Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
Last weekend we held the Colorado 14er Event (Aug 7 and 8), the annual mountaintop event in Colorado. A group of us used this weekend as an opportunity to make 1.2 GHz (23 cm) Summits On The Air (SOTA) contacts: K0NR, K0JJW, KM4PEH, K5RHD, W0ADV, KL7IZW, W0RW, KC5RW, and K0BEJ. Many of the 1.2 GHz … Read more
Decibels are commonly used in electronic communications to describe and compare signal levels. I’ve often heard that one dB is considered to be the smallest change that a typical person can detect by ear. I recently came across this website audiocheck.net that is set up to generate different audio tones and to do a blind … Read more
Lately, I’ve been talking with people in search of basic radio communications for their friends or family. They end up talking to me because someone steered them to ham radio as a solution and I teach ham radio license classes. Of course, I am happy to pull them into the wonderful ham radio world but … Read more
The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program originated in the United Kingdom but has propagated to most countries around the world. The program came to Colorado on May 1st, 2010 with Steve/WGØAT sending a CQ from Mount Herman, just west of Monument. Today, the SOTA program in Colorado (called WØC-SOTA) is very active with roughly … Read more
When discussing signal levels and power output, hams like to say things like: Using higher power isn’t important because it only gives you one additional S unit and You’ll lose some power in the coax but you won’t even notice a few dB These statements are often true and at the same time may be … Read more
The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program was designed with hiking/climbing in mind but some SOTA summits have roads that go to the top. Some notable ones that come to mind are Pikes Peak (W0C/FR-004), Mount Scott (W5O/WI-002), Mount Coolidge (W0D/BB-012), Sandia Crest (W5N/SI-001), Mount Greylock (W1/MB-001) and Mount Mitchell (W4C/CM-001). There are also summits … Read more