To take the subjest a little away from the comments so far, I’m just watching the Hamnation video podcast and there’s an interesting point there on slot antennas for 2 metres. The very interesting (and strange) point is that a vertical (half wave long) slot radiates a horizontally polarised signal - perhaps a “roll-up” 2m slot antenna made out of aluminium tape could be dropped from the top of a fibreglass pole to be used for 2m SSB (or CW) from a SOTA summit?
Ed.
I’m just trying to make the point that the success that you get from your favourite summits does not necessarily mean that you will get similar results in other parts of the country. So what you seem to be saying is that if I drive up the M6 and go up the Cloud or the Tor I will find lots of activity. You can be selective but I can’t? 
What WOULD change my mind is switching the rig on right now and finding several contacts in progress on two metres and several repeaters busy. So, I paused and tried it. The beam is pointing across Birmingham and the Black Country, and there is one FM contact in progress and nothing on the repeaters or in the SSB segment. Nothing on the colinear at all. For all practical intents and purposes two metres is a wasteland at a time when ten or fifteen years ago it was vibrant with activity. This makes me sad but facts is facts.
Brian
Well I am please that you are “not yet convinced” as opposed to “no, forget it”
Perhaps I have misunderstood this, and other threads.
There has recently been a debate about whether or not 2M FM is less active than it used to be and now this thread re the state of 2m SSB.
I see it as quite positive that those involved are demonstrating considerable passion about it 
I agree 100% that digital is no way going to get you any further distance wise than FM but, digital will provide another mode to keep the No of contacts up. Certainly in this green and pleasant land known is IO83sc the number of operators switching to digital (DMR currently the favourite) is increasing all the time and - again generally speaking - the rag chewers are making comment about how quiet things are on FM and blaming the various digital modes for this.
If people want more activity then perhaps we need to be more creative, flexible and adaptable?
As the database does not have a “digital voice” option as a mode I cannot see if there has been any activity or not but I feel sure that someone somewhere will have given it a go.
Regards
Dave
(M6RUG)
I have activated this summit twice and both times when I activated this summit, I found it easy to make 2m FM contacts. Please see my logs below.
The first time I activated this summit was on a multi-summit day and the 2nd time I activated this summit was an evening activation after drive from Macclesfield to Cheddar that day. If I had done an all day activation of this summit, I may have got 100 2m FM QSOs.
Jimmy M0HGY
Actually, many of the digital modes provider better readability in low-signal situations than analog radio, especially considering spectral efficiency. While SSB becomes readable when the signal is about 10-12dB above the noise floor and CW at about 6dB, FreeDV works down to 2dB S/N and more efficient slow-modes such as JT65 can pull signals with negative S/N ratios (below the noise floor). They can do this by sampling the audio range many times per second, holding similar values and discarding values that have changed randomly beween consecutive samples (wich is random noise).
Cheers,
Razvan YO9IRF / M0HZH
I’ve done it once:
Date:19/Oct/2013 Summit:G/SC-003 (Beacon Batch) Call Used:G8ADD/P Points: 1 Bonus: 0 Delete
Time Call Band Mode Notes
11:35z GB0TWY 144MHz FM
11:39z G8CMU 144MHz FM
11:44z M6JCE 144MHz FM
11:54z G3LGK 144MHz FM
11:57z GB1GLO 144MHz FM
12:05z G0AXE 144MHz FM
Anythings possible, Jimmy, specially if there is a lift, but I doubt that there is that much activity in that area in flat conditions.
Brian
It would be interesting to do some real world tests one day 
Dave
(M6RUG)
My log for G/SC-003 for a Tuesday evening activation 19/4/05 shows a healthy level of activity, I can’t remember if sotawatch existed back then, but I certainly didn’t have the ability to self spot back then. I think if I was to repeat the activation today, even with self spotting I’d be hard pressed to log more contacts.
