SOTA
EXTREME SOTA!
By Steve Warren, 2E0KPO
Steve 2E0KPO and John, M0JDK have been doing SOTA for quite a while but never really took it seriously.
Steve started in Dec 2005 and John in April 2006 but it wasn’t until July 2007 that it become an obsession. “It came about when we decided to nip up G/CE-004 (Bardon Hill) in Leicestershire for an evening activation and ever since it has become an obsession”. Living just down the road from each other has made it very easy to share the cost and the driving. We operate a strict rota of alternate days for the driving, Steve one day and John the next. This splits up the costs and keeps the amount of driving in fair proportions.
You will find us out and about activating almost every weekend calling CQ from the summits and not just one summit either. Due to the miles we have to drive, we tend to make the most of the trip and pack as many summits in as conditions allow. It is not uncommon for us to activate 6 summits in a day or even complete a SOTA region, such as when we recently completed the activation of all of the G/TW summits in a day. The main reason for success is all down to forward planning. We have now established a well rehearsed system.
The views can be stunning when its clear... hi
A decision was made in the very early days to only operate on 2m SSB, and this was a good decision. Steve is no fan of HF, and with HF being so poor at the moment John took no convincing to keep to 2m SSB. This may change as HF improves in the future. We either use a Yaesu FT-817 or more recently the Yaesu FT-857, and the accompanying kit is quite extensive. We are both real believers in supporting the chaser and we try very hard to give everyone a chance of a contact and as a result we always set up a beam during our activations. We like to do a proper job, neither of us are fans of 2m handy smash and grabs, even though the lightweight kit that comes with a smash and grab is appealing.
56mph winds make life hard
We both carry a radio, Steve the 857, Sealed lead acid battery, beam and mast and all sorts of other junk, John a 817, Li-ion battery and again all sorts of other junk. We both carry a handy and often have them on 145.500 FM, nothing is left to risk. We even have a kettle!
You may not believe it but we do have a routine on the summit and it is real team work. A few phone calls to get the spots up and the chasers ready, a call to give Sharon 2E0NBR (Steve’s XYL) the heads up or Steve will be in trouble.
Often low cloud can be a major problem,
not helped by the fact it is pitch black
We can set up in an instant, on one summit where we met, Frank G3RMD, he said, “this is the fastest I have seen someone set up on a summit”. We always use either a 3 or 5 element beam, depending on the summit and usually around 20 watts, sometimes even more power sometimes less it depends on the chaser. We tend to work the first four contacts by swapping the mike, this makes sure that we both qualify the summit and reduce the risk of a non-qualification should something go wrong. Once the summit is qualified we continue to work the rest of the chasers. We know this can cause some confusion but it’s a system we know that works well, it also keeps the chasers on their toes. Hi hi.
Since July when we teamed up we have climbed a lot of summits and you may notice that we have been hitting the one pointer summits. This is because we want to cover the less activated summits for the time being. The summits may only give us the one point, but there is no question that we have earned that point. Some of the summits we have done are real stinkers, no paths, thigh high bracken and steep hard hitting climbs and we have both come to the same conclusion, we won’t be repeating any climbs on the one pointer summits already completed without a good reason and can understand why you don’t see many being activated.
Working in the dark is common practice
Since July when we teamed up we have fulfilled the conditions to win the “Mount Everest Award”, and are very pleased to have received the award. We are the first UK activators to get this award. We have also set ourselves some personal goals and hope to achieve them by the end of 2008. I guess we will have to make our own awards for them! For more information on the Mount Everest award visit, http://gyalogradio.ham.hu/diploma/ this is a “free” award sent to you in .PDF format. It is produced by our Hungarian SOTA friends and is a great looking award.
So when you hear us out on a summit, spare a thought for our 04:00 start time and 150-200 mile trip to drive to the first summit. We work very hard for our points.
We would like to thank everyone who helps us during our day, we won’t name names as you can guarantee someone will get missed out, but you all know who you are. Without this support we would not have got this far or had so much fun in the process.
73 Steve 2E0KPO & John M0JDK
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