FireTowerRadio.net / Northern New York Amateur Radio Association

Adirondack Fire Tower / Summit 'Activation' or other Portable/HFPack Operations
Suggested Procedures and other Information....

If you plan to 'activate' a Fire Tower Mountain or any other location in NNY, please post on the FireTowerRadio Yahoo Group.

You can also get on the  NNY HF nets and announce your intentions so hams know to listen for you.

If you have activated or attempted to activate any location, then submit a report by to KC2WI, and get on the Activation List. More formal criteria and awards will come later but we'd like to start recording activity and recognizing effort to get the ball rolling...

For suggested HF calling frequencies, see the HFPack Frequency List. It is also suggested you monitor these frequencies at your home station whenever possible in order that anyone operating portable/QRP from a Fire Tower or other location has the best chance of making contacts.

HF - or VHF-SSB/CW - from a mountaintop is really fun, but many hams don't have the equipment. So at least just take your HT with you when you climb a mountain. Give a call on 2M FM simplex, and if you don't hear anyone, try the local repeaters.

Contest operation on the national calling frequency is prohibited, so 146.520 is off limits for contests. Otherwise it is fine.

Other NNY VHF frequencies you may try for general calling are 146.58 and 147.57. 146.58 is used by Clinton County/Champlain Valley AREA/RACES. 147.570 is used by St. Lawrence County RACES and also as a general simplex frequency. You may have luck calling on either of these frequencies.

For contests, we have designated 146.550 as the primary NNY calling frequency if no other frequency is specified in the contest guidelines. If there is a "pileup" on .55, try .58 or other simplex frequencies. We've also designating a special NNY FM simplex contest calling frequency of 147.540.

The 2 meter FM simplex ranges are 146.400-146.595 and 147.405-147.585. Generally, frequencies are selected in 15 kHz or 30 kHz steps. See the chart at the bottom of this page.

If you have HF capability, join us on the NNY Check-ins Net Saturday morning at 9 AM or North Country Group Roundtable Sunday mornings at 8:30 AM (both on 3.958) to talk about this project or announce your planned 'activation.' You may also find some NNY hams on this frequency in the afternoons between about 5:30 ~7:00.

You should also read and post on the FireTowerRadio Yahoo Group to coordinate. You may also want to post planned 'activations' on the HFPack Yahoo group.

Useful links and info:

NA SOTA Yahoo Group     SOTA activation spots and alerts

A nice site with a list of Adirondack Fire Tower Mountains

Fire Tower information at Adirondack Architectural Heritage

listsofjohn.com - summit information & maps

Central Adirondack weather at www.adirondackweathersite.com

How to find your coordinates and grid square:
Information on Grid Squares @ ARRL
USGS Geographic Names Information System
AMSAT Coordinate-Grid Square converter
Icom Printable Grid Square Chart

2 Meter FM Simplex "Channels" (15 KHz steps):

Other NNYARA News and Information

FireTowerRadio Yahoo Group 

Summits On The Air (SOTA) W2/GA Association   HFPack  Great Outdoors Radio Club

FireTowerRadio.net    This page created by KC2WI on July 1, 2010. Last updated October 26.

KC2WI