[PPRAANet] SOTA Alert

[Raymond Gierlach]

Hi everyone,

 

This communication is meant for those of you who saw my SOTA Alert and were
monitoring 146.52 MHz on Saturday, hoping to chase me when I activated
Thorodin Mountain.

 

Doing a SOTA Activation really involves two adventures.  The first is the
hike or climb up to the summit.  The second adventure is what happens when
you push your PTT button.  In both cases, even with lots of planning and
preparation, you never really know what’s going to happen until you show up
and do it.  Which keeps it interesting and a little unpredictable.

 

In the case of Thorodin Mountain, I planned to summit with micro-spikes in
about 2 ½ hours.  But when I showed up, and started up, my first adventure
turned into a 4 ½ hour snowshoe hike with serious post-holing that wore me
out and caused me to be almost 2 hours later than my alert time.  I didn’t
get on the air with my first contact until 21:12 UTC (2:12pm local).
Knowing how long it took me to summit I was thinking about how long it would
take to get down, and if I could beat the dark (even though I had a fully
charged headlamp with me, it’s always better to finish in daylight).  So, my
focus was on a quick activation.  I made six contacts on 146.52 MHz in about
8 minutes, then headed down.

 

To compound things, I didn’t have a cell phone signal most of the day.  So,
I couldn’t call anyone who could have updated my alert.

 

Hopefully, by the time I send out another SOTA Alert I’ll have my APRS act
together, and you’ll be able to track my progress up a mountain via the
aprs.fi website.  That will be cool!  My apologies to those of you who may
have felt I left you hanging.  I didn’t mean to, but I had no way of letting
you know about my delays.

 

Until the next adventure


 

Ray / KD8EQA

 

From: Raymond Gierlach [mailto:rgierlach at wowway.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2024 9:43 PM
To: ***Reflector PPRAA*** (ppraanet at mailman.qth.net)
Subject: SOTA Alert

 

Hi everyone,

 

I plan to activate Thorodin Mountain, W0C/SR-052, tomorrow (Saturday) at
19:30 UTC (12:30pm local).  I’ll be on 146.52 MHz, and 20 meters, ssb.
Thorodin is located north of Golden, South of Boulder.  My line-of-sight
tool and prior activators suggest it’s likely I’ll be able to work stations
in much of the Colorado Springs area, especially areas to the east like
Peyton, Falcon, Calhan, Ellicott, and Fountain.

 

I won’t know until I arrive at the trailhead what snow conditions will be
like, or if I’ll need to use snowshoes.  Translation; if it’s a snowshoe
hike, I may need more time to hike up, causing me to be a little later
starting my activation than my posted alert time.  In the future, I plan to
use APRS, so chasers can track my progress.  But for tomorrow, I’ll just ask
for your patience/forgiveness if I get delayed.

 

I hope to work many of you who are available and able to monitor 146.52 MHz.
By the way, there is another SOTA activator, visiting from Seattle, who
plans to activate Mt. Herman (on the west side of Monument) at 2:00pm local
time.  I think he’s fairly new to the SOTA program.  I’m sure it would
really make his day if you could chase him as well.  His callsign is WA7BEN.
He’ll also be on 146.52 MHz

 

All the best,

 

Ray / KD8EQA