FT8 DX S2S Event Saturday 2nd February 2019

Sorry, Tom, not the slightest trace of any signal on 14.092. Trying to call you again just now. I am at home with 80 watts into 2 el. Yagi.
Chris

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Tom

The PSK reporter web site does not show ANY VK stations being receive in the UK currently on 20 m. Germany is the closest station reporting reception of VK stations. Using an non standard frequency severely reduces the number of stations possibly monitoring your signal to know where you are being heard. Southern part of UK receiving VK stations on 30m.

Good Luck
Burke KF7NP

Only seen 2 stations on my screen DD5LP, IK2LEY I have Been calling CQDX every ten mins or so. 07:49 a station tried to contact me a couple of times but I failed to see who it was. Will stick with it and see how it goes.

Don GW0PLP.

Hi Tom

FT8 not hill-ready (yet?) but thought I’d have a listen from home… 20m seems really quiet this morning, even for my “compromise” setup - just a small crop of European/Eastern European stations and no SOTA ops heard.

Take care and keep warm!

73 de Paul G4MD

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Giving it another try on 14.092 now. Loads of JA, HL etc RX on 074, so fingers crossed.

By ear I was picking up something, but no decodes on 14.092 unfortunately ; 14.074 was booming with signals by the way. Anyways, I had to shut down quickly.

In the weirdest reaction to cold yet, my homebrew interface decided it doesn’t want to work anymore. At first it had problems keeping PTT on for a full cycle and about 30 minutes in it wouldn’t trigger PTT at all. I guess the Huang brand of electrolytics isn’t suited for outdoors, who would’ve thought :expressionless: .

Xiegu X5105
Toshiba Z30
homebrew audio interface

Hi Don, yes I saw on PSK reporter that you had heard me. as I was receiving nothing in the list on 14.092 (all OK on .094) - I decided to put out a couple of CQs to see if I could start something. unfortunately I didn’t see / receive your CQ Don (and with CQDX, I wouldn’t have responded in any case).

Looks like conditions were pretty attrociuos but I noted that a lot of the stations were trying on 20m while the MUF was below 10MHz.

73 Ed.

No contacts here but that was just down to poor propagation I guess. I still enjoyed taking part in the experiment. I would also be interested in any future experiments especially to North America maybe on 17mtrs sometime. Shift work dependent here of course.

73’ Don GW0PLP

Done and Dusted here. Made 8 Data QSO’s and 2 FM voice on 2m.
Great fun but irony was its a really bad drought here in vk5 36c on the summit but I had to sit under my rain coat out of the bright sunlight so I could see my PC screen. 20m to Asia was great, made a S2S with JI3BAP in Osaka jA BV ZL . Did not resolve any EU stations and found the auto software is a bit harder to control out there compared to in my shack. Hope I was able to get my summit ref over enough times,not that i was flat out but there seemed to be a lot going on at once during my air time. Down side I did not like getting my nice new lap top dusty out in the elements but it cleaned up once I got home. 40m frequency was not good, a ssb net on 7093 lsb and I had a big carrier sent right on my tx freq at one stage. VK3ANL locked on to me so I let that qso run then went back to 20m I think they may have been a bit cross with me but I did not know they were there until i sent a cq. Its been mentioned before but I think JS8 is a better software for SOTA you have more control over the run away lock on aspect and you have more choices of what you want to send and when you send it.
Regards thanks for organizing the S2S data event.
Ian vk5cz

Ft8 on 14.092 now

Sorry nothing heard (also nothing on SSB now) but as the MUF is hanging under 14MHz at the moment …

73 Ed.

Ok thanks Ed. Done ssb activation well leave it running for another 10 mins now. Very cold up here!

No DX propagation apparent on a Hexbeam at 13m ASL in North East England. NO EU FT8 /P SOTA stations seen either, but I did observe operators such as Fabio IK2LEY and others working Tom M1EYP/P. I would not expect Tom’s FT8 signals (I think QRP) to be visible to me in the “dead zone” with 100 miles between us - dead zone. I run up to 150 watts on FT8 when it is necessary, and wipe out BBC Radio Tees on my next door neighbours hi-fi if I do. Unfortunately he was listening this morning and I got the knock on the door.

