SOTA

[n2ize]

Anyone familiar with the SOTA "Summits on the Air" project ? I was speaking with an operator on one of the local repeaters and he was describing it to me. Sounds interesting. Hams head up to remote hill tops or mountain tops and operate portable HF, VHF and UHF. From what he described it sounds pretty flexible, you can either operate from the locations on the specific dates and times that you designate or, you can listen for and contact stations at those locations. Apparently some of the people who participate do it for the awards but many others do it just for the fun and exercise.

It sounds interesting and something I might be interested in. Has anyone here actually done this ? If so is it any good ? Are there a good percentage of "normal" hams involved ? Does it attract wackers or is it mainly wacker free ?

[kb2vxa]

Long before SOTA which I never heard of BTW there was mountain topping. Chit, we even did it in our CB daze before the madness set in, the NY Marine & Aviation tower on Todt Hill, Staten Island was the local hangout and Mt. Penn in Reading, PA was "up top".

"Has anyone here actually done this?"
Soitenly! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

"If so is it any good?"
See above.

"Are there a good percentage of "normal" hams involved?"
I dunno Moe, I'm too busy playin' radio.

"Does it attract wackers or is it mainly wacker free?"
Do I look like a whacker? NYNYNYnynyny!
(No whackers... rilly.)

[n2ize]

I remember in the old CB days we were trying to keep an annoying kid off the air. So, one day we told him about "GRIP". "GRIP" was like "SKIP" except instead of going up to the sky and bouncing off the ionosphere GRIP went underground and through the earth.

So, we suggested that in order to take full advantage of GRIP DX he should dig the largest and deepest hole he can and completely bury his entire antenna down there.

[W3WN]

I've heard of SOTA. Like IOTA and the Light House activiations, it sounds like it can be a lot of fun, but I've never had a lot of interest in it.