AmateurRadio.com

Over the weekend, I decided to grab a copy of the iOS application ‘SOTA Goat’ written by WW1X. I’d seen some nice reviews and I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at some of the SOTA activity.

The application allows you to look at SOTA summits, worldwide, on a map – search for it by name and so on.

You can also look at SOTA related spots from the DX Cluster as well as upcoming alerts of activity from the SOTAWatch website.

It’s nicely put together and particularly at the weekend, it was fun to look at the activity and have a little listen to see what could be heard.

This *might* be where I rethink getting rid of the FT1000MP! The HF antenna was on the FT847 and I was looking for one of the SOTA portables on 14MHz. On the FT847 there was a great deal of noise – I swapped the antenna over onto the FT1000MP and it was clear as a – clear thing! I do have a CW filter in the FT847 too.

I was hoping to hear Richard G3CWI of SOTABeams fame, last weekend operating as GW3CWI/P, but things weren’t quite right on 7 and 14MHz for us.

I like the SOTAGoat app. It’s not free, but it’s well put together and informative. I sense I will enjoy looking out for the SOTA stations. And on the iPhone, it looks a nice way of alerting people, if you’re out portable on a SOTA summit.

Not many summits like the one above close to me! But the screenshot gives you a good idea of the information available about each summit.