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SOTA IS!!!
3 May 2013 | by Some of you 'not so old timers" may have never heard of Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD. Cass, as he was referred to, wrote humorous stories about DXing for the West Coast DX Bulletin that featured the QRP'er who went "up the hill" to discuss and get counsel on the Mysteries of the Ages and the Eternal Enigmas of DXing. If you haven't read any of Cass's work, you really should read a couple before you read my story below. His stories can be found on the this website, www.oocities.org/k2cddx/dxstories.html
So in the vein of Cass, I submit the following
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].So in the vein of Cass, I submit the following
SOTA IS!!
The QRP’er came sprinting up the hill last week with a gleam in his eye. We were all surprised as it isn’t often the QRP’er was happy, we were anxious to hear the subject of his happiness. “I’ve found a new way to DX” he proclaimed. We were all confused as we believed that DX is DX, what could be different? “And what sort of new DX have you found?” we asked. “It has been right here all the time”, he said, “Right here on top of this hill”. We were confused as this must be one of the Eternal Enigmas that few could understand, what could possibly be under our feet on this hill?
“Have you ever heard of SOTA” he asked. We were bewildered at such a simple question. “Of course we have, I’m sure we all drink at least a couple every day.” He laughed at us, which really made us uncomfortable; it was different to us that the QRP’er seemed to have the upper hand. “Not soda, but Summits on the Air, S,O,T,A.” We were speechless as he continued, “You see this very hill top is DX, there are guys out there right now who want to make a contact with this hill top and it counts for award points” We stood in silence as he quickly deployed and simple vertical antenna, hooked it up to his QRP rig, called CQ and immediately had a pile-up”.
We were humbled as the QRP’er had truly left us speechless. Right here on top of this hill was on someone's needed list and all this time we thought DX was beyond our borders. We pondered the Mystery of Ages as there is always something new to work and that such fun has been within our reach all this time. We were forced into a new DX state of mind and we all uttered, SOTA IS!!.
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