Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
When planning for the next Summits On The Air (SOTA) hike, I want to understand the difficulty of the climb. The main things to evaluate are the length of the hike (horizontal distance), the vertical (elevation) gain and other contributing factors. Most of the SOTA summits in Colorado have a simple profile: pretty much uphill … Read more
Sat Sep 28 and Sat Oct 5 (8 AM to 5 PM) Black Forest Fire Station 11445 Teachout Road Colorado Springs, CO 80908 The General License provides access to regional and worldwide communications on the HF bands, greatly expanding your ham radio fun! • Upgrade from Technician to General Class radio privileges • Pass your … Read more
August 3 & 4, 2019 Saturday and Sunday www.ham14er.org Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains and Summits On The Air (SOTA) peaks to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on … Read more
Joyce/K0JJW and I were planning a trip to Alaska to visit several of the national parks. We had some time available while in Fairbanks to do some SOTA activations. We were traveling very light, so we took minimal SOTA gear: a pair of VHF/UHF handhelds and simple antennas. We used my newly-fashioned antenna mount on … Read more
My Summits On The Air (SOTA) activation of Pikes Peak (W0C/FR-004) on June 20th qualified me for Mountain Goat, using only the VHF/UHF bands. Mountain Goat requires 1000 activation points using the SOTA activation point system. I’ve been working toward this goal for quite a while. I was doing mountaintop VHF activations before SOTA was … Read more
For Summits On The Air (SOTA), I’ve been using just the VHF/UHF ham bands, with the 2m band being the most popular. For most activations, I use a 3-element Arrow II yagi antenna that has a gain of about 6 dBd. Sometimes that extra gain makes the difference between completing a contact or not. Omnidirectional … Read more