SOTA Station

Its been a while since I posted my setup, so here's an update on what I bring. I basically have two setups, one built around a KX3, the other with a MTR.

On Cedar Mountain W6/NC-065. Battery in white box. Red bag is for antenna.

Heavy Setup:

• KX3, with internal tuner
• 5000mAh 4S LiPo battery. I built a voltage reducer from 2 diodes so I could use it with the KX3.

MTR and T1 on Mt Saint Helena W6/NC-030

Light Setup:

• MTR 3B
• T1 tuner
• 500 or 1500 mAh LiPo, both 3S
• The case is for an external hard drive. I can fit the MTR, small battery, and the power and rf cables in it.

Common to both:

• 34' EFHW & feedline
• eBay 7.2m pole. This is closer to 17' tall.
• Palm Pico Single
• Headphones (earbud style)
• Notebook and pen for logging. I have a small write in the rain notepad for wet days.
• TH-F6A, 12' whip or telescoping whip
• MFJ 1820t whip & CP, for a backup antenna

January VHF contest on Loma Alta, W6/NC-350

VHF Contests:

• Mirage 2m amp. Includes a DC-DC buck/boost converter. Its too noisy for HF, but fine on VHF.
• EDZ for 2m
• "Ukrainian" transverters for 222 and 432
• Arrow Yagis for 144, 222, 432
• EDZ for 6m
• Lots of jumpers, power distribution boxes, feedlines, etc.
• Baofeng UV-5r. If I take it, I'll have it on the outside of my pack monitoring. Its so cheap I don't mind if something happens to it.

Antenna strung out on Bally Peak, W6/NC-232

In the works:

• Digital station based on an FT-817 and Raspberry Pi. My hope is that I'll be able to get some more contacts and multipliers in the VHF contests.
• Transverters for 902 and 1296. Higher microwave bands too at some point.
• Vertical antennas for 222 and 432
• Linked EFHW for 20-30-40 (so I can leave the tuner at home)
• QRPGuys Tri-band vertical (again, no tuner)
• Directional HF antenna - phased verticals, half square. This is only a vague idea right now.

VHF antenna farm. The left pole has Yagis for 144, 222, and 432. The right pole has a vertical EDZ for 2m and a 6m EDZ in an inverted-V configuration.