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Input to SOTA News August 2015 - Contributors please read!

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@G0VOF wrote:

Hi everybody,

To all with contributions for the August 2015 edition of the SOTA news, please be aware that Roy G4SSH is having problems with his email & may not have received your contribution.

Roy would normally acknowledge receipt of all contributions with an email reply, this may,or may not have happened in your case due to these technical problems.

As a short term solution, all contributions that would normally be sent directly to Roy, should instead be sent directly to me via mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

If already sent, to be on the safe side, you can re-send your items directly to me at the email address above.

Thank you,

Contributions are invited for the August 2015 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Thursday 30th July.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.
73

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
-email via mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk as above

North American input to:-
Elliott K6EL
k6ilm@arrl.net

VK Input to:-

Allen VK3HRA
arharvie@gmail.com

South Africa input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 6

Participants: 4

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SOTA NEWS AUG 2015 Part 1

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - AUGUST 2015 - Part 1 of 2
Welcome to the August 2015 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Elliott K6EL, Allen VK3HRA, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Brian G8ADD, Viki M6BWA.
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The July edition of SOTA News was viewed more than 800 times.
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EDITORIAL – by Roy G4SSH

I apologise if this edition of SOTA News is late or truncated in any way. It has travelled along a convoluted route to get to you this month.

On the 10th July my computer began to demand passwords for access to e-mail. It then refused to acknowledge any passwords offered by myself. I could not send or receive mail and every time I tried to do so the screen filled with weird symbols and advice such as "outlook cannot sync subscribed folder". My access to the Internet, Reflector and SOTA Watch was not affected.

I am a computer operator only, and call on the services of my son (who lives in the next village) to sort out any technical problems. Unfortunately he was watching the Tour de France in Paris until the 29th of the month.

I tried to explain the problem to the ISP, Talk-Talk (Tiscali ) advisors in Mumbai and for three weeks (and about £30 on my mobile phone bill) I was in almost daily touch with them. They tried their best but their strong accent and my minimum knowledge of computer jargon was unequal to the task. It was a succession of trying various passwords, none of which were successful.

Interestingly, within 24 hours of reporting the problem I received a call (on my land-line phone) from a person with a strong Indian accent who said he understood that I was having a problem with my computer and would I kindly press the "CTRL" Key and type in characters supplied by him. I asked him who he was but he would not tell me so I asked him to contact me via my Mobile phone (on which Talk-Talk normally contacted me) at which point he hung up.

Was it a coincidence? I would like to think so, but I have heard of similar occurrences.

Finally, my son returned home and sorted the problem in about 30 minutes, so after this month's SOTA News is published we are back to normal service and the e-mail addresses shown at the end of this news are fully back in operation. I have retrieved items for the August SOTA News out of my g4ssh in-box.

My thanks go to Mark G0VOF for acting as relay and providing valuable advice.

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SOTA AWARDS FOR JULY 2015 - from Barry GM4TOE SOTA Awards Manager

July has been a busy month for awards with no less than five Mountain Goats and five Shack Sloths. High scores abound in the Chaser category with Rich,N4EX, marching ever onward and yet finding time to activate too and achieve Mountain Goat. G6TUH has now reached 30K Chaser points as well as chasing 4000 summits and there are several others who have attained over 5000 chaser points.
Congratulations to all of them.

Trophies

Mountain Goat
ON6ZQ Christophe David
W6AH Mike Plaziak
HB9JOE Andreas Thiemann

Shack Sloth
W6JMP Gene Trasti
NG6R Jerry Kendrick
AE9Q David Dostie
VK3AGD Adam Griffiths

Certificates claimed

Activator
ON6ZQ Christophe David 1000 points
N4EX Rich Homolya 1000 points
VK2JDL Philip Clancy 500 points
DD5LP Ed Durrant 250 points
VK3IL David Giddy 250 points
HB9SVT Thomas Gehrig 100 points
MI6AJN Andrew Ruddell 100 points

Activator Unique
HA2EBA Istvan Kovari 100 summits

Chaser
N4EX Rich Homolya 65000 points
G6TUH Michael Morrissey 30000 points
DL2YBG Klaus-Peter Dreessen 5000 points
DD5LP Ed Durrant 5000 points
VK2IO Gerard Hill 2500 points
VK5FANA Adrian Addison 1000 points
W4KRN Karen Russo 1000 points
AE9Q David Dostie 1000 points
VK2JDL Philip Clancy 500 points
KI4FKW Falon Hurst 100 points
SO9ANI Anna Cuber 100 points
MI6AJN Andrew Ruddell 100 points

Chaser Unique
N4EX Rich Homolya 6000 summits
G6TUH Michael Morrissey 4000 summits

Mountain Explorer
HA2EBA Istvan Kovari Bronze
AE9Q David Dostie Bronze

Mountain Hunter
NG6R Jerry Kendrick Platinum
OK2QA Rudolf Klvana Platinum
KI4FKW Falon Hurst Bronze
VK2JDL Philip Clancy Bronze
SQ9OJN Bartosz Cuber Bronze

Summit to Summit
DL4TO Gerhard Sedlak Silver
OK2QA Rudolf Klvana Silver
VK2JDL Philip Clancy Bronze

Not a lot of awards related news this month. The etching process for trophies has been reasonably successful although it has been necessary to source a suitable infill material for the etching from the USA; this does mean that I will (in time) be able to offer alternative colours for the infill rather than the red I have used up to now. If you have a preference for another colour let me know when you order a trophy and I will see what I have to hand. (Stock colours are Red, Blue, White, Gold and Silver)

Discussions at our annual management team meeting covered the awards available and it was decided, now that we have over 100 Associations worldwide, to consider a SOTA DXCC type award. Ideas are being tossed around right now but when a decision is reached an announcement will be made here and on the Reflector. If you have any input I can be contacted via email for your views to be considered.

The continual effort needed to produce (and stockpile) and deliver merchandise takes quite a toll on my available spare time. This is a major contributor towards the costs of running SOTA so the MT have decided to look into ways this workload can be shared. We were approached by one individual who was considering making customised SOTA mugs available and together we have come up with an agreement to allow him the use of the trademark SOTA logo in exchange for a royalty on sales. If anyone else would like to pursue this idea please contact me; it will involve complying with a franchise agreement and a royalty payment to SOTA funds.

I am not even going to discuss the horrendous weather up here but suffice to say that, today, the outside temperature failed to reach double figures Centigrade and the general condition can only be described by that excellent Scots word – dreich!!

Please take care when out and about on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

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IRC's by Roy G4SSH

I was under the impression that International Reply Coupons (IRC's) had been phased out at the end of 2014; at least that was the date printed on all the stock I held. However, I received one with a direct card from France this month, valid until the end of 2017. This was accepted by the local Post Office (after close scrutiny) who stopped issuing them in the UK at the end of 2014.

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STATISTICS from Brian G8ADD

The other night the bands were in poor shape and the TV was worse so I had a look at how the activity levels of SOTA had developed since it started.

First of all, activators:

Number of activators earning points

Year..........1+ point..........10+ points........100+ points........1000+ points
2002.............34..................24....................7.......................0
2003.............94..................65...................21......................0
2004............216................141...................40......................0
2005............282................182...................56......................1
2006............351................247...................74......................0
2007............495................343..................113......................3
2008............630................428..................147......................5
2009............707................461..................143......................0
2010............849................568..................159......................3
2011...........1274................836..................244.....................1
2012...........1433................944..................284.....................4
2013...........1704...............1121.................356......................5
2014...........1866...............1239.................415......................9

Now the Chasers:

Year............1+ point..........10+ points.........100+ points..........1000+ points
2002..............54...................27......................0...........................0
2003.............111...................70....................34...........................2
2004.............243.................180....................75..........................12
2005.............335.................246....................99..........................23
2006.............438.................338...................170.........................49
2007.............610.................493...................271........................100
2008.............782.................650...................378........................148
2009.............860.................697...................414........................144
2010...........1076.................834...................460........................152
2011...........1520................1228..................658.........................216
2012...........1821................1499..................796.........................269
2013...........2142................1787.................1013........................364
2014...........2278................1863.................1059........................382

Two comments: Firstly, we seem likely to surpass 2000 activators scoring points in 2015. Secondly, there is a distinct jump and change of growth in 2011, this is probably because 2010 was a vintage year with thirty new associations including much of the USA. I suspect we will see the same effect when Japan comes on line, with their huge numbers of hams and love of the outdoors.

It is dangerous to extrapolate when we have no idea of the likely take-up of SOTA in the forthcoming new Associations, but at the present rate of growth I can see us having 3,000 activators scoring points annually by 2020 at the latest, and the rate of growth of chasers being higher I would expect to see 3,000 of them annually by 2018.

73

Brian G8ADD

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SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

Three activators ventured onto the band this month with all taking advantage of the better propagation available after sunset. Two of the three summits had never been activated on the band before, whilst the third has seen plenty of activity on Top Band.

First this month, on 3rd July (late evening of the 2nd locally) was Nick K1MAZ who tried the band during an evening activation of W1/CR-006 Peaked Mountain. Nick started on 2m FM before moving to 160m SSB where he qualified the summit with four QSO’s.

Nick says “For my activation of Peaked Mountain, I used an FT-100D running 100W into an LDG YT-100 autotuner connected to an inverted-L for 160m. It's made out of 22 gauge wire, and the most time consuming part of the whole activation was unrolling all that wire.
I had the radiator run up and over a tree and then at about shoulder height for the rest of the length. The two counterpoises were run a ways back down the trails leading from the summit. I definitely need to get out and play some more top band before the summer is over!”

Congratulations Nick on the first 160m activation of Peaked Mountain & of any W1 summit!

Next up, later on the 3rd July was Hans HB9BQU/P who included a spell on 160m during an evening activation of HB/SO-001 Hasenmatt. After working on 10m CW & 2m FM Hans made two QSO’s on 160m SSB before moving on to 40m CW & 80m SSB. For this activation Hans used an FT857 at 70 Watts & an 80m Dipole.

Congratulations Hans on the first 160m activation of Hasenmatt!

The third activation this month took place over the weekend of 4th/5th July. The first weekend of July has traditionally been VHF National Field Day, which sees everything from low power portable operation to multi-operator multi-band legal limit contest stations active from 50Mhz to 1.3GHz. Another thing that has become something of a tradition is the overnight campover on G/NP-008 Great Whernside carried out by John G4YSS for VHF-NFD. 2015 is the thirteenth consecutive year that John has visited Great Whernside for this purpose & the fourth time he has camped overnight.

Other than enjoying casual participation in VHF-NFD John also enjoys activating the summit & especially on Top Band. This year was no different & John included spells on 160m both on the evening of 4th & the morning of the 5th July using GX0OOO/P.

I was fortunate enough to be in the shack on both Saturday night & Sunday morning & managed to work John in both sessions using CW but only made it using SSB on Saturday night. There had been some thunderstorms around & there was John suffered from quite severe QRN during the nigh-time session but still managed an impressive nine QSO’s in this session, 3 CW & 6 SSB including a chat with RA2FI Valery near Nesterov, Kaliningrad!

By the time of the Sunday morning session, daylight was well established & signals were lower than the night before. Consequently I could only hear John using CW through my local noise whilst he was inaudible on SSB at my station. Despite daytime conditions John did manage a further QSO on CW with Roy G4SSH with a final relatively local SSB QSO with Nick G8VNW in Threshfield making three in total for this session.

As usual, John has provided a superbly detailed report on his VHF-NFD weekend, which can be found here:

http://reflector.sota.org.uk/t/g4yss-g-np8-vhf-nfd-campover-4-5-07-15/11165

Thanks for the QSO’s & superb report John!

At the time of writing, these were the only Top band activations during July that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.

On 3 July, Nick K1MAZ Activated W1/CR-006 Peaked Mountain & made 4 QSO's (0 CW / 4 SSB)
On 3 July, Hans HB9BQU/P Activated HB/SO-001 Hasenmatt & made 2 QSO's (0 CW / 2 SSB)
On 4 July, John GX0OOO/P (G4YSS) Activated G/NP-008 Great Whernside & made 9 QSO's (3 CW / 6 SSB)
On 5 July, John GX0OOO/P (G4YSS) Activated G/NP-008 Great Whernside & made 3 QSO's (2 CW / 1 SSB)

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 91 from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ.

It’s GD time again and time to visit some of our favourite summits. Arrived on the Island early morning on the overnight sailing from Heysham. Using the overnight sailings gets you two extra days on the island and saves considerably on the regular prices, We are lucky being close to Heysham and don’t have to leave home till about 1130 in the evening in order to make the overnight sailing. The journey will be made much quicker from the M6 when the new Heysham-M6 link opens. At the moment the Lancaster North J32 has huge road works ongoing including a new large bridge over the Ribble to make it all a reality. The boat trip takes about four hours and it is my (Robs) test of the onset of old age being able to sleep on a seat in the lounge, usually not crowded but avoid TT time and take a car blanket. Happily passed the test this year with no problems.

July 1st
Having established ourselves at our usual accommodation which is well up on the flank of South Barrule and a day of pottering round old haunts we woke to a warm day and the view of the summit if the hill in sunshine through the back window convinced us that this was the hill for today. The usual attack is from the Round Table Road junction but there is no public transport in the area so a car is pretty much a requirement. The climb is from the bridleway at the point where the plantation ends and there is room for about six cars but it is often busy. The path climbs across heather and there are a couple of steeper sections each topped with a rocky outcrop. The summit has been occupied from ancient times, the god, king Mannanin ruled from a hill fort and an Iron Age community lived here later. Through time the Manx occupied the summit as a defence beacon. Service here was compulsory and long for all men folk and the rocky outcrops were as far as women bringing supplies were allowed to climb and only at a time when the troops had been withdrawn to a safe distance!

Nowadays the summit is unoccupied with a large, not very effective shelter, a trig pillar and a small plaque to the Iron Age fort. Today it is warm but windy and the wind direction forces us to use the half tent facing north east, not the best direction for views etc. HF conditions are rather strange with lots of QSB and bands being unusable for long periods, just one contact on 5MHz in spite of a lot of calling, nine on 7MHz CW, seventeen on 10MHz and nothing on 14MHz despite a lot more calling. VHF was also quiet with just six stations all regulars worked. As we do not like to self spot from a summit and the timing being poor the returns are not too bad but there does seem to be a big reduction in SOTA chaser activity locally and a worrying lack of newer call signs in the bag.

July 2nd
Mist enveloped the island resulting in a touristy day but by evening Mull was out of cloud and in sunshine so we decided upon a quick visit to watch the sunset. There is an infrequent bus service to Cregniesh Village and the Sound. Cregniesh is almost at the top of Mull hill so Public transport is an option. There is room along the sides of the Cregniesh to Port Erin minor road for odd cars but avoid
passing places. There are at least three obvious tracks to the summit, two are metalled but we would not recommend them if your car is at all delicate. The summit is the home of a WW2 radar site though most of it has long since gone into the heather. Two pillboxes remain; the larger one is intact and can be used as a shack if the weather is poor, watch out for the low concrete beam at the entrance. If you’re more than about 5ft2ins it will hurt! The survey spot height is in the centre of the roof but guess it does not count as a trig. The site has presence and it is sad that so little is known of what went on there so relatively recently. Tonight all is quiet and ideal for a quick VHF only activation as the sun drops slowly into the western sea.

Friday 3rd July
Weather-wise a perfect day so off to Slieau Freoaghane GD-002, a hill that sota wise is much ignored, the last recorded activation was by us last year. Much of this probably has to do with its remoteness from public transport. A few years ago we activated all five GD summits in a day and on SOTAwatch under tips for Snaefell is a file (GD in A Day) with details of road routes to all five which would help even if you're only doing one of them. How we did them all in a day then, we often wonder now!. The climb starts on a green road where there is room for about four cars by the road opposite. The green road runs beside a forestry plantation and is rough under foot and often used by bikes, motor bikes and 4x4s, do take care. Eventually the plantation ends and the road continues across moorland in a large S shape.
After about the same length of walk as the plantation, look on your right for a small brown stone marker rather like a small gravestone. Opposite the marker a narrow path, sometimes disguised as a stream leads off on the left through the heather moorland to contour and climb the hill. The path is narrow and the upper section has small white stones laid at intervals to help navigation. The white quartz outcrop often mentioned in routes is away from the path and on relatively steep broken ground. The summit has a large pile of stones a trig pillar and a large wooden pole which used to carry an upward facing white spotlight, presumably a navigation aid to aircraft, a number of which crashed on the steeper north west face during WW2. How the light was powered makes us wonder. The little half tent kept the breeze at bay and under very pleasant conditions we set of on hf. once again 5MHz was unproductive but this time so was 7MHz. 10MHz was a little better and the contact that qualified the summit for us also took our activator points total past 2500 and the next certificate, been a long time coming! 20m and vhf followed completing a great day on the hills.

Sunday 5th July
Old Midsummer’s Day when the Island celebrates Tynwald but not on a Sunday so the fair etc is tomorrow leaving us free to climb a hill so off we go to GD-001 Snaefell. The weather is cooler than it has been but this has not stopped the strong wind or breeze as the met people optimistically call it. We climb from the Bungalow Station, there is direct public transport available to the summit via the Manx Electric Railway tram service, the price per person from the Bungalow is £12 return, we are of course walking both ways. The climb is direct and the paths well worn, obvious in clear weather and they all lead to the summit. There are several buildings on the summit plateau including the railway station with cafe and even evening meals as part of a railway package, it's only open when the trains are running. At the other end of the plateau is the NATS Transmitter/Receiver site, a large building with attached mast and it is in the lee of this building that we have to shelter from the very strong wind blowing along the summit. There is a small area at the far end of the summit that is sheltered on two sides by the buildings which puts a good VHF signal into northern England, aided by reflection from the metal buildings behind. Lots of contacts aided by the buildings kept us going for some time and when we finally poked our heads round the end to head down it was into a very strong wind and thick cloud which persevered right down to the bungalow station. This hill does have the advantage that once you find the rail track you can follow it back to base. We did not need this option!
Normally on Tynwald day we visit the Field and later activate Bradda Hill but this year was something else. The rain was extreme and we could only pity the participants in their best clothes and regalia sitting outside in the downpour as we ate our ice-cream under our umbrella clad in waterproofs. Later in the day the rain became even heavier, we've lived through a few monsoons in the Far East, this was worse and horizontal instead of vertical, not a day for walking.
Tuesday 7th July and the weather was much better, although cloud was on the higher tops so we decided on a full activation of Mull Hill. The lower HF bands were quite good but the higher ones were not working. A couple of motorcyclists arrived gingerly at the summit on bikes obviously more suited to the TT than the motocross trip up the much potholed track. They were looking for the stone circle which is at the far end of the summit area and had been told by a local, who had obviously not used it for years that the road was perfect. Our visitors thought we were kite flying.

Thursday 9th July
Bradda Hill and a perfect day for an activation. There are two routes up this hill, both use the coast path The first continues along the cliff path from Bradda Head with its tower, many people think this is the summit, not so. There is some serious exposure on this route and it is not for me (Rob). The second is from just outside Fleshwick Bay and is a twenty minute slog up an almost vertical piece of moorland and long grass. Today we discovered that the path, such as it is has been cut back, usually it is over head high and a climb is like a scene from "African Queen" but today things are much easier, Later we met some fell runners training for a major run which involved scaling Bradda Hill and others not once but twice which explained the tidying up activity on the path. As we climbed the final slope close to the cliff edge we noticed that we were being watched from the seaward side by a large cat hiding in the undergrowth. As the nearest farm is about two miles away we assumed it was living wild on the cliffs. The views from the summit are sublime and it really is the perfect destination. The moorland has recovered from the huge fire that swept the hill a few years ago and is new and perfect so was the activation. Many chasers needed this hill to complete the set and it is rarely activated so there is always an extra buzz in helping them out. Today quite a few were successful including two from the Whitehaven area Derek 2E0MIX and Colin M0XSD who was the first completion for our little yearly award. It is surprising that the Cumbria coast is so difficult from this hill on vhf whereas from Mull Hill which is quite close by, the beam heading is similar and there are no obvious extra obstructions but we made it, just! A perfect day out.

Friday 10th July
Snaefell again, this time it is cloud free but the wind from the southeast is severe and the only tenable spot is once again in the lee of the NATS building, tucked even deeper into the corner. The hf antenna was just impossible and the 2m beam was very close to the building with a real risk of losing elements off the 12ft security fence. Brian G4ZRP became the second chaser to win our little award. The start of the descent, emerging from the shelter was heavy going in the gale, once off the summit it was a little better and Audrey was under less risk of being blown over, I did offer her the heavier rucksack.

Saturday 11th July and a second visit to South Barrule this time with cloud and wind on the summit although warm and pleasant lower down. We used the half tent which is a very effective windbreak once the aeronautics of setting it up is complete. The lower hf bands were dead but the higher ones fair.
Sunday 12th July and a nice day so time to visit Slieau Freoaghane again. This time the path was on secondary duty as a small stream but the boggy patches are easily sidestepped at this time of year. The hf bands were only fair which is a shame as lots of activators want this rarely operated summit We were really sorry for G0HRT, we heard Rob call us at about 55 but he did not respond to our repeated calls, maybe next year! As we walked down we noticed the purple blush of heather just beginning to show, the hills name means hill of the heather and in a month or so it will be a purple cloud. As we reached the car Audrey noticed that the sole of one of my boots did not look right and closer inspection revealed that the outer sole of one was hanging off and the other not a lot better. This will put paid to any second trip up Bradda Hill so apologies in advance for that.

Tuesday 14th July, last day of this visit and can’t resist a quick trainer clad walk up Mull Hill, lightweight VHF only as everything is packed in the car. Just four contacts and it’s time to wind our way back to Douglas for the evening boat. Roll on next year.
Back at home and evaluating the battle damage, my boots can be repaired but will need a trip to Burnley so will take advantage of this to get the zip in my walking coat sorted with the result that we will be off the hills for a couple of weeks unless the weather is very good. Last night the 26th JULY we had to put the heating on and this morning the car was showing an ice alarm! The TV reports it’s a lovely summer “Not round here mate” in the words of Tony Hancock. If you use webcams to get some idea of local conditions then try http://www.mylocalweather.org.uk/ribblehead/ and click on the live webcam which gives a real time view of the viaduct and Whernside in the background, with or without cloud Just hope it lasts longer than most of those in LD which are stuck firmly in the past.

Well all for now, thanks to everyone for all the calls to GD, just two qualifiers for our little certificate this year Colin M0XSD and Brian G4ZRP, on its way shortly gentlemen.
Take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ

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************************ CONTINUED IN PART 2 ********************

SOTA USA REPORT
SOTA AUSTRALIA REPORT
SOTA NORTHERN IRELAND VHF EXPEDITION
SOTA CW REPORT
EXTRACTS FROM SOTA DATA BASE
SOTA NEWS CONTACTS

Posts: 3

Participants: 2

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SOTA NEWS AUG 2015 Part 2

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - AUGUST 2015 - Part 2 of 2

NORTH AMERICAN SOTA NEWS – From ELLIOTT K6EL, through 29 JULY 2015

Greetings from the land of big hills and little radios, on behalf of Skip K6DGW. He is in the process of moving from his four-acre antenna farm to an antenna-restricted condominium near Reno, Nevada, so I’ll cover for him now and next month. At best, he can put up antennas similar to the configuration depicted on the QRZ.com page of NG6R.

The goats just keep on coming in NaSota: In July, Doc, K7SO did 56 points in six climbing days to finish Mountain Goat. Mike, W6AH did 100 points in eight days to do the same. Rich, N4EX, reached goat on June 17th after doing his climbs “spare time” over a span of 38 months whilst pursuing his main reason for living – chasing every Sota signal ever emitted, plus some by ESP. He had no help from bonus points, of which he has zero. Compare that with N1CAI, who has the rarest of all activation logs – more bonus points, six, than regular points, four. The N4EX ratio of chaser points to activator points is 66 to one, and his first few years chasing are reported to be QRP.

We now have 30 goats in North America, including VA2VL in Canada. Who’s next? It’s a horse race, between Randy K5RHD and the Ukrainian Dynamo, KD7WPJ. Both are close, and both have been piling on points in July.

On the chaser side, Dave AE9Q reached trophy level from Alabama. Phil NS7P reached the super 5 – 50,000 chaser points, at the same time as he announced a chronic medical condition that will limit his activations in future. That number of points from the West coast is a startling thing, as I should know. Dan AE9F reached Super Sloth using QRP only, from deep in a canyon just South of K6EL’s hilltop, and he used a tiny chimney-strapped antenna plus a sloper plus an 817. They say life’s too short for QRP – maybe it’s time to re-think that.

A year ago, someone on the MT said we in NaSota took to Sota like ducks to water. Now the lake is full of ducks. In just the last few months we have been buried by several dozen calls no one ever heard before, and they are serious, well equipped climbers. There isn’t room to recognize all of them, but I can focus on a portion of the newer YL’s: Paula N6VGW, Erin KE0DCV, Barb AE7AQ, Jennie K7GEN, Mary N1RKO, Marcia KB1WEP, and Karen W4KRN (a big time CW operator).

If you see great photos of N0BCB on summits, those were done by Erin KE0DCV, who is a professional portrait and wedding photographer. If Barb’s call sounds familiar, she is co-author of the best Sota promotion ever to appear in QST magazine. See page 64-68 of the August 2015 issue.

Welcome to the Summit Sisters, ladies. That group is getting noticeably larger. Not as big as Mikes on Hikes, though. With all the newbies, I swear there must be 20 Mikes. It’s an American thing.

Did anyone hear the JA activations? Good luck. Outside Japan, only two stations are in the logs – VK5CZ on 15 SSB from several peaks, and Matt KA1R on 17. KA1R formerly taught at MIT, where he did his PhD work, and he says he used a KW and a SteppIR 2E remotely in Oregon, working JS1UEH on 17 meters July 19th, the second of the earliest JA activations. He is not in the Sota program. He gave a 449 report with very poor band conditions under rapid QSB, and the JA came out of the noise for only 1 or 2 seconds at a time. That JA indicated he would climb again July 26th, but all signs are that he cancelled. It’s been unusually hot and humid in Japan, and people have been flown off mountains by pilots in the same business as Prince William – at great expense. In addition to the two inaugural climbs by JS1UEH, the first being Mt. Fuji, a climb was done by JI1TLL who logged all JA’s, including 5 near Sota summits but not in the AZ. A climb was later done by JG1XMV, with good signals to VK, according to VK5CV. The TLL and XMV activations are not yet logged as of this writing, but another climb has been alerted by JR1NNL for 0200 UTC on August 1st. All activity is in Honshu so far, and much of it is near Tokyo. Have you noticed that all climbers are local? The same with KP4, and the exact opposite of KH6.

Coming up are some exciting NaSota events. N6L will be on the air from and near Lassen National Park, California, August 7-12, with KH2TJ at the controls, including a half-dozen Sota peaks. See lassenbirthday.blogspot.com

The W7 summit to summit party is all day August 1-2. At the top of the hour, look for s2s stations on 7.033 and 7.195, and at the bottom of the hour look on 14.063 and 14.346. The call out is “s2s” or “QRZ s2s”. You do not have to be in W7-land to participate.

The ARRL UHF contest is from 1800 UTC August 1st to 1800 UTC on August 2nd, limited to 222MHz and up. There are at least four NaSota operators doing microwave, including K7ATN and K6EL. Look for us on 23 cm and 70 cm. The Hepburn Tropo Index likes 1200 to 1800 Saturday for E-skip possibilities. The contest exchange is your grid square, and self-spotting is allowed.

August 1-2 is also the 25th annual K0NR 14’er event, with climbs on some of the 54 Colorado summits that exceed 14,000 feet. Climbs will start well before sunrise, so that activators can start back down before lightning begins around 1800 UTC. Pikes Peak is the only drive-up, since Mt. Evans has ongoing road repair. Most activity will be Sunday morning, and an effort is underway to avoid having two operators on the same peak at the same time. KT5X says:

“In 2012, the Year of the Mountain Goat, the first five SOTA Goats met in the Arkansas River Canyon, and did a bunch of peaks together, peaks that are over 14,000 feet elevation. Each year since this has been the scene of an informal gathering of SOTA ops. I am aware of at least the following SOTA ops who will be present in the valley activating peaks including some Fourteeners this week. They are: W0CP+YL, NN5K+YL, WA2USA+YL, K1JD, NM5S, K7SO, N0BCB+YL, and KT5X (WS0TA). Also, in NM, AD5A and KC5CW will be activating peaks. Look for these operators from Thursday through Sunday. Pay attention to the peaks they are on. When you see that someone is on a Fourteener, (which is over 4,000 meters), you can go to < www.14ers.com > to find the peak by name on the left side of the page. Click on it. Then perhaps, click on "routes." Then click on the #1 route as it was most probably used. Here you will find both trail descriptions and photographs all along the route. I am hoping this adds to your enjoyment of working stations that have been set up following often grueling treks at high altitude and frequently who start hiking well before dawn. Early start, and early exit from these high peaks is one's best defense against lightning which almost always visits the peaks after noon during the summer months.”