Date:19/Apr/2005 Summit:G/SC-003 (Beacon Batch) Call Used:G1INK/P Points: 1 Bonus: 0 Delete
Time Call Band Mode Notes
17:30z G8ZVZ 144MHZ SSB Ian, Ledbury
17:36z G0XAY 144MHZ SSB Dick, Acton Turville
17:43z G4ERP/M 144MHZ FM Richard nr Gloucester
17:45z 2E1IJR 144MHZ FM Brian, Chard
17:49z M0RLK 144MHZ FM Brian, Trowbridge
17:50z M0COP 144MHZ SSB Pete, Hall Green
17:53z G0NES 144MHZ SSB Don, Hollywood
17:59z G8ADD 144MHZ SSB Brian, Hall Green
18:04z M0BEW 144MHZ SSB Tim, Dudley
18:12z 2W1MUG 144MHZ FM David, Cardiff
18:14z G0JKY 144MHZ FM Brian, Pensett
18:16z M3FGT 144MHZ FM Mark, Cradley Heath
18:17z G0WWV 144MHZ FM Barry, Bath
18:22z MW3KRN 144MHZ FM Chris, Caldicot
18:23z GW0VMZ 144MHZ FM Alistair, Merthyr
18:24z M1NED 144MHZ FM Denis, Polton
18:26z M3IUP 144MHZ FM Chris, Telford
18:28z G0NFO 144MHZ FM Bob, Kidderminster
18:29z GW7NOJ 144MHZ FM Graham, Cardiff
18:31z G4RRA 144MHZ FM Paul, Exeter
18:33z G4ILI/M 144MHZ FM Grant, Bristol
18:37z M3LPA 144MHZ FM Andy, Stourbridge
18:39z 2E0MNC 144MHZ FM Margaret, Redditch
18:41z 2E0BGD 144MHZ FM Brian, Bath
18:42z M3NFL 144MHZ FM Neil, Bromsgrove
18:43z G0GRI 144MHZ FM Ian, Bradford on Avon
18:44z 2E0NTC 144MHZ FM Gez, Dudley
18:47z GW4BVE 144MHZ FM John, Welshpool
18:51z G3OUC 144MHZ FM Pat, Newbury
18:54z G4RBV 144MHZ FM Tony, Shaftesbury
18:56z M0TCP 144MHZ FM Keith, Oldbury
18:57z M0CJJ 144MHZ FM Bob, Basingstoke
19:00z G0RCP 144MHZ FM Pat, Bath
19:03z G0KNM 144MHZ FM Geoff, Oldbury
19:05z MW3CHZ 144MHZ FM Mike, Bather
19:06z G4ROX 144MHZ FM Tony, Bristol
19:10z GW7RSE 144MHZ FM Lyn, Blaenau
I am even less convinced, now that I have listened to the demo recording of FreeDV vs. analogue SSB on the FreeDV web site. To me, the FreeDV signal sounds awful, and is riddled with digital artefacts which make the signal difficult and unpleasant to listen to. I much prefer the normal SSB signal, despite the QRM in the background.
I have been a regular - almost daily - user of JT65 and JT9 on the HF bands for several years. I can certainly see the advantage of these modes for working DX under low-signal or adverse propagation conditions, but they are NOT digital voice!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Nice work Steve. Actually, I’d be confident of similar results to yours at that time of day from that summit. Of course, I’d have to go and actually prove it, but I do love a challenge. Especially a SOTA challenge.
Only thing is, even if I did do that and got some fine results, it still wouldn’t count or change opinions that “2m SOTA is dead” because:
(a) Anything’s possible in a lift (just ask Aerosmith)
(b) Tuesday evenings don’t count.
HI Walt,
FreeDV is very much, still in development. My findings are that the quality of the microphone being used has a geat affect on how readable the signal is. Many people use cheap PC mikes or worse still the inbuilt Mike in a laptop - you can understand the results! Even with the better quality microphones, FreeDV still has some way to go to be easily readable. At present the biggest advantage is the reduced bandwidth required compared to SSB (about half). With the increasing number of stations active especially on HF within the bands, this is an important advantage. There has been a lot of progress made with FreeDV over the last 2-3 years and I expect in the next 5 years we will see the quality-readability issue resolved and more rigs supporting the mode directly rather than needing an attached PC or special speaker Mic. The Flex SDR transceiver already supports FreeDV and there were rumours that Elecraft may also add support in a future rig.
But all of this has gone somewhat off-topic of 2m SSB SOTA.
73 Ed.
To be clear about this, I do not claim that 2m SOTA is actually dead, what I do claim is that in some, perhaps many, areas 2m activity is so severely diminished that it can make it difficult to get enough contacts. Right now there is one weak simplex station audible and one repeater in use on two, that isn’t dead but it is pretty dam’ moribund, at this moment there is actually more activity on 5 megs than on 2m.
