Today we took advantage of the nice weather for portable operation. We went out to Lipovac, one of the 646 SOTA summits in our country (Summits on the Air). SOTA is fully operational in nearly 170 countries around the world, and more information can be found on the E7 SOTA Association page: http://sota.rs.ba/index.html
The SOTA program was designed to encourage time spent in nature and portable operation. Within the program there are awards for activators (who go out to mountain summits) and for hunters, collectors who are active in the program from home, from a local hill or mountain, or even from another hill or mountain as activators.
Unlike activators, who conquer summits and make contacts, hunters do not need any special equipment or physical fitness to get started, and most often your existing equipment will let you begin collecting points.
SOTA stations use a wide range of frequencies and modes in their activity, including 2m FM, 2m SSB, HF SSB, HF CW, and even the 10 GHz band. To make the ascent easier, QRP (low power) equipment is most often used. Activating a summit means making at least four confirmed contacts, and each summit carries a certain number of points.
