Welcome to the December edition of “W6 SOTA Dispatch”, a monthly digest of what’s new in W6 SOTA.
This month, we’ve published three News & Events articles on the W6 SOTA Website along with some other items at W6SOTA.org.
by Chris Claborne (N1CLC) and Carol Bruegge (KE6SRN)
2025 Wrapup
We published a wrapup of what happened in the W6 association.
W6 is a SOTA powerhouse. We had 273 activators who completed 4,055 activations, and W6 Chasers worked 38,622 activators.
We also highlighted some of the top Chasers and Activators and some other categories as well. Read more HERE.
2026 SOTA Challenge
As you may have heard by now, the “challenge” for 2026 is to make as many 2m SSB & CW contacts as possible from each summit. So far, I’ve enjoyed plotting world domination for this challenge and found it quite challenging. I’ve called up a couple of different radios out of the radio bullpen as well as antennas that I don’t normally use to try different setups, experiment, and see what works. It’s been a lot of fun so far and now the focus is on how to optimize the weight.
We’ve published an article on the 2026 Challenge HERE where we provides some clarity and a some deep dive into 2m operations by N7DA.
2026 Winter SOTAFest
winter SOTAFest / campout was held just outside of Barstow during the weekend of January 17th. Eleven SoCalSota operators attended, as well as some family members. Carol and Tom arrived at noon on Friday, hoping to grab a group site. (Reservations are not accepted, so all sites are first-come-first-serve.) Finding all sites taken except the Host site, they set up camp there and soon were joined by the others. Many used this opportunity to work 2m/SSB and CW. Some were able to reach chasers in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas. Read more HERE.
2026 SOTAFest Planning Has Started
K6LOR and W6STR have started the planning process for the 2026 Summer SoCal SOTAFest and campout. We have a date and place so check out W6SOTA.org/socalsotafest for the latest information, FAQs and more.
Trip Reports
The W6 Trip Reports have grown from 150 reports to 168. Thanks to everyone that contributed. We think these can be especially helpful to visitors and others who are trying to knock out some W6 Summits. Login and create your trip report(s) (Go HERE to read why we think you should). Adding photos to your report is especially nice.
Need help creating yours? Just use the contact form under the about menu item and we are also working on a guide to support you.
Thanks to all our contributors for their recent Trip Reports. We are glad they all shared their journeys with us.
See the full list of changes to the site can be found on the Release Notes page.
We are hoping to grow the knowledge about W6 summits for others to use when they travel here. Consider creating a “Trip Report” (go HERE to find out why). You’ll need to have a login to add a trip report. If you don’t an account, register HERE. We strive to approve new account requests in under 24 hours.
Do you know a SOTA operator that isn’t subscribed to NorCalSOTA or SoCalSOTA mailing lists? Have them subscribe and join the conversation.
Thank you for subscribing to W6SOTA.org
Chris N1CLC, Carol KE6SRN
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