A Winter Summits on the Air (SOTA) activation in NH
By Keith Gouveia (KC1OZK)
I’ve always enjoyed hiking and recently got into the technical and exciting hobby of amateur radio. I was intrigued when I first learned about a program called Summits On The Air. According to their website Summits on the air or SOTA is “An award scheme for radio amateurs that encourages portable operation in mountainous areas.” It is similar to Parks on the air (POTA) but differs in that you have to set your radio equipment up on the summit of a mountain that is listed on their site. Unlike POTA, you only need 4 contacts to get credit for an activation. An activation essentially gives you credit for operating your radio on the summit. The struggle often is the logistics of getting to the summit and setting up the radio equipment in less than ideal conditions. I already had all the winter hiking gear and figured my interest of ham radio would be good motivation for me to get back to the mountains while combining two of my hobbies. Getting some good exercise in the process would be a bonus.
After logging my first SOTA activation with fellow club members Eric N1JUR and Paul N1OG, I felt the desire to do more and start racking up some points. Each SOTA summit is rated by a point system. Generally but not always the easier to access mountains are worth 1 point and the harder to access mountains are are worth 10 points. Some mountains even give winter bonus points for the added difficulty of hiking in winter. After researching the various hiking websites as well as the SOTA site, I settled on Sandwich Mountain located in the Sandwich Range Wilderness located at the southern end of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Sandwich is a 10 point mountain with 3 winter bonus points if I could successfully log at least four contacts from the summit.
Preparing for a winter hike in the mountains of New Hampshire is a job in itself. The days are short so start times must be meticulously planned so as not to end up hiking in the dark. The weather can be unpredictable and trail conditions can be treacherous. Some of the items I carried on this trip were snowshoes, micro spikes, hiking poles, food, water, extra clothing, emergency kit, and of course the radio gear. A good quality pack is needed to carry everything as comfortable as possible. Keeping my water from freezing and my body from sweating on the hike up are two very important issues that need to not be taken lightly.
For radio gear I brought my Icom IC-705, external battery, antenna tuner, Chameleon MPAS2.0 vertical antenna and coax. I also brought my Yaesu FT-60 for VHF contacts as well as an emergency communication device if cell service was lost. For logging I use my cell phone with the HAMRS app. I also had a notepad and a pencil in case my phone had issues.
The weather reported the temperature to be in the 20’s but when I got to the trailhead my truck thermometer was reading 7 degrees. I quickly geared up and headed down the well packed trail. The sun had been up almost an hour and I needed to get moving in order to make it back to the truck before dark. The hike up Sandwich mountain was as picturesque as as it was challenging. The first and undoubtedly the most difficult obstacle was shortly after leaving the parking lot where I came across a creek crossing. Normally in the summer I would just hop from boulder to boulder and be right across. Today the boulders were coated in a thick layer of ice. The water wasn’t deep but at sub freezing temperatures, if I fell in it would not be good! I put on my micro spikes and with the aid of my hiking poles, very slowly walked across the icy boulders. The spikes bit into the ice and after a tense minute or two I was on the other side.
The rest of the hike was much easier. The landscape was covered in a blanket of snow but the trail was packed down enough for me not to need my snowshoes. It was a moderately steep trail with only a few icy spots that were fairly easy to navigate.
After three hours of steady hiking, I reached the summit. I had stripped many layers off so as not to overheat on the hike up, so I quickly put them all back on. The cold, bright sun made the views even more spectacular, with a crystal clear horizon stretching out before me. Mount Washington was visible in the distance, its snow-capped summit standing out against the blue sky.
Sandwich Mountain has a fairly small summit with small pine trees poking up through the snow. I had the whole summit to myself so I quickly started setting up my radio gear as I was anxious to see how the radio conditions were. My first step was to turn on my FT-60 handheld and extend the antenna. I set the radio to 146.52 and placed it in the snow as I unpacked my other gear.
Before I even had the other radio out of the bag, I began hearing calls coming in on VHF. I was determined to make sure I got this activation and didn’t want to loose the chance of making a contact so I immediately responded and told the operator I was on the summit of Sandwich mountain and doing a Sota activation. Turns out this operator was mobile and over 100 miles away in Maine! After ending this QSO, another station reached out to me. And then another. I hadn’t even started calling CQ yet or spot myself on the SOTA sight and I quickly had my four contacts needed for the activation.
VHF signals typically only travel line of sight, meaning all my previous contacts were relatively short distances. From the summit of Sandwich mountain I was able to hear stations from all over the state and even into Maine. Sandwich being the first of the larger mountains as you head north from Southern New Hampshire, gave me an unobstructed path to the South. Not only was I reaching distant stations with such a low power radio, but the signals were very strong and clear. I felt like I was talking to someone who was standing right next to me. The elevation, clear weather, and lack of foliage on the trees all contributed to excellent VHF conditions.
Even though I had made enough contacts for the SOTA activation, I wanted to try out HF. After all I did lug all this gear up to the summit and was curious to see how the conditions were. Because of the snow I used my backpack and a small exposed rock to set up my Icom IC-705. The chameleon vertical sets up very quickly and with just one counterpoise and the coax connected, I shoved it into the snow about 15 feet away from the radio.
I had one bar of service on my phone and was able to spot myself on the SOTA site. This lets others know that I am a SOTA activator on a summit and gives them the frequency I’m on so that they can try and reach me. In SOTA this is called “chasing”. I set my radio to the 20 meter band and began calling CQ. The responses came fairly quickly and in short time I had an additional 5 contacts in my log. A very special contact came from a station in France who had seen my spot on the website and “chased” me down. The station was weak but I could hear him very clearly as there was virtually no noise. I also made a contact to California. All this on only 10 watts of power.
Logging all these contacts was a challenge. The temp on the summit was probably somewhere around 15 degrees and my fingers would get so cold I had to keep putting my gloves on. This made it difficult to type the call signs into the logging app on my phone and I often told stations to “stand by” while I took my gloves off and logged the contact. No one seemed to mind and they all seemed thrilled to be able to be talking to a SOTA activator especially in winter.
After logging my contacts and taking in the views one last time, I packed up my gear and began the descent. The hike back down was a little quicker but still had its fair share of challenges with the icy spots. I passed a group of 5 people making their way to the summit and stopped to chat with them for a while. They were very interested in what I was doing regarding ham radio and I of course was happy to talk about it all. It takes a special person to climb these mountains and I almost always find people that I meet on the trail extra friendly. They even gave me directions on how to avoid the treacherous creek crossing at the bottom which I greatly appreciated.
I felt a great sense of accomplishment as I reached the trailhead. I had completed my goal of activating the summit. I was able to make contacts both locally and overseas. Days like this are why I love SOTA. The combination of of adventure, the excitement of contacts, the feeling of being part of a worldwide ham community, and the beautiful scenery are what drive me to keep doing this. As I started driving away from the trailhead in my warm truck, I heard another station calling “CQ Summits on Air” from a nearby summit. I felt a connection to this operator that is hard to describe. I was able to contact him from my mobile radio and had short chat about our day. It was the perfect end to a perfect day of radio.
And of course I had to have a sandwich on the summit of Sandwich Mountain.