I think most old hands have noticed the decline in non-FM 2m activity over the last 2 or 3 decades.
2m SSB and CW have become mainly confined to contests and the odd special event. Some of us locals are interested in reviving those modes for every-day ad hoc QSOs like for WOTA and SOTA. We’ve long suspected that there are many amateurs in our region and beyond who have VHF multimode rigs and collinears at home that are being used nowadays only for FM.
Once in a while, if the weather’s decent, I’ll set my 4-element 2m Yagi (horizontally polarised) on a guyed pole on a summit and do a SOTA SSB/CW activation with my FT817. But it’s a faff and I wouldn’t normally bother especially if I want a quick activation. Activators – especially with Cumbrian weather – often won’t bother with a particular mode if it involves longer-than-usual set-up and pack-away times. Portable 2m SSB and CW using the same vertical whips / Slim Jim / J-pole for as for FM are no extra effort.
VHF contesters and DX’ers will always want to maximize their operating range and QSO rate and use their big horizontally-polarised Yagis for their events. I’m not suggesting trying to dovetail with their events.
We know when operating from hilltops that pretty good range and many QSOs are to be had on 2m FM with vertical whips so 2m SSB or CW should do at least as well. We just need to encourage more chasers and activators. Mark @M5TEA activated a bunch of WOTAs today with both 2m FM and 2m CW with 3 of us chasing, and it worked well and was a lot of fun.
I would like to get comments from anyone who thinks they would chase WOTA (or SOTA) 2m SSB or CW from home with just their vertical antenna and from anyone interested in activating with those modes. Of course, that wouldn’t exclude doing 2m FM as well.
If there’s sufficient interest, we could even organise a year-long WOTA event to encourage the revival of 2m multimode.
sounds like a plan Andy to generate more interest, I have a FT897+991A that would be perfect for chasing and a very old Yaesu 290R that will do ssb it’s only two and a half watts but still works well
Antenna wise for activating i have a 4 element beam (G7KSE) design and 3d printed moxon that could used vertical or horizontal. So yes i would be up for the challenge
I got back into amateur radio after a two-decade break doing portable 2m QRP SSB - later CW - with a secondhand FT290 Mk1 in the 1990s. It helped me get my Morse good enough to pass the Morse test. So, I have a soft spot for that radio.
I think it’s an excellent idea too. I’ll send an email to the internal WOTA group and report back. I don’t want to jump the gun but would you be open to it being non-band specific. As in, CW on any band counts? I can see that Phil @G4OBK might be up for chasing a few but doubt most summits are reachable from him using 2m.
It might prompt me to invest in a better setup at home too.
I don’t want this to be about just what I want, so perhaps the way to handle your suggestion to ask the WOTA community, would they like to see and participate as WOTA chasers and activators in:
2m SSB and CW activations [as well as FM], OR
VHF & HF SSB and CW activations
So, I’ve tried to think about some pro and cons.
Due to the dominance of 2m FM QRP, WOTA has always been mainly a regional rather than a national or transnational scheme (not withstanding regular VHF contacts with EI, GM, GW, GI and GD). With Wainwright-only summits it’s clearly rooted in the Lake District. Is there much recognition of WOTA further afield especially overseas?
About 37 WOTAs are also G/LD SOTAs which regularly have HF activations. But most are SOTA alerts (with pull-through to the WOTA website). I suspect few of those activators and chasers are ‘WOTA aware’, uploading logs to WOTA, etc. It would be interesting to see what response a non-SOTA WOTA activation would get on HF.
Would widening the initiative to include all bands undermine the aim of increasing the WOTA SSB and CW activity on 2m as activators could get ‘easier pickings’ just on HF - and just do 2m FM? Even living in the county, I know I can’t hear and chase HF activators on Lake District hills on most HF bands.
Anyway, I think all of this is to be debated. Let’s see if there is a clear preference between options 1) and 2).
Andy, you make a very valid point about HF on combined SOTA/WOTA summits that I’d not considered with my suggestion.
There is also the potential for skewing the results even with 2m SSB/CW if the activator takes part in a non-WOTA related activity, such as the backpackers contest, if the scoring is one point per contact.
These things are always so complicated to work out!
Maybe a fairer system would award a point for each summit from which at least one non-FM contact is made?
The argument then that SOTA activations would skew results goes away on the basis that the majority of the summits are WOTA only. Subsequently, by definition those who want to gain points in the contest will need to activate multiple summits.
I’d then argue that non-FM contacts on other bands would also promote activity other than 2m FM handies. The microwave contingent would have an incentive, as would the prolific HF users. I know from experience that as we get more esoteric the setup time and backpack weights work against those frequencies/modes from a multi-site perspective.
