Last evening, I added all my contacts that I have had whilst operating portable, to the Logbook of the World (LOTW) and Clublog systems. As a result I was able to find out the total number of QSO’s I had attained whilst either sitting in a park or on a peak for the Summits on the Air (SOTA) program. I also checked off on my spreadsheets, those South Australian National Parks and Conservation Parks that I had activated, and also National Parks for both the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award (KRMNPA) and the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program. Here’s what I found….
VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award.
- I have activated 10 of the 21 SA National Parks.
- I have activated 80 of the 266 SA Conservation Parks.
- I have activated a total of 90 VK5 parks (combined National Parks & Conservation Parks).
- I have had a total of 126 South Australian park activations (as some of those parks I have visited twice)
- My most activated park is Belair NP.
- not surprising really considering it is just a short distance from my home.
Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award (KRMNPA)
- I have activated 4 Victorian National Parks:
- Grampians NP, Little Desert NP, Murray Sunset NP, and Wyperfeld NP.
- I have worked 42 of the 45 Victorian National Parks
- I need Erinundra NP, Lind NP, & Snowy River NP.
World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF).
- I have activated a total of 15 WWFF parks
- I have activated parks in three separate countries:
- Australia, Belgium, & Germany
- I have worked 172 WWFF parks around the world from 26 different DXCC entities.
- the majority of those being from Australia (237), followed by Germany (17) and Italy (17).
Summits on the Air (SOTA).
- I have a total of 75 activations and 183 activator points.
- I have activated summits in4 different Associations in 3 different countries.
- DM (Germany)
- ON (Belgium)
- VK3
- VK5
- I have worked 1,271 activators and have 5,804 chaser points
- I have worked 503 unique summits
Other info.
I have had nearly 5,000 QSO’s whilst operating portable. As you can see from the table below, I am 149 QSOs less than last year, with about 2 months remaining in 2014.
I have worked 50 DXCC entities this year, compared to 2013 when I worked 30.
I have worked a total of 52 DXCC entities whilst operating portable. I have worked 52 DXCC entities on 20m SSB, and 8 on 40m SSB. The vast majority of those has been whilst operating QRP with just 5 watts.
Here is a list of the DXCC entities I’ve worked whilst portable. I’m only half way to ‘portable’ DXCC.
- Asiatic Russia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azores Islands
- Baeleric Islands
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canary Islands
- Chatham Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- England
- Estonia
- European Russia
- Federal Republic of Germany
- Finland
- France
- French Polynesia
- Greece
- Hawaii
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Lithuania
- Lord Howe Island
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Norfolk Island
- Northern Ireland
- Papua New Guinea
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Republic of Korea
- Romania
- Saint Helena
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- South Cook Islands
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United States of America
- Wales
My first ever portable activity was a SOTA activation (VK5/ SE-016) in March, 2013.
VK5PAS 
Very impressive, Paul. What percent of those contacts do you thing were made with the 450?
Hi Marc,
Anecdotally, I think 70 % would be QRP with the FT-817nd. I only started using the FT-450 in January this year. The power pack was a Christmas present. Almost all of the SOTA activations would be QRP though. There are a few exceptions, when the summit is easy to get to, like Mt Lofty. But that’s not very often.
DX is very achievable with just 5 watts. I worked a UK SOTA activator this evening who was running just 5 watts. And a few weeks ago when I worked quite a bit of DX from Brownhill Range, I was just using the FT-817nd. It is more of a challenge, but a lot of fun.
Cheers,
Paul,
VK5PAS.