SOTA ZL1/BP-237 Mount Maunganui
SOTA ZL1/BP-237 Mount Maunganui

SOTA ZL1/BP-237 Mount Maunganui

Mount Maunganui (or The Mount) was about 20 mins drive from where we were staying in Tauranga. We had already walked up it on our 2nd day in New Zealand but that was a family day and not a radio day.

Got to the beach front early to find a parking spot and set of along the boardwalk to the foot of the Mount.

It’s a steady slog walking up radio on your back with lots of people running past on their daily jog to the top and back.

It’s 232m and as your starting by the sea you get to climb every single one of the meters!

Got to the top and found a spot to set the mast up and started calling CQ and got nothing!

Tried on FT8 still nothing!

Bit of panic kicking in as this was my only radio day of the holiday and I did not want my one SOTA activation in New Zealand to be a bust.

Finally heard some voices and found a net chatting on 40m. When I heard a pause I keyed up and said “Break”, they replied and brought me in. I told them what I was up and as luck would have it there were 4 of them, I exchanged call signs and signal reports with each of them in turn. Hurrah summit activated. I thanked them for their time and powered off the radio and packed up my kit ready for the walk down and then on to a POTA park.

Working Conditions

  • Icom IC-705
  • Icom AH-705
  • Sotabeams Bandspringer MIDI
  • Ham2K Polo

Operation Totals

  • 4 QSO’s
  • 1 DXCC entities
  • 1 bands and 1 mode
    • 40m – 4 SSB