Ladies and Gentlemen,

VE2 area manager Jean-Pierre Couture,VA2SG, has invited all of the US areas of SOTA to join him and the Canadian SOTA activators in a North American SOTA activity day, Nov. 14th. Several summits in VE2 will be on the air on Nov 14th, and I think it would be great if we could join in the fun and activate several US SOTA summits that day. Additionally, this will be a great time for chasers interested in picking up points with the “rare” W1, W2, W6 and VE2 area summits.

With the recent expansion of the W1 & W2 areas, there are many summits begging to be activated in the northeast US , with 1,103 summits located in W1 alone.

Several summits in W1 and W2 are particularly easy to activate and have roads to their peaks. In the W1 area, only the last 100 feet of an ascent must be byhuman power, in W2 and W6 the final ascent must be by human power without a specific limit. There are SOTA summits available for every skill level, and there are a set of awards for activators as well as for those who prefer to work the summits from the comfort of their radio shack (chasers).

I will be activating at least one, but perhaps several summits on the 14th, and I would like to see some fresh faces on the hills this November. Please let me know if you are interested in planning or going on an activation. If you know others who would be interested in activating a summit, please forward on this email to them. Remember, any band or mode is welcome in SOTA (but no repeaters).

Have a look through the SOTA website, http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php for the details on specific summits, and feel free to email Tom T for a Google Earth file of all of the summits for planning purposes or download the summits.kml file directly from the Yahoo SOTA group files section: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Summits/files/Maps/

There are a collection of inspirational SOTA videos and pictures to wet your appetite at: http://www.youtube.com/group/sota#p/a and http://www.flickr.com/groups/sota_pics/

Registering on the SOTA website is free, easy, and quick at http://database.sota.org.uk/register.aspx , and check out the SOTA DX spots and alerts at: http://www.sotawatch.org/

The SOTA general manual can be found at : http://www.sota.org.uk/RulesAndGuidelines

The W2 area rules can be found at: http://www.sota.org.uk/Associations/viewAssociation/prefix/W2

and the W1 rules can be found at: http://www.sota.org.uk/Associations/viewAssociation/prefix/W1

73 & hope to hear form you soon,
Tom-N2YTF
W1 SOTA Area Manager

Iceland!

I will be operating the FM satellites and HF (where time allows) from Iceland until Oct. 5th.  Expect me to be on the birds QRP portable, sometimes with an Arrow Antenna for any passes between 1000 and 0000 UTC.  Please help get the word out about my satellite operations.

So far my Icelandic satellite log includes:

AO-51

Sept. 29th, 2009 18:40 From Geysir Iceland, HP94

This pass started just as a geysir exploded behind me...very dramatic.

EI8JB (his first TF) in IO63RR

OZ1MY in JO?? (the XYL did not write it down, but I did copy the grid...no hand free to wrtie it down)

Sept.30th, 2009 17:59 from Vik Iceland, IP03LK

EI4ESB in IO63VJ

EI8JB in IO63RR

19:39 from IP03LK

EA1QS in IN52OJ

KB1QYS in FN42 partial

21:22 from IP03BN

VE3OGS in FN03  ....First North American confirmed from Iceland.

Oct 2nd, 2009 

14:00  SO-50 from a Reyjkavik Gas Station in HP94

GB4FUN in IO93OC

20:00 AO-51 from Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall) in HP94 2.5 hours drive east of Reykjavik

KB1RVT in FN34

VE2GVB in FN35

21:44 AO-51 from the hills outside of Reykjavik in HP94

KD8CAO in EN62

VE2GVB  

Oct 3rd, 2009

14:26 AO-51 from HP94 from my hotel's rooftop resturant in Reyjavik

EI4ESB

16:03 AO-51 from HP94 - the Reykjavik waterfront near the fleamarket

EI8JB

17:40 AO-51 from HP93AW - From the beautiful Kleifarvatn Lake

HB9SKA Partial

ON5NY in JO10MV

EI8JB/P

Oct 4th 2009

SO-50 from my hotel's roof in Reykjavik, HP94 11:49z

DK2RN ?? Partial

OH8MBN in KP25 his first TF on the birds.

AO-51 from the parking lot at the Blue Lagoon (www.bluelagoon.com) HP83SV 17:07z

EI8JB/P

EI4ESB JO63

SN2009L = SQ7DQX JO91

OH8MBN 

For fastest QSL service, please email me for a more direct mailing address.  Also please note my typical home QTH is in FN31, at a different address then the one listed above.

All logs from the ARRL June 2009 VHF contest have now been uploaded to LoTW as well as  the ARRL contest site.  I have taken care to include my maidenhead grid square long with my LoTW upload for the contest, so if you worked me in the contest and need FN30 confirmed (my contest grid) in a hurry be sure to try an LoTW upload.

