SOTA VK2 kicked off much sooner than anyone expected and went live at 0000hrs UTC on Sunday 1st September 2013 – which unfortunately also coincided with Father’s Day.
Firstly, what is SOTA? SOTA or Summits on the Air is a relatively new phenomena in Australian Ham Radio circles but it has been around since 2002 when it was launched in the UK. It is an awards program that encourages people to operate portable stations – usually very low power radios and very lightweight antenna systems from specific hill/mountaintops. In Australia, these hilltops must have 150m of vertical prominence all the way around them to comply with the SOTA rules. They are shown on the SOTA website in their mapping tool. The hills are allocated points. There are three categories of the award scheme. Shortwave listener (SWL), Activator and Chaser. The activator is the one who goes and climbs the hill and operates whilst the chaser sits at home and tries to contact them. Likewise the SWL logs both the chaser and activator for points. The main awards are for the Mountain Goat award or the Shack Sloth award.
But back to my first activation after all this blog is my record of my activations. I had previously and still continue to do, actively chase the Shack Sloth award and as I write this I have accumulated over 400 points on my way to 1000 but activating is something I really wanted to have a crack at.
I didn’t at that stage posses a suitable radio but had my eye on a Yaesu FT-817. Discussions with Neil VK2YZ regarding this and other portable activities led me to borrowing his FT-817 and a couple of LiPo batteries for the activation and I thought I would take my G5RV portable antenna and a tuner.
Father’s Day at my house was a very quiet affair …just me, so I thought that would be a great opportunity to set off to the closest designated hilltop to me and that was Mt Flakeny VK2 RI-025. Of course I contacted the owner well in advance and was given the green light to go. I also put up an alert on the SOTA Alerts page.
I left home just after 9am and was up on the hill by about 9.45am. I parked about 100m away from my operating position and loaded up with radio, antenna, batteries, groundsheet, small table and a chair and off I set. Must have looked an odd site but there was no-one there to comment. :-).
I followed my usual method for erecting the G5 and that was by hurling a sinker attached to fishing line and hand casting reel. I selected my tree and hoped for the best. Bingo! First time. I quickly tied some lightweight cord to the fishing line and hauled the antenna up. I estimated I got the centre about 50′ in the air – plenty of height.
Next – get the radio and tuner set up. As I had used an FT 857, the 817 was a breeze to use although since now owning my own I have discovered some of the other features such as built in SWR and voltage readout. But having never used the tuner with this antenna I had a lot of trouble trying to find the best match because as you know, on 40m, the G5 does require a bit of work to match it. Anyway, I settled on what I thought was the best match although on speech peaks it did like to remind me the SWR was high. But, I thought, the proof will be in the pudding – work my 4 stations for the points and anything else will be a bonus.
My first contact was with Andrew VK1NAM who was another summit (ST-001) who gave me 5×6 to which I sent a 5×7 as the 817 actually gives you that off the meter. Although if I closed my eyes I would have given him 5×9. That contact was followed by another summit to summit contact with Alan VK3HRO who was portable on VK3 VC-020 and again received a 5×6 so I was certainly getting out. Contacts 3 and 4 were with Fred VK3JM and Rick VK3KAN/p. Woo hoo! I had my points. I went on and worked another five summit to summits along with another two VK1’s, three VK2’s and nine VK3’s.
In my haste to make contacts I inadvertently gave out the wrong SOTA number for the hill. I was giving out VK2RI-026 when it should have been 025. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to post up on the SOTA group my mistake. It seems though that if you dont do that once you havent activated. Seems it is a common mistake and so I don’t feel so bad now. And I think everyone was able to correct their logs.
Whilst I was operating, a vehicle arrived on the scene. A chap got out and came over and wanted to know just what I was doing as he was the owner’s brother. After I explained and told him I had permission he replied “Ahh, you’re the radio bloke!” Seems my fame had preceded me. He wandered off in the bush and started collecting wood. The sound of the chainsaw drowned out some of my tranquility.
I finished up after about an hour and a half and dropped the antenna, packed up the gear and wandered back to the car. I made it home well and truly before lunch.
I learnt that I should make up a properly drawn up log before I go and to ensure I have the correct summit to advise the chasers with. Although in my defense, the summits weren’t up on the database as of that morning – they didn’t appear for a few days and therefore spotting wasn’t an option – had I been able to I would have realised my mistake very quickly because the spotting service gives the summit reference number.
All in all, a great day and I even managed a ‘selfie’.
My thanks to the following stations for calling me: VK1NAM/p, VK3HRO/p, VK3JM, VK3KAN/p, VK3FPSR, VK1MDC, VK2ONZ/p, VK3YY/qrp, VK3DET, VK3AMB, VK3OHM, VK3MRG, VK3UBY, VK1DI/p2, VK3PF/p, VK2JI/p, VK2LAX/p both on HU-093 and VK3KAB/p.
Neil VK2YZ informs me I only used 20% of his LiPo batteries during the activation.
Where to next? Well, I am hoping to activate Mt Tipperary – they tell me its a long way! and if I get time there is another one quite close and it is yet unanmed so I may get the honour of naming it myself.
John VK2YW – junior SOTA goat – or just an old goat!
vk2yw 