See also: SOTA Activation What to Bring (Activator Edition)

I’m going to tag along on a SOTA activation as an observer. What do I need to bring?

Just bring the usual items you’d take for a hike in the mountains, plus something to sit on.

• Water (to drink)
• Snack, if desired
• Sunscreen, bug dope, etc., if you need that sort of thing when you’re outdoors
• Clothing suitable for the season. You’ll work up a sweat getting to the summit. Then you’ll sit around for an hour or more. Summits are often windy. Bring a little more clothing than you think you’ll need.
• Bring something to sit on. You can bring a foam pad, or a small ground cloth, etc. You’re going to sit on top of that mountain for an hour or more. Some summits are rocky. Some are covered with moist dirt. Some are covered with poison ivy.
• Hiking staff, trekking poles, etc., if you use that sort of thing. Remember that you’ll be hiking up a mountain and then back down. (Hiking down hurts my knees.)

See also: SOTA Activation What to Bring (Observer Edition)

Some activators carry more than I do. Some carry less. See the attachment for my personal checklist.

Because “space weather,” caused by events on the sun, impacts radio propagation, some people like to check the propagation forecast before heading out on a SOTA activation. There are a number of sites which put together a forecast. I’ve embedded some of them at my Radio Happiness Forecast page.

This page is ironically named. So far, I’ve found little value in the propagation forecast. I’ve had bad days when the forecast was good and vice versa. Despite the fact they are caled “forecasts,” they really report on how propagation should be right now. The values change between the time I leave the house at 6 A.M. and when I activate the summit at 1 P.M. (for example).

There are other important variables when you’re transmitting atop a mountain which can outweigh the propagation forecast. For example, I’ve found that a sharply defined apex seems to really boost signal strength (with the antennas I use), and a broad, flat summit seems to attenuate.

Clearly, you won’t make transoceanic contact if the propagation isn’t there, but… If the forecast is poor, don’t let that stop you from heading out the door. If the forecast is great, but you really didn’t want to activate today, don’t go just because the forecast is good. I’ve had great results at 11 A.M. when the forecast was poor at 6 A.M. Note that I’ve not yet attempted an activation when the forecast was for heavy blackouts due to a major CME.

Check the weather forecast, and cancel your trip if it is going to rain on your activation, but don’t let a bad solar weather forecast cancel your trip.

Some activators like to throw a few things in a bag, find a summit ID and the GPS coordinates for the summit, and head out the door. Some activators like to carefully plan a trip in advance. I’m a planner. Some might say that I’m an extreme planner.

I create a detailed plan, but I’m not a slave to my plan. From the moment I head out the door, the trip is an improvisation, loosely based on the plan. I used to work for a Navy Commander who liked to say, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” I like to think things through carefully, to try and anticipate possible challenges, so that I increase my chances of a successful activation. In my first 40 activations, I had the following failed activations:

• Once, I reached a summit and a thunderstorm started as I was setting up my antenna, and I beat a hasty retreat.
• One February, I encountered a surprise stream which would have required wading, and the temperature was too cold to get wet. (I came back 2 weeks later with lightweight waders.)
• On one attempt, I discovered that the trail didn’t pass as close to the summit as the map said it would. This would have turned my planned short bushwhack into a long bushwhack. (I came back in the winter, when bushwhacking is easier.)

When I plan an activation, I usually plan a “Plan-B” summit, in case I can’t get to my first choice. In the examples above, despite my failed Plan-A, I did activate one (or more) other summits on that day. Plan-B is a good thing, because who wants to spend hours driving to the mountains only to drive home without bagging an activation?

I’ve attached a sample trip plan as a PDF. In my “live document,” the schedule is an embedded spreadsheet, so the next time I attempt the trip, I might change the start time, and the times in the rest of the spreadsheet will recalculate themselves.

I give my wife a subset of this guide, so she knows where to send the rescue squad if I don’t return. That’s also the basis for the “Worry if…” line in the schedule. i.e. Don’t call the rescue squad until after that time.

You’ll note that the guide includes entries for “Last McDonalds” and “Penultimate McDonalds”, although this particular guide does not list locations. Stone Mountain is close enough to my hometown that I don’t need this info for this trip. For longer trips, the last McDonalds is where I can get a quick breakfast, use a flush toilet, and there’s almost always a gas station nearby. It is a point where I can get anything I need from “civilization” before I head off into wilderness. I generally try to take care of my needs at the penultimate McDonalds because I’ve found the last McDonalds closed for remodeling on occasion, so the penultimate McD is my Plan-A and the final one is my Plan-B. You might like Waffle House, or some other joint. I’m not crazy about McD, but I can count on getting enough calories to last me until supper.

The attachment is an Excel spreadsheet which I print and use to capture log book entries when I’m portable (whether SOTA or picnic-in-the-park or Field Day or…)

I fold it in half and clip it to a VFR flying kneeboard, to keep the wind from blowing it away.

Update: KU6J, author of RBNGate passed away. I do not know the current status of RBNGate. It may not be functional any longer.

RBNGate is wonderful, if you are a CW activator. All you have to do to get spotted is to post an alert at http://sotawatch.org/alerts.php, and then go on the air within a couple of hours of your alerted time. RBN will do its magic and spot you as a CW QSO. RBNGate will notice that RBN spotted you and it will check SOTAwatch and see that you’re alerted for a summit. It will assume that you’re on the summit you said you’d activate, and it will post a spot to http://sotawatch.org/spots.php.