SOTA-

Please check out the www.arrl.org story on SOTA at http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2009/07/10/10955/?nc=1

Also check out the SOTA photos, including photos of my activations (search for N2YTF) at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sota_pics/ and the SOTA videos including my own at http://www.youtube.com/groups_layout?name=sota

As the manager for the SOTA W1 call area, I can tell you SOTA always welcomes new participants as well as help with identifying points of sufficient prominence (a different concept then elevation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prominence) for the SOTA program.  While Europe has excellent SOTA coverage at this time, the US program is still in its infancy, and this is a great time for people to get involved.  Become a SOTA participant by registering at http://database.sota.org.uk/register.aspx

Be sure to check out the 1,103 W1 area summits at

http://sotawatch.org/summits.php?assoc=30 

the W2 area summits at

 http://sotawatch.org/summits.php?assoc=15 

and the W6 area summits at http://sotawatch.org/summits.php?assoc=31 .

Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have about the SOTA program.

My Activations-

I will attempt an activation of Hunter Mountain, W2/GC-002 with W2/OE5EEP on July 15th.

We plan on reaching the summit at 17:45 UTC  I will be running the APRS beacon N2YTF-3 to mark our progress and operating frequencies, however, I do not know if there is APRS coverage in the area.  You can watch our progress and operating frequencies in real time on aprs.fi:

http://aprs.fi/?call=n2ytf-3&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600

I plan on operating on 14.340-ssb and calling on 146.52-fm and perhaps 144.2-ssb.

Please be advised that as this is the first time we are going to Hunter Mountain, we may be delayed on account of conditions, either on the trail or on the road...

Also note, we are relying on the Hunter Mountain Ski Lift to help us in our hike up the mountain.  Despite this, there is over 1,000 feet of elevation gain and 4.6 miles round trip of hiking involved, so time at the summit will necessarily be extremely limited as the ski lift only runs for four hours, and we do not want to be stranded on the summit.  It is likely that time at the summit will be limited to 30 min and it is possible that delays in hiking cause us to terminate the activation without reaching our minimum goals.  In no case do I expect that we will be on the air for more then one hour.

The SOTA activation of W2/GC-011 Huntersfield Mountain with Heinz, W2/OE5EEP in July 2009 was a success.

The July 2009 SOTA activation of W1/MR-001, Talcott Mountain was a success, with 33 contacts.

The SOTA activation of W2/EH-001, Berlin Mountain was a success.

The SOTA activation of W2/GC-020, Shawangunk Mtn on Tuesday, March 17th 2009 with W2VV was a success.

The SOTA activation of Schunnemunk Mtn. W2/GC-021 with W2VV on Saturday, April 11th 2009 was a success. 

The SOTA activation of South Beacon Mtn. W2/EH-003 with W2VV was a success.

The activation of Slide Mtn. W2/GC-001 , the tallest mountain in the Catskills was a success.

I am particularly interested in making a summit to summit contact, so other SOTA activators please feel free to msg me on APRS or call my cell phone number if you have it to get my attention.

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Bio-

I grew up in Flushing, Queens on Long Island (NA-026) in the neighborhood of the Hall of Science Museum, where I was first exposed to Amateur Radio.  Queens is one of the five boroughs that make up New York City and is home to the New York Mets. 

Later I went on to Stuyvesant High School and Fordham's JD/MBA joint degree program.  I am now a member of the New York, New Jersey and New Jersey Federal bars.  I experiment with every form of amateur radio I can get my hands on.

I have been active in Sweden as SM0/N2YTF, in Finland as OH2/N2YTF and OH0 and have operated UO-14 and AO-27 Maritime Mobile from both locations however I am NOT registered in the QSL manager for Sweden or Finland. I am registered with the North Jersey DX QSL manager in the US (Which is the official ARRL manager for my zone).

I really love operating portable. If you have heard me QRP portable on HF I was using the FT-817 and my homebrew HF travel vertical. The picture above is of me operating SO-50 from Cable Beach, Nassau Bahamas, NA-001.

Satellites are also a lot of fun, and there is nothing like a mountaintop location to really get a great signal into the birds.

I am the President of the Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club(www.hosarc.org). The Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club serves the extremely important purpose of introducing the public and especially young people to amateur radio. Our club has a permanent (we thought) public station located at the Hall of Science children's science museum in Queens, New York City. Our station is manned and maintained solely by club volunteers, and we are one of a handful of clubs in the nation of this type. If you are interested in making a contribution to the club to assist in its mission, check out our website and drop me an email. Running a club of this type is not easy and we receive no funding from the city, the museum, or any source other than donations and member fees. The Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club is an IRS 501(c)3 organization.

Thomas, N2YTF SM0/N2YTF in Sweden, OH2 and OH0/N2YTF from Finland, ES/N2YTFfrom Estonia, and N2YTF/C6A from the Bahamas.

Sat gear on this end is a dual band arrow antenna and a full duplex th-d7ag. Sat opps should always be full duplex as you can hear if "you have it". This way you know if you have keyed down at the same time as someone else, making only a bunch of garbage on the bird.

Pass the word around and please maintain good operating habits so we can all get out as many qsos as possible.

Please for Bahamas ham contacts ONLY, whether on HF or on the birds QSL toW2IRT. QSL TO W2IRT ONLY FOR C6A BAHAMAS CONTACTS!!!

Hope to work you on the bands,

73

Tom