The VK3 section of Summits On The Air, having been launched in February 2012, is gaining momentum with several activators carrying their portable stations up to various mountain tops in Victoria and handing out contacts for an hour or so, even in winter.

As this programme is still in the planning stages for VK1 and VK2, I have so far only been able to participate as a home station, or “chaser” as SOTA jargon has it.

There is a Yahoo Group you can join to receive emails from group members on activations happening.  The group URL is http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/SOTA_Australia and apart from the email list services, this provides a place for documents, files and photos from members.  There were just over 50 members of this group on 1 July 2012.

SOTA originated in the UK and more details can be found here.

See current spots (SOTA stations heard and worked) at sotawatch.org and register to post your contacts in the log at SOTADATA.  These allow you to build points towards awards and also provide confirmation of activators’ contacts.

As I write this Alan VK3HRA is en route to VK3/VN-016 aka Mt Alexander in the northern zone of VK3. If I’m at home at 0900 (local time) I will look for him around 7090 and give him a contact.

A few VK1s are interested in getting the VK1 association going and some work identifying summits has been done already by Wayne Vk3WAM.  Wayne is speaking about the SOTA program at Gippstech 2012.