Trip of 2013.12.15

• Succeeded: No
• First-activation: No
• Propagation forecast on departure: n.a.
• Propagation forecast on return: n.a.

See my trip planning guide at: SOTA Guide: W4G/NG-034, Sheriff Knob

Commentary:

This was planned as the second summit of a double-header with Coosa Bald (W4G/NG-006). I was too cold. I activated Coosa and drove to the trailhead for Sheriff. I even loaded up the pack and took a few steps, but I decided I couldn’t safely activate the summit today and beat a retreat.

Trip of 2014.01.26

• Succeeded: Yes
• First-activation: No
• Propagation forecast on departure: n.a.
• Propagation forecast on return: n.a.

See my trip planning guide at: SOTA Guide: W4G/NG-034, Sheriff Knob

Commentary:

Activated as the middle summit in a triple-header with Gooch, Sheriff, then Coosa. The climb up was intense. There was a lot of brush/undergrowth. It was do-able with the winter die-off, but I recommend against attempting this summit in the green (spring/summer) season.

There were points in the ascent where I had to keep moving forward, lest I slide back. Many points where I planted my trekking poles and hauled myself up. The route I took coming back down may be a little better than the hike up.

It was a sunny but windy day. Both times I was at this trailhead, it seemed windier than the other summit(s).

I’m not sure I’ll try this summit again. Very strenuous climb.

SOTA Activation Report: W4G/NG-29, Akin Mountain

Trip of 2013.11.24

• Succeeded: Yes
• First-activation: No
• Propagation forecast on departure: 40m=fair, 20m=good, 17m=good, S/N=0-1, A=8, K=0, Geomag=inactive
• Propagation forecast on return: 40m=fair, 20m=good, 17m=good, S/N=0-1, A=2, K=0, Geomag=inactive

See my trip planning guide at: SOTA Guide: W4G/NG-029, Akin Mountain

Commentary:

KG4ZGW observed on my second summit today too. (W4G/NG-029, Akin Mountain.) More accurately, I was chauffeured to my summits, since we took his truck. Good thing too. I’d been told that the drive from W4G/NG-017 to W4G/NG-029 was maybe-drivable in a passenger car, but we almost got his 4Runner stuck in the mud. It had rained recently, and despite the cold weather, some of the mud was not frozen and there were some deep mud bogs. (You can easily drive a passenger car to this summit along Mulky Gap Road from Owltown Road.)

We saw something unusual at the trailhead — a dirt road marked to be driven only by vehicles with handicap tags. I dunno what’s down that road, but I’m still scratching my head over having a dirt road to be driven only by the handicapped. It was a side road off the main dirt road, so it doesn’t get a lot of traffic.

There was a nice view of the valley from the ridge line. The temperature was up from the morning, and the wind had died down, so we were much more comfortable than on W4G/NG-017 this morning.

WA7JTM called me summit to summit. His signal was weak, but he stuck with my as I had him repeat his call sign and RST over and over. I got it eventually. I felt bad about not being able to pick it out of the noise, but my sidekick said he never heard it, so maybe a few repeats wasn’t too bad.

I had a little trouble with QRM from music on 40 meters. Dunno if it was a stuck mike, intentional interference, or a bad joke.

I continue to be pleased with my 35’ carbon fiber pole, supporting an EFHW for 20 meters. It performs reasonably well and it goes up fast — particularly when I bungee it to something, instead of guying it out.

Thank you chasers!

SOTA Activation Report: W4G/NG-017, Buckeye Knob

Trip of 2013.11.24

• Succeeded: Yes
• First-activation: No
• Propagation forecast on departure: 40m=fair, 20m=good, 17m=good, S/N=0-1, A=8, K=0, Geomag=inactive
• Propagation forecast on return: 40m=fair, 20m=good, 17m=good, S/N=0-1, A=2, K=0, Geomag=inactive

See my trip planning guide at: SOTA Guide: W4G/NG-017, Buckeye Knob

Commentary:

I had a sidekick today! KG4ZGW came along on todays activations to observe. (I invited him to operate, but he’s strictly interested in CW, and we didn’t bring a key.) He’s the first ham to come along on one of my activations. Shucks. Given that I operate exclusively SOTA, he’s the first ham to observe me operate anywhere. It was interesting to hear how my operation appears from the outside.

