[SCCC] January VHF - N7DA

[Drew Arnett]

The Ukrainian transverters pair nicely with a KX2 or a KX3 (what I
have).  Elecraft folks put nice transverter features into the FW.  I
just wish they'd fix the full scale audio buzz bug in the KX3 FW.
It's been many years since I've reported it, so I doubt they will.
(Workaround:  don't use the LO offset correction or power cycle in a
non-transverter band.)

Not sure if the X ray flares bother 2m.  Hopeful folks up north are
taking advantage of this evening's stormy weather for some aurora
scatter.  :-)

SOTA folks have been packing in a variety of radios for 2m ssb/cw.
Has been a lot of fun to have all of the V/U weak signal activity.

Drew
n7da

On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 9:47 PM Ryan Huggins <KI6BTY at pm.me> wrote:
>
> What radio were you using that you needed the transverters for?  One of the guys I know at the Barstow party made a 100 mile QSO on 2m SSB (with a 30w amp), from his HT.
>
> Others on La Cumbre had no joy with 2m SSB, but that was around the R3 blackout time.
>
>
> -73
> Ryan, KI6BTY
>
>
> On Monday, January 19th, 2026 at 11:48 AM, Drew Arnett <arnett.drew at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > A whopping 1344 points for SCCC. :-)
> >
> > Focused on the 2026 SOTA challenge. Didn't even chase FM.
> >
> > Saturday was on W6/SC-368 with 1200 HT, UKR transverters for 432 (2W)
> > and 144 (13 W), and 222 HT. Whips for 222 and 1200. 4 el on 2m, 5 el
> > on 432.
> >
> > Out of the 40 QSOs from the summit, 15 were S2S (summit to summit).
> > Lots of the usual SOTA chasers. And even non SOTA folks most all had
> > 6 character grids ready.
> >
> > Stations up by Barstow/Victorville participating in the SOTA campout
> > were worked even though the path is straight over Gorgonio. I guess
> > that chops 2 out of the 10 miles of troposphere for troposcatter, so
> > that would be what, 1 dB loss vs prairie? Station with me with FT-817
> > and a turnstile antenna (less gain than a dipole, lol) was able to
> > work them easily as well. This wasn't really stretching the range of
> > these low power 2m weak signal setups.
> >
> > Sunday operated from a couple of parks on the two sides of my
> > neighborhood mountain, mostly to chase SOTA ops.
> >
> > A bit amusing trying to get a log into shape to turn in to the ARRL.
> > Their categories are hard to fit to the way a lot of folks would play
> > during the VHF test.
> >
> > The SOTA 2/70 ssb/cw activity has been good the first 3 weekends of
> > the year and will continue. Folks are really getting a kick out of
> > it. It's nice to have the easy CW contacts when we can't hear
> > anything on FM.
> >
> > points tally: 84
> > 144: DM03 DM04 DM12 DM13 DM14 DM15
> > 1200: DM12 DM13
> > 430: DM03 DM04 DM12 DM13 DM14
> > 223: DM12
> > roved 2 grids
> > total mults: 16
> > final score: 1344
> >
> > Thanks to the SCCC folks who got on during the contest!
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Drew
> > n7da
> >
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