Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program offers a good set of tools for chasing and activating summits. Outside of the SOTA program, many different outdoor and hiking apps are also useful for planning and doing activations. The tools I use have changed over time, so here’s an inventory of what I am currently using. … Read more
Many of you already know about this wonderful alert tool: HamAlert. From the HamAlert website: HamAlert is a system that allows you to get notifications when a desired station appears on the DX cluster, the Reverse Beacon Network, SOTAwatch, POTA, WWFF Spotline, or PSK Reporter. No need to keep checking these resources manually if you’re … Read more
I’ve been whining about the fact that for many years the 2m FM calling frequency, 146.52 MHz, was prohibited for use in VHF contests and Field Day. See The One Frequency You Should Never Use on Field Day. Well, the ARRL removed this restriction in 2015, so that issue has been resolved. The CQ WW … Read more
This weekend is the ARRL Field Day, a great opportunity for individual hams, small groups, and radio clubs to get on the ham bands and have some fun. But what is Field Day all about? The ARRL says this: Field Day is ham radio’s open house. Every June, more than 31,000 hams throughout North America … Read more
See Part 2 of this report. Ofu Island is not easily accessible, so it was a key decision on whether to include it as part of the trip. The more I read about American Samoa, the more I noticed that many of the best photos were from Ofu Island. It has a huge beach that … Read more
See Part 1 of this report. We arrived at Pago Pago (pronounced “pango pango”) around 9 pm and were met by the shuttle van from Tradewinds Hotel. We stayed there for three nights, then took our 5-day side trip to Ofu Island, returning to Pago and the Tradewinds for another 6 nights. The next morning, … Read more