Amateur Radio From Mountain Tops
The Challenge Of Long Distance Communications From Mountain Tops
Many radio amateurs enjoy traveling to the tops of mountains for the challenge of seeing how far their radio transmissions can be heard. Experimentation with different types of antennas from mountains is very popular. Operating with minimal transmitter power is often as much a requirement for running on portable battery power as it is to see how far a signal will travel with minimal transmitter power.
Summits On The Air
Summits On The Air (called SOTA) is an Amateur Radio operating award program. Its aim is to encourage operation from mountainous locations. Amateur radio operators and short wave listeners combine mountain climbing with operating their radios from the summits of hills and mountains.
Those who set up a station on a summit are known as activators and those who work summit stations are known as chasers. Similarly, there are two types of award that can be received: One for the activator of the summit and one for the chaser (the operator in contact with the summit).
Points are awarded for operating from a summit or for working a station on a summit. The higher the mountain is, the more points the operator receives.
As of February 2013, summits in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hungary, Switzerland, South Africa, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, USA, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Netherlands, Lebanon, Corsica, Macedonia, Canada, Falkland Islands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Malta, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, South Korea, Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Estonia, and Australia have been given point values in the SOTA program.
History Of Summits On The Air
The Summits on the Air amateur radio award programme was the idea of John Linford, G3WGV Although he had the idea many years ago, it was not until he ran across the European Adventure Radio website run by Richard Newstead, G3CWI, that he put the idea down on paper. Much of the award was discussed and dissected on the internet before it was launched on 2 March 2002. England and Wales launched first, soon to be followed by Scotland.
SOTA has 78 active groups across the world.
More Infomation
If you would like further details about the Summits On The Air program, these are available on the SOTA website, simply click the following Link to visit the site.
Page Last Updated: Monday 4 June 2018 at 19:1 hours by Webmaster
|
