Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
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
Joyce/K0JJW and I did another activation of Mt Herman (W0C/FR-063) today. This is a repeat summit for us this year but we were looking for an easy hike not too far from home. As usual, we were just using the VHF/UHF bands for the activation. My favorite rig for this type of SOTA activation is … Read more
On Twitter, someone recently commented that it would be nice to have more 2m SSB activity for Summits On The Air (SOTA). It is well known that FM is a more commonly used mode but that its performance suffers for weak signals. This got me wondering about which bands and modes are being used for … Read more
While I did not originate the idea, I have been promoting the use of 146.58 MHz as the North America Adventure Frequency. (Rex/KE6MT and George/Kj6VU came up with the idea.) My previous blog post explained the thinking behind it, along with my own personal biases, I’m sure. When presented with the idea of The Other … Read more
Lately, for the ARRL January VHF contest, I try to find a SOTA summit to activate. Operating time is usually just a few hours, so it does not make for a big score. The main advantage is for VHF SOTA (Summits On The Air) because there is a lot more activity on 2m CW and … Read more
Charlie/NJ7V and Gaston/KT1RUN did a comparison of VHF antennas during a SOTA activation. Specifically, they compared a rubber duck antenna, a J-pole antenna on a tall mast, and a 3-element Yagi antenna. Spoiler Alert: the rubber duck sucks (they all do) but the Yagi and J-pole performed about the same. Joyce/K0JJW and I use the … Read more