Summits On The Air (SOTA) Mountain Goat and a struggle to get there!

 As an Amateur Radio operator I enjoy operating portable. That is to take take the radio out on the Hills and Mountains on operate in a QRM free environment.  I do enjoy walking and getting some fresh air, so taking a radio transceiver and seeing who I can work is very appealing to me.

There are a few programmes where you can do this: HEMA - HuMPS Excluding Marilyns Award  and SOTA - (Summits On The Air). 

When I first got my foundation licence I was told about SOTA and what you had to do to get points. Unfortunately I only had one radio, a Boefeng GT3 Mk II and it wasn't that good. I had learned about a similar programme too - HEMA! This programme seemed to be the same idea, just Hills and mountain with a lower prominence. Prominence is where the Hill or mountain rises above the surrounding area, these are have different classifications and use the Database of British and Irish Hills, Its available online too if you want to "Bag" some of the hills and mountains for the British Isles and there is load of them too! https://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/

Anyway back to the point of this blog.  SOTA Summits have a prominence of 150 meters+, HEMA summits have a prominence of 100 - 149 meters.

Ive been activating HEMAs longer than SOTAs. I just got into the HEMA programme more than SOTA, probably because there were more HEMAs than SOTAs! With HEMA I go for the unique -every summit you haven't done you get a unique as long as you log four different stations. This is a good thing as you get to walk different summit and enjoy different parts of the country. The bad thing? I gets more difficult as you have to travel further away to get the unique awards! Most summits I activate are when Im on holiday, preference being what HEMAs are around before I book anywhere!

Im wandering off the point again! With SOTA you get points. Each Summit has different points depending how high they are and difficulty in ascending. These are either 1 point, 2 points, 4 points, 6 points, 8 points or 10 points. You get 3"Winter bonus" points too but only for those with 2 points or more. 

So what award do you get aside from being out portable? When you have accumulated 1,000 points you get Mountain goat status!  Unfortunately you cant just do the same summit every day and get points, you've got to wait a year to get points from the same summit. This makes getting mountain Goat difficult. Im currently sitting on 33 points and that is after 5 years since starting in SOTA! 

I hope to actually push myself to get close to Mountain Goat status, but with 967 to go its going to be difficult! Can I do it or is it a futile exercise?  Have you reached Mountain Goat Status? How long did It take you?

2025 - A Year of doing.... I dont know yet!

 Yet again I am here, trying again to actually maintain a blog. I keep forgetting about it to be honest, with life getting in the way and everything else. 

So 2025 I hope to get out and go for a walk. Last year I managed to walk 250 Miles when my target was to walk 500. Its difficult for me as I am working full time so I have to try and do at least 1.4 miles a day to have some chance of doing it. Bad weather scuppered it too! Summer 2024? Didn't get one! Must stop this fair-weather walking. 

More radio this year? I barely activated anything, SOTA or HEMA. I out of the thought of - I must take my radio and walk up this Hill or Mountain. This year I might leave the radio at home and just walk. Walk anywhere.

Photography! When I was younger I did Black and White and sometimes Colour photography and got quite good at it (well I thought so anyway). I bought a guide to Digital Photography a while back but never read it. I found it a few weeks ago when I was clearing some rubbish out. So that will be something to do this year, maybe combine it with walking!

Anyway first attempt was when I went for a walk along the Canal near Nantwich. Watermarked so some half-wit doesn't claim it their own! 

Not bad, although I am my own worse critic when it comes to this sort of thing.

Anyway Happy New Year for 2025.

73! Driverfilms

 

Bucket List.

Im approaching a mile stone in my life, well age related anyway. Im almost at that age when life supposedly begins.. 

Forty years on this planet and Ive achieved a few things, but as time rolls on I want to get more done. So what is a "Bucket List"? Self explanatory really. Things you want to do before you kick the preverbal bucket, roll a six, circle the drain or shuffle off your mortal coil. 

 One of the main things on the list (that I wont post here) are to do with walking up Mountains. not always to play radios, but just to get out there in the fresh air and get some exercise. So I decided that I want to walk up 50 Mountains in four years. 