Hold that date: September 12-13 is the annual NaSota Activity Weekend.

Tune in next month for discussion of the third anniversary and history of the KU6J RBNGate machine; W6EL – the much more famous ham; propagation – is there any; APRS stories; the ARRL Centennial Challenge surprise; the next KD5ZZK blockbuster trip; and the mystery surrounding NaSota 80 and 160 meter activations.

73,

Elliott, K6EL
Barely adequate temporary
CANADA/US SOTA Reporter Dude

(Many thanks for a magnificent first time report Elliott - Ed)

======================================================

SOTA NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA from Allen VK3HRA

With the poor start to the snow season, several activators who were intending to activate high-end Alpine summits (with seasonal bonuses up for grabs) ended up hiking instead of skiing, never the less still out.
Weather and band conditions turned towards the end of the month to bring the winter experience home.

Several VK operators incorporated family holidays with the SOTA activations and headed overseas. John VK6NU headed to Ireland picking up
5 Activations from 3 different summits (EI/IN-067 Knoacnarea, EI/IE-054 Mohercrom and EI/IS-050 Torc Mountain) in 3 Associations.
VK3CAT Tony headed to Canada to activated (Burnaby Mountain VE7/GV-009, Dufferin Hill VE7/TN-022, Whistler Peak VE6/EC-001 and Tunnel Mountain
VE6/HC-035) 4 summits across 4 associations and a couple of coffee shops.

In VK1 and VK2 in the last month the main activity has been by Phil VK2JDL, Gerard VK2IO, Andrew VK1NAM, Al VK1RX, Andrew VK1MBE, Ian VK1DI and Andrew VK1DA, some of it focussed around the 10m/6m challenge. By far the majority of qualifying contacts made have been on 10m. In June there was still some morning propagation into the US on 10m and some activators enjoyed some good openings. Al VK1RX built a portable 2 element yagi for 10m and used it on at least one summit. He also built a quad for 6m and used that on several summits.

The number of unique stations worked is low for VK operators as there are not very many local operators and they rely on openings to North America or Japan to build the numbers. With JA now live on SOTA it will be interesting to see how many JA operators become chasers and activators.

There was a contact with Warren ZL2AJ chasing on 40m. This is a notable contact as Warren will be the AM for ZL SOTA and demonstrates that 40M will soon be routinely used for international SOTA contacts. We are waiting for ZL inclusion with much anticipation.

The mid winter VHF/UHF field day in June sparked some activity on SOTA summits with VK2IO and VK1DA making several contacts on VHF/UHF bands.
Overall winter activity was at its typical low level.

Andrew VK1DA travelled northwards in late June and activated Mt Canobolas VK2/CT-001 and Mt Kaputar VK2/NW-001 en route to Brisbane.
There are plenty more summits yet to be activated in those areas.
Given the conditions the level of activity is surprising with several summits receiving high attention.

Mt Gawler VK5/SE-013 received the usual high attention with (Bert VK5BB, Allen VK5LAM, Nigel VK5NIG and Stuart VK5STU) all activating this summit. Its good to see Mt Gawler back on the list after the fires. We may need to install a booking process for this summit.

Whilst David VK3IL was walking up the track to The Hump (VK3/VE-019) he came across a man and his son walking down. They were carrying a squid pole. The Hump is not known for its fishing so David quickly asked the question had to asked as to whether they had had just done a SOTA activation, Yes it was Paul VK3HN. Both parties reported it was great to put a face to a call sign especially in the SOTA activators natural environment.

David VK3IL has taken advantage of the milder weather to activate several Alpine summits. David has published his exploits are available at http://vk3il.net/2015/07/ Worth a read.

During his activation of Bakers Downfall Hill, VK2/NW-006, Matt VK2DAG found a pair glasses. They were on the top of the summit on an ideal operating position. 4 days earlier Phil VK2JDL had activated the summit losing his glasses. It didn’t take long to determine the owner and to organise the return of the wayward glasses.

The weather was not to disappoint. The rain and wind returned towards the end of the month. The sensible cancelled activations but someone had to brave the elements to allow the sloths the pleasure of chasing from a warm environment. Ron VK3AFW and Allen VK3HRA completed a MTR to MTR contact on what has turned out to be one of the harshest days this winter. With the wind getting colder, the Bothy Bags were deployed and activations completed. It’s amazing the difference a simple shelter makes to warmth.

Allen
VK3HRA

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VK1 WINTER SOTA PARTY - Reminder from Andrew VK1NAM

The VK1 winter SOTA Party will be held on Sunday 2nd August from 9 am local (23:00 UTC) .

6 & 10m will be a major focus for chasers and S2S contacts.
Activators are keen to work US chasers on 10m.
Please lookout for VK spots from 2300 UTC 1 Aug 15.

=========================================================

VHF AND UHF TOUR OF GI 6-20 June 2015 - by Viki M6BWA

We (M6BWA and M0JLA) crossed from Holyhead to Dublin on Friday, 5th June and drove up to Newcastle (Mourne Mountains) for 8 nights, with a further 7 nights near Ballycastle (sightseeing and Antrim Hills). The weather had been cold and wet the previous week with high winds and showers forecast for Saturday so we decided on a couple of low summits, which would also benefit my right knee which I had twisted on a Welsh summit only 10 days earlier. On each hill I was hoping to get 4 contacts on each of 2m and 70cm fm but would borrow the 40m rig if I couldn't qualify the hill.

A drenching shower told us what to expect as we prepared to leave the car to go up Knochree (MM-014) and I used my bothy bag for the first time on the summit and discovered how deafening heavy rain is! After that day the weather in the Mourne Mountains was super (but deteriorated a bit on travelling North) and we were reluctant to have a sorely needed rest day. During this time we activated MM-001 to 007, and 010 to 014 and had plans for 008/9 on the trip South but there wasn't time. The only hill I hadn't made enough contacts was Gruggandoo (MM-013) when we had to leave after 20 minutes with 5 on 2m and only 2 on 70cm.

At the end of the week we travelled North and activated 5 Antrim Hills with Crosslieve (AH-011) my only failure with only 3 on 2m and 1 on 70cm (GM0FSZ in Girvan) but 40m came to my rescue. I knew this little hill would be a challenge and just wanted to see if any contacts were possible. The lower hills (SM-015, CA-001 to 003) were all difficult and I only qualified Carrigatuke (CA-003) after a phone call to a fellow operator in Lisburn who duly turned on his set! This was typical of the help I was given when on the trip.

The rig was a Yaesu VX7 (max 5w) with Sotabeam dipole (for both 2m and 70cm), a 2m beam (only used on AH-011 and CA-003) and, apparently the most important item, an XYL voice!! I understand that female activators are even rarer in GI than in G/GW and I was mistaken for Caroline G3ZCB on a couple of occasions as she had been in the Mourne Mountains the previous year. My thanks to everyone for their advice before we went and especially to M0JLA, my most frequent chaser MI0GDO (Robert, Antrim, 28 contacts), and to GM0FSZ (Eric, Girvan, 9) who altered his rig so that we could talk on 70cm after our first contact.

The stats are below. During these 15 days we activated 21 summits and I had 146 contacts on 2m fm and 111 on 70cm fm. I usually called on 2m first and then changed to 70cm and most of my 70cm contacts also spoke to me on 2m. On Slieveanorra (AH-003) I started with a S2S with GI4KSO on MM-007 on both 2m and 70cm, using only the stick aerial. After 3 more contacts came in I had qualified the hill on 70cm and had to erect the dipole to gain the necessary 4 contacts on 2m! This was the only hill where I ended up with more 70cm than 2m contacts. We very much enjoyed our trip and would thoroughly recommend the Mourne Mountains especially if you are lucky with the weather!

Activations – in date order:

MM-014 9 contacts (5 2m, 4 70cm): GI 2, EI 4
MM-011 10 contacts (6 2m, 4 70cm): GI 3, GW 4
MM-007 12 contacts (6 2m, 6 70cm): GI 6, EI 2, GW 1
MM-012 9 contacts (5 2m, 7 70cm): EI 3, GW 2
CA-001 8 contacts (4 2m, 4 70cm): GI 1, EI 4
MM-013 7 contacts (5 2m, 2 70cm): GI 7 (short activation)
MM-002 19 contacts (10 2m, 9 70cm): GI 7, G 5
MM-001 20 contacts (10 2m, 10 70cm): GI 11, EI 1, GW 1, G 2
MM-003 20 contacts (14 2m, 6 70cm): GI 6, EI 1, GW 2, G 4, GD 1
MM-006 23 contacts (13 2m, 10 70cm): GI 7, EI 2, GW 2. G 5
MM-010 14 contacts (10 2m, 4 70cm): GI 10
MM-004 13 contacts (8 2m, 5 70cm): GI 5, EI 2, GM 2
MM-005 17 contacts (12 2m, 5 70cm): GI 6, EI 1, GW 3, G 4

AH-002 15 contacts (8 2m, 7 70cm): GI 8, GM 4
AH-003 10 contacts (4 2m, 6 70cm): GI 5, GM 1
AH-011 4 contacts (3 2m, 1 70cm): GI 2, GM 1
SM-015 8 contacts (4 2m, 4 70cm): GI 4
AH-007 10 contacts (6 2m, 4 70cm): GI 5, GM 1
AH-008 10 contacts (5 2m, 5 70cm): GI 7, GM 1
CA-002 10 contacts (6 2m, 4 70cm): GI 5, GW 1
CA-003 8 contacts (4 2m, 4 70cm): GI 6, EI 1

Total: 92 different contacts: GI 52, EI 15, G 9, GW 9, GM 6, GD 1

Viki M6BWA

==================================================

CW REPORT FOR JULY 2015 from Roy G4SSH

The month of July could rightly be called the month of the French Activator. Barely a day went past without a multi-band, multi-op expedition running on CW. Unfortunately band conditions were very poor overall, with entire bands dead at times.

Many activators commenced on 50 MHz then 28 MHz and down the bands but propagation on these higher bands did not appear to be as good as last month. My personal success rate at hearing stations spotted on these 2 bands was about 5% although I did manage to contact my first ever SOTA station on 50 MHz, being Alain F6ENO/p (CW) on the 14th at 0742 UTC. (Plus a second from Gerald F6HBI on the 28th).

At the start of the month Marko OH9XX continued his fishing trip from various locations in Finland, Angel M0HDF continued his expedition around Europe. Phil was active on many bands as I/G4OBK, listening "1 up" to assist with the pile up's and Rob GD4RQJ and Audrey were commencing their expedition on the Isle of Man.

Gerald F6HBI and Bob F5HTR completed a magnificent round of five 10 point summits on the 2nd June, which was one of the hottest days on record.

Chris ON6ZQ commenced a tour in the BW region of Germany on the 4th and Paul OK2PDT was operating as OE/OK2PDT.

Saku OH2NOS was very active on his "Tour de Central Finland" aiming for his target to activate 20 one-point Summits on CW in four weeks. First was Monday July 6th and second Saturday and Sunday July 11th and 12th. During the first trip Saku used 14 MHz and during second trip 18 MHz due to a world-wide contest. Sadly propagation was very poor with 14 and 18 MHz going over my head and I only managed to hear Saku on very few of his activations. Sake commented that so far he had made two trips, 12 summits together. Sake also commenced another 6 summit tour in the JS region on the 28th of the month.

Glyn G4CFS did an expedition around the East South Downs way on the 6th

French stations were again very evident on the 9th, with Roger F5LKW, Bob F5HTR, Gerald F6HBI and Andre F5UKL all busy with multi activations on multiple bands during the day.

A pleasure to see Takeshi JS1UEH listed on the Alerts for JA/SZ-001, CW and SSB at 0001 on the 11th, and again on JA/TO-001 at the same time on the 18th. This was followed by Arnaud JG1XMV active over the last weekend in the month.

Aage LA1ENA was heard active as EA7/LA1ENA on a few days around the middle of the month.

Gerald F6HBI reports that on the 16 of July, 11 French operators activated 19 different summits!

On the 18th Jean-Pierre was active from Corsica as TK/F5OAU on 18 MHz and JeanF5OAU was also there on the 25th.

Roger F5KLW was again on his travels on the 21st when he was heard attempting to activate seven summits in the day.

Active heard towards the end of the month was Geert PA7ZEE from EI-land, Adrian F/MM0DHY was on an expedition around the PE region of France, and Igor OM3CUG was active as OK/OM3CUG, OE/OM3CUG and SP/OM3CUG, also Andy EA7/HB9JOE.

Volker DM2MT commenced a round of at least six summits in the NS region of Germany on the 23rd, lasting six days. Jan, OK2PDT was also active most days as OE/OK2PDT and DL/OK2PDT.

The month was brought to big finish with a highly successful team activation of Ailsa Craig Island, GM/SS-246, on the 25th, where at least 5 ops did their best to work as many chasers as possible in spite of abysmal propagation and a restricted time frame.

The month would not have been complete without further expeditions from Tof F5UBH, Roger F5LKW, Andre F5UKL and Gerald F6HBI commencing on the 28th. Also another five summits in the AM region of France from Roger F5LKW on the 29th.

73
Roy G4SSH

===========================================================

THE 2015/2016 OFFICIAL SOTA CHALLENGE and SOTA Microwave Challenge.

SOTA Activators submitting entries to the data base for 10m and 6m during July 2015 -
also 1240 MHz, by request. These files produced on 31st July 2015 - from Kevin G0NUP.

Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for July

DF3MC/P, DJ9MH/P, DK1WI/P, DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, EA2BD/P, EA2LU/P, EA2WX/P, F5LKW/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, G4AZS/P, G4OOE/P, G4TJC/P, GM4COX, GW4AZS/P, GW4TJC/P, GX0OOO/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BIN, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, I/G4OBK/P, K6EL, M0FMF/P, M1EYP/P, NF1R, OE/OK2PDT/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2PDT/P, S52CU/P, S58R/P, W6AH, W7USA

Mode: SOTA CW on 50MHz: activity for July

CT1DBS/P, F4HOD/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P, F6ENO/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G4TJC/P, HA2VR/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CKV/P, I/G4OBK/P, JS1UEH/1, K1JD, K6EL, K7ATN, M1EYP/P, NF1R, NW4N, OE/OK2PDT/P, OK2PDT/P, S5100ISONZO, S52CU/P, WB5USB, YO2BP/P

Mode: SOTA CW on 1240MHz: activity for July.

HA2VR/P, HB9BAT/P

Mode: SOTA FM on 28MHz: activity for July

2E0YYY/P, DG7ACF/P, K7MWT, M1EYP/P, S56LXN/P

Mode: SOTA FM on 50MHz: activity for July

2E0YYY/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, G4TJC/P, GW4TJC/P, K7MWT, M1EYP/P, VK3PI, VK3TST

Mode: SOTA FM on 1240MHz: activity for July

EC4TR/P, K7ATN, KE7MSU, SQ9KCP, WW7D

Mode: SOTA SSB on 28MHz: activity for July

2E0YYY/P, CT1DBS/P, CT2IUV/P, CT2IXX/P, CT8/DL8DBW/P, DB7MM, DB7MM/P, DD5LP/P, DD9WG, DG0JMB/P, DG4DDA/P, DG7ACF, DG7ACF/P, DH1JH/P, DH7FK/P, DK6PK/P, DL/G1INK/P, DL/HB9BIN/P, DL/OE5EEP, DL8DBW/P, DN1WG, DO1DJJ/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2BSB/P, EA2DCA/P, EA2DNO/P, EA2DYS/P, EA2ECA/P, EA2IF/P, EA2WX/P, EA3HP/P, EA5/HB9JOE/P, EB2GKK/P, EC2AG/P, F/ON7DQ/P, F4ESK/P, F4GLD/P, F5LKW/P, G1INK/P, G4AZS/P, G4CQZ/P, G4TJC/P, G6DTN/P, GW4AZS/P, GW4TJC/P, GW4VPX/P, GW6DTN/P, GX0OOO/P, HB0/OE9HRV/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9CKV/P, HB9DST/P, HB9ZCW/P, I/G4OBK/P, IW2OBX/QRP, IZ1OQU, IZ1TWC, K5RHD, K6EL, K7ATN, KC5CW, KD2GKO, KG7URC, KG7URD, KI4SVM, LA3NGA/P, M0JCQ/P, M1EYP/P, MM0YCJ/P, MW/VK1MA, N5XL, NF1R, OE/OK2PDT/P, OE/S57MS/P, OE3HPU/P, OE3JSU/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5IRO/P, OE5REO/P, OE5RTP/P, OE5YYN/P, OE7FMJ/P, OE9HRV/P, OK2PDT/P, OK4KOP/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S52Q/P, S55KM/P, S55X/P, S56LXN/P, S57MS/P, SQ9OJN/P, SV2OXS/P, SV6/OE5JKL/P, SV8/OE5JKL/P, VK1ATP/P, VK1DA, VK1DI/2, VK1MBE, VK1NAM/P, VK1RX, VK2JDL/P, VK2MWP, W6AH, WB5USB, WB7ENX, YO6PIB/P

Mode: SOTA SSB on 50MHz: activity for July

AF7GL, EA2BD/P, EA2BSB/P, F/ON7DQ/P, F1REI/P, F4ESK/P, F5HTR/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, G3RDQ/P, G4CQZ/P, G4TJC/P, G8XYJ, GM7PKT/P, GW2HFR/P, HA2VR/P, HB0/OE9HRV/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9DST/P, HB9EXF/P, HB9ZCW/P, I/G4OBK/P, I1WKN, IK1RAC, IW2OBX/QRP, IZ2JNN/IN3, JI1TLL, JS1UEH/1, JS1UEH/2, K1JD, K5RHD, K6EL, K7ATN, K7TMT, KC5CW, KE7IHG, KF7QLP, LA3NGA/P, M0HGY/P, M0JCQ/P, M1EYP/P, M6EUW/P, MM0FMF/P, MM0YCJ/P, N5XL, NF1R, NJ7V, NW4N, OE/S57MS/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5IRO/P, OE5PEN/P, OE5RTP/P, OE9HRV/P, OK2PDT/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S52Q/P, S55KM/P, S55X/P, S56LXN/P, S57MS/P, SV6/OE5JKL/P, VK1DA, VK1DI/2, VK1MBE, VK1NAM/P, VK2JDL/P, VK2MWP, W6AH, W7JET, W7USA, WA2FON, WW7D

Mode: SOTA SSB on 1240MHz: activity for July

HA2VR/P, HB9BAT/P

--
Regards
Kevin J Prince
G0NUP

=============================================================

SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.

I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Elliott K6EL k6ilm@arrl.net
(Temporary replacement for Skip who is moving QTH in July-August)

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za


Posts: 4

Participants: 3

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Input to SOTA News September 2015

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@G0VOF wrote:

Contributions are invited for the September 2015 edition of SOTA News.The deadline for submissions is Sunday 30th August.

Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Elliott K6EL k6el@arrl.net
(Temporary replacement for Skip who is moving QTH in July-August)

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 7

Participants: 4

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SOTA NEWS SEPT 2015 Part 1

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2015 - Part 1 of 2

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH
Welcome to the September 2015 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Elliott K6EL, Allen VK3HRA, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Nick GI4OOE, Geoff 2I0NON, Phil G4OBK, Martin OE5REO, Jürg HB9BIN, Ignacio EA2BD, Karl M3FEH, Geert PA7ZEE, Paul HB9DST, Peter ON4UP.

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The August edition of SOTA News was viewed 925 times.
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SOTA AWARDS AUGUST 2015 from Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager

August is always a quiet month for awards and this year is no different.

Four new Mountain Goats, F5UBH, HB9FPM, K7SO and HB9JOE, join the growing ranks of Activators who have reached this level (246 at the last count) and are joined by HB9BIN who has now reached 5000 points placing him at number 8 in the Activator Honour Roll. NS7P has just claimed the latest 50K Chaser certificate and is joined on the Supersloth roll by N7CW.

Finally a mention for Caroline M3ZCB who has now managed to Complete (i.e. Activate and Chase) 250 Unique summits; this award is only claimed by a very select few although there are many who could claim what is a quite difficult award to achieve. (For the record: one individual over 500 summits, 15 at 250 or more, and a further 68 at 100 or more summits. A very select sample indeed)

Trophies

Mountain Goat
F5UBH Christophe Toullec
HB9FPM Eva Thiemann
K7SO Sat Kirpal S. Khalsa

Certificates claimed

Activator
HB9BIN Dr. Jurg Regli 5000 points
HB9FPM Eva Thiemann 1000 points
HB9JOE Andreas Thiemann 1000 points
G4TJC Simon Melhuish 500 points
CT1BHG Joao Cardoso 500 points
DK4MH Marcus Halczok 250 points
VK5PAS Paul Simmonds 250 points
OH3KRH Jari Leivo 100 points
HB9EIV Michael Rass 100 points
DK4MH Marcus Halczok 100 points
F6HHK Bruno Bally 100 points

Activator Unique
W1DMH Douglas Houston 250 summits

Chaser
NS7P Phillip Shepard 50000 points
N7CW Bud Semon 10000 points
OH3KRH Jari Leivo 1000 points
G0FEX Kenneth Porter 500 points
N1AW Al Woodhull 500 points
G0FEX Kenneth Porter 250 points
HB9FBG Mauro Santus 250 points
HB9EIV Michael Rass 100 points
SP6NVB Bogdan Morawski 100 points
DO4KAI Kai Wendt 100 points
DL2SBA Dietmar Krause 100 points

Mountain Explorer
W1DMH Douglas Houston Platinum
ON6ZQ Christophe David Silver
PA7T Clemens Hesse Bronze
W3AAX Jason Johnston Bronze

SOTA Complete
M3ZCB Caroline Blackmun 250 summits

The issue of certificates caught me out this month; I knew my stock of certificate blanks was running low but that I had enough to cover all orders to date and a few beside. I came to do my regular printing run and found that the last certificate blanks were damaged and would not feed through the printer. Panic! This meant I had to find a printer who could turnaround an order of blanks on a heavyweight paper (160g/m) in as short a timescale as possible and at a sensible price. Luckily after some searching (and being told by two print shops I have used in the past that it couldn't be done) I managed to get a delivery within 7 days of placing the order. Hopefully I have caught up with the backlog. I have also run out of Mountain Goat trophy blanks (delivery with me in about a week) and Flags (delivery next Tuesday). This is worse than keeping the xyl's emporium stocked!

This is the time of year when I look at the merchandise I have in stock and decide what is not selling and what might be introduced to tempt people around the World to open their wallets! I will be making a once in a lifetime offer (well for the remainder of 2015) on the insulated mugs and also making some other small personalised merchandise items available (Name badges - an essential item at rallies and conventions and possibly keyrings); just need to finalise the costings.

Finally, may I re-iterate the timescale for purchases of both Awards and merchandise. The processing of orders is undertaken in my spare time (and that can be in short supply) so I hope to put certificates and merchandise into the mail system within 10 days of an order being placed (and you have to allow for the postal system over and above that) and trophies within 28 days. Chasing me at [timecale + 1 hour] does not engender a good response!

Please take care when out and about on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

===================================================

MOURNE MOUNTAINS EXPEDITION - by 2I0NON & GI4OOE

We are planning to activate as many of the Mourne Mountains as possible
between 2nd - 9th September 2015. We will be using 145-fm QRO with some HF
QRO.

We have alerted our plans but these are just a rough outline and
could change depending on weather and our level of fitness etc.
Hopefully, we will have good wifi at our base in Rostrevor and we will
be able to alert any daily changes.

73

Geoff & Nick

========================================================

VISIT TO GM/WS by John G(M)4YSS

I will be on holiday in Fort William, driving up on the 6th and returning on the 17th September as part of my Ruby Wedding anniversary present.

Weather permitting I will be targeting GM/WS summits in the Glencoe area using club callsign GS0OOO/p.

My desire is to use HF QRO on 40 and 30m, but much depends of band conditions.

73
John G4YSS

===================================================================

Expedition to Czechia and Poland - by Phil G4OBK

I am looking forward to walking and operating SOTA from the OK/KR area Orlické Hory (Eagle Mountains) range on the Czechia / Poland border for four days from September 25th - 28th. I will be based near to Destne. I will operate on QRP CW using the 20m and 30m bands with an FT-817 and link dipole. I will activate as many summits as I can in the time available. I will also operate from at least one summit in the Poland SP/SS area for another counter towards the Mountain Explorer Award.

73 Phil G4OBK

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OE5 SOTA DAY from Martin OE5REO
We will hold this year's OE5-SOTA Day on Saturday, September 19, 2015 in the Phyrn-Priel Region of OE5. Anybody interested in SOTA is welcome to join the fun! The plan is to activate as many summits as possible in the area. Please post your planned activations on SOTAWatch and try to spread out to different summits. There are plenty in this area and it should be easy to find one that fits to your skills and interests.
Until now there are 13 activations alerted on SOTAwatch, most of them will be qrv on VHF and HF ... so it will be a pretty busy day for chasers as well.
We will then gather at Gasthof Niesl, A-4572 St. Pankraz 5, www.gasthaus-niesl.at at around 15.00 local time for a Get-Together. After having food, drinks and the obligatory group picture we will have some SOTA related presentations. The meeting is open end.

If you have specific questions or need help with planning your trip please contact either Peter, OE5AUL (oe5aul@oevsv.at) or Martin, OE5REO (oe5reo@gmail.com).

Thank you very much, 73 de

Martin, OE5REO
www.oe5reo.at
===========================================================

The 2nd SOTA session at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen 2016 on June 25, 2016.

Dear SOTA Community,

The 1st SOTA session at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen 2015 was a great success. The trade show management counted 120 participants and reported this figure to DARC. The "Schweiz" meeting room was filled almost beyond capacity. Because there were chairs for only 80 to 100 people, some attendees sat on the tables on the left side and rear of the room, while more sat on the floor on the right side. As a result, DARC has promised to let us use the larger "Österreich" meeting room at Ham Radio 2016 on Saturday, June 25, 2016. This room accommodates 270 people.

The concept of SOTA is making progress at Ham Radio, and with Saturday we are getting a more attractive date and a larger room. Those who were not able to attend the session at Ham Radio 2015 can find the slide presentations at this link: http://hb9sota.ch/hb9sota-hamradio/.
The event was also described very positively by Michael DB7MM in the 8/2015 edition of Funkamateur (page 904, in the section Bergfunk-QTC).

For the 2nd SOTA session we would like to stick to the following proven concept:

• A question/answer session with Andy MM0FMF from the SOTA Management Team.
• Short presentations lasting 10 to 15 minutes covering alternating topics of rigs, antennas and operating techniques.
• Door prizes will be sponsored again by Richard G3CWI at SOTABEAMS.
• We plan to retain English as the event's primary language.
• Following the event, availability of the documentation for every presentation, including slides, at http://hb9sota.ch/hb9sota-hamradio/.

We would like to widen the group of speakers for Ham Radio 2016. We thus ask that any and all SOTA participants with interesting potential topics for a short presentation about rigs, antennas or operating techniques pertaining to SOTA get in touch with us at juerg.regli@swissonline.ch.
We hope that at Ham Radio 2016 we can once again provide you with an interesting program full of useful information. Until then, we wish you continued fun with this hobby and look forward to our next SOTA QSO.

Paul HB9DST, VP of HB9SOTA and Jürg Regli, HB9BIN, Association Manager Switzerland

========================================================
ON Association news


On Saturday August the 3rd, Christophe completed all 17 ON summits by chasing ON/ON-018 and 019. Therefore he got the electronic certificate of ‘Completed all ON summits’. Congrats Christophe!

This award is a ON association award for those who have activated and chased all ON summits. All info can be found in the ON ARM: http://www.sota.org.uk/docs/ARM-ON-English.pdf

73, Peter – ON4UP
ON association manager
=====================================================

ANTENNA TESTING LAST SUMMER. - by Ignacio EA2BD

I find building antennas to be one of the most interesting parts of this hobby. I used to build and test different wire antennas when on holidays and it’s something I still do with much pleasure. I want to share my testing experience during the last summer with 2 antennas; one for activating and one for chasing.

1) Activating with EFHW aerial (end fed half wave)

99% of my activation in the past was done with Vertical antennas, using either a random wire + tuner or a tuned GP (quarter wave). I prefer Verticals because they require a single fixing point of the supporting pole, and this is easier than fixing a dipole, which requires 3 fixing points (center + 2 extremes). But on the other hand I need some extra time to deploy the radials when erecting a vertical, and to wind them back up when leaving the summit.

I was happy with the performance of verticals but I got interested on the End Fed. Many SOTA friends use it and after reading several articles, I decided to check if an antenna with no radials would perform as good as my vertical.

