Summits On The Air

Summits On The Air
AbbreviationSOTA
FormationMarch 2, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-03-02)
PurposeRadiosport
President
John Linford, G3WGV [1]
Websitewww.sota.org.uk

Summits On The Air (SOTA) is an amateur radio operating award program launched in Great Britain in 2002 by John Linford.[2][3]

The aim of SOTA is to encourage licensed amateur radio operators[4] to operate temporarily from mountainous locations[5][6] using any method of travel including hiking,[7] mountain climbing,[8] and cycling[9] while operating their amateur radio station from the summits of hills and mountains.[10][11][12] In addition to getting operators out into the field the program encourages others to listen in to the transmissions from these stations and send in reports.[13][14][15] In areas that are not remote or difficult to access some SOTA activations serve as community outreach events.[16]

The program now has over 24,000 participants world wide, with about 7,000 in the United States.[17] Amateur radio operators who set up stations on mountain peaks are known as activators,[18][19] and other amateur radio operators who complete contacts with them are called chasers.[20][21] Points are given to both activators and chasers based on how high the mountain is.[22]

Awards are given based on accumulated points and certain special criteria.[23][24] Amateur radio contacts between summits, referred to as summit-to-summit, are considered special achievements.[25]

Operators make use of a wide array of communication methods including morse code, voice (FM or SSB), and digital modes such as FT8.[26][27] Although all parts of the amateur radio bands can be used to make contacts, setups and communication modes vary across operators based on equipment,[28] environment[29][30] and license class.[12]

Operators use both VHF and HF signals to make contacts, in both cases enjoying improved line-of-sight propagation over obstructions that would otherwise block transmissions.[3] Contacts are also made using amateur radio satellites.[31][32]

The highest ever Summits on the Air activation reported was in February 2019 by Polish amateur radio operator Tom Rudzinski (SQ9FVE), who successfully operated from 6,962 meters (22,841 feet) above sea level, atop Aconcagua in Mendoza, Argentina.[33][34]

  1. ^ "Summits on the Air". www.sota.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  2. ^ Davidson, Gerald (2015-02-01). "Summits on the Air". RadCom. Vol. 91, no. 2. Radio Society of Great Britain. pp. 14–23. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  3. ^ a b Eng, Diana (2009-06-13). "Summits on the Air: mountaintop ham radio". Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  4. ^ Viers, Holly (2018-03-29). "Amateur radio operators invited to Summits on the Air". Kingsport Times-News. Kingsport, TN. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  5. ^ "Flat Holm". Countryfile. Series 14. Episode 23. 2022-06-05. 52 minutes in. BBC. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  6. ^ Schreier, Paul (2018-01-01). "SOTA: Road Trip of a Lifetime Through Eastern Europe". QST. Vol. 102, no. 10. American Radio Relay League. pp. 76–78.
  7. ^ Shapiro, Alan (2016-01-01). "Activating Angel Island: An On-the-Air Trifecta". QST. Vol. 100, no. 5. American Radio Relay League. pp. 67–68.
  8. ^ Wise, David (2021-11-01). "The First Activation of Antsell Rock". QST. Vol. 105, no. 11. American Radio Relay League. pp. 53–54.
  9. ^ Newstead, Richard (2014-01-01). "The 1st SOTA International Cycling Weekend". RadCom. Vol. 90, no. 1. Radio Society of Great Britain. p. 87. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  10. ^ Nair, Tim (2015). Gerber, Suzanne (ed.). Connection in the Sky: Mount-Top Ham Radio (PDF). Seattle, WA: Mountaineer Magazine. pp. 24–25. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  11. ^ Handler, Jonathan (2015-07-06). "Moto DX Safari – Ham Radio Camping Via Honda Gold Wing". Ultimate Motorcycling. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  12. ^ a b Silver, H. Ward (2021). Ham radio for dummies (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-69560-8. OCLC 1193596365.
  13. ^ "Les radioamateurs catalans de F6KBR du REF 66 et de l'ADRASEC 66 émettent depuis le pic du Canigó". Le Journal Catalan (in French). 2018-07-07. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  14. ^ "Hacker Public Radio ~ The Technology Community Podcast" (Podcast). 2022-01-19. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  15. ^ Durrant, Ed (2022-04-08). "Summits on the Air Begins Anniversary Celebration". Amateur Radio Newsline. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  16. ^ "Hyderabad Hams organise Field Day". Telangana Today. 2021-01-27. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  17. ^ Martin, John (2021-09-01). "3 In Your Town: Summits on the Air". Local 3 News NBC. Chattanooga, TN. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  18. ^ Brush, Chase (2021-03-14). "Inside the Summit-Obsessed World of Ham Radio". Outside Online. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  19. ^ Booth, T. (2009). Enjoying Summits on the Air-Tim Booth, G4YTD encourages everyone to try SOTA either as an activator or a chaser. Radcom, 85(5), 47.
  20. ^ "Summits on the Air (SOTA)". Wireless Society of Southern Maine. Archived from the original on 2022-10-22. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  21. ^ "Summits on the Air". Radio Society of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  22. ^ "SOTA – SUMMITS ON THE AIR". Summerland Amateur Radio Club. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  23. ^ "Awards". Summits on the Ari. Archived from the original on 2022-10-12. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  24. ^ Shepard, Phil (2015-06-06). Summits On The Air (PDF). SEAPAC. Seattle, Washington. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-11-04. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  25. ^ "SOTA "Summit-to-Summit" Activation Declared a Success". American Radio Relay League. 2016-11-26. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  26. ^ Poxon, A. (2004). The SOTA beams 2 m portable Yagi. Radio Communication, 80(7), 52-53.
  27. ^ "OARC SOTA Activity Day June 25". Southgate Amateur Radio News. Archived from the original on 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  28. ^ Uscian, Paula (2019-05-19). Summits on The Air and New Methods of Portable Operating (PDF). Hamvention. Dayton, OH: HamSCI. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-08-12. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  29. ^ Wang, John C. H. (2003-04-15), "Radio Propagation at LF, MF, and HF", in Proakis, John G. (ed.), Wiley Encyclopedia of Telecommunications, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. eot233, doi:10.1002/0471219282.eot233, ISBN 978-0-471-21928-6, archived from the original on 2022-10-21, retrieved 2022-10-21
  30. ^ Devi, M.; Barbara, A. K.; Ruzhin, Ya. Yu.; Hayakawa, M. (2012). "Over-the-Horizon Anomalous VHF Propagation and Earthquake Precursors". Surveys in Geophysics. 33 (5): 1081–1106. Bibcode:2012SGeo...33.1081D. doi:10.1007/s10712-012-9185-z. ISSN 0169-3298. S2CID 128462427. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  31. ^ Gregory, Nick (2021-03-01). "SOTA working via QO-100 /P". RadCom. Vol. 97, no. 3. Radio Society of Great Britain. p. 26. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  32. ^ Stoetzer, Paul (2022-06-26). "Satellite Shorts From All Over". AMSAT. Washington, DC. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  33. ^ "Highest-Ever Summits on the Air Activation Reported". American Radio Relay League. 2019-03-07. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  34. ^ Korol, Matias (2022-01-21). "Un argentino escaló el Aconcagua y realizó una transmisión radial a casi 7 mil metros de altura". Todo Noticias (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.