It was a cold activation on W4G/NG-017 (Buckeye Knob) this morning — about 15-20 degrees (Fahrenheit) and about 15-20 MPH wind. For some, those might be balmy winter conditions, but here in Georgia, we consider that cold. My fingers were numb, my face was numb, and my zip ties were brittle enough to break. I was pretty close to aborting the trip, and we didn’t hang around long on the summit.

In the end, I’m glad we persisted. I worked DJ5AV. I always enjoy working someone overseas on my 12 watts, and since my ancestors came from Germany, I particularly enjoy logging another German contact. (I’ve worked DJ5AV once before.)

Signals seemed a little weak this morning, and the number of chasers was down from recent weeks. I was thinking that maybe propagation was off, but it can’t have been too bad or my signal wouldn’t have made it across the pond. It’s possible I simply missed some chasers because I was only on the air for a total of 10 minutes. We were in a hurry to get off the mountain. (Did I mention it was cold?)

By the time we were packed, I was shivering and it felt good to generate some heat from walking, and it was really nice to turn up the heater back at the truck.

The sky was 100% clear and a beautiful winter blue.

I do not recommend attempting to drive to the trailhead for this summit in a passenger car. From the Coosa Bald side, it is too bumpy/rocky and has a couple of challenging gullies. From the Akin Mountain side, there were some big mud bogs which could swallow a compact car.

Thank you chasers!

I received some encouraging emails after my first CW activation. Thanks! Since there are some other activators with ‘emerging’ CW skills, I thought it might be helpful to capture what went well and what didn’t, as a newbie, while the activation is still fresh in my mind.

• Spot yourself via SMS or APRS. Don’t rely on RBN. RBN is great, but you’ve got enough on your mind – You want to know when you’re spotted and you want this activation to flow similar to your prior activations.
• If you have CW memories on your rig, store the initial CQ, which should include the summit ID. I wouldn’t bother with anything else.
  • You could also add a “DE callsign ON summit-ID K”, with a plan to mix it in every few minutes. I had this plus other useful phrases, but my brain was so totally focused on listening and eking out a response that there was no horsepower for, “Oh, I could send that other stored message.”
• Activating on a band with limited propagation is a definite winner. The half-dozen chasers on 40m was enough to feel like a real activation, without having a pile-up too big for me to handle.
• It is going to be obvious you’re a newbie. This is a good thing. Don’t sweat it. The chasers did everything they possibly could to help out. They knew what I needed more than I did. I sent call sign, SNR, and BK. That’s it. They knew I’d need to hear my SNR twice. They knew to drop in a pause here or there.
• Don’t panic when you can’t pick out a partial call sign from the pile-up. Take a deep breath (breathing helps!), and just sit tight. Someone’s gonna send again, and you can get that one. If it gets quiet and stays that way, you can always play your recorded initial CQ.
• Don’t panic. Really. If you mess something up, someone might send “?”. Just rewind and pick up where you left off. They’re probably laughing and thinking, “Oh, he’s gonna be so freaked out. How can I help him recover?” and not “Geez Louise! This guy should go home.” (They’re the same helpful people who straightened you out when you got stuck on SSB.)
• Don’t go out at the fastest speed you can copy. Hold back a couple of WPM. Hearing those call signs coming in within your comfort zone is… comforting. (“Hey! I can really copy this!”) Almost everyone will slow to your speed. If someone doesn’t, he just heard you as “slow,” picked a slow speed from his repertoire. Respond to the calls you can copy. When the fast ones are left, “PSE QRS K”. They’re on your side.
• Focus on call signs, RST, BK, K, KN and ‘dit dit’. You’ll hear some FB and 73 and TU, and you might pick up a few encouraging remarks. Your mission is to copy the call sign and the RST. Let the rest flow past you. It’s a great time to breathe and say, “Yeah. I can handle this.”
  • Note to chasers: The occasional bit of extra content was helpful. I had a tendency to think, “Wow! I actually copied that,” after a call sign or an RST, and ‘lose it’ for a bit. Picking up after “something something something EVIN”, gave me a chance to think, “Musta been ‘FB Kevin’” and re-synch and climb back on the horse.
• I prepped by:
  • Listening to a few slowed-down activations. Very helpful, particularly since I’ve done almost no real CW QSOs.
  • Doing at total of two CW QSOs before attempting a CW activation. (I’ve got a lame antenna at home.) Other than confirming that I could really copy live code and send with a semi-intelligible fist, this was not much help. I’ll do more of this just for the CW practice, but activations are so different from regular QSOs that I didn’t get a lot of procedure value here. And chasers send with a much clearer fist than some random newbie who’s sending CQ at 10 WPM.
  • Getting up to ~95% correct at 20 WPM on lcwo.net for a 12 WPM SOTA debut. (There is no way I can copy 20 WPM of meaningful, live content, but I had no trouble copying 12 WPM live.) Drilling well above my on-the-air speed was a big help. The only time I had no idea what the chaser was sending was when someone came at me a little faster than I was ready for (and a single “PSE QRS” fixed that). Being in my comfort zone for the character speed was a big, big help.
  • http://aa9pw.com/morsecode/ - I made up a log template with call sign, RST, and some of the other facts included in his practice QSOs. This was helpful for transitioning back and forth from, “I’m transcribing these characters as they are sent” to “I’m listening, spelling it out in my head and watching for a fact to copy.” This was very helpful practice for grabbing just call signs and RST. I got this up to 14 WPM for a 12 WPM SOTA debut.
• Picnic table – very, very helpful. Being able to spread out the rig, log sheet, a notebook, two or three ball point pens (in case I dropped one), etc., let me focus on sending/receiving and not “How am I going to keep this notebook on my lap while I’m hunched over trying to work the key on the ground, and ‘is that a spider crawling up my arm?’”

