Posted: 2/13/2016 8:21:05 AM EDT
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Leaving for Arkansas in about an hour. I'll be activating Round Mountain in NW Arkansas, just west of Harrison, today about 2pm Central Time. There are other summits in the area so I may be activating something else tomorrow.
http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=W5A/BR-007 I'll be operating on 146.52 and ~14.235 usb (or as close to there as I can get) |
on you and see what happens. Sadly, my 2M ant is only up about 20 ft on tripod and tent poles.
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Well, I had some success and some defeat.
My activation will not qualify because of access issues. I was not able to get on to the actual summit of Round Mountain. That part of Arkansas is not a particularly great place to go poking around on property that you don't have legal access to. There are a lot of meth heads running around that area looking for stuff to steal. They take trespassing pretty seriously around there and everyone carries a firearm. We did meet a really nice local who lived in the area and helped us work out a strategy to get it next time. I did find the name of the family I need to contact to get access to the actual summit so I'll be taking another run at it again sometime soon. Having said that, I did go ahead and set up and make several contacts including working back into KC on FSQ. That went VERY well. I had 100% solid copy the entire trip, both mobile and portable. I was using an 857D running 5 watts on batteries into a resonant inverted V. My mobile setup is the same 857D into a center roof mounted 40m Hustler. I am extremely happy with the mobile / portable performance of my current setup. Two of my favorite contacts were 90 mile VHF contacts from the hilltop into Springdale, AR. I was using 5 watts into the N9TAX slim jim and the two contacts were mobile stations. |
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Another pro tip: It's always a good idea to post an alert on SummitWatch and have people looking for you. I activated a summit on Saturday as well, and nearly walked away unsuccessful because I didn't post an alert and couldn't get anybody to answer me! Called CQ over and over on different frequencies, trying to hail somebody, but had zero success. I was starting to doubt my equipment so I decided to try and call somebody I could hear. I'll tell you what will truly test your anger management abilities as an amateur radio operator is when you're sitting at 11,000 feet, in the snow, your hands are numb, you're dealing with a 20-30 mile an hour wind, and trying to get into a net where some old dude is explaining to the world his health problems, and you can't get a word in edgewise. Just shut your pie hole for 10 seconds and let me get a signal report!%&$. I finally get into a different net and turns out everybody can hear me just fine - no problems at all. Just goes to prove that even if people are hearing your CQ doesn't mean they'll stop and throw you a line... |
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Quoted:
Another pro tip: It's always a good idea to post an alert on SummitWatch and have people looking for you. I activated a summit on Saturday as well, and nearly walked away unsuccessful because I didn't post an alert and couldn't get anybody to answer me! Called CQ over and over on different frequencies, trying to hail somebody, but had zero success. I actually did post an Alert but nobody was on the frequency that I alerted. I called over and over for a while, then I'd go scan, make a few contacts and keep coming back to my Alerted frequency. I was honestly glad that nobody was there once I realized though that I was not on the actual summit. I would have hated to have people thinking that they were getting points for the contact then find out later they did not. Dunno, maybe that's part of the deal, not sure since I'm brand new to this. I do appreciate the tips and feedback though! |
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Quoted:
Another pro tip: It's always a good idea to post an alert on SummitWatch and have people looking for you. I activated a summit on Saturday as well, and nearly walked away unsuccessful because I didn't post an alert and couldn't get anybody to answer me! Called CQ over and over on different frequencies, trying to hail somebody, but had zero success. I was starting to doubt my equipment so I decided to try and call somebody I could hear. I'll tell you what will truly test your anger management abilities as an amateur radio operator is when you're sitting at 11,000 feet, in the snow, your hands are numb, you're dealing with a 20-30 mile an hour wind, and trying to get into a net where some old dude is explaining to the world his health problems, and you can't get a word in edgewise. Just shut your pie hole for 10 seconds and let me get a signal report!%&$. I finally get into a different net and turns out everybody can hear me just fine - no problems at all. Just goes to prove that even if people are hearing your CQ doesn't mean they'll stop and throw you a line... LOFL, you are starting to sound like me  .... Probably those snowy mountaintops...