Once you’re spotted on SOTAwatch, you’ll get a pile-up.

RBNGate FAQ: http://www.grizzlyguy.tv/RBNGate.htm

Here are instructions(modified slightly) from the NASota mailing list regarding how to get spotted via RBNGate:

You will be tracked beginning one hour before your alert's ETA and ending 3 hours after it (4 hours total). If you ever want to change that period, you can enter a comment that includes something like S-2 S+5. That would cause you to be tracked beginning 2 hours before your ETA until 5 hours after it. 

The key to getting spotted by RBN is to:

1) Send "CQ" at least twice. If there is a "SOTA" in there after the second one, that's OK too.
2) Follow those by "DE"
3) Follow "DE" by your callsign at least once, twice is better.
4) Send with a good fist, *at a constant speed*. That last part is important.

To make sure you get #4 right, program the following into my your auto-keyer:

CQ CQ SOTA DE K4KPK K4KPK K

Send that as the first CQ, get auto-spotted, keep sending it until the first chaser arrives (usually within 60 seconds), then later shorten it up to CQ SOTA DE K4KPK K if need to send CQ again after working down the pile. Can also program the shorter one into auto-keyer as well. 

You can check your RBN spots by clicking this link:

http://www.reversebeacon.net/dxsd1/dxsd1.php?f=0&c=k4kpk&t=dx

That is the URL you'd get if you browse to http://www.reversebeacon.net, choose Spot Search from the DX Spots menu, and enter your callsign in the box. 

For more info on RBN and RBNGate, see the link
http://www.ku6j.com

Here’s a tutorial on how to use http://sotamaps.wsstvc.org/ to pick out a valid SOTA summit. For this tutorial, let’s imagine you live in Covington, Georgia, and you want to activate a nearby summit.

• Set the Choose Association field to W4G - USA - Georgia
• Set Choose Region to W4G/CE - Central
• Click on the “2” in the triangle to the east of Atlanta. You just picked Stone Mountain.
• A box will pop up with info about Stone Mountain. The title of the box is a hyperlink to more info. Click it.
• If someone has activated the summit before, there is probably a link under “Resources”, with tips on finding/activating the summit from someone who has done it before.
• Near the top of this page, you’ll see something like “Summit Information for xxx/yy-nnn”. xxx/yy-nnn is the Summit ID. For Stone Mountain, the code is W4G/CE-003. Write down the code for your summit because you’ll need it.

I want to activate a summit. I don’t want to read a lot. What’s the minimum I need to know?

• Go to http://sotamaps.wsstvc.org/ and pick out a valid SOTA summit. Learn its “Summit ID.”
  • See How to Pick a Summit from SOTA Maps, for a brief tutorial.
• (Optional) Post an activation alert at [http://sotawatch.org/alerts.php]. This tells chasers when you’ll be there.
• Go to the top of the mountain. If you can drive to the top, don’t. Be sure to park at least 100’ (elevation) below the summit, and walk the rest of the way to the top.
• Make at least 4 QSOs from the summit. You don’t have to be exactly at the apex. Any 4 hams will suffice; it doesn’t matter whether they’re SOTA chasers.
• When you’re home, submit your log using the “Submit Log” menu at http://sotadata.org.uk/.
  • If you don’t have a user ID on the site, you’ll have to sign up for one.
  • Ensure that you enter ALL of your contacts. (See “Admire your results” below.) This ensures you’ll get your points and your chasers can confirm they really talked with you.
• (Optional) Admire your results at http://sotadata.org.uk/ by choosing “View Results”, then “My Results”, then “My Activator Log”.

Note: I’ve left out things like registering to use some of the web sites, figuring out how to get to the trailhead, etc. This is the “Cliff Notes” version of the procedure.

I collect notes on how to get started in SOTA here…

• I’m in a hurry. What do I have to do to activate a summit?
• For your first summit, pick out a summit that is near home, get out there and try to activate it. If it doesn’t go well, you haven’t invested a lot in it. Pay attention to what worked and what didn’t. You’ll learn a lot from your first attempt. Then, adjust your plan so that the next time goes better.
• What do I need to take to the summit? I’m planning to watch someone else activate.
• What do I need to take to the summit? I’m planning to activate the summit myself.
• A sample activation trip plan
• Spotting
• Propagation forecasts
• 4 Wheel Drive
• Rain or Snow
• Contests
• Download USGS Topographic Maps
• Read the word-wide SOTA reflector
• Read and subscribe to the North American SOTA Mailing List
  • In addition to reading current posts, go back and read a year’s worth of history, so you won’t appear to be a newbie when you post.
• If you’re in the Southeast:
  • http://k4kpk.com/content/sota-trip-library
  • Patrick’s GPS Traces from his activations (Patrick is an awesome activator.)
  • Forest Service road closures in GA - http://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/conf/alerts-notices
  • Winter bonus is 3 points on 8 and 10 point summits from December 01 through March 15 in Georgia.
• Major SOTA Web Sites:
  • http://sotadata.org.uk/
  • http://sotawatch.org/
  • http://sotamaps..org/
• Can I activate the same hill twice? Yes. You can activate a hill for points once per calendar year. You can activate the hill a hundred times a week if you want – but you can’t get more points for it until the next calendar year.