Heading to France on Sunday & will be based around Avignon for 3 weeks. Have a few F/CR summits in mind; namely 007, 334 (spoken to Florent the wine maker here) and possibly 245.
I am looking for some assistance with operating frequencies on 60 metres (which is not allocated here in VK) as it seems that there are some discrepancies between different countries within IARU region 1?
I will update the Blog as we go. France 2017 Blog
Cheers Tony VK3CAT
Hello Tony,
I’m afraid France doesn’t have a 60m allocation. Your best bet for activating on HF is probably 40m, with 7.118MHz being the typical SSB QRP centre of activity.
Razvan M0HZH / YO9IRF.
Hallo Tony,
No 60 mtrs in France !
Have a nice trip to France.
best regards
F5HTR
Bob
Hi Tony,
As Razan says, no 60m in France as yet (but who knows, perhaps before you leave, countries are being added every few weeks!) Italy also has no 60m but Switzerland, if you really want to operate 60m, would be the nearest place to the area you are in. Switzerland has the standard WRC15 allocation 5351.5 to 5366.5 KHz 15w EiRP.
Hope to catch a contact or two while you’re over - F/CR should be OK from here for skip distance oin 40m (but not 20m).
73 Ed.
Thanks to everyone, that is probably the reason I could not find anything.
Activations will not be overly long as I will have Nan with me but I would like to qualify the summits on CW with also a bit of phone thrown in as this would give mountain goat on CW.
Slight hiccup this morning related to family matters but pray this will not delay our departure.
Tony.
France is an extremely bureaucratic country. It took years for 7.1 -7.2 Mhz to be allowed and decades for 6m across the whole country. I would not expect 60m to be released at all due to the military.
I would start on 40m and be prepared to move to 20m if propagation is not that good. On 40m the ability to make simple QSOs in French and Spanish would be useful
Stuart
Appreciate that Stuart. Here in VK we have really noticed the propagation affecting NVIS on 40 metres coupled with the problematic issues regarding propagation and antenna inefficiencies on 80m; thus something in between would have been handy as well as a bit of a novelty. Don;t expect a regulatory change just to suit me 
No spanish yet but must do something for Patagonia in 2018; A smattering of French & CW is OK up to about 20wpm but for being familiar with the myriad of EU and other callsigns. At home we have a limited number of CW chasers so not a great variance in worked callsigns. Did manage OK using 40, 30 & 20m on our last trip.
Trip back on schedule following recent close death in the family.
Thanks again, Tony
Hope to activate the first summit of this trip tomorrow morning. Notre Dames St Agnes F/CR-334 comes complete with winery and restraunt so a pre lunch alert is posted.
Thanks to those who have expressed condolences re the death of my mother; funeral being the day prior to our departure.
Tony (& Nan) F/VK3CAT. still working on EU callsigns.
G day Tony hope it all goes well
Ian vk5cz …
Hope to catch you Tony. good to see you’ve brought some good radio conditions with you (SFI 103, K 3) even if the normal weather may no longer be “summer like”.
73 Ed DD5LP / VK2JI.
UPDATE: 10:30 UTC 3-9-17
Sorry Tony didn’t hear you, I put out a call just in case, but I was probably too late. I use the ON6ZQ hosted SOTAFilter site but because you put contest in your text it saw the “test” part and didn’t display your spot on it’s page. I just happened to look at SOTAWatch and saw you had spotted as on 40m SSB at 9:43 UTC.
I hope you managed a lot of contacts - apart from the QRM from the Contest Operators, the bands “should” be rather good with the SFI at 103. Just saw the BBC World News weather and it seems you might have some sunshine as well.
Hi Tony,
Nil here. Thought I saw some chasers on the JT waterfall on 30 m but no Eu on FT8 copied at that time nor any on 40 m. On 40 m CW to Cuba and 1,000 km around there would have been possible, at 100 W. 160 m, well I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t bother.
Hope you and Nan enjoyed lunch.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Ian & Ron. Lunch was good, not at the winery but nearby. Quite warm on the summit so a chilled Rose went down well. 30m lots of chasers, a deluge when finished keying or, for that matter, whilst I was still sending. Had to wait for things to dry up a bit to pick out a call. Very different than to VK but a bit of fun, particularly picking out calls that I have worked before from home (tu Roy & Jan) Pace a bit easier on 40m, ssb contest made it hard to find a spot.
As we took a wrong turn and ended up in someones property beforecsetting things right. Had to walk a bit further than planned, did not do much on 20m other than an S2S with LB1DH/P, also one on 40m.
Drove past another summit on the way home, another time?
Caught up with Ed but on the phone.
Good view to Mont Ventoux which we will visit some time, maybe on a hot day.
73 Tony
SFI now up to 123 - trying to make arrangements to get out tomorrow (Still TBC) - before the bad weather returns here on Wednesday. I’ll post an alert if I can get out Tuesday. Any chance of chasing from the holiday let or while out and about Tony?
73 Ed.
Doubtful from the apartment Ed. Will see what gives. Tnx fer chat yesterday. Good to catch up. Tony
Ed, have also replied via VK Sota Group. Mont Ventoux alert posted for around 0900 hrs tomorrow. Actual time may be affected by interesting things allong the way? Looks like about 1.25 to 1.5 hours from here? Hope to catch you from there if you can hang around but don’t expect it. Looking to qualify on cw for mg on this mode.
Hoping mid week may be a bit saner.
Cheers Tony
Hi Tony,
As per my reply on the Aussie YG list, looks like I’ll be gone by the time you get to your summit.
Good luck with breaking the 1000 CW activator points tomorrow!
73 Ed.
Probably last F activation tomorrow. Looking at F/CR-163. Alert posted but may not be able to self spot? Listenning for any S2S calls. Tony VK3CAT
PS: Trusting no car issues this time.
Hi Tony
I expect to be at CT/BA-012. hope to have a S2S with you.
Have a nice stay in F land.
Vy 73
Pedro, CT1DBS
Hi Tony,
Enjoy the rest of the trip and have an uneventful flight home.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Tony
I tried to listen you on your all F summit but nil.
Few months ago, you send me email and i answered but … nil
I do hope, you are enjoyed these.
73 QRO
ROGER