Although End fed is a monoband antenna, I decided it would worth testing a multiband version. Mine works for 40-20-10 meters. I decided to get rid of a Tuner and I built a single feeder that works well with the 3 bands. I followed the plans shown on:

http://pa-11019.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/149-transformer-for-endfed-antennas-35.html

This EFHW is 12 m long and carries a coil for 40m of 34 microHenry. I used the toroid FT114-43, that is enough for QRP and is smaller than the FT240-43 shown on the web page.

All my July and August activations were done with this antenna, and I find a good reception and similar number of QSO's when compared to what I got using a Vertical. I believe Omni directional coverage was achieved by installing it as an Inverted Vee, on a 5m long pole, working best when extremes are high enough over ground (1 meter). You know HF propagation nowadays is not at its best, but the antenna performed very well.

Sometimes, depending on the summit , by unknown reason I had high SWR (3 or 4:1) and I found a quick cure by adding a short cable to enlarge the wire about 15 cm, thus changing resonance to get a good SWR.

I feed it with a light RG-174 coaxial of 3 meters and I found that coax interacts with the aerial; it modifies resonance a bit when setting the rig aside the Vee, inside the Vee or outwards of it.

I think that I will keep on using it regularly for my activations, although the major penalty is the lack of the 30m band, where I sometimes lose the chance of gathering some S2S contacts. The 3 fixing points required were not a problem in the end and now I’ve learned how to install it very fast.

2) Chasing with a multiband Delta Loop

On my holidays I visited relatives in several different places where I stayed for days. In such a situation, far from home, I have to install any kind of compromise antenna.
Over many years I have tested long wires, random wires, doublets, almost any kind of wire that I could throw out a window or install without causing troubles to my family, hi.

I have never tested a Delta before and I thought it would be interesting to try a multiband version.I heard the “ears” of the Delta are very good, but was this true? Again, this antenna is a mono band but I heard that by feeding it with a parallel line and using a tuner it could perform as multiband.

I played a bit with antenna simulation software to decide the length of the Delta. I intended to use it to chase between 40 to 10m (the whole set, why not?), and found that the overall length modifies impedance of each band. After running back and forth, I found that a Delta with a perimeter of 27 meters would have suitable impedances not very high in most bands to allow the tuner to deal with it. Yes, 40m band would probably have a lower performance, but keeping 27 meters would be more handy and easy to install without disturbing my relatives.

I built and installed one in an almost horizontal position, lying down over the roof of a house, up at about 8 m above ground. I didn’t expect much at such a low height, thinking it would probably perform like a NVIS antenna, but the results of this non-resonant antenna have proven that I was wrong. It’s been a pleasure to chase with it for a week in August. I used an automatic tuner (LDG Z11 Pro II) next to a homebrew 1:1 Current balun. This auto tuner memorizes the settings per band so that band changes are instant without a delay.

My holiday setup was completed with a FT-857 set to 30 watts, and to my joy I logged easily all European activation in progress. It was a pleasure to see a spot, jump to the frequency and hear the activator in all cases!

I had no problems being heard from the first call, running the Delta with low power. I felt stronger signals came from closer stations due to the low height of my installation. I have to explain that the house was in a small village, free from city noise, and the background noise was as silent as on a summit.

I am so satisfied with the design that I am willing to test it at home versus my regular OCF Dipole. At home I have plenty of QRN in some frequencies and I dream to get rid of that. Who knows? Now I have to think how to route the parallel line down… A new project is born!

Thanks all activators and see you soon.
VY 73 de Ignacio EA2BD

============================================================

MY FIRST SOTA YEAR - from Karl M3FEH

Greetings one and all. I thought that I would drop a small news item into the September news letter.

The month of September 2015 sees my very first anniversary of being a SOTA chaser and the start of being an activator. It all kicked off on the 11th September 2014, a month after coming back on the air after long time off, being in a new county of Cornwall and also in my role as carer for my partner. Once I found out about SOTA and had worked my first station (on a Polish summit) followed by a couple more activators that day, this really hooked me. I had found something different on the amateur radio bands that I could really get my teeth into and which I have continued to enjoy ever since.

During this year I have made a number of SOTA friends across Europe, and the friendliness of contacts has been most enjoyable, but friends did warn me that it would be addictive and they were not far wrong. Now that August draws to a close I find myself chasing the 8k points mark and possibly before long I could become the first UK novice to reach super sloth (in SSB only).

This has been all on 10W and I find it intriguing that a good number of SOTA stations are only using 10w or less, which makes it more challenging.

This has lead me to start activating and building my own portable antennas with a 1/4w 40m vertical and the Inverted V 1/2w 40m dual portable antenna, both operated from my local hill G/DC-003 and well tested. What made this even more of a bug for me was my first activator contact into VK5PAS which really surprised me with my home brew and only 10w.

I now need few more bits of gear to make my portable station even more portable and lighter than it is now, before ascending up bigger hills. But by activating, it was nice to give something back after all this time as a chaser, which gave me a good feeling indeed.

Roll on 2nd year of my SOTA. All being well I shall activate from more local summits.

Catch you on air some time.

Karl M3FEH & M3FEH/p

==========================================================

MY ROAD TO SUPER SHACK SLOTH by Geert PA7ZEE

My first QSO as an activator was in 2008 when we had a vacation in Czechia and Germany. On the terrace of our hotel I had just finished connecting my Elecraft KX1 to a random wire in a tree and made a few QSO’s, meanwile enjoing a good German beer.

Coming home I was curious about the name of the hill where the hotel was situated. I entered ‘Pöhlberg’ in Google and found all out about SOTA. This was all new to me and looked very interesting. However, I was busy with our local radio club, organising events like field days, training of people to get their license and radio lessons in schools,

Although I was retired from work, there was not much SOTA time. Fortunately, during the last year there came a little more spare time and I became more active as a chaser and as an activator.

Last month I reached a milestone as a chaser: I became a Super Shack Sloth within a year after reaching the Shack Sloth status. Finally, after a QSO with Terje LA8BCA, I had exactly 10.000 points.

The data base told me:

You are a Shack Sloth with 10000 points.
Shack Sloth achieved on 25-Aug-2014
10x Shack Sloth achieved on 20-Aug-2015

I would like to thank all the activators who are so essential for obtaining this result. Jan OK2PDT and Heinz HB9BCB are the activators I worked most; with Jan over 100 QSO’s when I include also his activations outside Czechia.

Some information about my station: transceiver Yaesu FT-920 via a MFJ Balanced Tuner and 450 ohm window line connected to an inverted vee antenna 2 x 17 m.

73 de Geert PA7ZEE

==============================================================

THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 92 from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ

Second start on this month as the laptop decided it was not going to save the previous attempt!

We were unable to get a hill in on Sunday 2nd due to my boots and coat being still away for repair but we decided to collect them from Burnley on Tuesday and then to take in a hill on the way home by way of a test run. The firm LSR has done a very good job on both items and are the only people reasonably near us still in business, remember when the local cobbler could resole a walking boot?

We decided on Sharp Haw close to Skipton as a suitable target so made our way to Bog Lane where the popular walk to the summit starts. The hill is very much on the distant horizon at the start, in reality it is not too far but feels further, being a relentless plod. The actual hill is quite small but feels higher than it is as the summit is rather pointed. A wall crosses the approach path and has to be crossed via an iron ladder made ingeniously from old bed irons, the wear on the upper ends caused by countless hands says something about its age. Take care as the rungs are slippery for modern boots. Sadly the seat that stands beside the ladder as a little rest stop for walkers has collapsed and lies in ruins. Today it is very windy and we have to take shelter on the eastern slope just a few feet below the summit. The summit itself has superb views and today it is extremely obvious that a very severe squall is on its way and will hit us in about five minutes, we struggle into waterproofs just in time. The wind and rain are very strong and hf is not an option, just seven contacts on 2m FM and we head off down, a shame as we were hoping for a longer activation.

Sunday 9th and a horrid day with thick cloud. A good place to check local conditions in the area is the new set of webcams on Hoad Hill in Ulverston. The north camera looks into the Lake District, East camera looks at Yorkshire, South camera looks across Morecombe Bay, all useful pointers to conditions on the ground. The West camera looks out over Ulverston towards us on Walney Island. Today all four have grey screens; the cloud is down even on this little hill
Try http://visitulverston.com/hoad-webcams/
As a result of all this it was once again Tuesday before we managed another hill, this time Hard Knot Fell. This summit is best reached from the summit of Hard Knot Pass a steep narrow road, single track with few passing places many deep potholes and no guard rails. The Pass has recently been discovered by the national press who portray it as a nice day out for visitors. This results in an overpowering smell of burned clutches and groups of white knuckled drivers vying to follow someone else down. This would be funny if not for the fact that it is dangerous for the driver inexperienced in this sort of thing. The day after our activation the Pass was closed most of the day when a vehicle fell over the edge.
There is room for about five cars at the head of the pass but be careful not to block the limited passing places. The walk up to the Fell top is a real pleasure and carefully following the contouring path which leaves the straight up section about half way up on the right makes it easy. The two large flat sections higher up have to be crossed and can be very boggy, ten years ago the second one was a full time lake but in recent times it has dried to be just a bog. The final climb is a steep little scrambly section and the views from the summit are spectacular for a small summit. The wind over the top was very cold and three hours was enough. We have climbed this hill in the middle of winter and been warmer, we were wearing virtually the same kit and this is midsummer! We were glad to be down the pass and out of the way of visitors; it is safer in the winter with just the ice to contend with.

Been a bit of chat lately about finding summits, routes etc so here is a system we use, those outside UK or experienced activators look away now. First find the map reference for your target from our summits section and also check for previous activators findings, route advice etc. Now go to Streetmap.co.uk (not openstreetmap) and enter the map reference in the search box e.g. SS 891 415 which will produce a range of maps in different scales all with the summit marked. 1:25,000 and 1: 50,000 are most useful and are printable. The snag is that not all of the reference lines are labeled on your partial map but you have the reference of the summit so can work back from it. If the phrase "Across the hall then up the stairs" means nothing to you then take a look at how to use map references before going further, it's important! Mark the line numbers on the top, bottom and both sides of your map. As a previous employer of mine (Rob) used to say on endless posters "Don't think check!” so make sure you are right it's good practice for map reading. Find the suggested start points' map reference and find it on your map, is it in the right place? Don't think check. You should now have a printable A4 map of your target and the route to it. Make a couple of copies and use in a waterproof transparent case, your ink is water soluble. We keep our versions in an index file case and have quite an extensive collection, it sounds a lot of work but it is a useful way of keeping your hand in.

Sunday 16th Aug and a trip down south to avoid the weather in the Lake District. Finding the start point for this one can be difficult in the lanes round Chipping, set your GPS for Startifants Lane, yes that's right, boy at the back stop sniggering. There is room for parking along the lane and also in the lane that leads up onto the hill but this lane is narrow and turning can be difficult. Those familiar with the climb will remember the first fifty yards being a modern paved section. Unfortunately it was as steep as a roof and really required a cat ladder for safe passage particularly when wet or icy. This set people to walking besides the paving creating almost waist deep troughs on either side. The good news is that it is all piled in a heap having been dug up and the site left to recover. The path now diverts to the right up the slope then returns to join the path at the top of the now removed "roof", a route we have been using for some years. The path up Parlick, the first hill to be climbed is grassy, eroded and steep and those not wishing to scale the full majesty of Parlick should turn to the right at the top of the cleft that runs beside the path to find a path that contours the hill and returns to the main path where the ascent of Fair Snape begins. The summit plateau is large and normally busy but today it is quiet. A group of youngsters arrives as we are activating They eventually send a young lady to politely ask what we are doing .As we explain she keeps saying "cool" and they head off saying they will look it all up on the internet. We hope that they really are impressed and that "cool" has not changed sides like" bad ".

Unfortunately that is it for this month, our absence from the hills for the last couple of weeks is due to Audrey having acquired a rather nasty flu type virus that has quite knocked her back and with our Welsh Borders trip due at the start of next month the only sensible option has been rest and recovery. We should be at the Telford Rally so hope to meet up with some of you all there
For now, take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
==============================================================

TOP BAND REPORT from Mark G0VOF

No Top Band activations were reported during the month of August

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********************** CONTINUED IN PART 2 *********************

SOTA news from North America
CW Report for August
Extracts from SOTA Data Base
SOTA News contacts.

Posts: 4

Participants: 3

Read full topic

SOTA NEWS SEPT 2015 Part 2

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2015 - Part 2 of 2

NORTH AMERICAN SOTA NEWS from Elliott K6EL - through 28 August 2015

Greetings from the land of big fires, little water and Elecraft, on behalf of Skip K6DGW. He and the Kamikaze Gardener have completed their move to a condo in Sparks, near Reno, Nevada. Now the gardening will be from pots and the RF will be from stealth antennas. Ah, the Golden Years.

Three new associations within Alaska are on the drawing board for a go live date to be determined very soon. Daniel, KL3TY, is the AM for one association, and N7UN is the temporary AM for the other two.

Since we last reported, W4DOW reached two times Super Sloth, K1JD became a double goat, W1DMH reached 250 unique climbs to earn Platinum Mountain Explorer, K0JQZ is within one contact of reaching trophy level S2S, K5RHD won the horse race and become the 31st MG in North America, Hawaiian AM KH7AL is moving today to Colorado Springs for some serious climbing (still USAF), and K6EL became the first member of the Management Team outside the UK.

The much more famous EL, W6EL, died April 11th. He was the author of MiniProp and the chief scientist for Hughes in the successful first Surveyor project to put a spacecraft on the moon.

The historic first QSO between a NA Sota chaser and the new JA association finally happened. W7RV did it on 15 meters, followed by WA7JTM four minutes later on the same band. Congrats to them.

According to K6WRU, there are many, many Bald Mountains in the Sota database. Curious, I took a look at some others. 400 Black mountains world wide, about that many Bald Mountains, and 148 Bear Mountains.

Remember the ARRL Challenge in 2014? You got higher points for working stations with higher responsibilities in the ARRL. Turns out our W0CP was worth a whole lot of points for each band and each mode because he is a past director. When the results came in, I was startled to see I had 43,671 points on only 419 contacts (over 100 points average per contact). Thanks, W0CP. Rumor has it that the ARRL is planning a new one-year challenge for 2016, and that Sota folks will be happy. N7UN is helping with that, and he says there will an announcement around October 15th.

Coming up is the annual NaSota Activity Weekend, September 12/13. Publicity is widespread, including page 95 of the current QST magazine. Also that weekend is a VHF contest, and K7ATN suggests you take a tech class ham with you up a hill. That’s their thing, and you might addict one of them to Sota. Also in September, NK6A will be on from EI land for 13 days starting the 18th. At the end of the month, watch for KD5ZZK going up the Eastern seaboard picking off 14 summits. Watch him on APRS (last time I watched, I noticed he left his HT on a hill, still transmitting APRS, and I tipped off KD5KC, who called him and sent him back up the hill to get it).

Save that date: October includes the big California QSO Party on the 3rd and 4th, with lots of Sota, and the fourth annual Sota lunch at Pacificon on the 17th.

In checking the biographies for the MT, I discovered that the Sota founder is also past president of the FOC (first class operators’ club, a social organization of high speed CW operators limited to 500 members). Unknown to most, there are many FOC members among NaSota climbers and chasers, including KT5X, K1JD, N6XI, K2UFT, N5AN, N5AW, AA3B, K6ZB, AK5X, W4MQC, K4BAI, AC5K, W1FJ, KR3E, EI6FR, and IK6BAK.

September 24th is the third anniversary of the birth of the KU6J RBNGate Sota Spotter. On the 22nd of that month, three years ago, N1EU was on a peak with his best antenna set up and was working the world. RBN showed he was heard by skimmers on multiple continents, but US chasers were complaining about poor copy. That put the kernel of an idea in the head of KU6J, Eric, near Lake Tahoe, California, but he took no action until this happened on September 24th: in the NaSota Yahoo group, W4MPS said “Rich (N4EX) is a chaser monster”, followed by K6EL saying “amazing stuff, a human skimmer…. hey! what if there was a real Sota skimmer? It would look for the terms CQ, Sota, and a call. Anyone know W3LPL?” VE7ETS then asked if the skimmer code was open source, and N1EU said no, it was proprietary to VE3NEA. A few hours later, KU6J said: “I’m trying to use the existing RBN right now, via Telnet feed, comparing RBN spots to either alerts or to a list of known activators if the signal is near the usual Sota frequencies. I could feed to Sotawatch the same way as SMS or APRS gateways if Andy (MM0FMF) can tell us how it works”.

The next day, he said: “Elliott, I’m planning to do alert cross-checking automatically, and it will pull down alerts from Sotawatch every few hours and cache them so as to keep the load off the system. I played around with the code and now I have a steady stream of RBN spots plus a known activator file. I think this is doable, just a matter of implementing it”. MM0FMF then said the spots are available by RSS, but not alerts, as a source of known activators, and that we could see those, too, “real soon, now”. N1EU suggested color coding to distinguish spots derived from known activators vs spots based on alerts. Still on the 25th, Andy and Jeremy helped reduce latency. On September 27th, KU6J said: “Holy Cow, it just worked!” WO6M (NA6MG), and later, K6ILM (K6EL), appeared on his laptop, skimmed by NC7J and WA7LNW and compared to the known activator list.

He ran into the shack to see if it was real, and there was WO6M on the air. There was no feed out of his laptop just yet, but the Eureka moment was done. K6EL then said: “Dibs, my pink slip for your software”. MM0FMF then offered to combine the output with Sota spot feed without using Spotlite. Tweeks and refinements followed. See the FAQ section at http://www.ku6j.com/ G0VOF likes to race the machine. If he hears an activator early, he tries to work him and manually spot him before RBNGate can do it.

73,

Elliott, K6EL
Barely adequate temporary
CANADA/US SOTA Reporter Dude

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SOTA AUSTRALIA REPORT

Apologies from VK reporter Allen VK3HRA who has been very busy on other duties.
His October report will cover the last 2 months.

=============================================================

CW REPORT FOR AUGUST 2015 by Roy G4SSH

The last 15 days of the 28/50 MHz Challenge saw activators concentrating on these two bands to gain as many points as possible before the deadline of the first part of the challenge, on the 15th August. Unfortunately propagation on the higher bands was poor over this period.

The first day of the month got off to a fine start with the summer holidays enticing many cross-border expeditions, including - Jürg OE/HB9BIN, Chris DL/ON6ZQ, Hans DL/PB2T, Jozef OK/OM6TC, Steffen SV5/DM3CW, Frank OE/DJ2FR and Csaxi YO/HA8LLH. Takeshi JS1VEH also appeared on 18 MHz.

Roger F5LKW did a round of 6 SOTA-Fever summits in the French AM region on the 5th, concentrating on the 28, 50 and 145 MHz bands.
Tom MI1EYP and Jimmy activated some GI summits during the first week in the month, including their first venture into the Sperrins GI/SM.
Sake DL/PA0SKP was active from multiple DL summits on the 8th.
The 2015 YO Marathon took place between the 9th and 15th August, with many YO calls on the air, both home-grown YO's (Team SOTA Romania) and visitors, such as Paul YO/HB9DST and Hans YO/PB2T, making this a truly international event. The program included activation of 14 summits with a total of 126 points in the YO/WC, YO/MC and YO/EC regions, with an opportunity for visitors to see some of the touristic highlights in Romania.

Takeshi JS1EUH/1 was spotted calling CQ SOTA at 0427 utc on 28 MHz CW the 15th and Andy HB9JOE was heard using his visitors call OK8JOE after an expedition to Czechia.

(A shorter than usual CW report this month due to me being away on holiday for the last 2 weeks of the month)

73 Roy G4SSH

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SOTA ACTIVITY REPORT FOR AUGUST 2015.

SOTA Activators submitting entries to the data base for 10m and 6m during July 2015 -
also 1240 MHz, by request. These files produced on 31st August from Kevin G0NUP.
Seems very light this month, conditions must have been pretty poor.

Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for August

DF3MC/P, DK1WI/P, DL4MHA/P, EA2IF/P, EA2WX/P, F/DL6UHA/P, F5LKW/P,
F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, F8TMQ/P, G4AZS/P, G4ISJ/P, G4TJC/P, GW4AZS/P,
GW4TJC/P, HA/ON6UU/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9IIO/P,
HB9JOE/P, I/DF3MC/P, JS1UEH/1, K6EL, M0HDF/P, MI1EYP/P, MM0FMF/P,
OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/HB9BIN/P, OE5EEP/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2PDT/P, OK8JOE/P,
PB2T/P, S52ON/P, SP/OK1CZ/P, VK1DA, VK2AOH, VK2IO/P, VK3CAT/P,
VK4JAZ, W7USA, WB5USB, YO/PB2T/P, YO2BP/P

Mode: SOTA CW on 50MHz: activity for August

F4EGG/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, G4ISJ/P, G4TJC/P, HA2VR/P, HB9BIN/P,
I/F6HBI/P, JJ1SWI, JS1UEH/1, M1EYP/P, MI1EYP/P, PB2T/P, S5100ISONZO,
S57X/P, WB5USB, YO/F4HOD/P

Mode: SOTA CW on 1240MHz: activity for August

Nil

Mode: SOTA FM on 28MHz: activity for August

2E0YYY/P, G4TJC/P, HB9ZCW/P, SV1QED/P

Mode: SOTA FM on 50MHz: activity for August

G4TJC/P, GW4TJC/P, HB9PMF/P, HB9ZCW/P, M6ZXH, MI1EYP/P, VK1DA,
VK3CAT/P, VK3TST, VK3YY

Mode: SOTA FM on 1240MHz: activity for August

DL1DSR/P, G4TCU/P, JP1QEC, OK1DEU/P, SQ9KCP, WW7D

Mode: SOTA SSB on 28MHz: activity for August

2E0YYY/P, 2W0YYY/P, AE4BL, DB7MM/P, DD5LP/P, DF3MC/P, DG4DDA/P,
DG7ACF/P, DH1JH/P, DH7FK/P, DK4MH/P, DL/HB9DQM/P, DL/OE5IRO/P, DL/OE5RTP/P,
DL/OE9HRV/P, DL/OE9TKH/P, DL/ON7DQ/P, DL8DBW/P, DO1DJJ/P, DO1JC, EA1IEH,
EA2BSB/P, EA2EBX/P, EA2EX/P, EA2IF/P, EA3HP/P, EB1CU/P, EB2GKK/1,
EB2GKK/P, EC2AG/P, F4ESK/P, F6HBI/P, G1INK/P, G4AZS/P, G4TJC/P,
GW4AZS/P, GW4TJC/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9FPM/P, K3JH, KI4SVM, M0HCU/P,
M3FEH/P, MI0HGY/P, MI1EYP/P, MM0FMF/P, N4AAL, N6MKW, OE/HB9BIN/P,
OE/S56LXN/P, OE/S57MS/P, OE5AUL/P, OE5EEP/P, OE5IRO/P, OE5RTP/P, OE7FMJ/P,
OE9HRV/P, OH8GBO/P, OK/OE5IRO/P, OK/OE5RTP/P, OK/SP9MA/P, OK/SQ9OJN/P, OK2PDT/P,
PB2T/P, S5/OE5IRO/P, S5/OE5RTP/P, S51TX/P, S52ON/P, S56IAA/P, S56LXN/P,
S57MS/P, SP9MA/P, SQ9OJN/P, SQ9OZM/P, SV1QED/P, SV2CNE/P, SV3IEG/P,
SV6/OE5JKL/P, VK1ATP/P, VK1DA, VK1FJAW/P, VK1MA, VK1MTS/P, VK1NAM/P,
VK1RX, VK2AOH, VK2HRX, VK2IO/P, VK3CAT/P, VK3TST, VK3YY,
VK4JAZ, W7USA, WB7ENX, YO/PB2T/P, YO6PIB/P, YO9IRF/P

Mode: SOTA SSB on 50MHz: activity for August

F4EGG/P, F4ESK/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, GW4TJC/P, HA2VR/P, HB9BIN/P,
HB9TNF/P, I1WKN, JL1BWG, JS1UEH/1, K5RHD, K6EL, K7ATN,
K7MJC, KD7WPJ, KZ6T, MI1EYP/P, NM5SW, OE/S56LXN/P, OE/S57MS/P,
OE9HRV/P, OK/SQ9OJN/P, S52ON/P, S56LXN/P, S57AX/P, S57FA/P, S57MS/P,
S57TQ/P, SQ9OJN/P, SV3IEG/P, VK1ATP/P, VK1DA, VK1MA, VK1MTS/P,
VK1NAM/P, VK1RX, VK2IO/P, VK4JAZ, WA2FON, WA7JTM

Mode: SOTA SSB on 1240MHz: activity for August

Nil

Regards
Kevin J Prince G0NUP

==================================================================

SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za


Posts: 6

Participants: 5

Read full topic

Input to SOTA News Oct 2015

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@G4SSH wrote:

Contributions are invited for the October 2015 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Tuesday 29th September.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.
73

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

North American input to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net or k6dgw@arrl.net

VK Input to:-

Allen VK3HRA
arharvie@gmail.com

South Africa input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 3

Participants: 2

Read full topic

SOTA NEWS OCT 2015 Part 1

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - OCTOBER 2015 - Part 1 of 2

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH

Welcome to the October 2015 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Skip K6DGW, Allen VK3HRA, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Geert PA7ZEE, Bart SQ9APD, Gerald MW0WML, Marjan S51RU, Glyn G4CFS, Jun JI1TIL, Andy MM0FMF.

========================================================
The September edition of SOTA News was viewed 870 times.
========================================================

6m/10m CHALLENGE - from Andy MM0FMF

The dates for the second session in the 6m/10m challenge have been adjusted. When the challenge was announced earlier this year, the announcement included notice that the dates for the second session were not fixed in stone and we would entertain requests to adjust the dates.

After input from VK, the dates for the start and end of the challenge have been brought forward one day. So the period for the second session is now 14th November 2015 to 13th February 2016.

Since the challenge started, JA has joined SOTA and you can see already that 6m is popular with JA activators. It may be that we will see some good scores from JA even allowing for the fact they entered the challenge part way through.

73
Andy MM0FMF
Database Manager

===========================================================

IMPORTANT NOTICE from Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager:-


" I will be moving home shortly and will not be able to process orders for Awards or Merchandise.

Due to the need to downsize, and for the need to put much of my household into storage until a workroom can be constructed, this is anticipated to last from the end of October until sometime in January.

The Management Team will attempt to put in place temporary arrangements for the issue of certificates only during this period but extended delays will be inevitable.

If you wish to place orders I will be able to process them up to, but absolutely no later than, Saturday 24th October 2015.

There will be an announcement on the main reflector once some alternative arrangements are in place".


SOTA AWARDS FOR SEPTEMBER 2015

Award claims in September have reached an all time high; six people at the Activator 1000 point (Mountain Goat) level and DO1DJJ achieving the 2500 activator points award. I have just issued the first 120k Chaser certificate to Roy G4SSH who has achieved this solely on CW – may he go from strength to strength. Rob, G0HRT is the latest “Supersloth” having now achieved 10k points, again no mean feat considering the work he does helping new Associations complete their paperwork prior to joining the scheme (and all the updates too). The summit to summit award is also moving forward very strongly especially as it is recognition of the performance of all-rounders, those that both activate and chase. Worthy of note is the regular appearance, now, of callsigns from fairly new Associations in VK and W both of which cover vast areas of the planet where achieving these higher levels of S2S needs special dedication.

Trophies

Mountain Goat
K5RHD Randy Diddel
YO6PIB Kertesz Csaba-Zoltan
WB5USB George Yoakum
G8XYJ Matt Porter

Shack Sloth
W0CP Walton Stinson
W6JP Jeffrey Philpott
KM6CEM Charles E. McCants

Certificates claimed

Activator
DO1DJJ Joerg Pellenz 2500 points
YO2BP Thury Zoltan Alexandru 1000 points
EC2AG Antonio Garcia 1000 points
G8XYJ Matt Porter 1000 points
GW4VPX Allan Jones 500 points
DF2DR Hermann Schumacher 250 points
GW4VPX Allan Jones 250 points
AE7AP Robert Kingery 250 points
IV3RJH Carlo Londero 100 points
DO4KAI Kai Wendt 100 points

Activator Unique
G3RDQ David Griffiths 100 summits
VK2IO Gerard Hill 100 summits
DL4MHA Wolfgang Renner 100 summits

Chaser
G4SSH Roy Clayton 120000 points
G0HRT Rob Harwood 10000 points
VK2MWP Andrew Geddes 5000 points
KM6CEM Charles E. McCants 1000 points
DL3PU Willi Gietzen 500 points
VK5PL David Poole 500 points
SY2BEX Stergios Karoympakis 100 points
KD0IPI Jim Alders 100 points
G1BLJ Steve Lovell 100 points

Chaser Unique
DL7URB Robert Bree 3000 summits

Mountain Hunter
VK3OF Rex James Bronze
KD0IPI Jim Alders Bronze
GW4VPX Allan Jones (VHF) Bronze

Mountain Explorer
KC5CW Curtis Hays II Platinum
VK2IO Gerard Hill Silver
AE7AP Robert Kingery Bronze

Summit to Summit
GW4VPX Allan Jones Gold
VK1DI Ian Sinclair Gold
VK2IO Gerard Hill Gold
EA2BD Ignacio Cascante Silver
AE7AP Robert Kingery Bronze
KC5CW Curtis Hays II Bronze

The minor hiatus of running out of certificate blanks, Mountain Goat trophies and flags has now been overcome and, hopefully I have (or shortly will) catch up with the backlog. I have reduced the prices of the insulated mugs to see if I can tempt some purchasers into acquiring one – keeps coffee hot and beer cold, though not at the same time – and I would like to shift them as storage space will become a premium commodity shortly.

