Speaking of Summits on the Air (SOTA), I had an opportunity for a contact today but it didn't work out. Last night, I saw a SOTA alert that KJ6NHF was going to be activating this morning on Mt. Tamalpais (W6/CC-063) in Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a combination SOTA-NPOTA (National Parks on the Air) activation, which made it even more appealing. Along with a couple of high-frequency (HF) bands, he was also going to operate on the VHF 2-meter band FM simplex calling channel (146.520 MHz); this was the band that I wanted to work him on. He was scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.
A little after ten, I went out to a local pond for the contact--it was a beautiful morning, plus I knew that my 5-watt handheld radio would not be able to reach the 60 or so miles from inside my house. I hung around out there for an hour or so, not hearing anything. I decided that the several ridge lines between Mt. Tamalpais and Dixon were probably preventing me from detecting his signal with my radio.
Having given up on making the contact, I went out and got some lunch. I returned home around noon and spent some time in my backyard with my radio, alternatively trying out various local repeaters and monitoring 146.520--just in case. Sure enough, I started to hear some very broken traffic on that frequency. Figuring it was KJ6NHF, I headed back over to the pond because it is much more open there than in backyard of my two-story house.
At the pond, he was coming in almost as clear as if he was operating on one of the local repeaters. I heard him complete a couple of contacts, including one with someone on the USS Hornet (the Hornet is on display in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco). Prior to his last contact, I had heard him say that he was preparing to take his antennas down; I hoped to be quick enough to catch him before he did so, though. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. I called him a few times but got no response. While somewhat disappointed, I was pleased that I had been able to hear him on my handheld from that distance and with several mountain ridges between us.
I hope to be doing my own SOTA activations in the near future. In SOTA terminology, my role in my previous contact and this attempt was that of "chaser." KK6ZLY and KJ6NHF were the "activators."
That's too bad. I hope he somehow sees this post and tries to make contact with you.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice thought, but that's not how it works. The contacts have to be done while they are on the actual summit during the specified time frame. Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDelete