It almost looks like an early spring morning today except for the snow that’s still hanging around.
Now I am beginning to get itch to dust off my portable operating gear. I can almost hear the KX3 paddles clacking away in my head (voices???).
You’ve heard of SOTA operations haven’t you? Well this year I want to start doing a few BOTA’s and LOTA’s.
I can almost hear you saying, OK I give up, what does BOTA and LOTA stand for? I have to be honest, these are terms that I made up. Maybe I have a bit too much time on my hands these days 🙂
Anyway, living on an Island does have some advantages, one of them is living close to Beaches and the other is Lighthouses. No, there’s no official BOTA or LOTA (except for ILLW – http://illw.net ). So I hope this view from my window is a sign of good weather (and operating) ahead.
Do you operate HF portable? What kind of gear do you use? I am always interested in hearing about other types of portable antenna systems. I have made and used homebrew dipoles, a homebrew Buddistick, Hamsticks, an Eagle One vertical and more recently the Buddipole Deluxe package. In my opinion, in regard to purchased antenna systems, using the expression “bang for the buck” the Hamstick comes out as the price/performance winner in my book!
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I also started SCOTA, or Scout Camps On The Air at scota.us, with a lot of help from our yahoo group. It is still being worked on with updates later this spring. Same idea just being done at Boy Scout owned camps.
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Thanks for the reply! It’s nice to know there’s some parallel thinking in the Universe. SCOTA – I’ll pass it along to a friend and fellow ham who’s heavily involved with the Scouts here on Long Island… 73
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