Can I please emphasise that we use Paypal as a preferential means of payment simply because that system allows for payment in your local currency and means I do not have to be concerned about exchange rates or the like. It is possible for you to pay direct into the SOTA bank account but it is imperative you pay all the fees associated with the transfer including currency exchange, transfer and banking fees. If you wish to pay by cheque (check) it MUST be in Pounds Sterling and drawn on a bank with a UK head office. We cannot accept checks drawn on any other bank, or any other currency, as the costs associated with cashing them would be prohibitive. Please use Paypal if at all possible.

Vacations have affected the delivery of some items from our US stockist. If you are expecting a baseball cap or some of the smaller merchandise items, and you live in the USA or Canada, then there will be an additional delay before you receive them. The stocks of some of the shirts are running low (particularly Large size T-shirts) and I will not be re-stocking until early next year. If you place an order I will try to offer an alternative but it might not be possible to fulfill your order, in which case your money will be refunded.

This month has been particularly hectic and my response times have been pushed to the limits. With events in the village demanding my time (guiding at the walking festival, marshalling a 100 mile cycle road race and various school and community events) plus the day job, the clock just ticked on and something (SOTA awards) had to give. This should all change shortly as I move away from the mountains to “retire” nearer the coast. Before that happens matters will get worse (see separate announcement).

If you wish to claim awards, or purchase merchandise in the coming month please order as soon as possible as I will not be able to process anything after 24th October 2015.

Please take care when out and about on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

==========================================================

3rd SOTA SP DAY

From 9th to 11th October there will be a third SOTA SP DAY. This time we will meet in the Mountains of Sudety (SP/KA, SP/SP, SP/SS, SP/WS, SP/SZ).
On these days we will set off into the mountains, of southwest Poland with tens of activators.
Information about the activations will appear on sotawatch.org.
VY 73
Bart SQ9APD
SOTA Poland Association Manager
=====================================================

MORE THROUGH LESS - AN ANTENNA STORY from Geert PA7ZEE

My SOTA activator station consist of my KX1 with an external power supply of 9 penlight batteries, a Palm Radio paddle, ear buds, 30 m wire for an antenna and 3 wires of each 10 m as counterpoise. Basic but effective; I recall the S2S QSO’s last spring from EA8/GC-001 and EA8/TF-002 (both Africa) with my SOTA friends in HA and HB9.


My SOTA activator station

The only problem was that my KX1 did not tune on 80 m with this ‘antenna system’.
This is not a problem in the summer months but with the winter bonus season coming, I would like to use also the 80 m band.

In a booklet published by the RSGB ‘Practical Wire Antennas’, I found the W3EDP antenna.

This was new to me and even more simple than the antenna system that I described above.
I decided to make this antenna and measured what the result was.

The counterpoise is in the original W3EDP antenna is not connected on 80 m but that did not worked in my case.
The loss in the transceiver by a SWR of 2.0 is about 11 %. Since there is no feedline, there are no losses there.
The disadvantage of HF-radiation in the shack seems to me not to be a problem in my shack in Nature.
So at the end I have now all four bands of my KX1 with even less wire.
More through less.

73 de Geert PA7ZEE

=========================================================

SOTA S5/JA-001 - from Marjan S51RU

Here are some photo's of my first activation:

SOTA S5/JA-001 Triglav 2864 M. a.s.l. - The highest mountain in Slovenia.

Dated: August, 31. 2015

73 de Marjan, S51RU

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REFLECTION ON COMPLITION OF ACTIVATION OF ALLTHE GW/NW SUMMITS - from Gerald MW0WML

On Sunday 27/9/15 my wife and I made the trip out to Bardsey Island on the fast passenger ferry from Porth Meudwy near Aberdaron. The weather was almost perfect, with blue skies all around and only some haze to interrupt the view. After the easy climb to the summit of Mynydd Enlli GW/NW-072 we found a spot a little way to the North to avoid disturbing two ladies who were using the summit for some quiet contemplation and meditation.

The activation started, as I always do, with calls from my FT-270 2M (5W) handheld into a 2M vertical dipole (SOTABeams MFD - other 2M dipoles are available!). First in the log was fellow regular North Wales activator Allan GW4VPX/P on his own summit, Yr Aran GW/NW-019.

As I had plenty of time I was also able to deploy the FT857 to permit a move to 2M SSB (40W) again with the dipole, but horizontally polarised and then 60M SSB (20W) and 40M SSB (20W) with a linked dipole inverted Vee set up.

It was great to speak to so many regular chasers on this final GW/NW summit. To cap it all we saw some great wildlife such as a Peregrine Falcon (soaring the East face less than 200m away), Cormorants and Grey Seals.

My first ever summit was close to my home QTH in Mold in April 2011. Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051 is just a short drive and walk. I made just five contacts on that first activation, all on a VX8 handheld. It was a real thrill to make these first contacts and start to form the "over the air" friendships that I've enjoyed so much over the last four years. Bob G6ODU was the very first in my log that day and has been a regular contact ever since, we've even met up on the hill for joint activations.

I had a fairly slow start in 2011, not really picking up my activation pace until 2012, were in common with many others I "chased the points" on the bigger hills.

It was only after my Mountain Goat in December 2014 that I decided to turn my attention back to the rest of the hills in "my own patch".

Well what a revelation it has been! I've done so many lovely hills that I've never visited in 30+ years of regular hill walking. Of course they are not all brilliant, but by and large they have all had redeeming features and most are little gems.

What I have learned along the way?
• 2M FM works in some surprising places, especially if you put a better antenna on it. I sometimes carry a colinear and a "painters pole" to support it. A set up shamelessly stolen from my friend Karen 2E0XYL who has of course herself activated all of GW/NW. Combining this with the FT-270 gives a robust set up that is good in all weathers and fast to deploy.
• The FT857 is heavy, but the extra few Watts has made the difference on 2M SSB and 40M SSB a few times when I have struggled.
• The move to a LiFePO 7Ah battery removed all my "power anxiety" and considerably reduced the weight carried. Probably my best single investment.
• Write in the Rain logs are the way to go!
• Carry a synthetic down jacket. Even in summer.
Special moments
• Cramponing to the summit of Snowdon GW/NW-001 to do a winter activation.
• Inversion and Brocken Spectre on Cadair Idris GW/NW-008.
• First ever transatlantic QSO courtesy of Micky 2E0YYY, when I used his FT857 on 20M on Moel Famau GW/NW-044.
• Surviving an "invigorating" day of horizontal rain on Robell Fawr GW/NW-021. Sometimes those tough weather days can be rewarding - makes you feel alive!
• A great winter round of Moel Lyfnant GW/NW-018 and Arenig Fawr GW/NW-011 where some proper winter navigation skills were needed.

A big thanks to all the people who have helped me with advice and guidance on radio kit and operating procedure. Finally I couldn't have done it without my wife Sue who has come out in all weathers to support me and more importantly support the antenna.... literally! Hi Hi

What next, well I think G/SP activation completion and then get on with GW/MW too. Be nice to complete all of my home country of Wales if I could - (Upper Park might be a problem!)

73
Gerald
MW0WML

==============================================================

UPDATE - from Glyn G4CFS

Just had the best months walking since my return to the hills and SOTA this last April.

In September I managed 13 summits in G/SE, G/SC, G/WB & GW/SW.

Despite the poor radio conditions all the activations have been great fun although the radio conditions on Monday 28th from South Wales were excellent.

My total summits for the year to date (5 months) is 37 with a lot more planned for the next few months.
73 Glyn G4CFS
=============================================================

THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 93 from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ

September and the Telford Rally, so off to the Welsh Borders for our week of activations.

The first day is Sunday and the Rally is the first thing on the menu. This little rally is always a pleasure and this year was no exception, not a lot of SOTA people about but a long chat with Mike 2E0YYY at his stall saw a few call in. Mike was informed by someone official from the Llandudno rally that the upcoming rally there was cancelled for this year. This is a bit of a blow for us as we have a week booked there with the rally as one of the highlights. (when you live in the wilds of Cumbria, Llandudno is one of our more local rallies) Never mind, it gives us another day of walking but it would be nice if the cancelation had appeared in some of the radio press! Later we had a walk up The Wrekin a steep little climb but a nice top and a few long chats with local stations trying to drum up support for our upcoming activities. Worryingly there were no calls from regular chasers particularly those in south Lancashire.

Monday, a beautiful late summer day, so three summits close to one another, Long Mynd, a ten minute walk from the car park, mostly on the wide well-surfaced "motorway" through the heather, Stipper Stones with its' trig on a ridiculous rocky pinnacle and a summit path that starts on grass and finishes on the most uncomfortable stones imaginable and Corndon Hill with its dauntingly steep grass slope and a park bench on top. All three produced contacts but still no regular chasers.

Tuesday, and in spite of the forecast for sunshine there was mist and cloud with a chill wind. We arrived at the huge car park on the shoulder of Titterstone Clee to find the summit well and truly in the clag. Twenty minutes later the summit trig loomed up through the gloom and we decided that, as no one else was likely to arrive in the conditions, we could safely use the pillar to support the antenna. Ten minutes later a party of some twenty five souls emerged from the mist and settled down for a lunch break. Sensing that some were not too happy we suspended activity and explained what we were about and that we would happily stop it was upsetting them. This approach generally works and did on this occasion. two of the group came over to chat, ones late father had been a G3--- and he was just getting into things with a receiver The other had owned an 1155 and other similar kit (my era Rob), what a pleasant chat and the cloud cleared.

Next hill is View Edge a silly drive up of a one pointer. We parked in the gateway of the SSI the only option and operated from the path on the south of the road where it crosses the summit line. It would be nice to operate from closer to the trig but the path is very overgrown and guarded by four large noisy poodles - yes poodles! and a house holder who emerges and stares balefully at passers-by. We have done some map exploring but cannot find any trace of an access track to the radio mast installations just behind the farm even the site is hard to spot on Google earth. Maybe access is via the farm, we could not find any sign of access from the SSI. Some activators suggest a path from the north but we can find no sign of one. Any suggestions for next year would be welcome. The summit lived up to its' reputation of being difficult to qualify, HF sounded dead but as usual Viki and Rod in Hereford come to our rescue on 2m. Hope the shoulder is feeling better Viki.

Wednesday, and Brown Clee with a difficult to find start point, but we arrived at the red phone box which is now redundant but maintained as what must be the worlds smallest free lending library. There was just one problem, the road past the phone box which contains the only viable parking place for miles was closed for resurfacing. The work was scheduled to be over today but there was little in the way of activity and we eventually managed to park on the verge right in front of the Road Closed notices. This is one of the few hills that seems to become easier as time goes by, but our first experience of it was somewhat traumatic being after three of the other local 2 pointers and struggling for hours in the lanes trying to find the start point and starting up as night began to fall. Today we shot up the hill, had a great sunlit operation and rushed back down hoping that the car had escaped being tar covered only to find that all the road closed notices have vanished with no evidence of further activity.

Thursday, and after a day of touristy stuff we decided on an evening trip up Callow Hill close to our base. Again the hardest bit is getting to the start point through the narrow lanes, even a ford involved in this one. The walk up is pleasant, we do not use the direct ascent which is steep, wooded and seriously overgrown, the ramp route is nice and the summit with its tower (not an antenna but a tall stone tower built as a folly) is a little delight. We sat and called for long periods on 2m with little response and in desperation tried a self spot which did the trick and qualified the hill for us This hill is perfect for an evening activation but activity levels locally can be a little disappointing.

Friday. Burrow, the last of our targets for this year's visit. The approach to this hill can be confusing and a lot depends on the agricultural uses of the fields lower down , some years they have standing crops or stock to be avoided. Our current route which has worked for the last few years uses the Shropshire Way out of Hopesay, leaving the lane past the church and walkers cafe, on a cart track with over growing hedges. After a few hundred yards at a gate the hedge on your right disappears and about another hundred yards further you enter a steep field. At the top of the field to your left is s single tree. Aim at it via an indistinct track through the grass. As you near the tree a gate at the top of the field appears, go through and follow the track until a gate appears on your left at the corner of Bank Wood. From this gate a seat and a stile in the fence that encloses the wooded summit can be seen. Make your way across the field to the stile, cross it and join the ramped track to the hill fort. Lots of room on the ramparts for all types of antenna, we had a long stay on 2m in the sunshine.

Once again a self-spot helped drum up trade, something we should probably do more often. On the way down we picked almost seven pounds of wild blackberries Audrey has turned them into jam and preserved some. At Christmas we shall open them and think of Burrow and summer.

Last weekend of a September that has seen the best weather for this year by a long chalk and as we are back on home territory we decide on a trip up Lingmoor Fell. This hill is a steep climb mostly on a rather eroded path on grass and stones with lots of bracken. Our usual start is from a National Trust car park at Blea Tarn. It is expensive and often busy but the worst thing is the approach via Little Langdale. The road is single track and there are rumoured to be passing places.

Today as we are in the midst of it we encounter a pseudo Tour de France descending with cyclists at high speed suddenly arriving in the centre of a road where the foliage touches both sides of the car! If this is not enough fun a vintage British motorcycle rally arrives in a long strung-out convoy also descending among the remnants of the cyclists. Most people in both groups are cheerful and oh what fun! The steep climb of the fell comes as a blessed relief. There is plenty of space at the summit to be able to avoid the sometimes crowded little outcrop that is the summit and we are soon set up on the grass in the sunshine.

HF conditions are very patchy with deep sudden QSB. On 40m there seem to be two of us activators on, close to the same frequency, we cannot hear each other but now and again our UK chasers drop into QSB and their locals emerge briefly calling them, more fun. On 20m many thanks to the excellent discipline of the CW operators when trying to pick KA1R out of the pile up, a single plea and silence on the frequency while we completed. Thank you Gentlemen and hope we worked you all eventually. Once again response on 2m was poor in spite of a good takeoff to the south. On SSB we really need to get some of the big signals in the south to become interested in chasing and beaming toward the hills. On FM the number of keen chasers has dropped alarmingly and many of those we get are nice people just responding to stations struggling with no real interest, we need to inspire a new group. Noticeably a good number of callers in the south were bored mobiles but only at the right time of day. Maybe we have started to appear to be a DX only setup which would be a shame if it damaged the local friendliness. The activity in 2m seems generally down, maybe D star etc, and the fm end seems to have become a “talk to Bert and no one else” area.

Enough moaning, but ideas welcome.

Take care out there

Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ

=====================================================

SOTA TOP BAND REPORT - from Mark G0VOF

There have been no Top Band activations reported for the month of September.

=====================================================

********************** Continued in Part 2 *********************

SOTA North America Report
SOTA Australia Report
SOTA Japan Report
SOTA CW Report
Extracts from SOTA Database
SOTA News contacts.

Posts: 5

Participants: 4

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SOTA NEWS OCT 2015 Part 2

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS - OCTOBER 2015 - Part 2 of 2

NORTH AMERICAN SOTA REPORT - from Skip K6DGW

I want to thank Elliott, K6EL, for taking over the NA SOTA Reporter duties while we bought a new house, sold the old one, and moved house.

We are finally getting settled. Again, thank you Elliott for holding down the fort while moved ... for the last time in our lives!

In the statistics below, I removed the last month's numbers since they reflected May and not August.

STATISTICS:
NORTH AMERICA TOTALS Sep 2015
[as of 28 Sep 0015 UTC]

Total Activations: 557
Nr Unique Activators: 186
Total Chaser QSOs: 5329
Nr Unique Chasers: 266
Total Summits Activated: 557
Unique Summits: 423

2m: 283 (5%)
6m: 5 (0%)
10m: 20 (0%)
12m: 1 (0%)
15m: 20 (0%)
17m: 149 (2%)
20m: 3466 (65%)
30m: 364 (6%)
40m: 1017 (19%)
60m: 0 (0%)
80m: 0 (0%)
160m: 0 (0%)
Unk: 4

CW: 3285 (61%)
SSB: 1762 (33%)
FM: 278 (5%)
AM: 1 (0%)
Data: 0 (0%)
Other: 2 (0%)
Unk: 4

September ionospheric conditions were jumbled at best. The Kp index hit
8 several times during the month, and stayed there for most of one day.

The NA SOTA Yahoo group was filled with reports of lousy conditions, fading signals, and activators and chasers just suddenly disappearing.

Let us hope October shows the beginning of winter conditions.

NEWS:

Elliott, K6EL, tops the good news section this month with:

"Three new NA associations in Alaska, named Anchorage KLA, Fairbanks KLF, and Southeast KLS, will launch November 1, 2015. The Association Manager for KLA will be Shannon KL3JI, and the temporary Manager for the other two will be Guy, N7UN. The total number of qualified summits in Alaska is enough that North America will contain over half the SOTA
summits in the world. Guy will be busy, as he is giving a SOTA
presentation at the next Dayton Hamvention."

Studying the map, it looks like nearly all if not all of the US States that have at least one qualified SOTA summit are now "on the air." We have some Canadian Provinces not yet organized, however I'm not sure if all of them have any summits. Who will be the first to activate Denali?
Denali's key col is the Panama Canal which sort of opens the door to Mexico and Central America!

And, also from Elliott:

"The fourth annual SOTA lunch at Pacificon will be held at Bishops Grill, inside the San Ramon Marriott, at 11:45 am, Saturday, October 17th. You must be registered in the SOTA database to attend this free lunch, hosted by K6EL. The hotel is smaller than the usual location in Santa Clara, so an RSVP is required, sent to K6EL@arrl.net"

Guy, N7UN, reports on the National Parks On The Air:

"According to the ARRL Media folks, mid-Oct is the release date for the NPOTA program. Other than the very generalized info from the ARRL, we really don't have any specifics yet about the year-long 2016 'Challenge'. This new program will have 'chasers' and 'activators'
categories and will utilize LoTW as a log repository similar to the 2014 Challenge.

There are 420+ units within the National Park Service's control. I've determined some 2300+ SOTA summits that are within these NPS units. In addition to the SOTA component, I would expect a lot of field day type, multi-day setups in a number of the parks. SOTA would be mostly back country, mountain tops and of limited duration. There was a lot of discussion with the NPS folks about "setup locations and safety issues"
as the NPS was concerned about big antennas and guy lines, etc.

I fully expect this to be a lot of fun where a typical SOTA activation within a NPS unit will attract a lot of new chasers who want to score points within the NPOTA system. Some of those folks will, by association, get involved with SOTA.

There is no definition yet for how best the SOTA databases can provide some cross-reference services.

Stand by....more to come before long. The ARRL folks are predicting this Challenge will be the biggest operating event ever! I just want to make sure SOTA can ride the coattails as much as possible. SOTA activators may be challenged with really big pileups!"

Thanks Guy, for the news and for all the work you put into the administration of NA SOTA.

Don, NK6A, reported that SOTA was represented in the Southwest HAMCON, attendees were WA6KYR, N6HEG, NK6A, WA9STI, K6TW, KM6CEM, K6QCB, NA6MG.
There's at least one Mountain Goat in that list!

Mike, AD5A, has amassed 100 unique activations! The 100th:

"I picked a tough day to get my 100th unique activation. I am in Utah on a business trip and had some free time today. I picked Scott Hill, W7U/SL-008, for the activation. Scott Hill is ~10,100 ft. ASL. It's a nice hike, about a 3.5 mile round trip with nice wide trail up. It was a beautiful day in Utah, however propagation was horrible, or was it just me? I called CQ for 5 or 6 minute before I got my first call in the log, NG6R, and then it was another 16 minutes before I had number 2, N4EMG.
After that, there must have been a pipeline to W4 as I worked 5 W4's in about 5 minutes. All the QSO's were on 20m. I called CQ on 30m and 40m and not a peep."

"I followed up with Quarry Mountain, W7U/NU-067, which isn't too far away with only slightly better results. 11 QSO's in 30 minutes of calling and all on 20m, despite calling CQ on 40m, 30m and 17m."

"Despite the results, it was a nice day in the mountains."

Congratulations Mike, 100 Uniques is quite an achievement!

AWARDS: I don't have any communications about other awards and achievements, but I was reading my emails on a microscopic screen on my Android phone for a few weeks, and I'm sure I missed a lot.

REPORTS: We have several, they're short, and two are newcomers!!

From Robert, K6WFV in Santa Maria CA: "I made my 1st activation yesterday on W6/CC-028. Even made a Summit 2 Summit to contact with KY7S Doug near Seattle, Wa. What a fun time. I'm hooked. Even with the lousy band condition. Thanks to all that made contact with me."

Jim, N4EEA, reports: "Yesterday was my first activation as well. Made 6 contacts including W0ERI and 2 S2S! Thanks for the contacts and anyone else who tried. It was a beautiful day to be on a mountaintop (W4G/HC-006)!"

The stalwarts weren't idle either, this just in from Scott, W7IMC:

"Activated seven summits with KF7DDT Boyd this weekend in central W7I including W7I/CI 092 Big Southern Butte, W7I/CI-021 Buckhorn Peak,
W7I/CU-057 Whiteknob, W7I/CU-100, W7I/LE-011 Sheep Mountain, and
W7I/LE-039 Trail Peak. We made a 1/2 day attempt trying to find access to the Beaverheads with no luck as all roads were closed above 8,000
ft. All but one summit were 8 pointers and most involved significant
two wheeled travel up less than ideal mining roads followed by 800 to
1400 ft untrailed class 2/3 vertical ascents. Did I mention smoking the knobbies up some of those roads? Top elevation for Boyd was 10,865 on Sheep Mtn and 10,835 for myself up White Knob Mountain. Game spotted included deer, antelope, grouse, Huns, rock chucks and the trip highlight of a bull moose at the 9600 ft contour line on White Knob.
Band conditions were less than ideal, but we did manage at least four qso's on each summit and Boyd deploy ed his new KX3. As always we spotted some yet unactivated 10 pointers which of course will need addressed."

Welcome to our newcomers! There's lots of good advice and guidance on how to succeed and have fun on your activations, and chasing adventures.
Keep in mind, this all works better when we all share what worked ...
and what didn't.

EPILOGUE: The move is over, we have our Nevada drivers' licenses, tags for our two vehicles, we own this house, our daughter and son-in-law own the "Farm" in Auburn, and we're registered to vote in Nevada ... citizens of the Silver State. I will initially appear with RF on the bands from W7RN which I can operate remotely from home. We have some rules in our little community here, one is "No 70 foot towers with a tribander." I will have a flag pole in back maybe next spring, and I'll begin making RF from home then too.

73,

Skip K6DGW
North American SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV

=========================================================

VK SOTA NEWS from Allen VK3HRA

There were two new VK SOTA Goats to report. They have quite different approaches to SOTA. This demonstrates that whilst SOTA has key components being the use of amateur radio from defined peaks, what people put into and what they get out of SOTA is very different.

Both started activating in Feb 2013 and achieved the magic 1000 points required for SOTA GOATHOOD this September.

VK3EQ Rik has been working the alpine summits trekking and skiing to the higher peaks. In single week running up to goat hood Rik VK3EQ notched up 7 activations yielding 69 points bringing his total to 986. Rik then returned to finish up with 141 summits for the 1000 pints for SOTA Goat.

VK1NAM Andrew is VK1’s first Goat and our most profic activator with over 360 activations to his credit. Andrew can be found most evenings on a summit chasing DX or on the weekends out positioning himself to for Summit to Summit contacts. With over 1035 S2S contact to his name, Andrew is in the top 10 for the world. It’s a rare activation these days when I don’t make at least one S2S with VK1NAM.

SOTA is as busy as ever. Whilst the weather improved, band conditions did not. This has lead to longer times on summits to qualify on 40m during the day and the increased use of 2M where suitable to secure the required contacts.

Andrew VK3ARR as ZS6/VK3ARR activate ZS/GP-001 and ZS/WC-070.
Andrew VK3JBL as E51AGN activated E5/RA-002.

Gerard VK2IO spent 13 days in the Snowy Mountains area activating 20 SOTA activations and 6 WWFF activations.

There was a frenzy of activity in the last week of September as the bonus period was closing. Those who could access the higher peaks in the improved weather went out to secure the extra three points. So the last weekend of September saw 150 activations over 12 WWFF references and 34 summits.

During this weekend Tony VK3CAT was activating his annual loop through VK3/VC and VK3/VT whilst at the same time VK3PF was activating in the area. After a quick chat during activations they decided to head to a common summit Mt Useful for the end of the day. What started as a pop from the car ended up as smoke

Fortunately Tony VK3CAT was 10 min behind so Peter was not alone.
Equipment was retrieved from the car and fire extinguishers deployed in vain.

As the phone system did not cover this part of the park, again it came down to 40M to get the message through. Between Tony VK3CAT, Johnno VK3FAMB and Col VK3LED the CFA was informed and the location communicated.

By the time the CFA had arrived Peters equipment was in Tonys’ car as the fire had taken hold destroying the Subaru.

A big word out to all involved. Calm heads prevailed in what could have been a dark day for SOTA. Though activating a summit on the drive out was the mark of true dedication. A fly on the wall (or window) reports that as the pair (VK3PF & VK3CAT) was approaching Mt Useful VK3/VT-016 the conversation turned to activating one more summit;

“Well they looked at each other and said "why not!" "Single station"
said Pete," I'll set up the KX3, you to a spot qrv in 5" - Tony "We can do 80m if needed, what do you think Pete?" "I'll do the spot for 40 metres. CW Tony?" Reply "No just 7.090 and get things done quickly."
Peter, "want to work each other on 2 metres either side of the activation zone?" Tony - "But of course!"

They did rule out VT-034 however apparently there was too much fog and you have to draw a line somewhere. Again glad that Peter got out safely. Ten out of ten for style for going on and activating another one on the way home though. Read details on;

Note that changes to the start time for second period of the SOTA 6/10m challenge now makes it possible to contact field and home stations operating in the VK VHF/UHF field day on 14/15 November to participate.

Allen
VK3HRA

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REPORT FROM JAPAN - from Jun JI1TIL

VUHF ARE MAJOR BANDS IN JAPAN

I found my call sign in SOTA NEWS - AUGUST 2015( Part 2), in which Elliott K6EL wrote “Did anyone hear the JA activations?”. Yes, that was good question. You can now find many Japanese reports since the beginning of SOTA Japan, however, very few signal is cached outside Japan.

In Japan, outdoor operation at the top of mountain is basically made on VUHF bands.
The reason is quite simple. As for myself, I want to make many DX QRP QSOs taking advantage of the best location for direct ground wave propagation. That’s why I’m operating on 6, 2 and 0.7m at the summit. A beam antenna is also available. HF bands are not actually suitable for ground wave DX QSO. I’ve sometimes heard foreign call on 6m by sporadic-E propagation. That was not a matter of my interest. Direct propagation on VUHF bands with HL or BV station from Japanese summit seems more attractive. I can still not understand why most SOTA activations are made on HF bands.

You can hear many CQ calls (in Japanese) at summits every week-end in Japan since the 1970s. We welcome your activation in Japan and recommend you to operate on VUHF bands.

73
Jun JI1TIL

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CW REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2015 - by Roy G4SSH

The month got off to a good start with a magnificent 8 day SOTA expedition to Northern (and occasionally Southern) Ireland by Nick G4OOE, with Geoff 2E0NON, who managed to activate all the Mourne Mountains.

Also heard was Kuba SQ9SHR, Etienne SV2/K7ATN and the special anniversary call S5100ISONZO out of Slovenia. Sake PA0SKP commenced an expedition to the BW region of Germany and Paul DL2FBK was active daily on many modes and bands. Paul has only been active since June 2015 and already has activated many summits.

Go, JJ1SWI was active on 21 MHz CW at 0555 on the 5th and Victor EA6/GI4ONL was heard calling from Mallorca Island at the start of an expedition which lasted until the 17th.

It was a great pleasure to hear Vlado Z35M once more on the air, calling CQ SOTA on his usual spot of 14.059 MHz on the 8th. It must be well over a year since he was last active.

John GS0OOO was active from the GM/WS region of Scotland from the 6th to the 17th of the month, starting with Ben Nevis on the 8th of the month.

