June 13, 2026: SOTA big group activation at mountain Beljanica, 1339m, YU/IS-013
I visited Serbia for the first time, at the invitation of my new ham radio friend Aleksandar (Aca) Blagojević - YU1CA. It was the fourth edition of the “YU SOTA” ham radio friendship annual event, which took place in the little town of Despotovac. Along with radio amateurs from Serbia, including the team from the local Radio Club Despot (YU1IQR), there were present hams from the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Moldova (i.e. mylself), as well as from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. It was a large group of about 40 radio amateurs, with a dozen cars!
In the morning we visited the medieval fortress-monastery of Manasija, then climbed up the Beljanica mountain at 1339m. Here more than 10 antennas of different sizes and configurations were installed - most of them verticals, both resonant monoband (I had such one, brought from Moldova) and end-fed multiband, and we all made lots of QSOs in CW, SSB and digital modes.
This place allowed to activate SOTA YU/IS-013 (Beljanica mountain), then the flora fauna park YUFF-0051 (Kučaj � Beljanica), and also the landscape park POTA RS-0016 (part of the Resava, Suvaja, Čemernica, Jelov Potok and Beljanička river basin area). I managed to make exactly 44 QSOs (25 SSB and 19 ft4/ft8) in 2.5 hours, so I activated everything! And I was operating QRP only (16W in SSB and 6W in digi).
I worked on the 20m, 30m and 40m bands. Actually on 20m it was impossible to operate, because of the massive QRM from the surrounding antennas. I was hearing the same CW transmission stretching over the whole band, completely blocking my RX. And I did use a very good transceiver - Yaesu FT818nd. I was reaching out well, had even pile-ups, but I could only hear them when the telegraph was silent. Same issue was reported by other participants, so, yes, close antennas during group activations is not to be ignored. Spacing is everything!
This was an extraordinary experience! Everything was superbly organized and I am very grateful to Aca, YU1CA, for the invitation and dedication he put into this.
More photos + Videos: Link
