For some chasers and activators, ordinary SOTA isn’t enough. (I know… Tough to believe!) There are many special events which are related to or impact SOTA. Here are some of them.

Annual North America SOTA Events

  • January: NA SOTA Winter Activity Weekend + ARRL Jan VHF Contest
    • Each winter, NA SOTA holds a Winter Activity Weekend. This is a weekend when we try to get as many activators out as possible. It is sometimes combined with the ARRL VHF contest. This can be a great opportunity for Technician chasers to chase and for Technician activators to score some summit-to-summit (S2S) points.
  • April: NA SOTA Spring Activity Weekend
    • Each spring, NA SOTA holds a Spring Activity Weekend. This is a weekend when we try to get as many activators out as possible. It is a great opportunity to collect many chaser points and a great chance for activators to score summit-to-summit (S2S) points.
  • April: QRPTTF
    • “QRPTTF is an annual operating event to encourage QRPers and SOTA stations to get out of the house and operate portable “from the field,” and of course, have fun.” Chasers can operate picnic-portable. http://www.zianet.com/qrp/
  • June: NA SOTA Summer Activity Weekend
    • Each summer, NA SOTA holds a Summer Activity Weekend. This is a weekend when we try to get as many activators out as possible. It is sometimes combined with the ARRL VHF contest. This can be a great opportunity for Technician chasers to chase and for Technician activators to score some summit-to-summit (S2S) points.
  • June: Atlanta SOTA Seminar
    • Each summer, I (K4KPK) host an online, interactive seminar one evening for new activators and chasers. The activators head out for a joint activation of a north Georgia summit on a following weekend.
  • August (first weekend): Colorado 14er Event and Rocky Mountain Rendezvous
    • Announced in May via www.ham14er.org. This event focuses on the 54 summits above 14,000 feet in Colorado. (Not all of the 14ers qualify as SOTA summits.) Beginning in 2012, SOTA Goats began joint activations on this weekend. Since that time, way too many activators have achieved Goat status to get them all in one place at one time. Each year since, the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous has been an unplanned, unscheduled meet-up of SOTA activators concurrent with the 14er event.
  • September: NA SOTA Fall Activity Weekend + ARRL Sept VHF Contest
    • Each fall, NA SOTA holds a Fall Activity Weekend. This is a weekend when we try to get as many activators out as possible. It is sometimes combined with the ARRL VHF contest. This can be a great opportunity for Technician chasers to chase and for Technician activators to score some summit-to-summit (S2S) points.

Notes:

  • “NA” means “North America.”
  • All of these events are announced on the NASOTA mailing list.
  • The timeline for some of these events can vary by several weeks from one year to the next

Other Special Events

  • NPOTA
    • In 2016, the ARRL is sponsoring National Parks On the Air. “Hams from across the country will activate NPS units, promote the National Park Service and showcase Amateur Radio to the public.” Many SOTA summits lie within NPOTA sites. You can score a NPOTA activation and a SOTA activation at the same time. For more information, see http://www.arrl.org/NPOTA.
  • ARRL Field Day
    • ARRL Field Day is a natural opportunity to combine an event with SOTA. The goal of Field Day is, “To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands… and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions.” Just set up a qualifying Field Day station on a SOTA summit and go to town as an activator. For more information, see http://www.arrl.org/field-day.
  • Winter Bonus Shoulder Days
    • This is not an ‘event’ per se, but a special opportunity. SOTA offers 3 winter bonus points for many summits. Dates vary by geography. Many areas set their bonus period from sometime in December through sometime in March. The winter bonus is intended to encourage activity when the weather is discouraging. For some summits, getting there in mid-winter can be almost impossible. However, the first and last couple of weeks of the winter bonus offer an opportunity to score extra points, so some activators/chasers make an extra effort in these weeks.

Wrap-up

  • Be sure to subscribe to the NA SOTA mailing list at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/nasota/info, in order to get the dates each year.
  • If you have a topic you’d like to see addressed in a future column, please send me an email. I’m running out of ideas for columns.

See you on the summits!

73 DE K4KPK / Kevin

Where can I find out more?

Bio

K4KPK, Kevin Kleinfelter is Georgia’s first SOTA Mountain Goat. He has completed more than 175 activations.

This story is Copyright 2016 Kevin P. Kleinfelter. A non-exclusive right to redistribute in electronic or printed form is granted to amateur radio clubs operating in the metro Atlanta area. All other rights reserved.