Marko commenced one of his expeditions around the SL region of Norway and Jurg HB9BIN and Kurt HB9AFI were both active from France. Markus HB9BRJ commenced a tour of summits in the German BW region on the 11th and Chris ON6ZQ was also heard from France.

A group of Hungarian amateurs crossed the border into Romania to activate YO/WC-047 on the 13th. Stations heard were YO/HA8BE, YO/HA8PK, YO/HA8BJ, YO/HA8LLH, YO/HA8QW and YO/HA8PQ.

Geert commenced one of his regular expeditions into Germany as DL/PA7ZEE on the 20th of the month, as did Tom DL/HB9DPR. Whilst Kurt HB9AFI was working with Heinz HB9BCB simultaneously on different bands.

Phil G4OBK commenced his four-day expedition to the OK/KR Eagle Mountains region of the Czech Republic on the 25th of the month. Phil closed this tour by activating a remarkable 8 summits in one day on the 28th.

Bjorn LB1GB commenced a one week's expedition on the 28th

It was a great pleasure to hear the welcome return of Lutz DJ3AX and his faithful Mountain Mutt Benny, back activating again on the 30th, after a long silence.

Info from Jürg HB9BIN:- 30th September:-

"I will continue to activate F/VO-Summits and then move on to DM/RP-Summits. I will stay on the road one more week until next Saturday.

Once I am finished with this trip, all summits in the Vosges (F/VO) are activated."

73
Roy G4SSH

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SOTA ACTIVITY REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2015.

SOTA Activators submitting entries to the data base for 10m, 6m and 1240 MHz during September 2015. These files produced on 30th September by Kevin G0NUP.

Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for September

DF3MC/P, DL/HB9BRJ/P, F5UKL/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9CGA/P, OE3CHC/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2PDT/P

Mode: SOTA CW on 50MHz: activity for September

HB9CGA/P, JH0CJH/1, JH0CJH/2, JJ1SWI/0, JJ1SWI/1, JS1UEH/0, JS1UEH/1, S5100ISONZO, WB5USB

Mode: SOTA CW on 1240MHz: activity for September. Nil

Mode: SOTA FM on 28MHz: activity for September

2E0YYY/P

Mode: SOTA FM on 50MHz: activity for September. Nil

Mode: SOTA FM on 1240MHz: activity for September

7K1CPT/1, G4VPX/P, JG6CRU, JP1QEC, JS1GRO, M0IML/P, OK1DEU/P, WW7D

Mode: SOTA SSB on 28MHz: activity for September

2E0YYY/P, CT2IXX/P, DL8DBW/P, IW2OBX/QRP, IZ2YWI/QRP, KD2GKO, KD4FTN, KI4SVM, KJ4ZFK, OE/S57MS/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S56LXN/P, S57D/P, S57MS/P, SP9MA/P, VA2MO, VE2MY, VK3YY, W6AH, WA2FON

Mode: SOTA SSB on 50MHz: activity for September

I1WKN, JH0CJH/1, JH0CJH/2, JH1EWV, JI1IHV/1, JI1IHV/9, JI1TLL, JJ1SWI/0, JL1BWG, JP1QEC, JR1NNL/1, JR1OBC, JS1GRO, JS1UEH/0, JS1UEH/1, K7MWT, N7LKL, OE/S57MS/P, S52CU/P, S52ON/P, S56LXN/P, S57MS/P, VK1DA, VK1NAM/P, VK3YY, W6AH, W7TAO, WA2FON, WA7JTM

Mode: SOTA SSB on 1240MHz: activity for September. Nil

Regards
Kevin J Prince

======================================================

SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.

I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za


Posts: 3

Participants: 2

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Input to SOTA News Nov 2015

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@G4SSH wrote:

Contributions are invited for the November 2015 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Friday 30th October.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.
73

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

North American input to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net or k6dgw@arrl.net

VK Input to:-

Allen VK3HRA
arharvie@gmail.com

South Africa input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 3

Participants: 2

Read full topic

SOTA NEWS NOV 2015 Part 1

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 - Part 1 of 2

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH

Welcome to the November 2015 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Skip K6DGW, Allen VK3HRA, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Geert PA7ZEE, Sake PA0SKP, Hans PA3SYG, Phil G4OBK, Nick G4OOE, Dave G3TQQ.

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The October edition of SOTA News was viewed 980 times.
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SOTA AWARDS - OCTOBER 2015 - from Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager

October was another bumper month for awards with five new Mountain Goats and seven Shack Sloths. Most notable is the 5000 Activator award and 25k Chaser award for OK2PDT; in addition Jan has also activated 1000 unique summits. Quite an achievement. Rob G4RQJ(and his xyl Audrey) have now managed 2500 points as activators – did Audrey bake a special cake for the occasion? Summit to Summit awards are also popular with quite a number of individuals reaching the higher levels however there is still only one Amethyst award ever made!

Trophies

Mountain Goat

VK1NAM Andrew Moseley
N1FJ Frandy Johnson
KD7WPJ Oleh Kemytskyy

Shack Sloth

KG5EIU David Cappello
M0WBG Neil Challis
NU7Y Quinton Gleason

Certificates claimed

Activator

OK2PDT Jan Lavicka 5000 points
G4RQJ Rob Hannan 2500 points
VK1NAM Andrew Moseley 1000 points
OK1AU Stan Veit 1000 points
K5RHD Randy Diddel 1000 points
YO2MSB Sorin Daniel Barbu 500 points
DG3NEU Tobias Lackenmeier 500 points

Activator Unique

OK2PDT Jan Lavicka 1000 summits
DF3MC Martin Rothe 250 summits
KC5CW Curtis Hays II 100 summits

Chaser

OK2PDT Jan Lavicka 25000 points
VK2NP Clifford Hynds 5000 points
G0FEX Kenneth Porter 1000 points
M0XRS Christopher Rowan 1000 points
M0WBG Neil Challis 1000 points
YO2MSB Sorin Daniel Barbu 1000 points
K6QCB Jeffrey B Widen 1000 points
VK3PMG Mick Geraghty 500 points
SP6NVB Bogdan Morawski 250 points
PA7MDJ Michael de Jong 250 points
PA7MDJ Michael de Jong 100 points
EA3GBQ Josep Sirvent Sanchez 100 points
SQ9LBE Tomasz Loba 100 points

Chaser Unique

ON4FI Naessens Karel 5000 summits
PA0WLB William L.B.J. Dekker 4000 summits
ON6ZQ Christophe David 3000 summits
K6EL Elliott M Pisor 2000 summits
KA5PVB Charles Dobbins 500 summits
K6QCB Jeffrey B Widen 100 summits

SOTA Complete

OK2PDT Jan Lavicka 500 summits

Mountain Hunter

EB2GKK Inaki Fagoaga Platinum
PA1BR Pascal Breugelmans Gold
G1FOA Peter Franklin Bronze
DG3NEU Tobias Lackenmeier Bronze
EA3GBQ Josep Sirvent Sanchez Bronze
PA7MDJ Michael de Jong Bronze
K7ODX Ryan Etherington Bronze

Summit to Summit

OK2PDT Jan Lavicka Platinum
DB7MM Dr. Michael Multerer Gold
K7ODX Ryan Etherington Bronze
SQ9APD Bartosz Kuzma Red

The problems we had (and they still continue as I type this) with the database server put a real strain on the issue of awards. I was unable to check more than one claim before it timed me out and this caused extreme frustration, not to mention the time it was taking. Andy MM0FMF stepped in and managed to produce csv files of all claimants records from an offline database. There was only one problem caused by this with one claim being dated later than the previous backup and an exchange of emails was needed to clarify matters. My sincere thanks to Andy for his help at a time when he was tearing out his (rather limited) hair over the database server problems.

This is where it becomes obvious why we charge for awards – we are in the process of moving the SOTA database to a server with much more capacity, this costs money, real money, and the small profit we make on awards and merchandise funds this (along with the other IT products SOTAwatch and the Reflector). The failure of any one of these products causes untold problems for the whole SOTA community not least those who design the products and spend much of their free time maintaining them. In short, with the growing trend to purchase certificates as downloadable files, and the significant percentage taken by Paypal when ordering a single item (28% at the current time), we are planning a review of the charges for pdf files. Meanwhile, when ordering multiple certificates PLEASE order them as a single transaction rather than individual transactions; this maximises the income to SOTA.

Finally, this leads me onto the state of the SOTA shop. Many will have noted that the shop does not have any stock (Awards or Merchandise); this is intentional as I am moving home in the next two weeks and need to concentrate on that rather than SOTA shopping. Because the new qth is much smaller than my present home (less than 20% of the size) I need to build a “man cave” to accommodate my shack and office, consequently it is unlikely that I will be able to issue awards until the beginning of 2016. I will minimise the delay but please be patient and I will try to get something operational as soon as possible.

So for the last time this report comes from the highest village in the Highlands of Scotland set within the spectacular Cairngorms National Park (with most of the highest UK peaks within sight – a SOTAfeast) -this is a blatant advert, it really is that good. My next report will come from the lofty height of 80m asl on the glorious Moray Firth coast – a lot warmer in winter!

Please take care when out and about on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

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SOTA AT HAM RADIO CONVENTION IN THE NETHERLANDS

On the 7th of November there is a team of dutch SOTA enthusiasts active on the Ham Radio Convention (Dag voor de Radio Amateur) in the Americahal in Apeldoorn.

Our goal is the promotion of the SOTA program. In the team are parcipitating our Association Manager Hans PA0HRM, Mountain Goats Hans PA3FYG and Sake PAOSKP and myself.

Our stand will be on the first floor where we hope to meet many SOTA friends.
73 de Geert PA7ZEE

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SOTA TRIP REPORT

Earlier last month we had a short holiday in Austria along with our wives, so it was not just a "SOTA" holiday hihi.
We still activated 10 mountains, several of them above the 2000m. Really climbing!
From 19 to 23rd October Hans and I made a SOTA-trip to Thuringen. It was unfortunately often foggy and rainy.
We used 1 transceiver, the KX3 (10Watt). Hans, PA3FYG operated in SSB and I in CW.
Thanks to everyone who worked us! In total 19 summits.
73,
Hans PA3FYG,
Sake PA0SKP
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MY TRIP TO GOATDOM - By Victor GI4ONL

Early in 2010, after a 14 year absence, I rekindled my interest in amateur radio. I had always been a keen CW operator and enjoyed portable operating so when it came to purchasing a suitable radio the FT-817 appeared to tick all the boxes. Initially it took a little time to scrub the rust of the CW cells in my brain, however I found that I had retained most of my previous skills and enjoyed the challenge of getting back up to speed.

When browsing some or other radio related website late in 2011, I became aware of SOTA but didn’t give it any serious thought until one evening whilst talking to the other Victor, (MI0JST), I asked if he had ever heard of it. He hadn’t! Thankfully he didn’t need much persuasion to try an activation, so, on the 8th of January 2012 we did our first of many joint activations and thence began our SOTA journey.

Over the past 3 and a bit years we have been out in all sorts of weather, driven literally thousands of miles and walked an unknown quantity, to jointly activate all of the summits in GI and numerous in EI along with a few in G and GM. Individually we have also activated summits in other regions. After our activations on 11th October this year I was only 6 points away from the magic 1000.

I was like a child waiting for Christmas or a birthday, and just couldn’t wait for the day of the qualifying activation. Due to work and family commitments, MI0JST was tied up for the next few weekends so no chance of any joint activations.

On the 25th the wx was reasonable, my feet were itchy, and I succumbed to the SOTA rat that was busy knawing at me. I chose GI/SM-003 as it was the closest 6 pointer that I hadn’t activated this year, but it still required an hour and a half of driving.

On arrival at the parking spot I noticed that all the tops in the Sperrin Mountains were engulfed in thick cloud, and it was quite windy – less than ideal conditions – but it would have taken a lot more than cloud and wind to dissuade me!

After I had the station set up I discovered there was no signal on my mobile phone so sending a spot was impossible, I just hoped the RBN would pick up my CQ and spot me – Thankfully it did.

By pure coincidence, or perhaps fate, the 4th and qualifying contact in the log was the person who has chased me most, di di dit, di di dit, di di di dit, the unmistakable call from Roy G4SSH. I went on to work a total of 40 contacts on 7-CW, 10-CW and 7-SSB and my final contact was with Victor MI0JST.
On my return walk to the car the feeling of elation was incredible. I had achieved something, which in 2012 seemed like an unattainable goal.

Becoming the first Mountain Goat in Northern Ireland was an added bonus!

I cannot write this story without further reference to the “other” Victor. He has been a true friend and great companion on our many joint activations. We have had some memorable times together and hopefully many more will follow.

Out of curiosity I have compiled a few statistics relating to my trip to goatdom:

Time taken: 3 years, 9 months and 17 days.
Associations activated: 7
Regions activated: 16
Unique summits: 144
Total summits: 203
Chasers worked: 3213
Average per summit:15.83
Total points: 1000
Average per summit: 4.93

As I am sure many are aware, I am also a keen SOTA chaser and would like to thank all the activators and chasers who have given me so much enjoyment over the past few years. To those behind the scenes who keep the SOTA machine running, we are all indebted to your hard work and commitment.

Here’s to the next 1000…………

73
Victor GI4ONL

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THE TEES TO THE WASH - FUN DAY - 29th October 2015 - by Phil G4OBK

When Ed DD5LP (G8GLM/VK2JI) told me he would be visiting family in October in Northern England and wanted to activate at least one G/TW summit while he was here, it seemed to me as the G/TW Area Manager that this would be a good time to organise a SOTA Funday.

The last one I took part in was the North Pennines Fun Day, which was in January 2009.
Our G/TW area contains just five one point summits with a prominence of more than 150 metres. For those not familiar with our geography the area extends on the east side of the country abutting the north sea for approximately 120 miles north-south with the five summits spread over an east - west distance of around 35 miles. The distance from Normanby Wold TW-005 in Lincolnshire - our most southerly summit, to Gisborough Moor TW-003 our most northerly summit is 78 miles.

As it turned out on the day the weather was foul, with rain, strong winds and mist but this did not prevent 12 stalwart operators sticking to their word and turning out to activate all five summits. Between us we gave the HF and 2m FM bands a really good airing from our area.

The big hitter in DX terms was England's top scoring SOTA SSB Specialist Steve Green G1INK, (known to his ham radio mates as "Inky"). Steve completed 108 QSOs in an afternoon session from Gisborough Moor, TW-003. With his eye on the improving propagation of the 10 metre band Steve gave 10 metres a try at 1445z and was generously rewarded. 10m turned out to be Steve's "money band". Not only did Steve work a YV station in Venezuela, and a PY in Brazil, he worked 33 North American stations on 10 metres, including Ryan KK4OSG for S2S with best DX being Don NK6A (California), who some may remember was operating from Eire in September. Andy G6PJZ beat Steve on to TW-003 and covered the 2m FM band initially. Andy then departed and gave his call an airing on TW-004 - again on 2m FM before returning north to our supper social in a country pub.

Ex Army man Terry Sayner G0VWP also operated from a different place on TW-004 (the circumference of the activation zone down to 25m on the plateau is about 12 miles). Terry used a tarp shelter with an 11 foot coverage area. He even moved a small table and chair into it and operated in comfort with a large lead acid leisure battery. On contacts alone Terry was our top scorer with 115 QSOs. (It is possible to drive on to the summit of TW-004 as the A166 road goes right over the top of it).

The next big scorer was Nick G4OOE who finished just shy of 100 QSOs with 98 worked. after removing 3 dupes from the log. This was again from a different place on Bishop Wilton Wold TW-004, so there was plenty of separation between the two QRO stations.. I don't know what rain protection Steve had on TW-003 but Nick did the same as I did - we protected our FT-857 radios and gear underneath with double skinned and vented fibreglass golf umbrellas which were pegged down.

Ed DD5LP, across from Germany, climbed up to Cringle Moor G/TW-002 from Lord Stones with his brother Jim G8DCD. Ed and Jim had the worst weather of the day I believe, but using his FT-817 and due to the rain and exposure, a mismatched Vertical antenna, they made 12 QSO's in 30 miutes. This was a SOTA indoctrination session for Jim who lives in the G/TW area.

Another operator who travelled over 200 miles each way to visit a TW summit was Peter G1FOA who came up north from Essex and activated Normanby Wold G/TW-005 on HF. Earlier in the day Simon M0RTZ was reported there on 2m FM. but I do not know many contacts he made. The summit is notoriously difficult to make contacts on using 2m FM. The day after our Fun Day Peter G1FOA went back to G/TW-004 and activated on HF before returning south.

Back to Fun Day and around midday three operators, Dave G3TQQ, Pete M0HQO and Jeremy M0JLP walked up Urra Moor TW-001 from Clay Bank and operated from under a shelter on 2m FM using 50 watts. They made plenty of contacts despite not being spotted at all throughout their activation... As they were walking back down Phil G4OBK was on his way up having attended a business meeting in the morning. Phil was operating from under a golf umbrella like Nick and as the weather began to improve put 70 QSOs into his log on 40m, 30m and 20m before closing down at 1545z. Top UK Chaser Roy G4SSH helped by providing spotting support, cellular coverage for data is not good in the North York Moors National Park yet.

With the SOTA database currently undergoing essential maintenance it isn't possible to give an exact breakdown and number of contacts made, but we know that well over 400 SOTA QSOs were made from the TW area on the day. We also know for sure that at least three chaser stations worked all five summits - thesnd to purchase certificates as d and Andrew G4AFI - there could well be a few more. I believe that G/TW-002 was the
toughest summit to work on the day.

Between 1800 and 1900, all activators, along with chaser Roy G4SSH, gathered for a supper in a country pub between Pickering and Malton. It was a great evening with lots of stories of SOTA adventures and what we were all planning for in the future.

My thanks go to Nick G4OOE for laying on transport for five of us to the pub supper and to all participants and chasers for their enthusiasm and for giving their best on the day.

73
Phil G4OBK
G/TW Area Manager

Dave G3TQQ operating from TW-001 with " winds so strong that you could hardly stand up, constant rain and very reduced visibility".

Phil G4OBK, Roy G4SSH, Andy G6PJZ, Steve G1INK, Peter G1FOA, Nick G4OOE, Terry G0VWP, Dave G3TQQ, Pete M0HQO, Jim G8DCD, Ed. G8GLM (DD5LP)

Roy G4SSH (Leading G chaser) Phil G4OBK (G/TW Area Manager) Steve G1INK, (Leading G activator) at the TW supper..

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SOTA TOP BAND REPORT - from Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

After a couple of months with no summit activity on Top band I am pleased to report that no fewer than three activators tried the band during October.

First this month on Saturday 3rd October was the Worlds leading Top Band activator John G4YSS, using SSEG callsign GX0OOO/P. John’s chosen summit was G/NP-002 Mickle Fell, which as large parts of this fell are used as a military firing range permission must be obtained before accessing the range.

There was a nice surprise for John when he reached the summit as fellow activator David G0EVV was in full flight on 40m CW. John & David exchanged greetings and took the opportunity to capture a few photos. Following this un-planned meeting, John partook of another of his interests, visiting the remains of a crashed Stirling Bomber. Many of the hills & fells in the North of England have claimed aircraft & crew over the years, both during war & peacetime. The remains of these aircraft can be in quite good condition, despite the passage of time in pretty grim conditions.

After returning to the summit cairn John then headed to the western end of the summit to set up for his activation. This would be an un-hurried multi-band activation & thanks to David also activating the fell on HF, John would be able to spend longer on some bands than he may otherwise have done. Starting on 30m CW John made his way to Top Band via 17m & 80m. I was very fortunate to catch John’s first CQ’s on 30m despite spending the morning in the garden & only popping into the shack to check my HF wire was still working correctly after dropping it to trim my hedge earlier!

I managed to work John on several bands & was monitoring 1832KHz CW when he first called CQ. Due to my high local noise levels I was also monitoring via a WebSDR, in case I could not copy John directly, I would still be able to monitor & spot any mode changes. As it happened I was very pleased to find that I could actually hear John better using my own antenna & radio, so muting the WebSDR I called him. Although signals were not very strong with 529 reports exchanged, for the middle of the afternoon I was more than happy. I was using 100 Watts into an 80m circumference horizontal loop at around 6m AGL, much more of an NVIS antenna for 80m upwards than for ground-wave on Top band. After a quite easy exchange on CW I was surprised to hear John requesting a QSY to SSB straight away. I quickly moved to 1843KHz LSB & heard John calling. This was far more difficult than CW had been, more I think due to the wider filter & my local noise than any fault with John’s equipment, although he does suspect his amplifier’s performance on SSB is not on a par with its performance on CW. Nonetheless we exchanged 32/52 reports which although a bit of a struggle for me, is not as difficult as some QSO’s I have had!

Following SSB John returned to 1832KHz CW & was rewarded with a call from Roy G4SSH, who despite not having a 160m antenna does surprisingly well on the band when conditions permit. By this time John noticed that David was packing up so John waited on 1832KHz for David G0EVV to pass on his way off the summit. Chancing a CQ while David was some distance away John was very surprised to be answered by Phil G4OBK, who was not expected to be on the air that afternoon. Good reports were exchanged so John had now made 4 QSO’s on the band, although two were with me. After a final foray onto 145MHz FM John packed up & made his way home.

Needless to say John has provided an incredibly detailed activation report & photos, which can be found here:

http://reflector.sota.org.uk/t/g4yss-g-np-002-mickle-fell-on-03-10-15/11730/

The second activator to give 160m a try this month was Jack W4TJE who along with a few amateur friends planned an evening activation of W4V/WV-005 Point Lookout Mountain. Jack made a superb total of 8 QSO’s on the band using CW before moving to 80m were he made a further 24 QSO’s again using CW. As this activation crossed 0000 utc chasers had the opportunity to work Jack twice for double points.

Jack has kindly provided the following information:

“Here where I live, I’m surrounded by many summits that have had few, if any activations. If you view my location on a satellite map, you’ll see what I mean. So my goal is to activate summits with no or little previous activity.

Some of these summits are hard to get to and involve long hikes. My mind has a tendency to wander while I’m out there hiking, and this summer I started thinking about SOTA activations that might be outside of the box.

And I got to thinking that nobody over here seems to ever do any activations on the low bands. So that’s how I came to the idea. Next, I wanted to do an activation that would be easy to get to and set up from. And Point Lookout, with its easy access and flat, open summit, is ideal in that way. Then of course, we had to wait for the summer qrn to dissipate, but we didn’t want to wait until it was too cold.

Finally, after all that planning, I wanted to be heard. So this summer I purchased a kxpa100 amp to go with the kx-3. The only problem was the wx. A front stalled out, with light rain and heavy fog. But we went on with it and it worked out great. The end fed wire for 80 and 160 worked very well. I would have liked to have worked more on 160, but the semi-pileups on 80 more than made up for shortfall on 160.

I don’t like camping out overnight, as I had my fill of that as a Marine grunt as a young man. But I may do an overnight next spring from one of these summits in order to catch the morning sunrise and aim to put more DX stations in the log. One point I want to make clear: despite Point Lookout being accessible by vehicle, and I did drive close to the summit, all the gear used was gear that I had carried while hiking on my previous activation, including the amp and an extra battery.

Getting back to this past summer’s sota (mis)adventures. I really did encounter many deer, 6 black bears, 2 timber rattlesnakes, a drunken floozie on horseback, and a naked appalachian trail hiker. I’m thinking of writing it all up and submitting it to CQ or RADCOM, It was a very fun, and adventurous summer, and if I can write it down properly, it might help to generate more SOTA interest.”

Thanks for the excellent report Jack & very well done on the 160m QSO’s!

The third activator to try Top Band was Jim K9JWV who dropped onto the band during his activation of W7U/WS-109 Snow Benchmark on 12th October. Sadly Jim did not manage to work anyone on 160m , but well done for trying.

Thanks & very well done to John, Jack & Jim!

At the time of writing, these were the only Top band activations during October that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.

On 3 October, John GX0OOO/P (G4YSS) Activated G/NP-002 Mickle Fell & made 4 QSO's (3 CW / 1 SSB)
On 10 October, Jack W4TJE Activated W4V/WV-005 Point Lookout Mountain & made 8 QSO's (8 CW / 0 SSB)
On 12 October, Jim K9JWV Activated W7U/WS-109 Snow Benchmark & made 0 QSO's (0 CW / 0 SSB)

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH 94 - by Rob and Audrey G4RQJ

Sunday Oct 4th Kirby Moor this weekend, a repeat for us this year but close to home and a nice stretch of the legs if you start at the beginning of the Slate Road that crosses the moor and ends up in Kirby itself. From the southern end the road is drivable with care and a reasonable ground clearance but only up as far as the utility site at the entrance to the wind farm. There is very limited parking along the sides of the track. The walk up is quite pleasant with good views into the southern Lake District proper. We once met an old farmer half way up staring wistfully at the distant Coniston valley, he told us he had farmed there all his life but had been forced by old age to retire to Ulverston where his children lived and this was as close to Coniston as he could get. From the gate just after the utility site a right turn up the grassy slope beside a wall takes you onto the summit plateau from where follow the utility tracks past the windmills to the obvious high point with a pile of stones. There is little shelter on the summit and it is always breezy, the only hope is to get into the lee of the summit mound, not very effective if the wind is from the south, it is today! Contacts were slow in coming but never the less three hours soon passed, my cw is getting worse. the spring on the paddle is wearing out and it is making the key very light. Unfortunately the spring is cut from a miniature hacksaw blade and I am too lazy to make a new one, I'll get round to it!

Sunday Oct 11th Black Combe our most local larger than one point summit this hill dominates the local skyline to the north of Barrow in spite of being separated from it by the Duddon estuary. Like Morecombe Bay to the south but somewhat smaller, it too is full of dangerous sand flats covered by the sea at high tide whilst at low tide it looks crossable, its not! The crossing point is Duddon Bridge that carries the A595 coast road over. It is single track controlled by lights. Last week it was closed over night, the diversion was 110 miles round via the M6 to get past 30yds of road. The best start point for the climb is Whicham church just off the A595 about ten miles beyond the Duddon bridge, on the right and easily missed. There is a good sized car park with a simple honesty box. The little church yard has several WW2 war graves, unknowns washed ashore by the sea and two Australian airmen killed on the hill in a plane crash. We always stop there for a few minutes and remember how far they had come to help, only to die on our fells and to be buried so far from home. The hill is a no nonsense climb, not steep but relentless even the descent is a relentless strain on the knees. The summit plateau is large and grassy with a shelter round the trig pillar, lots of room for antennas but beware of the mist that can creep up suddenly from the sea and the paths on the summit are not obvious in poor visibility. Ability to climb this hill is thought of locally as a test of fitness, we climbed it for the Silver Jubilee, the Golden Jubilee and recently the Diamond Jubilee and all being well we will be there for the next one.

Sunday 18th Oct With the impending trip to North Wales for the radio rally that never was we decided on a little local repeat summit, Hutton Roof Crag. Lately we have taken to doing more repeats and it is fascinating to see these little summits in their different guises through the year. Now it's autumn and people are picking the last withered blackberries. Local lore has it that Satan goes round at the end of September and relieves himself on the remaining fruit so we don't pick any! The hill is best climbed from the parking spot on the south side of the hill, a couple of miles out of Burton in Kendal and close by a small disused quarry now a picnic area. Finding the summit is an art in itself. Basically navigate there via the host of woodland paths and remember them for the way down and the future. The woodland is managed as a resource and if you have not visited for some time much will have changed. The summit has a trig but activating close to it is difficult as there are a lot of visitors. The area around is bracken and hawthorns which hide quite a few deep narrow fissures in the limestone It is possible to set up among this but the hawthorns always tangle wire antennas and for ankle safety prod ahead with a walking pole. Once again a lack of 2m chasers in numbers.

This month's effort will be shorter than usual due to the cyber attack on our service provider which has left internet access rather problematic at the moment so hope to catch lots of you during the Wales visit, meanwhile take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ
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************************ Continued in Part 2 ********************
North American SOTA Report
Australian SOTA Report
SOTA CW Report
Extracts from SOTA Data Base
SOTA News contacts.

Posts: 6

Participants: 5

Read full topic

SOTA NEWS NOV 2015 Part 2

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 - Part 2 of 2

NORTH AMERICAN REPORT - from Skip K6DGW/7

Greetings All,

October has been a very SOTA busy month over here in North America.
While activations and chasing seems to have declined, that may be an artefact of the database issues that have been plaguing Andy and the MT.