I may have gone SK before the last chaser was worked. I got so ‘up’ from having actually worked a successful CW activation that I had to shut it down and do a victory dance. I simply couldn’t concentrate any longer. I was chortling with glee.

Thanks a million to the chasers who worked me! 73 DE K4KPK / Kevin

Maybe you’ve heard of DX spotting. There are web sites that list frequencies and times when a ham from a rare country has been spotted on the air. If you chase DX, you might watch one of these sites so you can pounce on a DX operator when he shows up.

SOTA has something like this too. There’s a web site where chasers will post your frequency and your summit when they hear you. This helps other chasers to find you when you’re on the air. Posting an entry to this site is known as “spotting” you. The entry itself is called a “spot.” (You have been spotted/observed/seen/heard.)

In fact, some activators even spot themselves. In some ham activities, spotting yourself is considered poor form. In SOTA, it is allowed and common. Don’t spot yourself in advance. Spotting means you are on the air right now. If you are planning to be on the air later, you can post that as an alert. An alert says, “I’ll be on the air at this time, on this frequency, from this summit.” A spot says, “The ham has been observed to be on this frequency from this summit right now.”

To spot yourself (or to spot another ham), go to http://sotawatch.org/spots.php.

When you are spotted (whether you do it, or a chaser spots you), you can expect an immediate pile-up.

Hey coach… How can I spot myself if I don’t have Internet access on top of the mountain?

Here are some of the ways to get spotted:

• Visit http://sotawatch.org/spots.php.
• Make a QSO with a chaser, and ask him to spot you.
• Spot yourself via SMS message
• Spot yourself via APRS message
• Get auto spotted via RBNGate

How to spot yourself for SOTA using APRS2SOTA….