Pro-tip... Maritime net if its up is usually excellent at picking up on us poor portable bastards. 14.3000 on 20M Also YLISSB will sometimes pick up non members, but its usually all about their colon trouble... |
| Heck, I was spinning the dial andheard someone calling CQ SOTA and NPOTA. Sounded like he wasn't getting many responses. Another station hit him right before me and asked for him to spot him on sotawatch. After that his contacts started rolling in pretty quick. |
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SOTA only needs 4 contacts...but I have had one where I started to get worried anyone would come back to us. Try USIOTA if you like a challenge on a bad day on the bands...you need 26 contacts and at least one has to be DX! And they don't have a spotter network like SOTA does. I have never failed to get a SOTA activation yet, but I had to go back to finish qualifying my last island. The warning about addiction is not a joke. |
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Quoted:
I actually did post an Alert but nobody was on the frequency that I alerted. I called over and over for a while, then I'd go scan, make a few contacts and keep coming back to my Alerted frequency. I was honestly glad that nobody was there once I realized though that I was not on the actual summit. I would have hated to have people thinking that they were getting points for the contact then find out later they did not. Dunno, maybe that's part of the deal, not sure since I'm brand new to this. I do appreciate the tips and feedback though! I have been doing SOTA since 2013, and have 34 activations so far. I have found that with the large increase in SOTA activity in North America, posting a Sotawatch alert of an upcoming activation no longer guarantees a pile-up. A couple of years ago, there were few enough people activating to make chasers sit and wait for one. The key now is to get a spot. 1. If you have a cellular connection, self-spot via the internet or SOTAGoat app. 2. Spot via APRS (using APRS2SOTA gateway). 3. When you get your first chaser, ask them to spot you. 4. Use frequencies that are known and often used SOTA frequencies. These are usually at the top of the band for SSB. I use 14.346 on 20M. 5. If you are doing something that will give you variable timing, such as a multi summit day, elicit the help of one or more of the prolific chasers. For an example of #5, I did a four summit day last year. I knew that planned timing for each summit would be decent for the first, but likely be a bit off for the second, and worse for the following two. The day before the activation, I emailed my two most prolific chasers, let them know my plan, and asked if they could help listen for me and post spots. They were glad to, and I gave them timing updates through the day. It worked out great, and they loved the chaser points! |
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Quoted:
I have been doing SOTA since 2013, and have 34 activations so far. I have found that with the large increase in SOTA activity in North America, posting a Sotawatch alert of an upcoming activation no longer guarantees a pile-up. A couple of years ago, there were few enough people activating to make chasers sit and wait for one. The key now is to get a spot. 1. If you have a cellular connection, self-spot via the internet or SOTAGoat app. 2. Spot via APRS (using APRS2SOTA gateway). 3. When you get your first chaser, ask them to spot you. 4. Use frequencies that are known and often used SOTA frequencies. These are usually at the top of the band for SSB. I use 14.346 on 20M. 5. If you are doing something that will give you variable timing, such as a multi summit day, elicit the help of one or more of the prolific chasers. For an example of #5, I did a four summit day last year. I knew that planned timing for each summit would be decent for the first, but likely be a bit off for the second, and worse for the following two. The day before the activation, I emailed my two most prolific chasers, let them know my plan, and asked if they could help listen for me and post spots. They were glad to, and I gave them timing updates through the day. It worked out great, and they loved the chaser points! Quoted:
Quoted:
I actually did post an Alert but nobody was on the frequency that I alerted. I called over and over for a while, then I'd go scan, make a few contacts and keep coming back to my Alerted frequency. I was honestly glad that nobody was there once I realized though that I was not on the actual summit. I would have hated to have people thinking that they were getting points for the contact then find out later they did not. Dunno, maybe that's part of the deal, not sure since I'm brand new to this. I do appreciate the tips and feedback though! I have been doing SOTA since 2013, and have 34 activations so far. I have found that with the large increase in SOTA activity in North America, posting a Sotawatch alert of an upcoming activation no longer guarantees a pile-up. A couple of years ago, there were few enough people activating to make chasers sit and wait for one. The key now is to get a spot. 1. If you have a cellular connection, self-spot via the internet or SOTAGoat app. 2. Spot via APRS (using APRS2SOTA gateway). 3. When you get your first chaser, ask them to spot you. 4. Use frequencies that are known and often used SOTA frequencies. These are usually at the top of the band for SSB. I use 14.346 on 20M. 5. If you are doing something that will give you variable timing, such as a multi summit day, elicit the help of one or more of the prolific chasers. For an example of #5, I did a four summit day last year. I knew that planned timing for each summit would be decent for the first, but likely be a bit off for the second, and worse for the following two. The day before the activation, I emailed my two most prolific chasers, let them know my plan, and asked if they could help listen for me and post spots. They were glad to, and I gave them timing updates through the day. It worked out great, and they loved the chaser points! I will memorize this post, thank you! |