People who know me have said that there has never been a technology I couldn't break, but I promise, I didn't break the SOTA database. :smile:

NORTH AMERICA TOTALS: as of 29 Oct 2015 22:24 UTC

Total Activations: 403 [557]
Nr Unique Activators: 139 [186]
Total Chaser QSOs: 2434 [5329]
Nr Unique Chasers: 161 [266]
Unique Summits: 516 [423]

2m: 118 (4%) [283]
6m: 0 (0%) [5]
10m: 15 (0%) [20]
12m: 5 (0%) [1]
15m: 50 (2%) [20]
17m: 82 (3%) [149]
20m: 1493 (61%) [3466]
30m: 186 (7%) [364]
40m: 480 (19%) [1017]
60m: 3 (0%) [0]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 1 (0%) [0]
Unk: 1

CW: 1420 (58%) [3285]
SSB: 892 (36%) [1762]
FM: 119 (4%) [278]
AM: 0 (0%) [1]
Data: 0 (0%) [0]
Other: 0 (0%) [2]
Unk: 1

2 meters seems to be increasing slowly, most of it seems to be FM which is how it looks on Sotawatch in the alerts and spots too. All the other band/mode stats seem to be fairly stable.

AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS: A lot this month!

If there was an award for "Most Gasoline Consumed in the Pursuit of SOTA," I'm sure it would go to Curtis, KC5CW. As a result, he has posted over 100 unique summit activations. It happened while on a trip to France. Really nice gesture on his wife's part to OK activations on her birthday trip. :smile:

And, as if that isn't enough, David, KG5EIU notes: "Big round of applause for Curtis KC5CW today Oct 17, 2015 I was with him when he crossed over a 1000 chaser points to obtain the coveted “Shack Sloth”
status. Well done Curtis!!! https://youtu.be/NESAx6v880o

Merle, KB1RJD, and Herm, KB1RJC report: "Congratulations to Frandy, N1FJ, who became the second Mountain Goat in W1 (and reportedly North America's most elder) with the activation of his second summit today.
Heading to the second summit a road was found impassable, but with an adjustment to another summit he was able to salvage his historic day."

"While sneaking up to the goat line on summit 1, Frandy also provided the QSO that put us over 10,000 chaser points to become Super Sloths.
Congratulations and Thanks, Frandy." "Sequential Senior Spousal SOTA Super Sloths?"

Robert, W0QFW, new to SOTA, has made it over 100 points thanks to AE7AP on W7M/GA-080. He's now a Bronze-level Mountain Hunter.

Brad, WA6MM, reports: "I had the distinct pleasure of pushing David
(KG5EIU) over the 1000 Chaser point level last weekend while activating Independence Mtn here in Colorado." "Congrats to another new Shack Sloth!"

Fred, KT5X, reported: "New Mexico saw its sixth and seventh activators achieve mountain goat status (K5RHD and WB5USB)." "Lo the poor New Mexican... so far from heaven, so close to Texas."

NEWS: Lots of that this time too ...

Elliott, K6EL, brought to my attention a new challenge for 2016: "As mentioned in the Reflector by KQ2RP, the ARRL today announced the 2016 National Parks challenge. There are numerous awards, including Five Star Activator and a special chaser award for those who contact activators in 75% of the 59 US national parks. Use of log book of the world is required, like the 2014 challenge. N7UN has a list of summits in the parks and other locations in the NP system."

"Activators at any elevation will be swamped with callers running big power and big antennas. Time to practice handling pile-ups. As those of us who have operated from DX locations know, it is not for the faint of heart, especially if you don't want to use split frequencies."

Etienne, K7ATN, continues, "This will be a fun program for sure, but note that 10 QSOs are required (yep, ten) - and contacts will need to be uploaded to LoTW to count for NPOTA. There are also suggestions about how to 'prove' you were actually in the NP Unit for the activation. Look over the Activator Guide:
www.arrl.org/files/file/On%20the%20Air/NPOTA/NPOTA-Activator-Guide.pdf"

"There is a place for "Activator Tips"
http://www.arrl.org/npota-activator-tips but for SOTA we should be certain to post specific experience information on SOTAWatch summit pages to share with other SOTA Activators that would head to peaks in our footsteps. Note that the "Spotting" and "Alert" functions at https://npota.arrl.org/index.php requires LoTW registration. Whew! This could be exciting!"

From Guy, N7UN: "There are some 1,900+ SOTA summits in the boundaries of the 430 National Park units. The NPOTA Challenge is patterned after the DXCC program with each National Park unit being an "entity". The awards program has two tracks, one for Chasers and one for Activators. A separate leaderboard tracks the top participants in each track. QSOs with a NPS unit scores points. Likewise for Activators. There are special awards for each track. Note the similarity to the SOTA Awards program."

"In addition, a SOTA Activator (KJ6WEG) in CA who works with the Google Earth development team, is developing a Google maps mashup of the 432 NPS Units plus the SOTA peaks within those parks. This should help the SOTA community in selecting SOTA peaks for the NPOTA program."

"I think this 2016 ARRL-sponsored challenge will be a huge opportunity for SOTA to ride the coattails of this event. A SOTA Activator within the NPOTA program is going to attract a huge number of QSO'ss by folks not familiar with SOTA, i.e. a great opportunity to attract a lot of new SOTA participants."

"BTW, the NPOTA program was designed/patterned after SOTA. There are a number of SOTA participants working at the ARRL."

Also from Elliott, K6EL, who hosted the Annual SOTA Luncheon at
PACIFICON: "The fourth annual free SOTA lunch at Pacificon went as planned, with several added surprises. There were 17 guests, those who RSVP'ed plus several SOTA recruits of Hiroki, AH6CY, plus Wayne, N6KR, designer of the KX3, co-founder of Elecraft, and long-time friend of SOTA. At Wayne's end of the table were several KX3 users. Do you think there were discussions about that rig? Take a wild guess."

"There was a further guest who checked in remotely just at the end of a presentation by Don, NK6A.... Rob, KC6TYD, talked to two of us on VHF from 12,000 feet, but he wasn't on a summit. He was descending in a parachute, overseen by jumper Mark, AF6IM, a lawyer who was a schoolmate
of K6EL both in college and law school. Comments after lunch were
universal: 'So nice to finally meet folks we've worked many times over a lot of years.' Four states were represented. Was this the largest sit-down lunch in NA SOTA history? See you all at the fifth annual, where we might see the return of WGØAT and K6DGW." But wait, there's more:

"Surrounding the lunch date, NK6A did multiple climbs, as usual, and lunch participant Lee, KF7URE did his first climb nearby, promptly bagging summit to summit contacts with NK6A, K6EL and KDØYOB in rapid succession. Not bad for a first outing. His brother is climber KB6CIO, and I'll bet we hooked him with two barbs."

"Paul, W6PNG, finished lunch and left for Lake Tahoe, where he attempted a 28-hour marathon of five icy 8-pointers picked for him by Sierra guru Eric, KU6J."

And in other news from Elliott, K6EL, who just chased his 2,000th unique
summit:

"The three Alaska associations have been re-worked by N7UN to a standard of 150 meter prominence (492 feet) and 25 meter activation zone (82 feet), at the request of the MT. As a result, the launch date has been moved to December 1, 2015. Further, all associations world wide will change to that same standard at the next revision, if needed. That will allow the addition of new summits for those whose standard was looser."

"I have analyzed the logs in the four new JA associations. JA8 Hokaido
has no activations. JA5 Shikoku has had one activator, JG5JXW. JA6
Kyushu has had two activators, JG6CRU and JS1GRO. The large JA Honshu association has had many activators with all JA chasers and one, JS1UEH specializing in DX. He is responsible for Austria, Russia, China, many VK's and the early USA contacts with KA1R, W7RV, NF1R, twice with WA7JTM, NG6R, & NA6MG, and three times with W7GA and K6HPX, who worked him on three bands during three days."

And that segues nicely into this news from Bruce N7RR: "The Management Team of Summits on the Air has voted to require that all upland SOTA Associations worldwide use 150 meters (or 492 feet) as the minimum prominence instead of the 500-foot standard which has been used for much of the USA." [The US is going metric, inch-by-inch. Ed.]

"There are some lowland areas where a 100-meter standard can be used, but that definitely doesn't apply to Washington State or most of Western NA. This means that 48 new SOTA summits will be qualified in Washington State, including Maury Island, which is exactly 492 feet high https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maury_Island as well as Liberty Cap, whose prominence is 492 feet. A total of 698 summits will be added to SOTA in the USA, including 98 in California."

"Shortly there will be three new SOTA Associations for Alaska, and they will also be required to abide by the 150-meter standard. There are likely a large number of SOTA-qualified summits in Alaska whose prominence lie in the range from 492 feet through 499 feet. The activation zone is being standardized to be within 25 meters (82 feet) elevation of the actual summit."

Bruce is planning a "Real Mountain Climb" of two secondary summits on Mt.Ranier. He posted the details on the NA SOTA Yahoo Group. It sounds like this one is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced. Mt.Ranier is a VERY pointy mountain.

EPILOGUE: Andrea and I are more or less settled in Sparks NV, and I've gotten the remote to W7RN working, so I've been doing a little chasing in the mornings. A few bugs to work out, but basically it's working fine.

Lots of news and awards this month, this got very long so we'll skip an activation report this time.

73,

Skip K6DGW/7
North American SOTA Reporter Dude

=============================================================

NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIAN SOTA REPORT - from Allen VK3HRA

VK1 Report by Andrew VK1DA

Our most notable event for the month was the day on which Andrew 1NAM achieved Mountain Goat. We worked out a few weeks earlier that he wanted to complete his 1000 points on Mt Gingera, which is several km south of Mt Ginini. We wondered if we could make a QSO that would finish his MG qualification and also give me 500 points. By the weekend of Andrew's trip to Gingera I was just 11 points short of 500. I planned a three-summit day, the first of which would coincide with Andrew's activation of Mt Gingera.

In the event we did manage to QSO each other, our 4th and qualifying contact on our respective summits being with each other. Strangely enough just after our contact, a goat bleat was heard over the radio, creating some mirth among those listening. When will the goat next call? I think Al VK1RX and Ian VK1DI may hear it some time in the next year.

Earlier in October Adan VK1FJAW undertook a recce of a previously unactivated summit, Mt Tidbinbilla, curious to know how accessible the track was. Enthusiasm got the better of him and he kept going past his planned target, reaching the summit and activating it spontaneously. On the way back down, his track took him through some thick grown saplings, and by the time he got back to his car he realised that his backpack had been sufficiently loose to allow his near new DXwire pole to be dropped.

This was a great loss after a 6 hour trek and Adan was so upset that he went back and retraced his steps several days later, unfortunately not finding the pole. A multiple activation later will search for the missing pole using his GPS track as a guide.

In other activations, three activators set out to activate Mt Gudgenby for the first time on 25 October. This required a combination of cycling along a road closed to motor vehicles, then a substantial climb through a mixed terrain. Unfortunately Andrew VK1NAM felt unwell and was unable to complete the climb. The activation by Al VK1RX and Adan VK1FJAW went ahead after receiving assurances that there was no need to cancel. By the time they returned to Andrew he had recovered and was ready for the return trip to the car.

At the VK1 SOTA dinner on 27 October, a presentation of a certificate and a trophy was made to Andrew VK1NAM, celebrating his achievement of Mountain Goat. The trophy was designed and 3D printed by Adan Vk1FJAW, and consisted of a goat atop a model of the Mt Gingera topography, engraved with Andrew's details and the achievement of MG.

A photo can be seen on www.vk1nam.wordpress.com.

73

Andrew

VK1DA

(Further VK Reports to follow)

Allen VK3HRA.

==============================================================

CW REPORT for September 2015 - by Roy G4SSH

The month got off to a busy start with Jürg F/HB9BIN mopping up the last few summits in France. Once done he should have completed the magnificent task of activating all of the summits in the Vosges (F/VO) region.

The weekend of the 3rd-4th saw a sudden improvement in both propagation and weather, with the result that the spots increased to over the "300 in 12 hour" mark, Stephan OE/DM1LE was on one of his regular tours in Austria, Kurt F/HB9AFI was doing the same in France, Sake DL/PA0SKP and Hans DL/HB9BQU were in Germany, Geert ON/PA7ZEE in Belgium, Sake OE/PA0SKP in Austria, Mike OM/OK2SAM in Slovakia, Art HB9/KH6AM, in Switzerland, Robin 9H4RH from Malta, Mike OM/OK2SAM in Slovakia, Vlkado Z35M in Macedonia, Reinhard EA5/DK1IO in Spain, Igor OK/OM3CUG, Hans DL/PB2T and Rick DL/M0LEP were all active.

On the 4th there was a group of stations from Spain activating the EA2/NV-050 summit simultaneously. Heard activating were Marcial EA2WX, Javier EB2AOC, Mikel EA2CW and Crux EA2EAX.

Paul OK2PDT was, as usual very active on most days, but on the 5th he was operating as DL/OK2PDT from Germany, whilst Lothar was again operating from Spain as EA5/DK1IO, Jürg was active as DL/HB9BAB, Guido was active as DL/HB9BQB, Markus was operating as DL/HB9BRJ and Fred DL8DXL was operating as OK/DL8DXL.

Takeshi JS1EUH was spotted active around 0600z on the 10th, on 14 and 21 MHz by VK stations, and 3 JA's spotted around midnight on the 11th.

The two Victors, GI4ONL and MI0JST were on a tour of EI again on the 12t h

Towards the middle of the month and no doubt due to a mixture of poor propagation and early winter conditions across Europe there was a lack of SOTA activity. On the 16th October at 0945 UTC (a peak time for EU SOTA activity) my screen read "3 spots in the last 12 hours - oneVK2 on SSB one HL on 2m FM and one N7 on CW")

Gerald MW0WML commenced a tour of summits in Mallorca on the 16th October.

Andy DL6AP was active as EA6/Dl1AP from Mallorca on the 17th and Phil G4OBK started a week long holiday in Ibiza as EA6/G4OBK on the 18th.

Geert PA7ZEE commenced a multi summit expedition in Germany on the 18th, as DL/PA7ZEE. Weber YO/HA8BJ,and Feri YO/HA8LLH were heard operating summits in Romania on the 18th. Tof F5UBH was active from Germany as DL/F5UBH on the 19th.

Robin 9H4RH was active from Gozo Island on the 19th, and Glyn G4CFS was active from the Isle of Wight on the 18th and 19th. Hans PA3FYG,

Sake commenced an expedition to Germany as DL/PA0SKP along with Hans DL/PA3FYG, on the 19th and Peter DL8DXL activated many summits in the DM/TH region of Germany on the 23rd.

The special anniversary call S5100ISONZO was active on most weekends during the month of October.

Activators were very busy on the last day of the month, with Chris ON6ZQ on a multi- summit activation of summits in Germany. Stephan DM1LE on an expedition to Austria. Igor OM3CUG operating as OK/OM3CUG, Andy operating as OE/DK7MG and quite a few SO(x)TA callsigns out of Poland.

73 Roy G4SSH

==============================================================

SOTA Activity Report for October, 2015

SOTA Activators submitting entries to the data base for 10m, 6m and 1240 MHz during October 2015. These files produced on 29th October by Kevin G0NUP.

Mode: CW on 24MHz: activity for October

9H4RH/P, EA2IF/P, F5UKL/P, HB0/DL3TU/P, HB9CBR/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P

Mode: CW on 28MHz: activity for October

CT1DBS/P, F5UKL/P, HB9/PB2T/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9CBR/P, JS1UEH/7, N0PCL, OE5EIN/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2PDT/P, SV2JAO/P/QRP, WB5USB

Mode: CW on 50MHz: activity for October

JI1TLL/2, JJ1SWI/1, JS1UEH/7

Mode: CW on 1240MHz: activity for October. Nil

Mode: FM on 28MHz: activity for October. Nil

Mode: FM on 50MHz: activity for October

JN3PDF, VK3ANL

Mode: FM on 1240MHz: activity for October

7K1CPT/1, JG6CRU, JP1QEC/0, JS1GRO, JS1GRO/4, K7ATN, OK1DEU/P, SQ9KCP, WW7D

Mode: SSB on 28MHz: activity for October

AB3TQ, CT2IWW/P, DB7MM/P, DD5KI/P, EB2GKK/P, HB9ZCW/P, K3JH, KB1HXO, KB1RJC, KB1RJD, KB6CIO, KC5CW, KG6HQD, KI4SVM, KK4OSG, N6MKW, OE5AUL/P, OE9EGI/P, ON4TA/P, S55KM/P, S56LXN/P, SV2HSZ/P, VA2IEI, VK3CAT/P, VK3MCD, VK3YY

Mode: SSB on 50MHz: activity for October

7K1CPT/1, I1WKN, JH1EWV, JI1TLL/2, JJ1SWI/1, JR1NNL/1, JS1UEH/1, JS1UEH/7, K5RHD, OE/S57MS/P, S52ON/P, S56LXN/P, S57MS/P, VK1NAM/2, VK3ANL, VK3CAT/P, VK3MCD

Mode: SSB on 1240MHz: activity for October. Nil.

--
Regards
Kevin J Prince G0NUP

============================================================

SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.

I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za


Posts: 3

Participants: 2

Read full topic

Input to Dec 2015 SOTA News

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@G4SSH wrote:

Contributions are invited for the December 2015 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Sunday 29th November.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.
73

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

North American input to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

VK Input to:-

Allen VK3HRA
arharvie@gmail.com

South Africa input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 3

Participants: 2

Read full topic

SOTA NEWS DEC 2015 Part 1

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS DECEMBER 2015 - Part 1 of 2

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH
Welcome to the December 2015 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Andy MM0FMF, Barry GM4TOE, Skip K6DGW, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Geert PA7ZEE.

========================================================

During the last week of November I have been experiencing problems with incoming e-mails, which have been delayed for up to three days, then all arriving at once. I think that the backlog has now been cleared, but if you have submitted input to the December edition of SOTA News and it has not appeared in this issue please try again and it will be inserted. If no QSL of receipt from me then forward to Mark G0VOF (address in "Top Band" report). - Editor.

========================================================
The November edition of SOTA News was viewed 990 times.
========================================================

DATABASE NEWS - From Andy, MM0FMF. Database Manager

After a fairly horrible October with database problems it's looking like November has been much better. All of a sudden we seemed to be seeing our database code get repeatedly reset which resulted in anybody who was logged in being logged out. Most things continued to work as the database was designed to allow you to continue entering QSOs should you get hard logged out. Mapping updates and association stats failed to run. Our hosting company gave us some free memory upgrades which helped but didn't cure the problem.

The end result was to move to a significantly bigger hosting package which costs quite a bit more than before but does put our code onto higher performance servers and gives us 4x the previous memory space. So far it is looking OK. During the attempts to figure out the problems I reviewed the code and found there are some areas for improvement. I hoped to work on them during November but I have not had time with a very busy work schedule and preparing for a vacation.

The second 6m/10m challenge window came in with a bang... the scoring code was not working as expected. This happened when I was out of the country but reviewing the database code I could see where I had failed to type the dates correctly. The fix has now been uploaded so scores should be correct now. If you think your score is wrong, email me and I'll look into it.

A few other updates and fixes: CSV uploads now accept the correct specifier for AM and the number of items shown in the my statistics pages has been increased to 25 from 10.

Africa on the air

===========

There aren't too many African activations but the Canary Islands and Madeira both count as Africa and are popular with European activators.
All the exotica of radio from Africa with all the familiarity of being in Europe still :smile:

A big update to the Canary Islands pushed it onto the radar of Bernd DL2DXA plus myself and Caroline G6WRW and Helen M0YHB with Bernd visiting Gran Canaria and the rest of us deciding to visit Lanzarote.

Unbeknown to each other, the two ladies arriving 3 days after I left. 4 of the 16 new summits on Lanzarote have already been activated and Caroline and Helen have another 4 days on the island as I type. It will be interesting to see how many unactivated summits will remain by the end of their visit.

There are plenty of unactivated summits on Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria & Tenerife if anyone fancies a cheapish Winter Sun holiday with SOTA possibilities.

Spotter updates.

===========

Sometime earlier this year Martyn M1MAJ asked me if I could enhance my spotter systems so they would work with the DeLorme Inreach GPS system.
This is a GPS receiver and Iridium transceiver. You can buy airtime packages that allow tracking spots from your GPS to be uplinked via the Iridium satellite system from wherever you are in the world. You can also use the unit to send an SMS to any phone number. These are ideal for activations where you cannot get mobile coverage for self spotting.
You can also use them for emergency calling but they should not be considered a replacement for an EPIRB.

I was able to support the InReach without any difficulties. Well until Victor Gi4ONL treated himself to one. Despite his best efforts, my efforts and lots emails to DeLorme and my phone provider we could not get Victor's unit to talk to me. Oh sure DeLorme said the SMS had been sent and my phone provider, Twilio, told DeLorme they'd accepted it but nowhere was the SMS to be found. This made me reluctant to publicise the facility. However, I've now extended the software at both spotter systems to support DeLorme and whilst one system still never receives messages from Victor, the other one works like a trooper. So that's Google 1, Twilio 0 in the virtual phone provider wars.

The upshot is I'm happy to make this service generally available from now on, just mail me for more info.

Taking radios/batteries on planes

=======================

A regular question in these troubled times is whether people have any
problems taking radios (and batteries) onto planes.

I've now made 11 flights (and 10 trips through security) in the last 6
months and every time I have had an FT817 plus or or two LiPos cells
with along with either a laptop or tablet and chargers. Every time has
been straightforward.

Put everything you don't need in your checked luggage. So in my case
mic+paddle, antennas, tent pegs, guys, mast, tools, LiPo charger,
feeders etc. all go into the suitcase and only the mandatory items
travel in the cabin. I've toyed with putting the 817 in the checked
luggage so I don't have to carry it about but there are too many tales
of luggage being opened and high value items disappearing. It stays with
me so thieves will have to make do with rummaging about in my underwear!

Firstly large electronic items need to be removed from your cabin luggage
and placed in a tray. I always put my phone, tablet, laptop, FT817
together in one tray and my bag with all the chargers and batteries in
another tray. Just to make my bag stand out more I always have a box
syringe needles and finger prick lancets and a coolpack + pre-filled
syringe pen for my diabetes with me.

Whatever the security people are looking for when they see an X-ray
image of a bag, they are not bothered by LiPos. My syringe + coolpack
shows up as a dense opaque blob but hardly ever attracts attention. Nor
do the vast arrays of cables. If I have a laptop with me I'll also have
a charger, mouse and ethernet cable as well. Always in the bag are a
selection of USB micro-B cables for charging my phone/tablet and a
4000mAHr emergency phone battery.

In all the flights in the last 6 months, the LiPos have not caused any
extra attention. I have each LiPo in a seperate "LiPo Safe" like these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291263550642 and the connectors are taped up.
The 817 has been swabbed for explosives twice, once in Edinburgh and
once in Dublin. I've never been asked to demonstrate it working but I do
have the internal battery pack fitted and the rubber duck in the bag too.

Apart from packing Lithium batteries correctly I always take the
following info printed with me.

  • OFCOM Amateur radio licence
  • CEPT TR 61/01 reciprocal licence information
  • The airline's own hazardous items requirements
  • CAA hazardous items requirements

You can find the hazardous items data by searching on Google for you
airline name and hazardous items. i.e. "KLM hazardous items".

With the above documents you can demonstrate that your radio and
batteries are perfectly acceptable to have with you as cabin baggage.

Whilst the batteries we often use for activations are large, if you
consider just how many mobile phones (Lithium battery), tablets (lithium
battery), laptops (lithium battery) will be on every flight, our
batteries will not significantly affect the amount of Lithium already in
the cabins!

Lithium batteries are not an issue if you follow the rules and neither is a radio.

Andy, MM0FMF
Database manager.

=========================================================

SOTA AWARDS - November 2015, from Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager

(This service is temporally suspended whilst Barry moves his home QTH).
The following update has been received from Barry:-)
I shut down the issuing of awards at the end of October to give me time to move house. Well, we have moved to a new QTH in Banff on the North East coast of Scotland where hills are just a bit further away; it was very stressful and even my lawyer told me not to plan moving ever again. Those who know my new address will appreciate that the next move is not very far from my front door (I will post a picture on the reflector when I can).

The house is chaotic and I cannot even find the SOTA stock (or my printers) right now. The good news is that my “man cave” was delivered on Friday and I should start construction straight away, the bad news is that BT Openreach (who have the monopoly on the supply and installation of telephone lines in the UK) failed to turn up to install my telephone/broadband line and I cannot get any sense out of them, or my ISP's third world call centre, to find out when, or if, they plan to install the telephone line. Consequently all my communications are via a very poor mobile phone service and an intermittent 3G data connection. If anybody has an “IN” with BT Openreach any assistance will be warmly welcomed!

Several people have made very kind donations towards the costs of running SOTA and I will respond to them individually once I have some sensible connection to my email service. My thanks to all of you – you know who you are.

I will get the awards issue facility up and running by the new year but bear with me for another few weeks until I can get the house reasonably accessible.

Please take care when out and about on the hills.

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

============================================================

WINTER ACTIVATION FROM BELGIUM

On Wednesday 2nd December Frank PC7C (SSB) and Geert PA7ZEE (CW) will be in Belgium to activate two summits, ON/ON-010 and ON/ON-004.

=============================================================

Promotion of SOTA at The Netherlands Ham Radio Convention - from Geert PA7ZEE

As announced in SOTA NEWS of November, a team of dutch SOTA enthusiasts were promoting SOTA at the Ham Radio Convention (Dag voor de Radio Amateur) in the Americahal in Apeldoorn. There was a lot of interest in what SOTA stands for. We also met other SOTA enthusiasts.

The picture shows from left to right Hans PA0HRM, Hans PA3FYG, Sake PA0SKP and Geert PA7ZEE with the SOTA Bush Hat. Geert did not understand why people moved away when he puts the hat on…

73 Geert PA7ZEE

===============================================================

TOP BAND SOTA REPORT - from Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

One activator ventured onto 160m this month when Miro OK1DVM/P dropped onto the band during an evening activation of OK/ST-074 Cukrák on 23rd November. Miro had a good run of 6 QSO’s on 80m followed by 2 QSO’s on 40m before trying Top Band where he made a further 3 QSO’s all using CW.

Being after dark Miro was good signal across Europe & was heard in the UK by Phil G4OBK in Pickering, North Yorkshire.

Phil says:” Miro OK1DVM was a good signal on 160m one evening earlier this week on a summit. I heard him 579 but there was a storm here at the time - heavy rain and wind and my tower was down at 10m height, so my top band inverted L was almost touching the ground. With high SWR 3:1 I called Miro with 100 watts but sadly I could not be heard!”

I too listened for Miro although as I did not see his spots until a good twenty minutes later, I also missed him.

Thanks & well done Miro!
At the time of writing, that was the only Top band activation during November that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.

On 23 November, Miro OK1DVM/P Activated OK/ST-074 Cukrák & made 3 QSO's (3 CW / 0 SSB)

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

============================================================

QRS PSE - by Geert Pa7zee

Let me start by to stating that my code sending, aswell as my decoding, is far from perfect.

That is one reason why when I am on a summit, my speed is 18 wpm.

Working as a chaser in my armchair at home my code sending is reasonable and I try to adjust my speed to the speed of the activator.

During one of my last activations in Germany, there was a chasing station working QRS and we had a successful QSO. The next day I had a look on the spotlist of SOTAwatch.
That station had spotted me and wrote as a note: Nice QRS GL. That was for me the proof that not everybody can send and decode with high speed and that it was appreciated that I adjusted my speed.

With the winter bonus season coming, I would like to plea for adjusting the code sending to that of the other station. Wearing gloves and sometimes shivering from the cold, my code sending, decoding and writing is difficult, and I think that is the case with more activators in similar cumstances.

The SOTA is a community of friendly people so let’s add a little courtesy.

73 de geert pa7zee

==============================================================

THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 95 - from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ

An early start this time as we're off to Llandudno on Saturday; unfortunately the rally is off and to make matters worse our local radio club has a mix up of dates which means that I (Rob) have to teach two 1 hour sessions for the Foundation candidates before we set off. All of this means that we cannot do Mynydd y Cwm on the way down as usual so it is Sunday before we can get out onto a summit, Tal y fan.

We always like this hill, the drive up from Tal y Bont is such a pleasure, only kidding, at this time of year the very steep narrow single track road is covered with wet fallen leaves, slippery and difficult especially with oncoming traffic. Today it is dry, leafless and traffic free and we sail up to the start point about half a mile from the car park at the end of the line. There is room for two of three cars close to the stile. The gated road from Rowan that joins this route close to the top looks to be impassable. The climb itself never seems to change, we usually avoid the route along the ridge by contouring along the north face path until level with the summit, then a short sharp climb to the top.

Today, just like last year, a gale is blowing in from the south and we are forced to operate on the north side of the wall with the short mast. As we struggle a cheerful walking party passes through They have seen SOTA before on Shining Tor, a bloke from Stoke. We bet it was Mickey YYY!

