Big ham contests can interfere with the SOTA activation experience. There’s a contest somewhere, just about every weekend, so the best you can do is to avoid the really BIG ones. If you must activate on a contest weekend, CW and SSB all run on different weekends - use the mode not in play for the contest that weekend or head to the WARC bands.
When you set a date for your activation:
- Check the ARRL contest calendar. (Check “Contest Corral” at the bottom of the page to get non-ARRL contests)
- OR check http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/perpetualcal.php
- The big weekends to avoid are:
- Phone (SSB and other modes)
- March
- 1st full weekend in March (All Sat+Sun UTC) - ARRL DX (Phone)
- Last weekend in March (All Sat+Sun UTC) - CQ WPX (Phone). Very big. I found no clear frequencies on 17/20/40 in 2015 at 5 PM.
- June
- 4th full weekend in June (1800 Sat to 2100 Sun UTC = 2 PM Sat to 5 PM Sun EDT ) - Field Day
- July
- 2nd full weekend in July (1200 Sat to 1200 Sun UTC = 8 AM Sat to 8 AM Sun EDT ) - IARU Radio Sport
- October
- 4th or 5th weekend in October - CQWW - http://www.cqww.com/
- November
- 3rd full weekend in November (2100 Sat to 0300 Mon UTC = 4 PM Sat to 10 PM Sun) - Sweepstakes
- March
- CW
- February
- 3rd full weekend in February (All Sat+Sun UTC) - ARRL DX (CW)
- May
- Last weekend in May (All Sat+Sun UTC) - CQ WPX (CW)
- June
- 4th full weekend in June (1800 Sat to 2100 Sun UTC = 2 PM Sat to 5 PM Sun EDT ) - Field Day
- October
- 4th or 5th weekend in October - CQWW - http://www.cqww.com/
- November
- 1st full weekend in November (2100 Sat to 0300 Mon UTC = 4 PM Sat to 10 PM Sun EST ) - Sweepstakes
- February
- Phone (SSB and other modes)