SOTA 2026 Challenge Brings Back Activity to 2m/70cm SSB/CW

The annual “SOTA Challenge” has moved from the HF bands to 2 metres and 70 cm this year, and already the VHF/UHF SOTA activity from mountain tops has surged in January.

The availability of the cheap Quansheng UV-K5 family 2m/70cm HTs, which can have one of a choice of custom firmwares which can be loaded to these FM HTs, giving them SSB / CW reception and DSB / CW transmission capabilities, may be part of the reason for an upsurge in activity, making it easy to throw this small, cheap HT and a homemade antenna in the rucksack to allow operation on the 2m and 70cm bands not only on FM. Owners of ICOM’s IC-705, as well as older HF/VHF/UHF portable multimode radios like the Yaesu FT-817/857 range, are also being used.

VHF & UHF activity can be seen on the SOTA cluster occurring in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Given that SOTA started in 2002 with VHF communication from summits, this is somewhat of a full-circle back to the original bands. Several UK operators combine this VHF/UHF DX mode operation with activity nights on the bands, which have been organised for the last few years by the national society, the RSGB.