Monday and two hills, Penycloddiau and Mynydd y Cwm. We arrive at the car park for the first hill to find groups of walkers musing at the sight of a set of ladies underwear billowing in the breeze at the top of one of the trees. Unable to fathom the mystery we set off and are soon on the summit this is a grand little walk suitable for an active family and we always wonder why we did not find it earlier. We avoid the vertigo inducing path and use the wide logging road for about a mile, then up a steep grass path onto the now broad path and on to the summit with its extensive ancient earthwork fort. We operated from the shelter of the bank and had a long activation and when we emerged the wind had risen to a full gale along the ridge, not gusts just a constant blast into our faces as we descended.

In the car park either someone had climbed the tree and removed the large bra or the wind had claimed it, funny places car parks! By now we were quite late in reaching the second summit and what a change. Everything in the way of woods to the right of the path is gone completely changing the face of the hill. A second path leading into the woods has appeared close beside the the true path between the two big trees The correct one is the second path. We were quick on the summit as not too keen on woodland navigation in darkness and as usual beam headings on 2m were widely at odds with the compass. Think it is due to the trees. In the event we were back at the car just after sunset.

Tuesdays weather was not conducive to hill climbing so it was Wednesday when we set out to climb the Horseshoe Pass pair. First Moel y Gamelin and a great walk as always, we were passed by two motorcycle trail riders and marveled at the ease of their ascent as they vanished over the skyline. The two false summits later we were on top in sunshine. A fairly quick activation and we were on our way across to Cyrn y Brain in shirt sleeves, a beautiful day. Radio on the summit was a different matter, usually the breakthrough here is usually bad but can be minimised by operating away from the buildings not so today. The problem was a heavy crackling on 2m typical of arcing and nothing reduced it much although beaming away from the buildings helped a little. We checked our own kit as well as possible but could find nothing wrong and reports indicated that our transmission was clean so we struggled on and qualified the summit with frequent apologies to the chasers. We were down to the road in time to get into the gift shop where the young lady told us that yesterday the fog never lifted off the Pass!

Thursday and we decide on our usual early evening activation of Great Orme, we like to operate there while watching the sun go down and the lights come on in the town below. The last couple of years have seen windy conditions and we have had to hide in the lee of the buildings but tonight the weather is grand so we make our way to the trig point and set up beside the viewpoint pillar and are soon in action. The arcing crackling noise is here again on a hill with a lot of rf interference! Again we check our kit, no obvious fault and the trams, cable cars etc are finished for the day so we carry on regardless beaming in a quiet direction when ever possible. We are using our new led headlights that are a big improvement but why can no one build one with a switch that does not turn on in a bag of its own accord; strategic selotape seems to be the only answer. When we finally finish and look around we realize that the outside lighting on the buildings and the car park has all gone out, doubtless due to the cuts and the summit is black as your hat. Fortunately the new headlamps are well up for it and we make our way back to the car, the moral is try to prepare for everything cos it probably will happen.

Friday and our last hill for this trip Foel Fenlli. We like this hill but are pushed for time and I(Rob)dislike the alternative of Moel Famau which I find a total drag in spite of it being where we completed our first 1000 points. In the event Foel Fenlli is a great activation with no sigh of the crackling that plagued the previous two, has anyone else noticed the problem?

The next two weekends are a total disaster weather wise, the forecast for one of them basicaly says Closed for Business Keep Out! so it's Sunday 22nd before we get out again.

Sunday 22nd Nov and the forecast for the higher fells is for more snow and a wind chill of minus 16,we decide on a small one near to home so Arnside Knott for a repeat visit it is. The approach was the normal but when we arrived on top we found a local fell race in progress with tapes etc round the trig We were hoping to operate from a nearby fallen tree trunk which makes a handy seat but the mild autumn has left the undergrowth still almost waist high and totally unsuitable for wire antennas etc. We eventually find an almost useable site with a fallen tree as a seat but unfortunately it is in woodland with lots of overhead branches to contend with. As we set up we realize that among the carpet of autumn leaves there is a secondary carpet thoughtfully provided by the resident herds of cows. Many of the fells are now cow ranges as an attempt to return them to the pre sheep years several hundred years ago. This includes re foresting and the introduction af ancient species so look out for the odd sabre toothed tiger in a few years time. Keeping the antenna wire off the floor and out of the trees is tedious but eventually we are set up and all goes well on hf until 10Mhz. By this time the cold is beginning to set in and my CW becomes worse than usual. As the pileup subsides the station we have just worked is called on the frequency by another station. The station called does not respond but another station does and the interlopers set up shop on the frequency! We retreat to 14Mhz. After two hours the wind chill is beginning to bite even on this little fell and we eventually beat a shivery cow encrusted retreat.

Sunday 29th Nov and another day from hell, it is difficult to stand out of the lee of the house and looking out to sea we can only hope that everyone is tucked up in safe harbour, not a day for the hills. Still winter bonus starts next week so things may look up. Also this is the last SOTA News for this year Soon Xmas will be upon us. We write this little section every month to try and bring the hills closer for those who have never climbed and those who now, usually because of age or illness can no longer visit the places they love and we will continue to do so as long as the years will permit. We just hope it brings pleasure to some folk and apologize if things are a little “Parish Pump” for the modern worldwide community that SOTA has become.

So now it’s time to wish everyone Seasons Greetings, Frohe Weinachten, Joyeux Noel and a
Very Happy Christmas from us both.

Take care out there

Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ

==============================================================

********************** CONTINUED IN PART 2 **************************

North American Report
CW Report
Extracts from Data Base
SOTA News contacts

Posts: 9

Participants: 6

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SOTA NEWS DEC 2015 Part 2

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS DECEMBER 2015 - Part 2 of 2

NORTH AMERICAN SOTA REPORT - from Skip K6GDW

Greetings from the New World! Winter is arriving over much of North America [it's -2C today at noon in Northern Nevada], usually accompanied by a decrease in activation activity. This is probably offset some by the steady growth in SOTA as evidenced by new names/calls on the NA SOTA Yahoo group. If you have recently been infected with the SOTA Addiction, Welcome! It's a great addition to the ham radio hobby.

STATISTICS: [As of 29 Nov 2015 UTC]

NORTH AMERICA TOTALS
Total Activations: 285 [403]
Nr Unique Activators: 127 [139]
Total Chaser QSOs: 3049 [2434]
Nr Unique Chasers: 188 [161]
Unique Summits: 327 [516]

2m: 39 (1%) [118]
6m: 0 (0%) [0]
10m: 118 (3%) [15]
12m: 38 (1%) [5]
15m: 91 (2%) [50]
17m: 202 (6%) [82]
20m: 1784 (58%) [1493]
30m: 265 (8%) [186]
40m: 507 (16%) [480]
60m: 0 (0%) [3]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 4 (0%) [1]
Unk: 1

CW: 1861 (61%) [1420]
SSB: 1149 (37%) [892]
FM: 38 (1%) [119]
AM: 0 (0%) [0]
Data: 0 (0%) [0]
Other: 1 (0%) [0]
Unk: 1

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

Congratulations to Clayton, NF1R, and wife Marina on the arrival of their daughter Ingrid on 17 Nov!

NA SOTA NEWS:

Guy, N7UN, reports on the US National Parks On The Air challenge for 2016:

SOTA-NPOTA: a Google Map Application

It's only one month before the ARRL 2016 National Parks operating event kicks off! There are numerous awards, including Five Star Activator and a special chaser award for those who contact activators in 75% of the 59 US National Parks. Use of Log Book of the World is required, like the
2014 ARRL Challenge."

"There are some 1,929 SOTA summits "cleanly" within the boundaries of the 432 National Park units. The NPOTA Challenge is patterned after the DXCC program with each National Park unit being an "entity". The awards program has two tracks, one for Chasers and one for Activators. A separate leaderboard tracks the top participants in each track. QSOs with a NPS Unit scores points. Likewise for Activators. There are special awards for each track. Note the similarity to the SOTA Awards program. See http://www.arrl.org/npota for more information about the NPOTA ARRL operating event."

"In addition, a SOTA Activator (KJ6WEG) in CA who works with the Google Earth development team, has developed a Google maps mashup of the 432 NPS Units plus the SOTA peaks within those NPS Units. This should help the SOTA community in selecting SOTA peaks for the NPOTA program. Here is the url for the SOTA-NPOTA Google map developed by Chris/KJ6WEG:
http://spinmap.com/npota-sota/map.html There are a huge number of SOTA
peaks in the yet-to-be-published Alaska Associations that are within NPS Units in AK. SOTA activations won't count until the AK ARM and data uploads are published."

"I am developing a FAQ for this 2016 event that will be posted on the NA SOTA reflector. Please send me (via my qrz.com email address) questions or issues as I am trying to be first-level support for Chris since he has a more-than-fulltime job and family commitments."

"I think this 2016 ARRL-sponsored challenge will be a huge marketing opportunity for SOTA to ride the coattails of this ARRL event. A SOTA Activator within the NPOTA program is going to attract a huge number of QSO's by folks not familiar with SOTA, i.e. a great opportunity to attract a lot of new SOTA participants."

"BTW, the NPOTA program was designed/patterned after SOTA. There are a number of SOTA participants working at the ARRL."

From Elliott, K6EL:

"As revealed by N7UN in the NSOTA Yahoo group and on the reflector, a map is being prepared by SOTA activators to allow the ARRL to link it to their site on the 2016 NPOTA challenge. As currently planned, it will show not only all of the U.S. National Park units, but also SOTA summits in and near those units. That includes summits in the pending three Alaska associations, but those associations may not get approved until January, or later, due to a backlog at the MT."

"Efforts are underway to bring in help to reduce the queue, so stand-by for updates. The 25 National Park units in Alaska will count for NPOTA from January 1st, even if SOTA points within those units may not be available on time. Your planned unit activation can be listed now:
https://npota.arrl.org/nps-events.php"

"Further, the Alaska associations all feature prominences and activation zones in meters, not feet. Following discussions at the MT, managers of all US associations are advised that the next updates to their ARMs must show that minimum prominences are 150 meters (492 feet) and activations
zones are 25 vertical meters (82 feet). In some associations, the
change will allow new summits to be added, either at the next update or at some later time."

New Dad Clayton, N1FR wrote:

"In preparation for Field Day 2016, (San Francisco) Bay Area hams NF1R, AG4ZP, and N1VF, along with K2TJ established a club call for the "Mountaintop Operators of Northern California." They plan to activate SOTA peaks in the coming year, including on ARRL Field Day. Their current call is KK6YQI, and they've put in a request for the call sign AA6FD."

I had lunch with Marty, W4SEX [some calls are just better than others], and his brother-in-law Terry, N7TW, a local here in Sparks NV. Marty, from North Carolina, was visiting Terry and family over the Thanksgiving holiday, and is but one example of the increasing number of newcomers, both to SOTA and to Ham Radio.

REPORTS:

Things are a little slow this month so we're going to devote the Report of the Month section to Scott, AK5SD, and his very professional SOTA Go-Box for his KX3. You can see it at:

http://qrper.com/2015/11/scotts-elecraft-kx3-go-box/

and there is also a Bill of Materials on that page.

Scott wrote: "I have the CAD file for the front panel. It can be sent to http://www.frontpanelexpress.com and reproduced in single lot quantities for about $100. I also have a basic bill of materials. I don’t have a schematic as the wiring was simple enough that I didn’t need one. The only tricky part was wiring the 12V input power jack to disable the internal battery when an external power source was connected. I’m happy to share this with anyone that wants to reproduce my effort."

"The internal battery has about a 5Ah capacity. I’ve done 4 or 5 SOTA activations in a row without having to recharge it. The charge input is 18V so it can be charged directly from a solar panel. The box has a 12V output for powering external devices as well as a 5V USB output for charging phones and such. It also has a sound card interface built-in for the I/Q outputs of the KX3. All of the KX3’s internal jacks are brought out to the panel."

"I’ve done 20 SOTA activations with it."

There have been several reports on our Yahoo group about things forgotten on an activation. A Go-Box such as this will go a long way toward eliminating that sinking feeling as you cannot find the mic or a battery after climbing the summit.

Thanks to all my contributors this month, we'll close out 2015 next month.

73,

Skip K6DGW
North American SOTA Reporter Dude

==============================================================

SOTA CW REPORT FOR NOVEMBER - Roy G4SSH

The first weekend of November saw propagation improve and dozens of activations on the HF bands. Geert PA7ZEE continued his expedition in Germany, Stephan DM1LE continued to activate from Austria, Tom HB9CLT was also in Austria, Fric YU1WC was activating multiple summits in Serbia, Zoli YO2BP was operating from Romania and the anniversary call S5100ISONZO was again active, during the month, mainly at weekends.

JA activations continued to be spotted on the higher HF bands around midnight and also between 0400-0700 UTC throughout the month, but no JA-EU contacts have been reported as yet.

Miro OK1DVM commenced an expedition around the JM region of Czechia on the 3rd and Hans DL/HB9AGO was active from multi summits Germany. Robin 9H4RH was also active from Gozo Island on the 3rd.

Bernhard commenced activations on Madeira Island on the 5th as CT9/DL5RDP,
Roman commenced a round of 10 point summits in Germany and Markus was signing DL/HB9BRJ on the 6th.

Mirko crossed the border into Croatia to operate as 9A/S52CU on the 6th, to give a new SOTA country to many delighted chasers. This was followed by another cross-border expedition into Croatia by Zoli 9A/HA3HK on the 7th. Mirko then returned to activate PH-029 on the 8th, which was followed by others keen to activate as 9A/ during the remainder of the month.

Just when Autumn propagation was beginning to improve conditions on the HF bands, we were hit by a solar storm on the 7th which wiped out most of the HF bands and which some activators commented was the worst for many years. At my QTH the bands above 7 MHz were just a hiss until noon after which I managed to copy just three activations for the entire day. Fortunately conditions recovered just as quickly on the 8th.

The Canary Islands proved to be a popular SOTA destination area during the month, Al, EA8/DJ5AA and Bernd EA8/DL2DXA commenced activity from there on the 12th, followed by Andy EA8/MM0FMF, then by Clemens, EA8/PA7T on the 21st

Balsas HA3LV and Zoli HA3HK commenced an expedition to Croatia on the 20th and Saku OH2NOS commenced a tour of SOTA's in Finland on the 21st..

A combination of the arrival of winter weather and anticipation of the start of Winter Bonus on the 1st December saw SOTA activity throughout Europe fall to a very low level from the 20th onwards.

It was a pleasure to see Colin M1BUU activating on 3.5 MHz on the 21st and I was looking forward to working him on this long-neglected band. Sadly his appearance on 3.556 MHz at 1140z coincided with a severe snow and hail storm, blown horizontally on a strong wind off the North Sea onto my Butternut vertical antenna, which caused severe precipitation static, registering S9 on all bands at my QTH. Fortunately. Colin moved up to 7.032 and I managed a quick contact on 40m during a lull in the storm.

During the last few days of the month Hans HB9BQU was operating from Germany, Slavko was heard activating from Corsican summits as TK/S53XX and an HA team of Feri HA8LLH and Weber HA8BBJ were activating summits in Romania.

73
Roy G4SSH

=============================================================

SOTA ACTIVITY REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2015.

SOTA Activators submitting entries to the data base for 10m, 6m and 1240 MHz during November 2015. These files produced on 30th November - by Kevin G0NUP.

Mode: SOTA CW on 28MHz: activity for November 9A/S52CU/P, CT1DBS/P,

CT9/DL5RDP, DL/HB9BRJ/P, EA2BD/P, EA2IF/P, EA2WX/P, EA8/DJ5AA/P, EA8/DL2DXA/P, EA8/MM0FMF/P, F/EA2BD/P, F5UKL/P, F6HBI/P, GW4TJC/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9AGO/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9IIO/P, JP3DGT/3, K6EL, N0PCL, N4EX/P, NK6A, OH2NOS/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2PDT/P, PA0SKP/P, S52CU/P, VK3CAT/P, W7USA, WB5USB

Mode: SOTA CW on 50MHz: activity for November

JF1NDT/1, JJ1SWI/1, JS1UEH/0, JS1UEH/1

Mode: SOTA CW on 1240MHz: activity for November NIL

Mode: SOTA FM on 28MHz: activity for November NIL

Mode: FM on 50MHz: activity for November

KK4OSG, VK1AD/P, VK1DA, VK3CAT/P

Mode: FM on 1240MHz: activity for November

JG6CRU, JI1DCQ, JP1QEC/1, JS1GRO/6, K7ATN, K7GEN, OK1DEU/P, WW7D

Mode: SOTA SSB on 28MHz: activity for November

2E0YYY/P, AE5AU, CT9/DL5RDP/P, DB7MM/P, DG7ACF/P, DH1JH/P, DL8DBW/P, EA2BD/P, EA2WX/P, EA8/MM0FMF/P, EB2GKK/P, EC2AG/P, F/EA2BD/P, F/OE5JKL/P, GW4TJC/P, HB0/OE9HRV/P, HB9/OE5JKL/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9FVW/P, K2JB, K5RHD, K6EL, K6WFV, K6YOA/P, KD2GKO, KI4SVM, KK4OSG, KK4TUX, M3ZCB/P, N0PCL, N4AAL, N6MKW, OE/HB9DQM/P, OE/S57D/P, OE/S57MS/P, OE5IRO/P, OE5RTP/P, OE9HRV/P, OE9TKH/P, OK1DVM/P, S51TS/P, S55X/P, S56LXN/P, SQ9OZM/P, SV2OXS/P, VE6IXD, VK1AD/2, VK1AD/P, VK1DA, VK1DI/2, VK1FJAW/P, VK1MBE, VK1VIC, VK2JDL/P, W6PNG, WA2FON

Mode: SOTA SSB on 50MHz: activity for November

JF1NDT/1, JH0CJH/1, JH1EWV, JI1IHV/1, JL1BWG, JR1NNL/1, JS1UEH/0, JS1UEH/1, KK4OSG, N0PCL, S51TS/P, S55X/P, S56IAA/P, S56LXN/P, VK1AD/2, VK1AD/P, VK1ATP/2, VK1DA, VK1DI/2, VK1MBE, VK1VIC, VK2JDL/P, VK3ANL, VK3CAT/P, VK3TST, WA2FON

Mode: SOTA SSB on 1240MHz: activity for November

K7ATN

Regards
Kevin J Prince

============================================================

SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.


The next Issue of SOTA News will be the last one for the year and we welcome any “Reviews of the Year” from association managers, newcomers during 2015 or old hands who have managed to reach a personal SOTA milestone. Deadline by the 29th December please.


The SOTA News team wish all activators, chasers, SWL’s and their families a very Happy Christmas.


Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 5

Participants: 4

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Input to SOTA News Jan 2016

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@G4SSH wrote:

Contributions are invited for the January 2016 edition of SOTA News.

The deadline for submissions is next Tuesday 29th December.

Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.

As contributors will be celebrating the New Year at different times around the world
there is a probability that this first edition of the New Year will be slightly delayed.

Anyone with input is requested to forward items for publication as soon as possible and not wait until New Year's Eve.

73

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

North American input to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

VK Input to:-

Allen VK3HRA
arharvie@gmail.com

South Africa input to:-

Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 6

Participants: 4

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SOTA News January 2016

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS JANUARY 2016 - Part 1

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH
Welcome to the January 2016 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Skip K6DGW, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Geert PA7ZEE, Karl M3FEH, Phil G4OBK, Toru JH0CJH, Warren ZL2AJ, Andrew VK3ARR.

========================================================

Commencing with this issue we are attempting to present SOTA News parts 1 and 2
as one report. We must still keep under the 32000 character limit for each part
but both parts should be readable in one post.

========================================================
The December 2015 edition of SOTA News was viewed 935 times.
========================================================

SOTA AWARDS - DECEMBER 2015 - from Barry GM4TOE

Just a quick update on the issuing of SOTA awards. I will re-enable the facility to obtain certain awards and merchandise by the beginning of January but there will be limits applied until my internet access is provided via broadband on a telephone line rather than by tethering to my mobile phone. In addition I will not be able to issue certain awards until my workshop is up and running (probably late January)

The limitations I will need to apply are as follows:

Certificates – available as a printed version as usual but the ones transmitted as a pdf file may be delayed until I get unlimited bandwidth on my connection. I will advise if I have to impose a limit here

Trophies – will not be available until my workshop is up and running

Merchandise – I think I have found all the boxes with the merchandise in them so I will make every effort to supply as normal; once again, if there are problems I will let you know.

My apologies for having to shut this facility down for two months but the house move has left me with piles of boxes many of which contain items that my xyl decided to bring from our previous home and then “recycle” which has resulted in every room in the house being cluttered with treasure!

Several folks have made some very generous donations which I will acknowledge as soon as I can access my email account from my computer.

My best wishes to all people in the SOTA community worldwide in the coming year and hopefully we will make radio contact in the near future.

Please take care when out and about on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

The following e-mail was received from Barry as we went to press;-

"Minor setback – half the shingles on the new workshop blew off in the high winds last night. Guess I know what I am doing next week then!!"

=============================================================

Phil G4OBK hopes to be active from Portugal on 11th and 12th January from a location near Lisbon in the ES region.

He will be active on 20 and 30m CW and SSB plus a handheld 2m FM.

============================================================

ACTIVATING EA8/GC SUMMITS by Geert PA7ZEE

In the coming weeks I have a long stay on Gran Canaria. The number of SOTA summits on this wonderful Island has expanded since last August, from 1 to 27, hence there are a lot of Virgin Summits.

Concerning the weather on Gran Canaria at this time of the year; this depends very much where you are on the island; if you are on the beaches in the south of the island it will be well over 20 C, while on the same day in the mountains it can be around freezing point, with high winds, rain and even snow. When there is snow on the roads in the mountains, these are often closed by the police.

I will try to activate one or two summits at least once a week, so please look out for me in the Alerts.

I will be working with my KX1 with an external power supply, resulting in about 3 W into my W3EDP antenna. Last year the RBN did not pick up my signals from EA8 but after I was spotted by Hans PB2T, I had plenty of QSO’s with SOTA friends from countries in Europe on 20 m. I hope that when somebody hears my ‘CQ SOTA’, they will put me on the spot list.

I will work on or around 7.032-, 10.118- and 14.062 kHz.

I hope to work you from EA8/GC !

73 de Geert PA7ZEE


Geert EA8/PA7ZEE/P activating EA8/GC-001 on 31/1/2015

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From a land, far, far away, somewhere on the planet earth- by Karl M3FEH

A foundation licence holder discovers SOTA and was warned not to approach the dark side for the dangers of addiction to SOTA chasing back in the depths of 2014 in September of that year.

I had returned to Ham radio after some years away, after moving down to Cornwall from Suffolk to look after my other half and I decided to break out the radio from its dust cover and throw up the old G5RV that I had in Suffolk, and reapply for my licence. Doing the usual thing and challenges of chasing DXCC IOTA and LOTA became a bit stale. After one month after my return I worked a station with a strange reference along with his call.

OK/SQPLD/p from OK/KR-064.

This left me in wondering, then I heard another station doing same so I looked up the word SOTA on the web and found the SOTA watch page. After many a cock-up I finally got the hang of it and was warned that "It’s addictive". They were not far wrong and my road towards 10k Super Sloth commenced. I reached my first 1k Shack sloth in Nov 2014 and the addiction was set.

Since then, my taste for building home brew antenna’s came back to me and I started to construct portable antennas, firstly the G5RV half size, a good antenna, but the way I had it set up was no good for SOTA activations, due to the heavy support pole etc. It was just not portable enough.

Then silly ideas entered head and I ended up building a 1/4 wave 40m vertical onto an 8m squid pole, and then had a further idea to have second antenna that could be a bit bigger and be a 1/2w 40m inverted L, Both fed via a 9:1 UNUN and also develop the counterpoises better. Then followed a portable 6m Moxon beam to go put up during 2015.
But SOTA-chasing wise, I became little stale at home; I felt the G5RV was not doing it for me and so decided to build a 40m Loop which enhanced my ears by far, and was sending my signals out further, especially on 40m during daylight hours, still using just the 10w I am allowed at present.

But other things helped, such as learning when to call, timing it right, listening to the activator and their style of how they are listening / calling and when to shout. Tactics are required when many others are calling in at the same time. Sometimes it’s best to wait towards end of the pile up, or just call in, because the signals are strong to me, showing a good path between us. Recently, I have noted an amount of stations appearing on bands that would normally think "Nah this is not going to happen - the propagation is bad or the forecast is poor" so they do not even switch on the radio.

My policy is that if an activator is spotted on SOTAwatch, I tune in and have a listen, if I neither activator or chaser I put a couple of calls out, because he or she may just be listening. I have done this few times on 10m and 15m and got a reply. For example, on 16th December 2015 an S5 was spotted on 10m, so I tuned in as he was large as life and I worked him no problem, yet no one else came on and he called CQ for further 10 minutes with no replies. I hunt them down as a chaser - How’s that for addiction! Plus, I note of late that if there are no activation's going on more people are leaving their radio on 14.285 MHz and is it surprising just how many stations pop up that are not Alerted on SOTAwatch. Best to get in there first and then spot them. There have been quite a few more people doing this that I have noted of late, besides myself, and this gets the activation spotted and results in them pouring onto freq. Job done :smile:

So, to all you newbies, coming into this part of the hobby, it’s not hard; You don’t need a fancy set up. I run a humble 10w through various wire home brew antennas and portable ones too, as my portable side has come along the way, and been made better by experience, teaching me to become more efficient. It is a fun side to Ham radio in general and I have met a lot of people on the air, and exchanged my views with via the reflector and Face Book pages, yet have never met anyone in person as yet. SOTA is a small family and one I enjoy being with. And I must also thank all those activators for their time and air-time for me to chase to reach the 10k level. My achievement has not been verified as yet, but I suspect that I may be the first UK Foundation licence holder to reach Super shack sloth. It will certainly be interesting to find out especially as this was achieved only on HF SSB mode, (no WARC modes) but all on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m on my trusty Trio 120V radio.

My location seems to help too, being in the open in this small town and on top of one of the highest points in the area, with the English Channel about 1 mile south of me.

Karl M3FEH
Super Sloth

===============================================================

SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

One activator gave 160m a try during December from two summits. On 10th December Heinz HB9BCB/P dropped onto 160m part way through a morning activation of HB/BE-119 Bütschelegg. Heinz had already made two successful contacts on 80m CW when he called on 160m but sadly could not raise anyone. Heinz then moved to 40m where he continued his very successful activation with 79 QSO’s across 5 bands.

Heinz again gave Top Band a try during the afternoon of 18th December from HB/FR-033 Niremont. Daytime always presents the most difficulty on 160m & Heinz did not manage to make any contacts on the band, however the activation as a whole was very productive, yielding 96 QSO’s across 5 bands.

Thanks & well done Heinz for giving 160m a try!

There are many ways of gauging the success of an activation, from points gained, number of QSO’s or S2S’s made, or simply having an enjoyable or memorable time on the summit. Often an activator may fail in what they set out to do, and with the challenge that activating on 160m is itself, quite often things may not go as planned. A failed activation on 160m should not be treated as a total failure though, as one thing an activator will gain from that; is experience, which will increase the chances of success on future activations. Amateur Radio is an experimental hobby & as experimentation in itself will likely bring more failure than success, especially if you have a particular goal in mind, activators (or chasers) should not be disheartened if things don’t go right first time. You will have gained useful experience!

As this is the final Top Band report of 2015 I thought I’d take a look back at the year. A total of 12 (10 in 2014) activators were QRV from 22 (24 in 2014) unique summits making a grand total of 103 QSO’s (176 in 2014). Unsurprisingly CW was the most popular mode with 59 QSO,s although SSB was not far behind with 43. Also this year 1 QSO was made using PSK31, more on that later.

The greatest number of summits activated on 160m by a single activator this year was 10, aired by the worlds leading Top Band SOTA activator John G4YSS. As regular readers will know John most often uses his permanent Scarborough Special Events Group (SSEG) callsign GX0OOO/P or its regional variations. This year John was active from CT3 Madeira so he also used CT9/M1NNN/P along with GM4YSS/P during a trip to Northern Scotland. In pure terms of summits offered on 160m, next is Heinz HB9BCB who has called on the band from 3 summits. Despite no success on the band so far I feel Heinz’s efforts will be rewarded in the not too distant future. All other activators activated one summit each.

Of the 103 QSO’s made this year, unsurprisingly the greatest number were made by John G4YSS with 43 across his total of 10 summits where Top Band was used. Next with a fine total of 16 QSO’s was Gyula HA6QR who made all of these during a single activation in January when he gave the special call celebrating the 10th Anniversary of SOTA in Hungary (HA10SOTA) an airing from HA/EM-012 Karancs.

You may remember that back in March a Solar Eclipse took place across the Northern Atlantic with a partial eclipse visible from much of the UK & Scandinavia. With this in mind the propagation studies committee of the Radio Society of Great Britain organised an experiment to see if the Eclipse would affect LF/MF propagation. Despite my early worries that it may fill the band like a CQWW weekend, it actually worked out to be one of the best days to be active from a UK summit on Top Band with John GX0OOO/P, Carolyn G6WRW/P, Adrian G4AZS/P & Mark G0VOF/P all active during the eclipse.

