Congrats on your first SOTA. I've been looking into this as I'm severely limited at my home base station by a stealth antenna. I've taken my QRP rig with a 5AH SLAB and had fun setting up in parks and picnic areas. Reception is much better than my home base station even using an ATAS-25...however I have a difficult time being heard QRP with a limiting antenna. I'm working on a better antenna, however, peaks here in Colorado are close to tree line or above.....which means a lack of antenna support. So I'm looking at a collapsible mast and tripod. More stuff to haul. I'm interested in your battery. I'm thinking a more powerful transceiver than my FT-817ND might be nice but I was wondering how much your 20AH battery weighs? Is it a SLAB? If I have to haul a tripod and mast to a summit I'd like to keep the battery weight down. I'm retired and approaching 71 years....a man has to know his limitations! My Beagle uasually accompanies me on these trips....so I have to carry gear for her too...tether, ground anchor, food and water. QRP may be the only way for me for SOTA...perhaps a portable 100W rig for vehicle camping at lower elevations.
The Bioenno 20ah is just a tad over 5 lbs, their 30ah is a tad over 8 lbs if I remember correctly. In comparison, my 7.2aH SLA weighs 6 pounds! My goal is to encourage 100 watt SOTA activations - with these batteries, it's totally doable. In retrospect, for SOTA activations, I could have went with the 30aH. With SOTA - your transmit rate is much higher due to calling CQ frequently - so at 100w, I had used almost a third of my battery just after about 2 hours of operating, but this helped shave a bit over 3 pounds, I think I can shave weight elsewhere too, i.e. no more spider pole - that 12m pole isn't light! QRP on SOTA activations can work great too, though i'd probably opt for a bit more efficient antenna than an end fed if I do go that route! Give it a try! I started by just taking local trips to the park (some completely unsuccessful, lol)
Yep....that stuff adds up quickly! Good to know about calling CQ often as SOTA activator. Most of my forays to local parks were trying to break into pileups or responding to someone calling CQ without a pile up so battery usage wasn't too bad. More tuning around rather than transmitting. Pileups on QRP are discouraging. You can easily tell when you are competing with big rigs. On QRP I have yet to break into a pile up. I'm reading up on QRP operating tricks to help out. Most require lots of listening and returning to a freq in hopes that the pile has reduced itself.
Congrats on your first SOTA. Sounds like fun.I didn't see were you attached your antenna at the top. The video doesn't show it. Did you also have a counterpoise? 73 Bob KC6SOT
Hi Bob, I had a small rubber grommet at the top with the wire wrapped around it. This HyEndFed model doesn't have a spot for a counterpoise, so I was sure to use 50ft of coax as the counterpoise. & Thanks! -Johnny
