This January 2018 ARRL VHF Contest was very different in Arizona than last years contest. This years event was the busiest January VHF Contest I can remember here in Arizona. Early Sunday morning fourteen Summits On The Air (SOTA) Activators hiked up thirteen diferent mountains in central Arizona to operate portable QRP VHF/UHF stations during the contest.

Many of the portable operators were running small yagis, others were running just HT's, and many were using both. All thirteen of the portable QRP summits were simultaneously on the air for quite a while on Sunday morning.

I was running an FT817 barefoot on 6/2/432 with a small yagi on each band on a short ten foot telescoping mast. I also had two HT's for the FM QSO's. On 223.5 MHz I ran an HT with a two element homebrew yagi and made twelve contacts in three grids! Small Yagis on a  ten foot mast, on top of at 2075 foot mountain, work quite well.

Over the next five hours I made 124 contacts on the four bands, and I worked all of the other SOTA activators, many on multiple bands. My longest contact was with Tucson, over 106 miles distant, on 432 MHz. Between the fourteen SOTA Activators, the home stations, and the Rovers, it was one busy morning up on the mountain.

When it was all said and done the SOTA Activators had made about 550 VHF/UHF contacts, and many had also operated HF (because even HF is fun from a mountain top). Everyone had a great time and all of the hikers made it back down off their summits safely. Everyone was also very excited with their results, and they can't wait to do it all again next year. So next year maybe we can put 20 summits on the air!. We shall see.

Anyway, it was great fun mixing hiking, SOTA activating, QRP, and VHF Contesting all together. Anyone who has not participated in a VHF contest while operating portable should give it a try. It is amazing what you can accomplish with low power on VHF from a mountain top.

Thanks to all who worked me on my summit. C U next January!

73

Pete WA7JTM/7 DM33

Scarlet Mountain, W7A/MN-143