However… thoughts then turn to digital modes such as C4FM that would be relatively easy to gain points with, just a case of having the right equipment and a suitably-equipped chaser.
Food for thought. I think we need to decide what the USP of the competition is at the core, maybe that is 2m CW or SSB only.
Although I don’t have any gear at present for 2m ssb , I think Andy has brought up a good point .
Although relatively recent to the hobby I soon learned from those with more experience that 2m 70cm and 4m were not so popular as they were . Since last year I have tried to include 70cm and 4m in my SOTA WOTA activation . Mainly because I assume the SOTAs will have more people outside the area looking for alerts ? Tony M7OUD a regular activator from Yorkshire also does the same . People are often pleased to hear the activity and will relate that they can’t remember the last simplex 70cm or 4m contact and the knowledge someone on a hill might be out has encouraged them to dust off the old antenna or radio. I only tend to operate HF on certain SOTAs if as Andy said the weather is not too inclement for faffing about with extra gear and the antennas ..
I spoke to Bill M0DXT recently , he made the point that if we could use HF more with WOTA it might attract interest from across the UK and more , like BOTA , which is really well supported now. It could be something new for some people to chase ?
Every time we mention 70cm I can’t help think of Viki M6BWA who used 70cm exclusively on her SOTA outings to great success. Chameleon have made an off-the-shelf 70cm collapsible Yagi which would surely increase range for contacts if the chaser also had a 70cm Yagi at their QTH? This might also provide some unique contacts, which are a different prospect to asking a chaser on 2m to switch to 70cm to complete a contact. I’m sure many chasers would be happy to use 70cm and have a vertical antenna that supports it.
I’m currently thinking about how to improve my home QTH antenna setup from my modest X50. I’m looking at Yagi and rotator options. A combined 2m/70cm vertically-oriented Yagi would appear to be the most sensible option, given that 90% of my contacts are from people on the fells.
When I announce an activation I usually state the order in which I’m working the bands . I always work 2m until the calls dry up , then switch to 70cms (as it’s the same radio and antenna and gives the other stations time to get sorted ) , then I get the 4m or HF gear out last .
We are probably the people to keep these out of fashion bands active , particularly UHF/VHF from our high vantage point . I’ve often had people calling in on 4m and 70cm who are not regular chasers but appreciate the opportunity to get the contact , and a couple of times people I’ve worked on 2m will say they have actually set the antenna and radio up specially for these bands because they knew someone was on , so the interest is likely still there ? For me it is interesting to see how the different bands perform on the day .
One fundamental issue with a challenge of this nature is that we currently don’t capture band or mode for either activator or chaser contacts.
This isn’t a difficult thing to add at a database level but adding the facility to the existing website is not something I’d relish.
So I think activators would need to use a new (yet to be implemented) mechanism for logging contacts. I may be able to modify the existing SOTA CSV import facility to store the band and mode, but better would be a new mechanism I have been looking to implement for some time to allow import via an ADIF file.
I really don’t know what people currently use for logging activation QSOs - what do active fell walkers use?
In any case, pencil and paper logging on summit. Once home:
if non-SOTA WOTA and only a handful of contacts, I input them manually on WOTA website;
if many contacts or joint SOTA-WOTA summit, I manually input into FLE and get FLE to create CSV file for upload to the WOTA database.
If it’s preferable to process logs separately for any future WOTA challenge (like the one discussed here), could there be a dedicated CSV upload link added to the WOTA home page? e.g. WOTA 2026 XYZ Challenge CSV Upload
OK, I said I wouldn’t touch the PHP code, but I bit the bullet and have modified the logging form. There are now two additional fields on the form for each contact: band and mode. These default to 2m FM.
I’ve removed bands that I don’t believe are valid in the UK, and placed the most likely to be used bands at the top. The mode field also has the most common modes at the top.
If anyone has any objections or suggestions let me know. It’s not a great UI experience but it should log correctly - again if anyone experiences any issues let me know.
I’ll take a look at the CSV logging code next, and try and remember how that all hangs together!
The database now has a band, mode and frequency column in the activations log. Eventually when we have an ADIF import facility the frequency column can be pulled from the ADIF log.
Anyone who isn’t interested in logging a specific band and mode can just leave the defaults as is.
CSV logging only supplies the band and mode.
We don’t really need the frequency information for anything, but figured if it is supplied we’ll just log it - at least that is my thinking at the moment, but I might change my mind and remove it again.
It looks good Mark and a lot of work I did not think it would be so involved, I have the greatest respect for what you can do on the computer just logging is about all i can manage
Like Andy i log contacts on paper then transfer them when i get home. I don’t have a mobile phone since O2 switched of the network earlier this year
