SOTA Transceivers

I am hoping to get involved with SOTA activations during the coming months. I have recently purchased a QRP Labs qrp tx and I am working at getting my cw to be a little less rustic.
I would like to get a VHF/UHF hand held. I have never used these bands before and never had a hand held. Can anyone help with suggestions on what is good and any to avoid?

Richf

Hi Richf 

I use both HF and VHF  when carrying out SOTA  , started off with a Yaesu ft 65 handy which worked well even just using a rubber duck , plenty of chasers in my area so never a problem getting the qualifying four in the log 

As for HF I use the icom 705 which is a truly outstanding bit of kit , not cheap but mine also doubles up as a take away holiday rig and of course the 705 does VHF 

20 and 40m are the two most common bands for HF SOTA and it’s amazing how far you can get with just 5w 

Craig

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the informative reply. You have a very nice setup there.

I thought as a start for SOTA activities I would use my QRP Labs 40m transceiver and if all goes well probably get the 20m version as well.

I have never really used VHF or UHF so my knowledge of the hand held is somewhat limited, but considering one of the Yaesu dual band  (FT 4XE) to begin with along with an antenna from Spectrum (similar to a Jaypole).

Fortunate to have a caravan in mid Wales quite close to a summit which hopefully will be my first activation - when I am ready.

Rich

I would suggest a Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom hand-held for VHF/UHF in preference to something like a Baofeng. The Yaesu/Kenwood/Icom option will be more expensive, but you will get more for your money. In particular, the low-cost Chinese rigs can sometimes put out considerable spurious signals which won’t win you a lot of friends if you’re on top of a mountain! Also, their front ends can be poor which may cause you problems with intermod and adjacent signal rejection when you’re receiving.

Another option would of course be a FT-817/818 or IC-705 and have everything in one package….

G0RQQ wrote:

I would suggest a Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom hand-held for VHF/UHF in preference to something like a Baofeng. The Yaesu/Kenwood/Icom option will be more expensive, but you will get more for your money. In particular, the low-cost Chinese rigs can sometimes put out considerable spurious signals which won’t win you a lot of friends if you’re on top of a mountain! Also, their front ends can be poor which may cause you problems with intermod and adjacent signal rejection when you’re receiving.

Another option would of course be a FT-817/818 or IC-705 and have everything in one package….

Thanks for the reply, all noted.

If I have success with SOTA as an Activator then I shall probably be looking to invest more into this area.
However in the short term I will probably get a Yaesu hand held and stick with the QRP Labs 40m transceiver which is a great piece of equipment.

After a lot of research I decided to get a YaesuFT818ND which I should receive next week. Lamars Radio currently have the best offer on this. So this leads to another question - I am trying to locate a pair of 3d printed side bars for extra protection but cannot find any availability in UK. Does anyone know of a UK supplier for these?