As many (OK, all) of my friends know, I'm an Amateur Radio Operator, callsign KD7KUJ. It's actually a pretty big deal to me, and anyone who faithfully follows my blog can expect to see quite a few posts about radio in the near future.
Recently, in my Geography Field Methods class, we took a 4 day field trip to Yosemite, the Alabama Hills, and the White Mountain Range. I took my radio, and programmed the CARLA Repeater System (http://www.carlaradio.net/), hoping to stay in contact with some of my friends back in Reno when my cell phone wasn't working. All in all, it was a fun trip. I learned a lot about geography, saw some really cool geology, and even spent some time in the Alabama Hills, where a great many movies were filmed (In fact, we camped in that place between Germania and Spain where Russel Crow found renewed spirit to get home in Gladiator). On the last day of the trip, we hiked to the peak of White Mountain, east of Bishop, CA. From that peak, I talked to people throughout California via a repeater in Tonapah. They mentioned that if they tracked such things, I would win the award for "Highest checkin to the system." Well, that is certainly a pretty cool distinction, and I wanted to get more involved in that aspect of the radio art.
Summits On The Air (SOTA) is an achievment program where you earn points for "Activating" mountain tops on the radio. The basic premise is that you hike to the top of a mountain with a radio and an antenna, and you talk to people from that peak. More information about the program can be found at http://www.sota.org.uk/. I have known about this program for quite some time now, but my experience on White Mountain really drove me to research it a bit more. I think I'm addicted...
I know it's late in the year for this, but I want to start "Activating" summits every weekend that I can do so safely. I wanted to do Mt. Rose last weekend, but timing didn't work out. I guess Rose is out now that it's covered in snow (I'm not snowshoing up to the peak... I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy). But there are plenty of other peaks in the area that won't be impossible to achieve year round; I guess I should start coordinating with my friends ;)
