Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
Recently, I commented on participating in the Parks On The Air (POTA) program: How About Parks On The Air? Since then Joyce/K0JJW and I have done a few POTA activations, including a few combination SOTA (Summits On The Air) + POTA activations. We are starting to sort out how SOTA and POTA work for us. … Read more
Charlie/NJ7V invited Joyce/K0JJW and me to be on the All Portable Discussion Zone, on the Red Summit RF YouTube channel. We talked mostly about Summits On The AIr (SOTA) using VHF/UHF. It was a fun experience for both of us.
Recently, I gave a presentation to the ARROW radio club in Ann Arbor, MI on the topic of “Having Fun With VHF”. I’ve given this talk several times now, highlighting some of the topics in my book, VHF, Summits and More: Having Fun With Ham Radio. When I discussed my Summits On The Air (SOTA) … Read more
For Summits On The Air activations, I have been exclusively using the VHF/UHF spectrum. I like the HF bands but for SOTA, I just think that Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT) of a summit is an ideal match for frequencies above 50 MHz. See Summits On The Air VHF Mountain Goat. After much nagging peer … Read more
On some SOTA summits that are established radio sites, there can be significant RFI on 2 meters. I recently wrote about that here: RFI on SOTA Summits. There have also been discussions from time to time among VHF SOTA activators on which handheld transceiver (HT) has the most robust receiver for use in high RF … Read more
One thing to watch out for when doing SOTA activations is the presence of strong Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on some peaks. The typical scenario is that the summit is also an established radio site with transmitters that interfere with your ham radio operations. I use the VHF/UHF bands for SOTA, so I am writing … Read more