Send an APRS message:

• To: SOTA
  • Note: No SSID. Just “SOTA” (or, if you must, SOTA-0)
• Message body (separate fields with spaces):
  • Summit-ID
  • Frequency in MHz
  • Mode (e.g. AM,CW,DATA,DV,FM,PSK,RTTY,SSB,OTHER)
  • call-sign
  • optional comment

e.g. Send the following to SOTA:

W4G/NG-001 14.344 SSB K4KPK hello from Brasstown Bald

Note:

• You do have to pre-register. Send an email to misc at g0lgs.co.uk (that’s at g0Lgs). I sent a few extra words, so it would be clear I was not a robot. Be sure to provide your call sign.
• I’ve been asked whether the content must be upper/lower case. I don’t know. In fact, I don’t actually know how to switch upper/lower case on my HT, so it seems unlikely that case matters.

See also: SOTA Self-spot Via SMS

SOTA is an amateur radio awards program where ‘activators’ hike/climb to the tops of mountains and use a ham radio to talk with people from around the world.

I collect all my SOTA stuff off of this page.

• Official SOTA Site
• SOTA Trip Library
• My SOTA Favorites
• SOTA Combos - More Than Just One Hill
• SOTA Activator Getting Started Guide
• SOTA Recordings
• My SOTA eBook
• Good Summits for Beginning SOTA Activators
• Log Book Template
• RBNGate
• Contest Calendars
• Planning the Hike
• Forest Service Alerts
• Car Wash
• SOTA Seminar 2015 - 2 hour seminar in how-to-SOTA - 2015 edition
• Activation zone (vertically)
  • W4C - Operation must be within 80ft vertically of the summit
  • W4G - Operations will be conducted within 80 feet vertical distance of the summit.
  • W4T - Operation must be within 80 feet vertically of the summit

• Contact me? If you want to contact me, http://www.qrz.com/db/K4KPK has my mailing address, and any ham can register for an account there.

I don’t activate if the forecast calls for a high chance of rain. I’m happiest with a forecast for 0%. I’m OK up to about 20% chance. At about 30-40% chance, I’m comfortable doing a short single-hill activation in the morning, but I’ll avoid really long outings.

I got shut down early once, when fog turned to drizzle, and I ran down the side of a mountain in a thunderstorm twice. Other than that, my first 40+ summits were all dry. I’m just not set up to operate in the rain. You could try running a coax out from your tent to your antenna. Keep your radio dry, and don’t forget that if lightning happens, you’re a target, sitting on top of a mountain. (It sorta seems to cry out, “Strike me!” IMHO.)

I operate in the southeastern USA. I’ve activated in the summer. I’ve activated in the winter. I’ve activated when there was fresh snow on the ground. I’ve activated when there was a layer of ice on top of a snowfall. I’ve activated at 90+ degrees (Fahrenheit). I’ve activated at 15-20 degrees and 15-20 MPH wind.

Dress for the weather. Pack your equipment in waterproof containers if there’s any chance of rain. Bring plenty of water (and stash some extra water in your car, in case you finish your hike dry.)

Keep your log book dry, or use waterproof paper and waterproof ink.

Question: Do I need an SUV with 4WD in order to be a SOTA activator in the southeastern Appalachian mountains?

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer:

I reached every one of the Georgia 10-point summits, driving a compact car to the trailhead. Some of them were easy, on good paved roads. Some of them were on good quality dirt roads. Some of them were bordering on a Bad Idea Indeed.

On a bad road, I drive slowly and I pick my route carefully. I’ve reached some trailheads after a period of dry weather, which I don’t think I could have reached after a heavy rainfall.

A 4WD vehicle with high ground clearance would certainly be helpful. There are some cases where I had to hike along a dirt road to what would be the trailhead for someone who owned serious 4WD. But you can activate lots of summits even if you drive a Geo Metro.

I recommend that you carry a come-along and a long rope. Don’t use it to get to the trailhead. (You don’t want to barely make it to the trailhead because you might find it impossible to make it out.) Just keep it in the trunk in case you can’t make it home. I’ve never used mine. I hope to never use it. It is there because it could be really bad news to be stuck in the outback overnight, without bringing wilderness camping equipment suited to the current weather.