SOTA - Summits On The Air
Summits on the air is a scheme where some radio amateurs (activators) climb a designated SOTA summit and operate, usually QRP radios, from the top thus gain points as a 'mountain goat'! Other amateurs (Shack Sloths) stay at home and work the various summits and gain points from doing so gaining rewards and certificates in the process
Over the weekend of Sept' 31st/1st October 2019, myself and Steve 2E0MMY took the weekend to activate two summits in the Brecon Beacons in the south of Wales. This was our first SOTA activation and was something we had been talking about doing for too long a time. We decided to leave our home QTHes around 10am for the 3 hour drive to Wales. We arrived around 1pm and had a very nice pub lunch before ascending our first summit.
As you may be aware, the various summits are gived varying point scores according to the difficulty of the ascent, so our first summit was just a 2 pointer saving the 8 pointer for the Sunday. We found a very nice B&B in the village of XxX, which was a real blessing. Originally we were thinking of camping overnight, but getting old and soft the creature comforts and good pub food were a good choice!
Primerily I operated with my call as GW0OIK/P and Steve taking a few contacts under his call 2W0MMY/P. We worked an almost equal number of SSB and CW contacts.