K2FR's First Summits on the Air activation W2/EH-003 VX-8R FT-817

K2FR taking on my first Summits on the Air activation.

I climbed MT beacon NY, roughly 1600 feet of elevation and successfully activated the summit for my first activation.

If your interested in learning more about Summits on the air check out

http://www.sota.org.uk/

To find peaks that are in the W2 Area check out

http://www.sota.org.uk/Associations/viewAssociation/prefix/W2
(Catskills NY, Adirondacks, Hudson, West NY , and Jersey)

W1 area further up North East
http://www.sota.org.uk/Associations/viewAssociation/prefix/W1


Its not about some contest, or the number of contacts or how many watts you can push out. To me its about having fun with the Ham Radio hobby, being active and staying that way. What better way to do that, then hiking and ham radio. I was running a measly 2.5 watts on 2meter FM and managed to make a contact over 60 miles away.. Bet you cant do 60 miles from your shack running lots of power when your in a valley or terrain affects your signal.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• K2FR
• Sota
• Summits
• on
• teh
• air
• W2/EH-003
• Ham
• Radio
• Backpacking
• Outdoors
• Yaesu
• FT-817
• VX-8R
• FT-817ND

[KC2UOO]

Thanks for all the comments everyone, I had a great time making the video and doing the activation. I am looking forward to many more  =)

[VA2SG]

Very good Andy. Hope to S2S with u on nov 14th, the VE2SOTA association is doing a multisummit activation event. We'll be looking for some W2 and W1 summits, as well as Europe of course.

Viva la Sota!

[KC2UOO]

had a good time, will see whats going on that weekend. hopefully ill be free and can get myself up a mountain

[madscot]

Congratulations on your first activation, I hope you had fun !

I listened for you, but never heard you.. on 2FM or HF ... As you said it was a bad weekend for HF... Bands were jam packed !

we should try for a S2S (summit to summit) sometime.

You should have a msg from me on APRS. I'd be interested to find out if it made it to you...

73

Andrew

KC2EUS -- GM1YMI

[KC2UOO]

Thanks I had fun cant leave a huge comment my youtube is being strange

[N2LRB]

Thanks for explaining SOTA to me. Now I know what it means. Have you ever thought of getting an FT-857D? The FT-817 is so limited in power. You can always lower the FT-857D down to a watt, but crank it up a bit to get through. I'd not want to climb all that and not make an HF contact. Great video. I think I will follow in your footsteps some day and climb Mt. Beacon. 73 from N2LRB

[ec1cw]

Well done! I wish I were there to help with the activation! 73 es best DX de Diego EC1CW

[RayZorbackWPS]

Is it possible to make these types of contacts with something like a VX-8DR? Would you need a different antenna?

Thanks.

n00b

[G4JNN]

Hi there Andrew,

Very nice video - good content too.

73,

Paul

G4JNN

[solobackpacking]

Its wasn't that long ago a rig like that would way over 20 pounds and needed constant adjustment for reasonable operation.

[BennoTheBroke]

Not a bad effort! Keep up the good work.

73 de VK2BEN, Sydney

[goathiker]

Bravo! ...Rooster & Peanut

[TangoTracker223]

Cool Vid Andy.

It looks like you are having alot of fun with the hobby.

73!

[USNERDOC]

Excellent! Looking forward to future adventures. The fall colors look great.