SOTA ← M0JCQ's Ham Blog

Activating Southern Britain’s Highest Mountain on Top Band (Pen Y Fan) 4

Jun

25

2018

Having activated Pen Y Fan (GW/SW-001 – 886m ASL – 8 points) four times previously, I was looking for something new to do. My wife was taking part in a Mountain Midnight Marathon again, which runs up southern Britains highest mountain (and then back down), so I’d have a few hours up at the summit ...

SOTA activation of England’s highest summit: Scafell Pike

Sep

1

2017

While on holiday in the Lake District with the YL in July, I activated ten SOTA summits. The focus of these walks was not SOTA, but instead all day walking, so brevity and lightweight gear was the order of the day – 2m FM was the natural choice. We chose to do Scafell Pike (G/LD-001 ...

Activating Mount Washington – Highest Mountain in N.E USA

Jul

19

2017

Each year I’m sent away to Boston, MA on a company conference, this year I decided to take the radio and activate some of the nearby (well nearish) SOTA summits. I’d planned with some likeminded colleagues to visit the White Mountains in New Hampshire, about 3 hours north of Boston. We’d arrive on Friday evening ...

5 Sussex SOTA Summits on a Summer’s Day 4

Jun

15

2017

This string of 5 summits along the South Downs way in Sussex had been on my hit list for some time. I’d always consciously saved them for a nice summers day. Michael G0POT had activated this string of summits before and had given me a lot of his logistical planning – I’ve built on this ...

GoPro SOTA Video from Y Garn (GW/NW-004) 5

May

29

2017

After my activation of Elidir Fawr (GW/NW-005) on the 11th of April I walked across the ridge to the neighbouring summit of Y Garn (GW/NW-004). This was to be another 2m FM activation, but I wasn’t complaining the VHF takeoff is phenomenal from these two locations. I recorded another activation video using the GoPro which says ...

Becoming a Half SOTA Goat – The First 500 Activator Points

May

19

2017

Reaching 500 activator points was my target for 2017 and I’ve peaked early! The tipping point was an unexpected trip to Snowdonia in Wales in April, where I activated 11 summits for 75 points. This took me beyond 500 points but officially marked me reaching the half way point to becoming a full mountain goat (1000 ...

SOTA Activation of Pen Y Garn (during Storm Desmond)

May

8

2017

This was the second day of my Storm Desmond SOTA activations in Mid-Wales (see Plynlimon and Drosgol activation reports) back in December 2015. Unfortunately the weather was looking even worse than the day before from the B&B! After a full English (or should that be Welsh?) breakfast I set off towards the summit of Pen Y Garn (GW/MW-004) ...

2m SOTA Summit to Summit Pileup Video 3

May

5

2017

Filmed during a 2m VHF SOTA activation of Elidir Fawr (GW/NW-005) in the Snowdonia National Park. A flurry of Summit to summit (S2S) calls were received from fellow activators out on other SOTA summits. Captured using a head cam to give you a birdseye view of a SOTA activation. Time Call Band Mode Notes 12:02z ...

VHF SOTA Expedition in the Snowdonia National Park 6

Apr

28

2017

In April I finally finished a big project at work and had some time off to relax – the perfect break would be some walking in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. Of course the first thing that usually happens when I start to relax is that I get a cold, annoyingly this happened ...

How to Undertake a SOTA Activation – Step by Step Guide 1

Sep

17

2016

Recently I’ve been shooting a number of videos for YouTube outlining the kit I use for SOTA and now I’ve done one showing how I go about activating a SOTA summit. It’s a step by step guide to carrying out a SOTA activation in the great outdoors. It covers the set-up, spotting, operating procedure ...