2m SSB SOTA

So where were all those chasers? At least I qualified that one on 2m SSB thanks to you, David, Don and Roger.

I am beginning to think that people don’t want to speak to me… :wink:

I should have thought on and put either an 817 or an FT 290 in the bag then I could have worked you on SSB. As it was I had a VX170 and DJ-G7 with me to cover 2m, 70cms & 23cms.

This thread, whilst spiraling nicely the way they do, has made me think on and if I come down to Blackpool, as I intend, then I’ll throw the 290 in car with maybe the 25W amp and limit myself to just 2m for some activations.

I know many people would welcome a 2m challenge. It would be viable in the UK and many EU countries. It would probably be viable in bits of the US and Australia but it wouldn’t be globally viable. If you are a chaser in a remote location then having many of the active activators switch to a band where you wont hear them ever is a disincentive.

There may be room for sprint events however. I’m thinking of maybe a series of periods were the emphasis is on a particular band/mode for a limited number of days and time. Much the way we have the 2m backpackers contests in the UK. i.e. a 2m sprint would be say a 2hr window from 1400 to 1600 LOCAL time on 5 days in the year. Maybe, maybe not! For the sake of argument there wont be another challenge till at least the Autumn and probably new year.

Well, I was there, Gerald.
As I was looking N for you I found Carolyn. Not a squeak on your channel. Had I just missed you?

More generally, I gave up 2m ssb activating early on in the decline as chasers were too sparse in Wales except at weekends and it interfered with MW6BWA on 2m FM.

73,
Rod

Nothing can be analysed from your data Matt, interesting through it is. This is because your first activation log shown was from a Saturday, the second from a Friday and the third from a Sunday.

One would expect a reduction of 2m SSB response from a Saturday activation to a Friday activation, regardless of what year it was.

It fits into the conversation by illustrating beautifully that things are actually not as bad as those who seldom activate would have us all believe, I think Carolyn.

More power to your elbow.

Thanks for listening Rod. It was obviously not a good day in propagation terms. Carolyn only gave me a 41 report and Wether Law is not the highest lump in that area, sitting nicely behind some higher summits. You may have missed me, though I was calling through to 16:00 when I decided to try vertical polarisation and about that time Jack MM/CT2IXX/P popped up on FM so I went there to work him.

At one time there were a significant number of chasers north of IO83 that I would be able to work. They seem to have gone on to other things leaving me with the challenge of getting my signal further south.That’s how it is with the Uniques being up in GM. Maybe I should be looking at the near continent for future outings.

This was a good activation, 2M using my Yaesu 817 running 2W into a 5 element yagi.

73 Chris M0RSF

Those were the days… hmm, I feel a song coming on. :slight_smile:

You can have very quiet periods on 2m SSB.

I spent a couple of hours on Bredon Hill (G/CE-003) last summer with my FT-290 on SSB and only managed 2 QSOs. I couldn’t self spot (something wrong with my phone and the sun was so bright I couldn’t read the screen, even with it held in my rucksack).
Yes I know I should have tried FM, but that '290 has an FM Rx fault.
Even though the activation didn’t count, it was a useful learning experience and a beautiful summer’s day. What’s not to like?
Regards,
John
G4YTJ

The activation does count though. It would be accepted by the Database, score you an extra activation and score you an activator unique (if you hadn’t done it before). It just wouldn’t score you the 1 activator point!

I think the situation as described is similar in VK, well south-eastern VK anyway.

While it is true that without the morse requirement, HF became open to many for the first time, and they have generally flocked to the HF bands because of the attractions of dx, different countries, wide variety of activities etc, HF can be too easy for some too. Repeaters made 2m FM too easy (and similar on other vhf bands). Before repeaters, the tunable end of the band defined activity there. Diluting the population when some exited the tunable end and went 100% fm, then diluting it again by giving code free access to HF have together decimated the population using the tunable end of the band. This jargon may be VK-specific because we have traditionally used the first 500 khz of the band for weak signal work using ssb, cw and beacons.

Anything that is predictable and we have done before loses its appeal eventually. We thrive on change and novelty. New bands, modes, new contacts to some extent.

I think there is some potential for people to be attracted to the challenge of making difficult contacts, whatever that may mean on each band and to each operator.

73 Andrew
VK1DA/VK2UH

It was 70cm SSB SOTA last night, Tuesday 8th March 2016.

Well, listening to the weather forecast for the evening on BBC Radio 5 Live, 909kHz, while driving home from Wythenshawe, I decided I was not going out and doing the contest from the home shack. When I got home, I couldn’t resist checking the latest online Met Office localised forecast - which told a different story of mild temperatures, zero precipitation and no wind. Game on!

I had promised Marianne I would collect Liam from his singing lesson at 7pm and run him home, so it was pretty tight to be QRV on Cloud summit by 8pm - but I was - just.

