As one of the monthly activities to celebrate our 100th year Soren ZL1SKL arganised a Vota day where member of the club and other branches around Auckland could participate
Volcanoes on the Air (VOTA) is an award scheme for activating and chasing the 53 volcanoes in the Auckland Volcanic Field.
The goal of VOTA is to get more radio amateurs on the air and enjoying portable operations in picturesque settings. The most important word in the previous sentence is “enjoying”. VOTA will also give operators an opportunity to improve their operating skills and understanding of propagation, and to experiment with new antennas, radios and other equipment. An important feature of VOTA is that the activation zones for the 53 volcanoes have been designed so there is at least one publicly accessible area in each activation zone. There is a large variation among the awards in the effort required to earn them. The is intended to cater for a large variation among operators in the time they have to activate or chase volcanoes. Some of the 53 volcanoes are natural high spots in a densely populated area and are good places from which to operate VHF and UHF hand held transceivers. This should appeal to new hams or those with little equipment. The rules permit small groups of operators to perform activations and chases, with each operator using their own call sign. This would provide a good opportunity for NZART branches to mentor new hams. Activators would especially appreciate each member of a group calling them. It is possible to drive at least partway up some of the 53 volcanoes. This should appeal to activators who would like to take a lot of equipment on the activation or prefer not to walk all the way to the activation spot. The names of the 53 volcanoes together with their location and other essential information about them are available in separate documents. The VOTA rules assume all activators and chasers act within the spirit of VOTA.
It is also a great way to test our fitness and preparedness
