Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
At our radio club meeting on Monday night, I talked about DMR radio, the fastest growing digital format on VHF/UHF. Wow, did I get a positive response! There is a lot of interest in this topic and many of our members are out buying DMR radios and getting on the air. My presentation is available … Read more
Here’s the SOTA activator scores for Colorado (W0C). I have to admit that I like checking this to see how everyone is doing. Some of it is friendly competition but mostly its enjoying the accomplishments of my fellow SOTA enthusiasts. We’ve got 10 “Mountain Goats” in Colorado now, with 1000 or more points. Carey, KX0R … Read more
For years now, I’ve been doing Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations using VHF and higher frequencies. The GO TO band/mode for VHF SOTA is 2-meter FM because of its overall popularity. Just about everyone has a 2m FM radio (well, almost everyone). Still, if you are on a remote peak you may not find … Read more
The Tytera MD-380 is a low cost radio for analog FM and DMR on the 70cm band (see video here). One of the limitations with the radio is that it only holds 1000 contacts…which seems like a lot of contacts but it fills up quickly. With DMR, each radio or user has a unique 7-digit … Read more
I noticed that I’ve been blogging mostly about SOTA activations, so here’s something completely different: a bunch of exciting stuff flowing forth from the interwebz. From the Why Do They Do That Department, Jeff/VA2SS shared this article on the origin of the radio term “Roger That.” See The story of why pilots say “Roger that” … Read more
Kaufman Ridge is a ridge line that runs along the border of Park and Chaffee Counties in Colorado, near Trout Creek Pass. There are two Summits On The Air (SOTA) summits on this ridge: Kaufman Ridge (W0C/SP-081), formerly Kaufman Ridge HP, and North Kaufman Ridge (W0C/SP-085), formerly Kaufman Ridge North. I have activated these summits … Read more