My opinion FWIW is that south of a line from the Wash to the Bristol Channel it would generally be more profitable to activate on 60/40/20 metres than 2m. It gives me no pleasure to say this, I spent forty years as a V/UHF enthusiast though I came to it accidentally by getting my “B” license as a stop-gap until I could master Morse code. Over a good part of the country two has gone from being a work horse band to being a neglected band. This does not appear to apply to the northwest, and that pleases me no end, but I suspect that the writing is on the wall - mene mene…
Andy had it nailed in post 50.
Brian
Yes, the clue is in the date. I suspect your log might be somewhat reduced today. My log from 2008 shows a decent amount of activity.
I activated SC-010 afterwards later in the evening and managed a reasonable amount of contacts despite the lure of the one eyed monster (TV) on a Saturday evening.
.
The question is could I repeat this today in the same timescale?
Hi All
I have been quietly sitting in the background here.
As an avid user of 2m SSB, I must echo the vast majority of words when I say that the level of 2m SSB SOTA activity has definitely declined. I will now only solely operate 2m SSB at weekends, during my Friday afternoon activations (Due to start again soon), these will be a 60 or 40m SSB, 20m PSK 31 and 2m/4m FM activation more than likely.
It is a great shame as we all know what a wonderful mode it is. However Andy nailed it, the decline of Class B and A was a major killer and of course setting up a single pole on the Apex of a house with a colinear on top and a pulley for a HF dipole centre is a doddle. Compared to a multi element beam and a rotator etc! Look at the 2m Multimode radios that are on the market as well, they’re all FM and DV or to get 2m SSB you need a shack in a box. I wont comment on DV as I use DSTAR/DMR nad C4FM and love the modes and of course it is not relevant to 2m SSB!
Here is the best evidence I have of declining numbers (both activations on a weekend)
So the above is 2012 up a 700m ASL Mountain with a 4 ele DK7ZB and 5 watts.
The below is 2015 up a 800m ASL Mountain with the same set up!
A reduction certainly, but not a massive one! It is all about the choice of day and the gear most importantly!
An activity day is a good idea, but I would rather see a challenge on 2m SSB! For those that say it is not international enough!! 5 watts and a 4 ele will bag you Germany and the Netherlands from Mid Wales (if conditions are good)!!! See below
73 all
Matt G8XYJ
Well…this weekend the SOTA community has plenty of chances to do 2 m SSB QSO to CT and EA. It’s the first weekend of the VHF/UHF contest (CT and EA)!
It will be from 1400 UTC, saturday 5th March to 1400 UTC sunday 6th March.
Last year I was surprised by the number of stations that answered my call on 2 m SSB when I’m was in CT/ES-009, Serra de S. Luis.
I made the call just in case that someone could be listening…Of course, I was wrong! It was VHF/UHF contest and a lot of stations were on the air. My farest QSO was with an EA8 station, 1330 km, with 2.5 W and 5/8 vertical antenna. Not bad… 
73
I’m preparing to activate CT/BA-002 sunday morning and a mic will be in my rucksack, which usually isn’t part of the payload.
I’m there just for SOTA but any stations will be very well welcomed in my outdoor shack!
BTW: I will call 2 m CW as well.
73 de Pedro
I have certainly reduced my 144 ssb activity but only due to the weather.
I have dropped my beams and mast due to increased wind speeds and xyl complaining about noises from
it during the night.
I still have a collinear vertical and have 2fm switched on every day recently working NP , LD, NW ,SP , IOM
David g6lkb io84ke sd27
I must confess this is something I have been thinking about for local, well known summits. Otherwise it limits my SOTA activity to weekends and days off. I used to do a lot night mountain biking for the same reason. That was a lot of fun if not a little crazy 
Having only got into amateur radio a couple of years ago, this is exactly why I favour HF.
Although I am becoming more drawn towards 2m SSB or FM for SOTA.
Sounds good to me
Paul.
Obviously the northern WB hills are a sub-set of the ones in IO83. 
… and I see that once again I am a G0. Ock, I’ll nae be gettin’ ma asterisk!
73, Gerald G4OIG
it has already been changed