It was hard work with far too much QSB, but I got my signal out in most directions. A paltry 47 QSOs made in the 2.5 hours was one of my worst ever totals in a UKAC. Multipliers was also pretty bad with just 11 (21 = 10x2 + 1) - IN99, IO64, 74, 81, 82, 83, 91, 92, 93 and JO02. I did hear JO00, 03 and IO94, but never had the opportunity to work them. Several attempts to work G8PNN/P in IO95, but we just couldn’t make it. Nothing heard from GM or usual squares like IO80, 84, 90 & JO01.

Still, it will have been a better return than had I stayed at home and used the vacant shack I suppose. Just under 90K claimed.

QSO map: http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?kml=/2016/9oJFQH9l1vWbiA08zfznbJe3aIh86RZ

Out of the 47 QSOs worked, I reckon there’s 7 that will, in the fullness of time, claim the SOTA chase. The other 40 have the option to do so at any time of course :wink:

So far, one chaser has logged a 2m SSB chase of me from last Tuesday night.

Hi Tom

How wonderful it would be to be able to make so many contacts just on 432.
47 qsos in so many grid squares on 432 in a few hours, using a SOTA station is something a vk operator could only dream about.

On a field day contest of operation from a good vhf site 1700m ASL, running 75 watts and a 16 or 22 element yagi with a preamp up at the antenna, I consider it good to make 50 contacts on 432 for the 24 hours, but that includes repeat contacts permitted every 2 hours with the same station. The repeat contacts were introduced to keep people awake during the day. The number of unique stations worked is probably less than 20. In 24 hours.

I usually make no contacts with adjacent grid squares to QF44, apart from QF34 where VK2YW lives. There would be up to 10 local ops in QF44 on ssb, all other contacts come from QF56 (Sydney) at about 270 km, or the Melbourne and nearby squares QF21/22/31 at around 450 km, amounting to perhaps 10 grid squares worked during the weekend on 70cm. That includes using FM as a desperate last resort to try to catch a mobile or home operator who only has fm. One field day I worked someone in QF02, about 750km and had to calm myself down… But I was a lot younger then… :wink:

2m is a bit better as there are more operators, it would usually be 100 contacts there. 6m can be worse as many vhfers don’t consider it vhf. Es traditionally does not happen on most field days but sometimes it does… It isn’t all bad because I’ve had my share of luck too.

Your situation could be a lot worse…

73
Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

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He’s basically a whinging pom Andrew.

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Ah you are familiar with that phrase… Harsh…
Somehow I think this is not the last we will hear on this matter…

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I think the idea of cumulative contests is something we could benefit from here. But until there is a lot more activity, a single band contest would be a fairly low key event. (No pun intended because very few vhf operators use CW here. )

As a measure of the local activity I have once or twice qualified a summit on 6m, 2m and 70cm and once only, on 23cm as well using a borrowed fm mobile (by courtesy of Vk2HRX). I circulated the activity on 3 mailing lists (local ham club, national VHF list and SOTA) and just managed the 4th contact on 23cm. next time I did that was for an evening activation and made only 3 contacts that time on 23cm.

As you can see my SOTA operation is to some extent a reaction to the low activity on VHF and UHF.

Hi Andrew, that’s the difference between the vast continent of Australia and our small Island with a population of over 60 million which is increasing every day!

Hi Steve,
Yes of course it is. My point is that a smaller country with a much higher population produces contact opportunities not available here, so Tom’s rueful post about the poor contact level was ironic as far as I was concerned.
The extension of my point is that if the contact level was once twice the current level, it indicates changes in operator interest in the band or mode, so does that mean people have been seduced away from VHF/UHF SSB or weak signal work to play with SDRs, WSJT modes, FM via repeaters, 6m dx or HF? Probably a bit of all of those. So my conclusion is that we had better actively recruit new operators to the VHF/UHF weak signal modes otherwise in 20 years we may as well not bother with it. To many of us that would be quite a loss.
73
Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

VHF/UHF in the Central West, Western Tablelands of N.S.W is pretty well dead mainly due to the large area and lack of active hams.
To do anything with 2M SSB or CW would require a very tall tower and high gain beams. Even then contacts would be sporadic at best.
I have only had a very few 2M contacts over the last year and an attempt with a SOTA activator on 6M was a dismal failure.

To far away.

73’s, Nick

For those interested,I’ll be doing some 2m SSB next sunday (March 13) in the UBA Spring Contest, from summit DM/NW-134 Sophienhöhe.
Using FT857D @20-30W + horizontal dipole or 3-element quad (not decided yet), will rotate all directions.
Doing HF in the afternoon, maybe also be there saturday afternoon after visiting the Bergheim hamfest. See alert and spots pages. APRS: ON7DQ
Cu in my log !
73 - Luc … soon DL/ON7DQ/P