as well.

1 Like
45

My goals usually change throughout the year. But to start with, I’ve set myself the goal of travelling to the Alps more often (or staying there longer when I’m there) to activate as many unique summits as possible.
I also want to do more activations with simple, home-built QRP radios, which are already available in my shack. And last but not least, I want to try activating on top band. This, however, requires a suitable antenna, which still needs to be designed.
But above all: Enjoy our wonderful hobby!

73, Roman

2 Likes
46

VK3YE has some ideas for top band antennas vk3ye dot com - Transmitting on 160 metres and vk3ye dot com - 160 & 80m coax cable loop and coupler

I have built a coupler for the coax cable loop but I am yet to try it out.
I have have a couple of nearby summits that have plenty of trees to hang things from and I think 160m qualification should be achievable during our winter (mid year).

2 Likes
47

3. Release an updated VK port-a-log - it’s been 3 years since the last major revision. (this was also in 2024 goals)

How about making port-a-log available for iphones, Peter.

Elliott, K6EL