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Current Feature Articles   Feb 08 Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Ham Radio 2.0   Feb 05 Surfin': Viewing the New Star of Ham Radio   Feb 02 300 Feet of Cooperation   Feb 01 ARRL In Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?   Feb 01 It Seems to Us: Where Are the Spots?   Jan 29 Surfin': Radio-Spotting Through the Windshield   Jan 27 Amateur Radio Quiz: Blasts from the Past   Jan 26 Hamming on High   Jan 22 Surfin': My World Is a Radio   Jan 15 Surfin': Addicted to the Internet ARRL Products: CD-ROMs (More) PR-101 Course on CD-ROM -- Now Shipping! -- Designed to give hams a quick course in public relations activities. TravelPlus CD-ROM -- Locate repeaters along your travel route. Detailed maps and current repeater data. The ARRL Digital Technology for Emergency Communications Course -- CD-ROM. Learn all the ways to use digital technology as an emergency communications tool! The ARRL Antenna Book -- Temporarily out-of-stock! Shipping late January. -- The ultimate reference for Amateur Radio antennas, transmission lines and propagation. Fully-searchable CD-ROM included. 21st edition. ARRL General Class Course For Ham Radio Licensing -- The Fastest Way to General Class License Success! CD-ROM Included!

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This week, Surfin' takes you out the door and up the hill to make contacts for awards.

Summits on the Air (SOTA) encourages you to take your radio experience to a higher level.

Summits on the Air (SOTA) is an award for radio hams and shortwave listeners that encourages portable radio operation from higher elevations. There are SOTA awards for folks who ascend and operate from the summits and SOTA awards for folks operating from home, a local hilltop or are on other summits.

Diana Eng, KC2UHB, recently wrote about her experience ascending Mt Carmel in Connecticut with SOTA activists Tom Tumino, N2YTF, and Dave Clausen, W2VV. Her story appeared on the Make Magazine blog, Makezine and it is an excellent read. And for an excellent view, Diana mentions that there is a nice collection of SOTA photos on flickr -- 2944 photos to be exact -- that show the ham radio operators, their equipment and summits that they have ascended.

Another excellent read is Make Magazine, which bills itself as "the first magazine devoted entirely to do-it-yourself (DIY) technology projects." I subscribed to Make after receiving a sample of issue #1 at the TAPR Dayton Hamvention dinner four years ago and I have not missed an issue. Even though Make seldom covers radio projects, as a long time do-it-yourselfer, its excellent articles motivate me to DIY more often and I highly recommend it for all DIY hams.

Thank you Mike Staines, WM1KE, for alerting me to KC2UHB's story.

Until next time, keep on surfin'!

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, plans to activate the summit of Compounce Mountain real soon now. To contact Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin' is indexed here, so go look it up.

Previous: ARRL Teachers Institute: "It Is Elementary, It Is Advanced, It Is Something for Everyone"

Next: The K7RA Solar Update