I worked Chasers Fabio IK2LEY, Jorge EA2LU and Terry G0VWP only. NOVK, BX, JA seen on either short or long path.

73 Phil

PS I saw FT8 signals from Don GW0PLP on 14092 calling CQ DX. I tried to conenct but the machines failed to make it.

Saturday 2nd February 2019 - The Cloud G/SP-015

5am get up and breakfast. A necessarily slow and careful drive to Bosley, negotiating the roads that were covered with black ice.

I was on summit and setting up before sunrise. This was difficult with frozen ground but I found a way.

It was -4 degrees Celsius - and I felt it! Use of the bothy bag soon added 3 degrees to my immediate climate, and the temperature actually rose as far as +6 degrees as the bothy bag soaked up the bright sunshine later.

It was a slow start on 20m FT8. Use of the non-standard QRG of 14.092 MHz made working chasers a more realistic prospect.

I could see M0HZH/P and JI3BAP/P on the band activity window and receive their transmissions, but they didn’t hear my calls. A couple of FT8 SWL at least. Same goes for chasers GW0PLP, G4OBK and DL4FO - I heard them; they didn’t hear me!

It was turning into a stunning morning on The Cloud, and inevitably the summit was soon busy. A few chasers were worked, then I reverted to the more standard 14.074MHz FT8 frequency.

A few stations responded to my CQs but it was very slow going. Plenty of JA, HL, HS, BA etc DX was now populating WSJT-X, but my level of success in working it remained “constant”.

I made a total of 9 QSOs, all 20m FT8. No DX. No S2S. But we’ll try again sometime, maybe when it’s not so cold!

At least it was dry - no precipitation and very low humidity. Therefore, thankfully, I was able to collapse my SOTA Pole on the summit this time.

Many thanks to all activators and chaser that took part. I intend to try this event again shortly.

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Hi Tom,

I made a total of 10 stations on 20m FT8.
I did it! I got one S2S from VK5 and 6 DXs. It was my first S2S with FT8.
I tried to work with another activator but my WSJT-X did not work well.
I didn’t know the reason. So I couldn’t.

Did you see my call sign on your PC? It is great! I saw some stations from
EU(Germany and England). But I could’nt see your call. Hope to see your
call sign next time.


Today’s shack: Yaesu FT-817 5W and Inverted V antenna

After the PC battery was gone, I made 9DX QSOs inclde two from EU stations on 20m CW.
It was my first call back from EU on the summit.


It was sunny and warm my location (JA/OS-012) today.


City lights of Osaka after sunset.

It was a great SOTA activation experience for me. Thank you very much for
planning this event.

73
Aki JI3BAP

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Super report Aki. Maybe we can plan a S2S sked, with CW and FT8 sometime soon?

Yes, I could receive you clearly on WSJT-X on my tablet and FT-817.

Congratulations on your DX S2S on FT8.

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Hello Aki

You had a better situation than Tom’s sunrise operation - a nice shack layout on what appears to be a towel set on top of decked area, very nice. I never saw any DX on 14092 and confess to not checking the usual 14074 for other stations. Good to see another FT8 DX S2S SOTA logged though, well done and commisserations to the dedicated Tom who set up this interesting session, but at least you had some contacts Tom.

73 Phil

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No commiserations necessary Phil, I enjoyed my activation and was pleased with the level of participation in the event, both by activators and chasers.

There’s certainly enough enthusiasm from those involved to try a similar event again, and hopefully now enough people using the mode for SOTA to encourage others to think about trying it out.

There is a military raidar station near BV/KA-061, causing huge QRM, I barely worked one chaser on 14.092 and 3 DX on 14.074

Different summit for you then Willis for when we try the next time?