SOTA Safety TIP #3 - Have a First Aid Kit and The Training To Go With

What

Make sure your pack has a first aid kit and that you’ve had the training to use it.  Because most SOTA adventures are pretty short, I recommend just enough gear to stop the bleeding.  Anything more than that and you are probably going to need to press the SOS button anyway.

 

SOTA Safety TIP #2 - Know Your Limits

What

Knowing your limits means knowing what the limits of your skills, capabilities and gear are.  When you plan, or are on the trail, be prepared to push the ABORT Button.  Your assessment includes training, mountaineering skills, assessing your fitness, how much water you have,  layers of clothing, weather, and mission appropriate gear like micro spikes, crampons, ice axe, etc.  Don’t forget to assess the skills of your group.  Many times, SOTA operators are the ones leading the pack, so look out for your team, and don’t let them exceed their limits.

SOTA Safety Tips Index

 All The Ham Ninja’s SOTA Safety Tips Index

SOTA Safety Tips were part of a weekly series of quick tips to remember to improve safety of the hobby that was sent to a mailing list.  This was inspired by the SoCal SOTA group’s meetings on this topic and will be sourced from my own and others' experience.  Don’t forget, you also need to support your group and others with this knowledge.  I’ll keep these as short as possible.  Send feedback to safetytips@HamNinja.com.

I am not an expert mountaineer, nor a medical expert, but I've had training.  The most important thing I can say right here is to stay within your capabilities and appetite for risk.  Take advice from the experts in mountaineering and wilderness first aid. Remember, you may have to help someone else on the trail, why not enable yourself to do that. 

Nothing you do is completely "safe", but you can lower the risk.

(All of the tips below are condensed into slides for easier consumption)

SOTA Safety Tip #1 - Bring Plenty Of Water

 What

As we roll into summer, bringing enough water really is the number one safety tip.  SOTA operators are always trying to reduce the weight of their pack and a big part of that is the amount of water they carry. The Mayo Clinic recommends 3.7 L of fluids for men, 2.7 for women per day.  Temperature and exercise raises that minimum significantly.  

Road To Goat

The “Road To Goat”, an epic tale of two SOTA operators working across northern Arizona and New Mexico to camp, hike, and do Summits On The Air (SOTA) with their ham radios.  They encounter long drives, rough primitive roads, freezing temperatures, tall mountains, wildfire smoke, closed roads, closed-off summits,  and horrible solar conditions to battle while trying to make radio contacts, make new friends, and contend with ferocious winds.  One operator  is on the hunt for his “SOTA Goat” award.  He wants to earn enough mountain top activation points to exceed the 1000 required for the Goat award.  All these factors test both men’s endurance, radio skills, vehicle strength, and ability to come up with a good wisecrack under pressure.  How can they accomplish 19 summits in 6 days and make this happen?    Read on to find out. (Click on Images for Larger)

PQ ARES Home

Welcome to the Rancho Penasquitos (PQ) ARES Home page.  Here, you will find the most ARES info as it relates to Rancho Penasquitos in San Diego.  Please visit SDGARES.net for the Main San Diego ARES page.

Popular Links

San Diego ARES HOME	DMR Radio Tips
ARRL ARES Home Page	Anytone 878 Code Plug for ARES

Who We Are

The PQ ares team is sub-team of the greater San Diego ARES organization (SDG ARES).  The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) which  consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. It is sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) in the United States and Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). The San Diego / Southwestern Section provides services to the San Diego and Imperial Counties of California.  

San Diego County ARES provides communications support during emergencies to hospitals, clinics, and other non-governmental organizations. For information about joining our team, please visit our website at www.SDGARES.NET. 

Key Information

EC for PQ: Chris Claborne, N1CLC

Backukp EC for PQ: Rob Freeburn, K6RJF

Our PQ specific comms: N6DCR Black Mtn repeater 445.680(-) PL 123.0, Simplex 145.555

Please refer to the latest SDG ARES comm plan to coordinate with the larger group.

My SOTA Expedition Loadout

My SOTA Loadout options: (UPDATED)

During SOTA QSOs, a lot of people ask me what I am using so I thought I would describe my setup here.  Take a look and comment on your SOTA setup.
Updated: 7/23/2020 

Updated: 6/10/2021

Updated: 11/19/2024

Updated: 04/10/2026

(BTW, SOTA = "Summits On The Air")  Click on images for larger.

This page is turning into a bit of my "options" for a SOTA loadout. After doing this hobby for a while, gaining experience from my own adventures and learning from others, I've amassed a bit more equipment that changes based on mission. Below you'll see that I use different radios for given mission. I've been trying to lighten my load and go QRP with the KX2 and an ultra-light antenna but there are times when I load up the heavier FT-891 and associated battery when I really want to punch some power out and see how far I can really go.

One of the things that will really help me go QRP (lower power) is CW. Sending morse code over CW allows me to potentially get a lot more contacts farther away because the narrow band provides better signal to noise ratio. As I continue to learn about gear, make new antennas, learn CW, and experiment, I expect things will change. Mission #1 is have fun, and I seem to be nailing that. Pictured above is a complete 10 watt station, radio, antenna, and keyer. All you need to add is a way to get the antenna up in the air (tree or pushup pole) (it has a built in mic).(Note: Originally published Dec 31, 2017, updated Nov. 3, 2019)
 <click on images for larger>

For a full radio review, see my video series at HamNinja.com/radioreview and the slides with all the data I collected at HamNinja.com/radioreviewslides.