Presenting to Escondido Amateur Radio Society

I'm presenting to the Escondido Amateur Radio Society on January 12, 2023.  

If interested, you can open the presentation HERE.

2022 - It's A Wrap

Well, 2022 is over and it’s time to do a quick recap of the year of “Summits On the Air” (SOTA), and compare year over year and look at the goals I set in 2022 and what I’ll do in 2023.  In short, 2022 was a record breaking year, a personal best in a couple of areas and a LOT OF FUN.

Much of this SOTA hobby is mostly about activity, taking an amateur radio, that maybe you built, to the top of a mountain, and get at-least four direct contacts (without aid of a repeater) and you get some “points”.  The higher the summit, the more points it’s worth.  The “points” are part of the made up / gamified part of this hobby, but I do enjoy tracking some other things that are more substantial.  

I track how many summits I’ve humped my 25 - 30 lb pack up to.  Sure, some are drive-ups, but most aren’t.  Some are very hard, some are a simple walk up hill.  I also keep track of the number of miles that I hiked (zero if it’s a drive-up), mountain biked, and free solo’d (zero).  I also track the amount of elevation gained for each hike.  For fun I’ve also been tracking how many “uniques” (first time I have ever done that summit), and “first activations” (first time anyone in SOTA hobby has done that summit). Note, if I do a summit more than once in a year, it doesn’t count for points.  I do a local summit near my house all the time to test my radio, new antennas, hiking gear etc.  I also do summits more than once if someone is visiting and they want a hiking buddy, or, just for fun. (Click on pictures for larger)