M0JCQ's Ham Blog ← Adventures in Ham Radio ← Page 4

Extreme QRPp SSB SOTA Activations using my Elecraft KX3 10

Nov

29

2015

One fateful day on the 10th of January 2015 I activated two SOTA summits on the island of Lanzarote (just off the north coast of Africa). The summits themselves weren’t overly special, being only worth 1 and 2 points… but band conditions that day were. Since I arrived on the island conditions had been pretty decent, ...

SOTA Activation of Pico Jano (EA1/CT-036)

Nov

23

2015

Pico Jano! What a lovely summit! It’s nestled on the outskirts of the Pico De Europa mountains and as a result you can see all three of the major massifs that make up this lovely mountain range. It qualifies for Summits On The Air (SOTA) and as a result was very much on my radar ...

Tough SOTA Activation of Wentwood (GW/SW-033) 1

Nov

10

2015

This was a harder activation than I had anticipated. I chose to activate Wentwood (GW/SW-033) on my way home from the Brecon Beacons. I had done 4 major summits in the last two days so I was looking forward to an easy one pointer to round things off. Summit Details GW/SW-033 – Wentwood – 309m, 1 point Latitude: 51 38 39 N, Longitude: 2 51 9 W Grid Reference: ST 411943, QTH Locator: IO81NP Parking: Park in the car park (within activation zone – ...

SOTA-on-Sea (Ogoño EA2/BI-068) 1

Nov

7

2015

On A lazy Sunday we decided to go to Playa Laga beach which was near our accommodation in the Basque sea-side village of Mundaka. The weather was glorious and I knew our restless nature would mean that in the mid-afternoon we’d want to do something else, not to worry, there’s Ogoño a SOTA summit located high ...

Activating a Virgin SOTA Summit (EA1/CT-021 Casanzo) 3

Nov

6

2015

We spent a week in Northern Spain up in the Picos de Europa mountains, of course it would be sacrilege to not activate one or two of these magnificent peaks that rise up to over 2500m! The place is literally littered with SOTA summits and most of which are unactivated, but for a very good ...

SOTA Activation of Oiz (EA2/BI-009) 2

Nov

4

2015

While staying in the Basque region of Northern Spain we decided to take a drive/walk into the mountains, this coincided with a visit to the SOTA summit of Oiz (pronounced Oith). This summit is just over 1000m ASL (we were staying at sea level, in the small fishing village of Mundaka) and is worth just 4 ...

SOTA on Lanzarote – 3 Summits in 1 Day

Nov

2

2015

During my visit to the Canary Islands back in January I spent some time on the volcanic island of Lanzarote. While here I activated all the possible SOTA summits. On one of these days I tackled 3 summits and here’s the report. Equipment for the day was my Elecraft KX3, SuperStick vertical antenna, iPad for ...

SOTA Activation in the Middle of a Lava Field (Señalo)

Oct

31

2015

This SOTA activation demanded some dedication, Señalo (EA8/LA-011) is inconveniently located in the middle of a lava field about 3km from the nearest road on the island of Lanzarote. What, only 3km? Yep, the distance is no issue, but the terrain here is something else. Imagine a flowing river of lava that suddenly stopped and was ...

6m Antenna Options for Portable Use 9

Oct

30

2015

I’m a fan of the 6m band. It fascinates and frustrates me in equal measures, which is part of its appeal. It’s unpredictable, you can be working local stations within 50km of your QTH for some time and then all of a sudden a Portugese station will call you and they’re 59+40dB drowning out anything ...

Birthday SOTA Activation of Kinder Scout (G/SP-001) 2

Oct

26

2015

Me and The YL went up to the Peak District to celebrate my birthday. Inevitably I ended up doing two activations on the Saturday (this one and Shining Tor), while mostly out for a nice long walk. I only took a 2m FM equipment, utilising my trusty Yaesu FT-270 with the SOTABeams MFD dipole, making ...