Successful New England SOTA Day

Thanks to the efforts of Nick (K1MAZ), the SOTA Jerks (NE1SJ) and all those who participated, we were able to pull off the inaugural New England SOTA Day. We had about 10 activators from around New England and Canada activate SOTA peaks all around the same time on August 10th 2012.

Activators Include

[table]
Callsign,Name,Summit,Designation,Location
NE1SJ,Frandy (N1FJ),Pocumtuck Rock,W1/MB-015,Deerfield MA
KK1W,Jim,Webb Hill,W1/CR-011,Hardwick MA
K1MAZ,Nick,Quabbin Hill,W1/CR-013,Ware MA
NT1K,Jeff,Mt. Tom,W1/MB-006,Holyoke MA
WN1E,Dave,Mt. Norwottuck,W1/CR-004,Amherst MA
KB1RMA,Chris,Fort Mountain,W1/MV-002,Epson NH
N1EU,Barry,Misery Mountain,W1/MB-021,Williamstown MA,
N1AW,Al,Bald Mountain,W1/MB-014,Bernardston MA
W1PNS,Peter,Putney Mtn.,W1/GM-114,Putney VT
VA2SG,Jean,Mt Brassard,VE2/LR-052,Quebec CA
[/table]
* – Bold Callsigns are members of HCRA

Soap Box

Jeff (NT1K) Mt. Tom
Climb was easier than I recall. It only took little over 1/2 hour to make the hike. Forgot some equipment which limited my G5RV Jr. height to about 12ft. I thought it was going to cause some issues but I managed to make a decent amount of contacts including a hand full of summit to summit contacts.

Jim (KK1W), Webb Hill
This was my second time on Webb Hill. If you read the trip log from our first activation you know the story of the huge ant hills on the trail. They are still there. I drove up Hill road until I didn’t want to scratch my truck any more, parked and walked to the trail head. Once there I followed the trail until the ant hills came into view, then I used the ‘go to’ function in Back Country Navigator to bushwhack from there to the summit. Too many ants for me! The hike is about .3 miles with maybe 200′ elevation gain.

During setup there was no breeze and the mosquitoes were unbelievable. I literally bathed myself in Deet, it helped but it was still miserable. I mentally decided I was ‘outa-there’ ASAP once I made a few contacts. Thankfully a breeze came up and it was fine from that point on. There’s no suitable rocks up there for setup but I kluged an operating desk out of my backpack and hung it off a tree. All in all I was QRV for about two hours and made lots of contacts on 40 and 20 meters, both CW and phone, and a few on 2 meter FM. By the time I broke down the station around 2:00 PM there were 41 QSO’s in the log including 10 S2S contacts. Very cool!

I used an EFHW wire antenna with one end suspended 25′ up in a nearby tree. the antenna tuned well on 40, 20, 17 and 15 but I didn’t see any skimmer spots on 15 so I’m not sure how well it was working on that band.

All in all a fun time on a beautiful day.

KK1W

AL (N1AW), Bald Mtn

My activation of Bald Mountain W1/MB-014 was frustrated by the SOTA database which said “object reference not set to an instance of an object” when I clicked Submit. I’m supposed to be a computer professional (retired) but that wasn’t helpful.
Other than that, and not getting on the air on 146.52 until 1705Z and on HF until 1759Z (poor planning and misplaced antenna parts). I had a good time, my first solo activation and a previously unactivated summit. Results: 11 QSOs (3 on 2m, 3 on 40m, 4 on 20m, and 1 on 15m), 3 S2Ss, VT and CA, (but the two in VT were two different ops on different bands on the same summit). Sorry I didn’t work any of you guys, I heard someone talking to NE1SJ once on 2m but did not hear Frandy and I was on 20 cw at the time anyway.
I sent a message to the SOTA database manager, I presume eventually my log will be accepted.

Chris (KB1RMA), Fort Mountain

Dave (WN1E), Mt. Norwottuck

Nick (K1MAZ), Quabbin Hill 

Pete (W1PNS) w/ Charles (N1CAI), Putney Mountain:

Please read pete’s write up on his blog!

Any additional information please contact us!