Red Summit RF - How I log SOTA points while you sleep

Thanks for the great video! Sorry about the bee's! I've never done SOTA but your video is inspiring.
Chuck WA6SYE

 

Thank you all for the kind words. I appreciate you taking a look at the video. Isn't the hobby amazing! Something for everybody.
Charlie "Red" NJ7V

 

Hahaha - that's going a little far Brian . Looking forward to our next adventure/ joint activation. Thanks for the Summit-to-Summit contact this weekend.
Charlie "Red" NJ7V

 

HAHA! It's hilarious at 1x spead. Cant imagine. It IS a challenge to coerce family to come along in many cases - true. Good luck on your activation.

 

lol I also watch them at 1.5

 

I used to operate "SOTA" VHF & UHF.

Well, not really from a summit, there aren't near 606-land, but from a windowsill in our condo, about 425 feet up. The results were really great on 2 meters with a HT when the band was open, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.

I tried operating from the 72nd floor storage area but was foiled by the sheet metal roof.

Unfortunately roof top open-air bars FROWN upon operating between drinks!

 

Hahaha you just need to find the right bar. There is bond to be one out there somewhere.
That's cool you operated from those heights. I've occasionally wondered if it would be fun to operate from on top of a tall building.

 

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It is.

Part of the fun is sneaking your rig in and acting "cool", like you belong there, while you're trying to have a QSO.

Remember "out of area" PL tones can be a pain if you're trying to hit repeaters.

And the VHF / UHF bands can close really fast, no fading! It's an abrupt closing.

 

This interesting that you try and work VHF/UHF openings. Which type of propagation do you figure you see most often? It seems we almost never get VHF/UHF openings here in AZ. It's really rare. What is your distance record?

 

NJ7V:

I don't really know what kind of propagation it was; I was just licensed as a "Tech" maybe two or three years.

One of the things that may have helped was Lake Michigan. Our windows looked north, up the Lake into Wisconsin.

Probably my "all time" record while we were in the condo was hitting a repeater on the tip of the Green Bay peninsula and getting through it to a ham in Ipshiming, Michigan on the Upper Peninsula. Even hit Iowa once for a couple of minutes. But most "hits" were due east into Indiana and a few into Michigan.

Use NOAA Weather Radio to track possible band openings. With an indoor antenna on my RA1795 receiver, I've picked up NOAA Springfield, Illinois WXJ75 on 162.400 MHz. And that's about 210 miles.

I couldn't say about Arizona but, up here in 9-land, late spring, summer, and early fall seem to have the best propagation.

 

Very cool Gerald! Thanks for your comments.

 

Sure wish we could get you on HF for us East Coasters

 

Hi Kent - Yeah it's been a while since I've worked you. I will be activating in Georgia sometime in the first week of October. Maybe I can get you in the log then?

 

I dream occasionally about SOTA, but he highest point in my whole county is an over pass....I live two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Have fun folks.

 

Yeah that's pretty flat land over there. I looked at the map and you have one little hill over by Jasper, about 3 hours away, and otherwise it's "SOTA desolate". Bummer. You do have some cool parks near you that I'd love to activate for POTA!