Now what is classed as a Mountain? Oxford dictionary defines a Mountain as "A natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable." What about height or prominence though? Well as I'm a amateur radio operator interested in the HEMA scheme (Humps excluding Marilyns Award) where the Prominence is 100 - 149 Meters and SOTA (Summits on the Air) where prominence is 150 Meters and over. 

I would take my radio up the Mountains/Hills and see how many others come back to me. But Ive found that this sometimes limits me. I have to get to the summit by a certain time and log at least 4 stations to "Qualify" it. So I think that sometimes leaving the radio and antennas at home will help me reach this target. 

 I started the list a few months ago and not had much opportunity to get out and climb the mountains, but Ive done two so far: Moel-y-Gamlin 576.9m / 1893ft on 26/04/23 Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa 1085m / 3560ft on 18/05/23 Its a challenge that's for sure, hopefully I'll hit my target within fours years. I do also hope to get the motivation to maintain this blog, maybe share some of the adventures! 

 Here's to the next 48 mountains!

Building a dipole for the 15 meter band

In an attempt to get on more of the HF bands, I decided to build a dipole for the 15 meter band. I only got a local contact, but at least it works and its ready for when Solar cycle 25 picks up!

Reaching One Thousand

No, not counting to One thousand.. but actually reaching One Thousand Subscribers! 

Well.. what am I going to do? Upload more videos, got a few ideas just need to work out how I'm going to do it.  Just a small update anyway, now what Beer shall I celebrate with? 

A New Project (well one I intended to start a few years ago)

So waaaay back in 2017, about a year after I got my Foundation licence the radio club that I was a member of was having a clear out. Telford HAMfest was approaching and is was a good time to get rid of old components/radios/test equipment that was surplus to requirement. The good thing about this was having first dibs, and having spotted an old radio I thought it would make a good project!


The Uniden model 2030 2 Meter FM transceiver, from the 1970s!

It uses radio xtals, two per frequency. One is for transmitting and the other for receiving. It looks like the previous owner had inserted a "Tone Board" so it could be used on repeaters. Unfortunately modern repeaters use ctcss tones, so the board had to be taken out. 

After taking the board out I had too find what wires were cut out before the board was put in! I looked on radiomuseum.org and found the schematics. So it looks like I am going to be doing a bit of wire tracing! 

I'm going to get some of this on video, and will hopefully upload the entire project in one video, but it might take a while! Also Ive got a lot of learning to do so it will keep me occupied for a while!

Covid-19 Lockdown Projects

As we are all in lockdown (Ie cant go out unless we are a Key worker, collecting medicines or shopping for essentials). I thought Id try and get on to a few amateur radio bands that I have not been on before.

I have been licenced since 2016 and have only been on 2 Meters (144Mhz), 70cms (433Mhz),          80 Meters (3Mhz),  20 Meters (14Mhz) and 40 Meters (7Mhz).  The HF bands I could get on whilst operating away from home and up a hill somewhere. In the back garden? No chance!

I thought about what other bands I could get on without breaking lockdown rules, and had managed to get on 10 Meters using a CB radio mag mount that happend to be resonant on the FM part of the band. I had shot part of a video back in January and was going to go out in my car when Spring had finally sprung. Unfortunately Covid-19 hit us and that was that... Well not quite!

I had messaged a friend to see if he had 10 Meters capability and would he try and see if I could get a contact.

Not long after the band opened up, but I had no chance of getting anyone. But its something to add to the list of things to do when lockdown is over!


So that was 10 Meters, what about The Magic Band?


The Magic band is an odd band to use, it sits at the lower end of the VHF spectrum, and when it opens (when propagation allows) you can work long distances, not that Ive ever done that. I had seen a plan for a dipole antenna using buddipoles, and having ordered them I realised that I would not fit in the garden and would be a pain to rotate it! Well If you cant go horizontal, you can go vertical!

It actually worked, well FM Simplex and via a local repeater at least. I did manage to pick up a local CW beacon too! Just need to do some more tests!


So whats everyone been up to? any Antenna or Radio projects you wish to share? Put them in the comments below!

Stay Safe, 73!