Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
Here’s your handy list of North American Summits On The Air (SOTA) activities for 2017, as supplied by Guy N7UN: Jan 21-22rd: North America SOTA Winter Activity Weekend + ARRL Jan VHF Contest Apr 22-23: North America SOTA Spring Activity Weekend + QRPTTF Spring Event (Apr 22) Jun 10-11: North America SOTA Summer Activity Weekend + ARRL June VHF Contest … Read more
This post is a continuation of The Cacophony of Digital Voice Continues (Part 1), so you probably should read that one first. All of the popular amateur digital voice (DV) systems (D-STAR, DMR and YSF) use the AMBE vocoder (voice codec) technology. This technology was developed by Digital Voice Systems, Inc. and is proprietary technology … Read more
I’ve been thinking about activating Ormes Peak (W0C/FR-052) for a while now. It is not too difficult to get to and is not a difficult climb. After the Waldo Canyon fire (2012), the area was closed for several years, so I needed to be patient. Then I noticed that Don KØDRJ put an alert on … Read more
It wasn’t that long ago that I commented on the state of digital voice on the VHF/UHF ham bands: Digital Voice Balkanization. We have three main competing (incompatible) standards in the running: D-STAR, DMR and Yaesu System Fusion (YSF). At a high level, these three formats all do the same thing but there are significant … Read more
On Saturday, I activated Bald Mountain (W0C/SP-115) for Summits On The Air. It was an awesome fall day here in the Rockies, so Joyce KØJJW and I were ready for some outdoor fun. When you say you are going to the summit of Bald Mountain, the usual response is “which Bald Mountain?” Fortunately, for SOTA … Read more
My UHF repeater has been operating on 447.725 MHz here in Monument for a couple of decades now. It started out as a classic “pet repeater” project and has been operating from my basement all this time. Over time it has picked up additional users and has turned into the de facto hangout for our … Read more