Having had the last week at -10°C or cooler temperatures (today was -17°C), I am hoping the forecast rise in temperatures here will come next week before the 29th. If not, access to my chosen summit will not be possible.
The good news is that SunSport Cycle 25 has now officially started, with the first reverse polarity sun spot being reported on the Spaceweather sites. There’s still a long time before the next maximum but at least it’s coming now!
Results from poll:
Can I have a quick response here of people who intend to A: activate and B: chase next Sunday on 60 metres please.
I ask, as despite the original forecast that the weather would warm up by yesterday, we are still at -15°C here at home and the summit will most likely be at least 5° colder. The “revised” weather forecast is for this cold to stay for at least a few more days, so it’ll be touch and go whether it’ll be warm enough to activate next Sunday or not.
If there are only a few people intending to go out, I may reschedule this action out a couple of weeks in the hope that by then it’ll be a little warmer.
Ed.
Good Morning Ed
I will be on the 60m band as a Chaser on the day if the event goes ahead.
73 Phil
I will be chasing on 60.
The Met Office forecast charts are only showing up to Thursday but it looks like most of Europe will be under the influence of a stable high pressure system.
Brian
I will be on the 60m band as a activator on DM/ND-003, but dep. on wx. CW. QRX requests (split) are welcome.
What would be useful would be some way of checking the propagation such as a Local Area Mobile Prediction or LAMP.
I just happen to trying some ideas that uses the wonderful Space Weather Services web site the Australian Government provides.
Clicking the LAMP link gives this…
… which shows predicted coverage for the LF bands at assorted frequencies from that summit.
OK, it’s only in my version of the code now, I have not yet figured out how to get the daily T-index value. I can put a predicted smoothed monthly value in for 2017 if people want this available sooner than later. Then you can get a prediction for today of which bands are good for up to 1000kms from any summit in the database.
Sorry Ed but the local forecast is poor for Sunday and rather better for Saturday, so if I go out at all it will be Saturday unless the situation changes.
I would be at home available to chase 60m on Sunday.
73,
Rod
Why bother? There is enough activity nowadays for you to get a good idea of how things are by just tuning around the band! If I was into CW I would definately be in the market for a narrow filter, with all the strong continental stations that are on.
Yes and that constant high pressure is holding the temperatures here down into the -5 to -15°C area, with extended periods of fog and some new snow in the hills. The new forecast is that things might start to get warmer at the weekend (but that’s what they said for last weekend and got it wrong). From my side, hope is failing for an activation UNLESS the weather forecasters actually have got the forecast wrong again and it warms up before the weekend.
Ed.
Yes, we are on the west side of the high, with a southerly wind fetching from North Africa and giving us daytime temperatures of +6C once the fog burns off. So far this winter I have had one snowfall of about a centimetre - and I love snow!
Well I will be checking 60 whenever I’m in the shack, so here’s hoping…
Brian
Weather is (thankfully) improving here - we may even be in positive degrees by Sunday - mind you I’ll believe that only when I see it.
From the responses I have got, it looks like there are only going to be a limited number of stations /P on a SOTA summit on 60m. I’ve extended the dates in the title, to include Martin PE1ECC and in fact if the weather tomorrow IS better than today, I may even try to get out at the same time as Martin on Saturday instead of Sunday. please watch the Alerts page on SOTAWatch.
Ed.
Hello!
Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will be on sixty metre, from HB/TI-137.
In the case of bad weather I will be active the day after tomorrow.
73
Latest forecast now is that the warmer weather will only get here on Monday. it is a little warmer today but now I have caught a cold, so unfortunately I most probably won’t get out today or tomorrow. I wish those who do get out, all the best of luck with lots of contacts on 60 metres. Unfortunately I don’t have a suitable antenna for 60 metres here at home yet so I wont be able to chase either. The plan to put up a 60m antenna has been stopped by the very cold weather of the last two weeks.
73 Ed.
A few weeks ago I accidentally made a 60 metre contact using my 20 metre dipole! It’s amazing what you can get away with sometimes!
I had a multi-band end-fed up but took it down just before the “ice-age” hit us here. Putting the analyser on the 40 metre full wave loop - 60 metres does NOT look good!
73 Ed.
Plug the loop into a tuner and ignore the feeder loss, you may be surprised at the results!
Already tried - not a good antenna on 60m - It does use a Q-Stub to match the 150 Ohm connection point down to closer to 50 Ohms - I might have more luck putting the 3:1 balun back but that’s no going to happen in the current weather here!
I’m hoping to get a proper 60m antenna up at some point. Just need a break in the weather.
Ed.
P.S. Just listened for Esther GI0AZA/P on 60m with the 40m loop - nothing heard. Mind you that could be conditions as well as the bad antenna.
I missed her. Ironically, it was because I was replacing my 20 metres long wire with a 40 metres long wire to improve my station on the lower bands!
Brian
Good to see there were a few stations activating on 60m today - sorry again, that I couldn’t be among you, hopefully throw this cold off and get out next weekend.
Ed.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to chase, not only on 60m, but any single activation at all over the weekend. My wife being sick with the flu or similar kept me very busy with taking care of her and our 3 children. Shame…
I hope to be ready for the next event.
Cheers,
Guru
