When Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of electromagnetic waves, they were thought to behave like light (travel in a straight line), thus precluding the possibility of using them for long distance communication (more than 12 miles or so). Marconi thought otherwise. Over one hundred years ago, Marconi defied all expert opinion as well as common sense by proving that electromagnetic waves at certain frequencies will follow the curvature of the earth. He shared the 1909 Nobel prize in physics for this discovery. His technique was to use more and more power (up to 15 kilowatts), longer and longer wavelengths (up to 365 meters), and bigger and bigger antennas (huge wire arrays 100's of feet high) to extend the range of his signals,. On December 12, 1901 he successfully spanned the Atlantic "sparking" the electronics age we live in today.
SOTA activators on summits around the world. continue to stretch the bounds of Marconi's discovery of ionospheric propagation by using flea power, short waves, and small antennas to contact chasers thousands of miles away.
After 150 summit activations, about 3,000 two way contacts and 1000 activator points, I finally became a SOTA Mountain Goat. I just received this beautiful trophy from England which I will proudly display. This challenge entailed round trip signals to New Zealand, Spain, Japan and England from Colorado with 5 watts (the power of a flashlight) and 50 feet of wire! Here I am in contact with England from the 14,276 foot summit of Mt Antero (right photo).
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| Mt Antero in the distance |
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