In June Tomek SQ9HT/P became the first Polish Top Band activator when he activated SP/BS-008 Wielki Bukowiec (Pasika). With 5 QSO’s made using SSB Tomek then made a further QSO using PSK31, which although fairly common in SOTA is rarely used on 160m.

In July three activators took to the band; Nick K1MAZ, Hans HB9BQU/P & John GX0OOO/P. John again spent the night on G/NP-008 Great Whernside with QSO’s made on the band made in the evening & the following morning meaning double points for chasers. John had a busy year with trips to Northern Scotland, The Lake District along with several summits in his nearest region the Northern Pennines as well as the previously mentioned trip to Madeira.

October again saw three activators on the band, John GX0OOO/P who activated G/NP-002 Mickle Fell, Jack W4TJE from W4V/WV-005 Point Lookout Mountain & Jim K9JWV from W7U/WS-109 Snow Benchmark. November saw Miro OK1DVM/P active from OK/ST-074 Cukrák whilst December saw Top Band tried from two summits by Heinz HB9BCB/P.

Thank you & well done to all activators who tried the band this year & I would like to wish all activators & chasers a Merry Christmas & Happy, Healthy 2016.

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH - 96 - from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ

This month’s effort starts with an apology for a complete lack of activations so far (Christmas Eve). This is the longest spell of inactivity for us since the start of SOTA and is entirely due to the current spell of wet weather. Wet weather is something we are used to but the sheer quantities of water falling from the sky is unprecedented and as one who has lived here for the best part of 75 years (Rob) I have never ever seen the like of it. As we write, the forecast for the two festive days to come is for six more inches of the stuff on fells that are already beyond saturation point. Here on Walney Island we have so far avoided the worst excesses of things apart from a couple of power cuts, the two main rivers having already arrived at the sea before they reach us but the main roads from Barrow have all been affected quite badly and this is not a great encouragement for travelling to activate waterlogged hills. We assume all this stuff should be falling as snow on the high hills of mainland Europe where there seems to be a shortage, the family are off there skiing, on Boxing Day!

We know a local walker, not SOTA, who boasts of his prowess on the tops in the present conditions. We think that with the emergency services so seriously stretched at this time it is rather foolish to risk an accident that results in an extra callout for them to rescue an idiot or an old fool. If you’re that good join them!

We have deliberately left the completion of this months piece as long as possible so we can report on any activations and so that we can bring folk up to date on local conditions. The first bit is easy, we have been sat in the house watching the rain for the bulk of the Christmas break, the only walking being a quick walk along the beach on Sunday. The tide was high and the view to our north was of Lakeland in thick cloud so guess we were in our local bubble as is often the case here on the coast. Road wise the situation is fluid, no pun intended but there has been a good deal of structural damage.

The A591 over Dunmail Raise joining Grasmere with Keswick is impassable for the foreseeable future. The steep hillside that boarders the road along the eastern side of Thirlmere has shifted and what is left of the road is unusable until the rock face is pinned back. The track around the western shore of the lake is being made useable for pedestrians and cycles but shuttle busses will carry folks from Grasmere to the southern end of Thirlmere and from the north end of the lake to Keswick. Quite what is happening in between is anybodies guess as the service is really for school children etc but it’s a long walk in the rain. Pooley bridge has gone involving long diversions for vehicles. As for the minor roads and bridges best try to get more local knowledge because diversions can be huge. Added to this another band of heavy rain is scheduled for Wednesday, Radio Cumbria stays on the air 24 hours a day during heavy flood risk periods with up to date reports.

On a brighter note, Santa brought an MT-270M and once the programming is sorted it should give us 25w of VHF/UHF in the car, nice for chasing and a lovely compact little rig.

Well that’s all for a rain sodden end to the year, we hope for better in the next one. Just like to thank everyone for their support and to wish you all a

                                 VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

Take care out there
73 Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ

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SOTA NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA by Allen VK3HRA

Hi all,

It was a full year for SOTA in VK. 2015 saw 6 more Goats added to the tally - VK3KAB Kevin, VK3EQ (KAN) Rick, VK1AD (NAM) Andrew, VK3YY Glenn, VK3MCD Brian and VK2QR Rob.

With all of VK now active, new associations in the district including JA and ZL have been added. Thanks to those who exploit technology (VK3ARR Andrew) to support the mapping process for adding associations as well as those who feed information for corrections based on local knowledge for the annual association reviews.

SOTA and National park activations go together. VK5PAS (Paul) has been busy adding new sites into the WWFF program. The relationships between WWFF Parks and SOTA Peaks are being refined. These relationships are improving the number of contacts ensuring valid activations for both schemas. It has to be stated that ultimately the WWFF status of any activation needs to be verified by the activator.

The weather continued to provide challenges this year. Fires during Jan
2015 placed some popular summits temporally out of reach (VK5/SE-013 - Mt Gawler) as well as placing some remote (VK3/VW-008 & VK3/VW-010) summits off the table entirely. As we head onto the 2016 fire season many are carefully watching and calculating risks.

Even with perfect weather seamless activations are not guaranteed. The solar cycle continues to wind down towards minimum. Propagation through the year has been atrocious. Poor local skywave ensuring 40m and 20m had been useless several times this year. The impact is it takes longer to qualify each summit than expected. It was not that long ago activations took an hour just to find 4 contacts, and failed activations that failed to qualify the activation. When conditions are right it can take at least 20 minutes to work through the long list of Chasers! It is hard work, but of a different type these days.

The avid DX’ers have not let minor inconveniences like solar storms or poor weather get in their way. Exploiting the higher bands with SOTA 6m/ 10m challenge. We are all going to have to do things a little differently until the sunspot count starts to rise again. This includes being cannier in choosing time, frequencies and improving activation skills.

Paying attention to different bands and developing efficient portable antennas to support the lower bands (80m / 160m) or higher bands (6m, 2m or 70cm) together with the use of directional antennas and a bit of power might be the way to go.

Or are CW activations the direction? CW in VK has reached new heights.
This has been fuelled by the desire of several activators of going deeper into the bush whilst reducing weight and well supported with many dusting off their CW skills and others picking up the skill for the first time.

It has been terrific to see the activity in VK. Thanks to everyone who is involved as regular participants. Biggest thanks have to go to those who have give up so much their time to put and keep SOTA together - not just the activators and chasers but those involved in the mapping process, and to the MT who ensure that everything continues to work and finally to the partners who tolerate our behaviour and makes SOTA the dynamic activity it is today.

Finally all not good news, we lost two participates this year.

RIP VK3TCX - Ian & VK5LY - Larry.

Allen
VK3HRA

============================================================

SOTA News is fortunate to have two new association managers joining the news team.

First from Japan. JH0CJH Toru Kawauchi (First report below)
Second from New Zealand. ZL2AJ Warren Harris
Both representing countries who have recently joined SOTA.
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SOTA NEWS FROM JAPAN - DECEMBER 2015 - from Toru JH0CJH

The year 2015 was a memorial year for SOTA lovers in Japan. SOTA Japan association consists of 4 associations and was successfully approved by SOTA MT on 1st July 2015, and launched on the air. The association was established by great contribution of VK3ARR, Andrew. Without having his ability of map reading we would not have reached this state. Right after the announcement of SOTA Japan association, the news spread to Mountain & Radio lovers in Japan. First JA expedition was carried out by JS1UEH Takeshi from Mt. Fuji. Fuji yama is one of Japan icon and famous with its symmetrical beauty of shape, then his first activation was really a celebration of the commencement of SOTA JA associations.

After this successful SOTA Japan inauguration, many of Mountain & Radio lovers devote oneself into the SOTA program. SOTA Japan's start has been announced in various media such as Internet web sites, CQ magazine, Local FM radio broadcasting program, pod casting, etc., including “2015 Japan Ham Fair”. The Japan Ham Fair is the biggest Ham radio lover's event in Japan and was carried out on 22 and 23 August with 36,000 visitors in this year. SOTA Japan has been promoted with collaboration from “Yama to Musen Group” (Mountain and radio group) and got many visitors who were interested in this program.

With having those contributors great efforts, SOTA program has been warmly welcomed in Japan ham radio society and received many thankful message of SOTA establishment in Japan. They are all saying that they have known about SOTA worldwide program before commencement in Japan but no way to join as SOTA program was not been established in Japan. Also they all felt that it is very difficult to establish SOTA association in Japan because of its huge number of summits.

The other side of anticipation about the establishment of SOTA Japan association was the location of Japan in the Far East. It seems that a big level of transmission power is required to have QSO with abroad stations. However, QRP less than 10W is the normal style of operation on summits. Therefore most of operations on summits have been done only in VHF and UHF frequency in Japan. In this sense SOTAWatch made a great contribution to motivate SOTA lovers into HF operation. 5W plus Longwire with ATU made DX QSO such as W-JA, VK-JA, etc.

From this year 2016, 11 August, is introduced as new national holiday, “Mountain Day” in Japan. It will surely motivate a number of Ham radio to make aware a joy of SOTA with hiking trail and trekking. We all believe Year 2016 will be a big fly for SOTA Japan and SOTA worldwide program.

SOTA operation December in Japan

This winter is very warm in Japan and this also pushes the SOTA lovers toward summits.
Total number of Expedition
JA: 48 expeditions with 634 QSO from Summits
JA4: 4 expeditions with 22 QSO from Summits
JA6: 2 expeditions with 10 QSO from Summits
JA8: 0 expeditions

The following activators have been made database entry as a major part. Other many stations not listed here have also made less than 3 summits activations.

JM3GVH: 8 expeditions
JP1QEC: 7 expeditions
JS1UEH: 6 expeditions
JG5JXW: 4 expeditions

As for Chaser, JM3GVH achieved first Japan “Shack Sloth”. Congratulations.

Toru Kawauchi JH0CJH

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SOTA NEWS PART 2 FOLLOWS BELOW

Posts: 9

Participants: 6

Read full topic

Input to SOTA News Feb 2016

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@G4SSH wrote:

Contributions are invited for the February 2016 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Saturday the 30th January.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

New Zealand input to:-
Warren ZL2AJ
warren@zl2aj.com

Japanese reports to
Toru JH0CJH
jh0cjh@jarl.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 5

Participants: 4

Read full topic

SOTA News February 2016

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@G4SSH wrote:

SOTA NEWS FEBRUARY 2016 - Part 1

Editorial - by Roy G4SSH

Welcome to the February 2016 edition of SOTA News. My thanks go to the following contributors:- Barry GM4TOE, Skip K6DGW, Mark G0VOF, Kevin G0NUP, Rob and Audrey G4RQJ, Geert PA7ZEE, Karl M3FEH, Don M0HCU, Marat RA9WIV, Jürg HB9BIN, Toru JH0CJH, Allen VK3ARH.

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The January 2016 edition of SOTA News was viewed more than 1400 times.
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OBITUARY - ERIC JUNE - KU6J

Eric's obituary and latest status of the RBNGate are contained in the North American Report, in part 2 (below).

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SOTA AWARDS JANUARY 2016 from Barry GM4TOE - SOTA Awards Manager

Welcome to the first Awards report for 2016; may I wish everybody in the SOTA community a very Happy New Year. There must have been an incredible backlog of claims waiting for my attention as this January had many more than usual. OE6KYG is a new Mountain Goat while the Chaser scores grow ever higher with ON4FI and W0MNA on 50k, relative newcomer Amanda VK3FQSO is on 10k, DD0VE 5k and G0SLR on 2500. PA7RA is a new Shack Sloth. Worthy of mention is 4X4-2238 who makes a rare Chaser claim in the short wave listener category (and a Mountain Hunter too), his log makes interesting reading.

Although some folks are waiting on trophies I am unable to arrange for these to be engraved until I find the blanks and arrange for somebody to do the engraving. This should be all sorted sometime in February (but don't hold your breath as the xyl tells me I will be having a vacation!).

Certificates Issued

Activator
OE6KYG Klaus Koppendorfer 1000 points
HB9EIV Michael Rass 250 points
JS1UEH Takeshi Saiki 250 points
IW2NHE Alberto Vago 250 points
JS1UEH Takeshi Saiki 100 points

Activator Unique
OK2QA Rudolf Klvana 250 summits

Chaser
ON4FI Karel Naessens 50000 points
W0MNA Gary Auchard 50000 points
VK3FQSO Amanda Bauer 10000 points
DD0VE Ralf Mantyk 5000 points
G0SLR Roy Lisle 2500 points
PA7RA Rien Aarden 1000 points
VK2BFC Frank Scott 500 points
VK2VW Brett Churchyard 500 points
VK1VIC Anthony Vickers 500 points
HB9EIV Michael Rass 250 points
VK2VW Brett Churchyard 250 points
K9OSC Robert Brock 250 points
VK2VW Brett Churchyard 100 points
PA7RA Rien Aarden 100 points
NP3MR Alberic J Medina Ramirez 100 points
2E0EYT Jamie Melhuish 100 points

Chaser Unique
DD0VE Ralf Mantyk 500 summits
VK3FLCS Brett McAliece 100 summits

Chaser(SWL)
4X4-2238 Eyran Willis SWL 500 points

Summit to Summit
VK1AD Andrew Moseley Platinum
EA2WX Marcial Vecilla Gold
VK5PAS Paul Simmonds Silver
OK2QA Rudolf Klvana Silver
VK1VIC Anthony Vickers Bronze
HB9EIV Michael Rass Red

Mountain Hunter
OK2QA Rudolf Klvana Platinum
DK1WI Erhard Hauptmann Platinum
M0WBG Neil Challis Gold
DD0VE Ralf Mantyk Gold
4X4-2238 Eyran Willis (SWL) Silver

SOTA Complete
VK1DI Ian Sinclair 100 summits
VK1AD Andrew Moseley 100 summits

Thanks to everybody for their patience while I completed my house move and the construction of a new workshop (almost there, had to replace the roofing shingles after the winds just after Christmas!). I have found most of the merchandise, just need to find the T Shirts and Polo Shirts to fully return to normal.

I still have to rely on tethering my mobile phone to this computer to gain access to the internet which makes supply of pdf certificates problematic if I do not have sufficient data bandwidth remaining on my account. One day BT Openreach will connect a cable from my house to the pole across the road and I will have normal access to Broadband!

There have been several substantial donations in the last month towards the expenses of running SOTA and I am always surprised at the generosity of the community. Thank you one and all.

Please stay safe on the hills

73

Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager

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ZL TRIP IN FEBRUARY from Don M0HCU
For the last 3 weeks of February, I'll be in ZL Land. Although primarily a holiday, I do hope to be able to activate a few (very easy!) summits.

I'll be wandering around the top of the North island between Monday 8th February and Wednesday 17th February and will hopefully be able to fit in some summits in Auckland, Northland and Waikato/Coromandel. If security at BHX don't put a damper on everything.

I should have my 817 (with HF amp) but only 5W VHF (yet to decide if it'll be useful to take a 2M Moxon or not.)

Mainly, these activations will be local morning/afternoon although there may be the possibility of an evening one Friday/Saturday 19/20th (local) depending on weather and a proposed trip to a local observatory.

I'll alert whenever possible, I'd hate to go all that way and fail to contact anyone!

Thanks!

Don M0HCU

=======================================================
Juerg, DL/HB9BIN/p will activate summits in the DM/HE region until the 4th February.

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THE MYSTERY OF THE X-RAYS - by Geert EA8/PA7ZEE

During my first activations on the island of Gran Canaria this year, we suffered from poor conditions on 20 m. On Pico de Las Nieves EA8/GC-001 I was QRV on the time that I had put in the Upcoming Alerts and sending for about an hour ‘CQ DE EA8/PA7ZEE/p’ without a reply. Then it was Saku OH9XX who put me on SotaWatch. A few minutes later I had made enough QSO’s to qualify and when it dried up I went QRT and moved to Moriscos EA8/GC-003.

Again, no reaction there for 90 (!) minutes of code sending. I became a bit desperate till Lothar DL3HXX put me on SotaWatch and I could also qualify for this summit.

It must have to do with the suffix of these Chasers that they picked up the weak signals of the 3 W out of my KX1 into de W3EDP antenna system ! I like to thank both for their efforts to work me and put me on SotaWatch.

Hereunder a picture of some summits in this SOTA Paradise. I hope to activate more summits during my stay in the coming week, so please listen out for me and put me on SotaWatch.

We have a fantastic stay on the Island. Every day the weather was between
22 and 26 C, no rain and a nice wind to cool you down with a good beer.

73 Geert

================================================================

SOTA REPORT UPDATE from EA8 by Geert EA8/PA7ZEE

Activations on 24th of January 2016

After a trip with friends from Gran Canaria, there was time on Sunday for two activations. First to de Arucas EA8/GC-026 on 407 m asl, where I found a nice place for my Shack in Nature in the shade.

Antenna was a wire in a tree and I WAS QRV at 11:34. my First QSO at 11:36 followed with a QSO with Roy G4SSH who put a Spot; mni tnx Roy.

After the Spot the QSO’s came easy in my log but, reports were typically 239, so I concluded that conditions were poor.

After QRT at 11:57, I went to the next summit, Pico de Gáldar EA8/GC-025 at 433 asl. My antenna mast was put on the concrete pole of the trig point and the wire was as a sloper antenna. QRV at 14:37 and a lot of QRM from the antenna masts of telephones. No QSO after 45 minutes calling so I went QRT. This was the first time since 2008 that I had not one QSO during an activation. Clearly the propagation became poorer in the afternoon.

Maspalomas, 27/1/16

Geert, EA8/PA7ZEE

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SOTA REPORT FROM RUSSIA (Urals) from Marat RA9WJV

On February 1st it will be one year since association Russia Urals R9U has been organized and started its activities. It gives me a great pleasure to announce that during this time a small, but very active team of Summit Activators has been formed.
The participants of this group has successfully conducted 20 activations of Urals summits. At the same time, the first activation happened on the second highest mountain of Southern Urals, the Bolshoi Iremel (1582m) in winter bonus time.

Unfortunately, the cold and rainy summer of 2015 has somewhat slowed down the potential activity of programme enthusiasts. But currently even some new supporters of SOTA programme have decided to join in the coming season.

See you on the air! 73 !

Marat A. RA9WJV

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SOTA UK REORT

THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH 97 - from Rob and Audrey G4RQJ.

A New Year but the same foul weather which makes New Years Eve
or Day activations a non starter so we aim for Sunday the 3rd but fortune has other
ideas. Those not interested in the car problems that can beset a SOTA operator can
safely miss the next few paragraphs.

Saturday evening while doing a family favour and fuelling the car, we pick up a
puncture, no problem, we have a spare, we insisted on this from the dealers when
buying the car in view of all the miles we do in awkward places (SOTA!). Tonight the
car is in a difficult position so we call the RAC. The chap arrives and gets the wheel
off while we proudly produce the untouched new spare from its hidey-hole. After
some struggling it transpires that we have a 5stud wheel and a 4stud hub!!!. Some
expletives later the only answer is to drag the car to the only tyre shop in town, now
shut but open on Sundays. (The next nearest open is in Kendal, 30 miles away, sadly
mostly under water from the recent floods and there a big call out fee).

Sunday is mostly spent at the tyre shop, the case is, of course, dead and fortunately they have a replacement, but when they get it on they cannot get the vehicle tyre pressure alarm to go out. Eventually it transpires that the pressure figures on their chart do not agree with the manufacturers ideas printed on the door pillar! No hill today!

All this leaves us with no spare and no RAC support as they have already sorted the problem once: this is not a good idea out here in the sticks. Words with the agency (30 miles away) they will order a replacement straight away and go off looking for a white car with a 4stud spare and 5 stud wheels that was on their lot at the time! Mid week the wheels arrives at the agents (still 30 miles away) but guess what, no tyre.

They order a tyre but it’s Tuesday the 12th by the time it’s on the rim and it's still 30 miles away. In desperation we drive through and collect it but of course we’ve missed another Sunday albeit the weather was awful, what else.

Sunday 17th and snow, but by now we have cabin fever as it’s nearly two months since our last outing. As we drive out to Arnside the slopes are full of folks sledging etc, bear in mind that snow accumulation is rare so close to the sea. The Knott is no exception and the steep path across the field has been turned into a Cresta Run with a proliferation of snowmen. Once through the gate at the top of the field there are few people and it’s nicely quiet. The latest theory of letting the woods run wild is well on the way and it’s difficult to get to our usual fallen tree seat, soon it will not be possible. We start out on 5 MHz where the usual frequencies are now occupied with refugees from forty and their ailments and we are unable to raise any interest so we migrate to 7Mhz cw where a contest and the loss of auto spots results in zero response and we move up 10MHz.

Here we pick up a spot and the pile up starts but this reveals a serious flaw in planning, I (Rob) have left my glasses in the car, without them I cannot read the call sign I have written on the pad, neither can Audrey because my writing without them is unreadable. We shout the gen to each other but it’s not 18wpm! We are now also wearing hoods as the snow has started again, not nice snow but nasty fine hail that does not make hearing easy, so if we worked you and you’re wrong in the log, sorry and drop us a mail and we will correct it. We have now been here a couple of hours and it is getting cold so we miss out 20m Sorry again and go to 2 fm and where are the faithful? Somewhere else, we raise just three stations , Dave G6LKB offers to spot us but by this time we have had enough and beat a retreat musing on whether to start self spotting in the future. My glasses turn up in a pocket in my cold weather trousers that I didn’t know I had, back at Walney the snow has gone!

Sunday 24th Jan and the forecast is a little better but we are not totally convinced so decide on Gummers How another local small one. As we drive out we notice that the Hoad Hill (Near Ulverston with a full size replica lighthouse on top, see web cam for full details) is in cloud, rather unusual. The parking spot for Gummers How is a reasonable car park about a mile along the fell road heading for Kendal that leaves the A592 just outside Newby Bridge. This car park can be very busy in good weather and the hill is a nice introduction for new walkers with super views over Windermere and a proper mountain feel about it. Today the cloud starts about twenty yards up the fell road and is quite thick at the car park with just a few cars of the more hardy there.

We decide to join them and slog up through the rain wind and cloud, not to mention the plentiful donations of our new environmental saviours the cows. On the top the views of the cloud are better, now it is only a few yards away in all directions but we set up and are soon in action on 5MHz, unfortunately no one else seems to be and we eventually leave for 7 MHz, 5 Mhz has been so poor for chasers lately we are considering dropping what was a guaranteed band. On 7 MHz we located our club station on Roa Island for the lifeboat charity event (we were in action there yesterday on the air from the Lifeboat house mechanic’s office but elected for the pleasure of the hills today).

Forty was in a funny state again with sudden changes of skip and on cw we worked just three more stations before things dried up. Calling on 10 and 14 MHz produces just one more contact! Five contacts in over an hour is not good and we may be reduced to self spotting if it continues. Perhaps two metres will be better, not so, Roy near Nelson is our only SSB contact. He gives us 59 but can hear no one else, neither can we! On to FM always a winner and our first contact Dave LKB offers us a spot but as we have had nearly two hours of bleak we decline an just work those on frequency, two contacts later that’s it no more callers.

Eight contacts from a normally popular summit in two hours is not good, but better than watching Sunday afternoon TV. hopefully things will perk up soon. Meanwhile

Take care out there
73
Rob and Audrey
G4RQJ

PS
The enclosed link may help people planning trips (we don’t know where most of them are but they may be a minor road on your route). The road north beyond Dunmail Raise is reported to be closed until at least Easter

http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/floods2015/roadclosures.asp#

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SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF

Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.

Two activators successfully activated on Top Band during January with both enjoying good conditions.

First this year was Miro OK1DVM/P who activated OK/ST-070 Horka for the first time on 160m during the evening of the 1st January. Propagation was good with Miro making a fine total of 10 CW Contacts with a variety of different countries.

On the 10th January, Tomek SQ9HT/P again ventured onto Top Band during an activation of SP/BZ-007 Radziejowa during the evening of 10st January. Tomek started his activation on 145MHz FM before moving to 160m where he made a total of 4 contacts, reaching as far as Finland using only SSB. Tomek became the first Polish Top Band activator when he activated SP/BS-008 Wielki Bukowiec (Pasika) on 5th June 2015.

Congratulations & well done Miro & Tomek.

At the time of writing, these were the only Top band activations during January that I am aware of, if I have missed any others please let me know.

On 1 January, Miro OK1DVM/P Activated OK/ST-070 Horka & made 10 QSO's (10 CW / 0 SSB)

On 10 January, Tomek SQ9HT/P Activated SP/BZ-007 Radziejowa & made 4 QSO's (0 CW / 4 SSB)

As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk

Until next month,

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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SOTA AUSTRALIA REPORT - from Allen VK3ARH

First congratulations go out to Amanda VK3FQSO and Nev VK5WG who gained Super Sloth status (10K chaser points) over the XMAS period. Both are consistent chasers and good operators who are a credit to the hobby.
Both regularly appear in my log and am surprised on the infrequent occasions that neither do. Look forward to many more from both in the future

There are 240 Supersloths internationally and VK has 8. Also there are 259 Mountain Goats internationally and VK has 10. On the topic of goats, Andrew VK1AD (ex VK1NAM) gained 5000 S2S points reflecting the effort he has put into chasing from a summit. VK has two activators (VK3PF & VK1AD) in the top 10 and six in the top 30 for Summit to Summit contacts. We are holding our own in VK.

The 6 and 10m SOTA challenge continues to encouraging the use of these bands. 6m Yagi antennas are proving neither too big nor heavy and with favourable propagation to provide impressive SOTA contacts. Several operators who participated in recent VHF field days did so from a SOTA summit. This combination proves a perfect match. Whilst some don’t pursue contests they are interested in the SOTA contact. All contacts add to the activators score which help in the contest. Several VHF operators have made positive comments regarding the number of SOTA folk out and about and the increased contacts as a result.

UPCOMING

"VK3 2016 SOTA ANNUAL CONFERENCE"
Saturday February 13th

VENUE - Moorabbin and District Club Rooms, 33 Turner Road, Highett.
Conference runs 10 AM to 1:00 PM with BBQ to follow.
(Draft Program subject to revision and may start a little earlier).

Topics include, Introduction to SOTA, the Year in Review, Mapping for SOTA, Activating Overseas, What to Carry in your Pack, Home Brew Gear including Rockmites.

For more information, please email Ron VK3AFW on vk3afw@optusnet.com.au

"VK3 Show & Tell" Sunday April 17th.

Anyone seeking to get involved in portable activities be it WWFF or SOTA is encouraged to attend and see first hand the equipment and discuss techniques for operating portable with seasoned operators.

The location of this event will be to the west of Melbourne in the Brisbane Ranges National Park. Commencing at 1000hrs, followed by a free Sausage Sizzle for all attendees at 1200hrs.

The structure of the morning will involve experienced amateurs who will bring along and setup various items of equipment used in portable activities as well as being on hand to answer any questions raised.

There will be many variations of radios and antenna available, covering broad interest. This will show you don't need expensive gear or to spend all day travelling to operate portable.

For more information, please email Tony on showntell@parksnpeaks.org with your name and mobile contact details.

Looking forward to many more contacts with new and experienced operators through 2016.

Allen
VK3ARH

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SOTA JAPAN NEWS from Toru JH0CJH

This winter is relatively warmer in the beginning but getting colder after mid January and we had lots of snow fall in middle of January. Even on Okinawa island we had snow fall and they are located in southern part of Japan. It is very rare to have a snow fall in this area. It has been 39 years since the last snow fall there. Even in such climate condition, SOTA lovers in Japan are very active and there was many expedition in January. This may be the reason that Japan appreciates the new year season very much with rather longer holidays. Also on 2nd and 3rd January, in every year, JARL (Japan Amateur Radio League) carries out a New Year Party event on air. It is not the type of contest but many stations are QRV and exchange the new year greetings to each other. Joining in from a summit generates a huge pile up of callers which gives very much fun for the summit activators.

SOTA operations January 2016 in Japan

Total number of Expedition 62 with 954 QSO as of 0900 JST, on 31st Jan 2016

JA: 55 expeditions with 889 QSO from Summits

JA5: 3 expeditions with 48 QSO from Summits

JA6: 4 expeditions with 17 QSO from Summits

JA8: 0 expeditions

73

Toru Kawauchi
JH0CJH

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******* SOTA NEWS - PART 2 CONTINUES BELOW *******

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Participants: 2

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Input to SOTA News March 2016

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@G4SSH wrote:

Input to SOTA News March 2016

Contributions are invited for the March 2016 edition of SOTA News.
The deadline for submissions is next Sunday the 28th February

Note the earlier date as this is a short (leap year) month.
Thank you to all who have already submitted articles.

Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk

U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka "Skip" on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net

Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com

New Zealand input to:-
Warren ZL2AJ
warren@zl2aj.com

Japanese reports to
Toru JH0CJH
jh0cjh@jarl.com

South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za

Posts: 4

Participants: 3

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