Yes, it was great to hear you coming in on my last summit on the tour (CT/ES-009) just as I was switching off - the final QSO of 216. We worked on 3 summits and yes you are right Lothar DL3HXX was most prolific over the 3 days. He made 8 QSOs with me and some also with David CT1DRB on day 2 of the tour. My plan is to return to Lisbon soon to do some sightseeing around the city and in the Sintra Royal Park where ES-002 is located. With the intensive SOTA programme I had little time for looking round so I need to go back with my XYL for sightseeing. A report of day one of my tour is now on my blog
Thatâs a shame Phil, as my XYL, who was there in November tells me Lisbon is a very interesting city both from architecture, layout and the people - good to hear youâre going back. You are a really dedicated activator not to have taken any time out this last time to enjoy the city and surroundings.
HI Ed - Yes I am returning in March with Judy my XYL and without SOTA gear this time. Iâll be going to the Royal Park at Sintra again and will go to the summit of ES-002, but just as a tourist this time. I loved that place and I want to see more of it and see inside the Royal Castle pictured in my blog. Its cheaper for us to fly Ryanair to Lisbon than it is for us to catch an early train down to London and that includes a 15 Kg hold bag! The hotels are also reasonably priced this time of year - ÂŁ40 a night for two of us with breakfast in a good standard of hotel.
Thank you to Pedro CT1DBS for sending me this SOTA Portugal Flag through the post - now proudly displayed in my shack:
Hello Phil,
It was great to hear from you that you enjoyed to stay in Lisbon and also to activate the SOTA references around the city. Unfortunately I was unable to chase you. Thanks for sharing the photos.
Pedro,
With all the respect, allow me to do a little correction on your last comment: Every SOTA activators are always welcome in Portugal.
Hi, Robert. I am not sure if this thread is right for the conversation, but while I understand the concerns about someoneâs sending, since the reasons are unknown, I would suggest moderating the post to just seeking the contact to Christian. Or perhaps set another topic for this but again without personal part of the email.
Fair comment Conrad⌠I can say F6EAZ Christianâs operating has improved from my perspective on this current tour, compared to previous tours. No problem this last week or so with Chris for me. He has been sending his call twice and sometimes once and hearing well on my return to him. Previously he always sent his call 3 times come what may, over the top of everyone else and was not hearing so well. It is always nice if one can pick up the call once and go straight back, which is why I always prefer people to send their call once only then listen. If no response within 2 seconds send your call again, once again. That is why we have break in. I use full break in now when activating so if anyone starts calling me when I am sending I can hear them. It can mean that the chaser cannot actually hear the activator when this happensâŚ
Shame that F6EAZ does not seem reachable by email thoughâŚ
Phil, the operatorâs etiquette is something I am learning either (I ârealizedâ it is not just the morse code to learn⌠). In addition to what you said, my observation as an operator to chasers - wait until you hear CQ or at least âde XX0YYYâ or anything indicating you are invited to contact as CQ, or in other words: the spot itself or/and silence is not enough.
It was not long ago when I was trying to give a chance to a pretty weak-signal station I was just trying to copy, and in the middle someone else started to send their own call followed - oh my goodness - by a conversation with me as if I picked their call. I did not respond to the interfering one, but surprisingly that correspondent ended the QSO as if I was a part of the QSO with them, while I was not! Needless to say, by the time the âoverlay QSOâ ended, my well-desired weak remote contact had gone with the QSB - if only the etiquette had been followed I would have made them both. Without this, I did make none of the two stations.
Coming back to the email response, we also do not know why F6EAZ is not picking the email. I have an experience I forgot to change the settings on one forum, and after I stopped chasing one inbox due to mostly spam going there, I was unaware I got a request from Polish SOTA community to accept an award for me in a recognition of some past things. Following that I did not respond to their email in my unawareness for more than a year! Only by chance I found the email when searching for something in the weedy inbox. Luckily they were very understanding and did not keep any harm. That taught me from the other side to avoid judging without 2-way contact firstâŚ
Iâve worked F6EAZ many times recently. Iâve not noticed anything untowards about his operating other than he uses one of those mechanical bug keys which I have huge difficulty understanfing. I only now need to hear dit di-dah and some obviously bug dot-dash spacing amongst the callers to know itâs F6EAZ. As distinctive as Roy G4SSHâs call to me.
I forgot to mention that on occasion F6EAZ sounds like F5EAZ to meâŚWould add that I have been learning and using Morse without a break now for over 37 years both as an amateur throughout and as a professional for part of that time.
Andy - I agree - I think a mechanical bug is in use at F6EAZ but not all the time.
Conrad - Your appreciation of procedure sounds like you have a good grasp on it to me, well done. I experience all you have also when activating. I find it is a good idea to look into the database some weeks after your activation and check the âShow who chased meâ tab. If you can be bothered you can then email the occasional chaser (If they have a known email) who thought they completed a QSO with you when they didnât, to tell them. I usually note in my written log when I get the dreaded 73s during an activation when I know the QSO is not complete. This happened once to me today out of 67 QSOs - I only worked one USA station (K4DY), the only one on my tour so far, due to the propagation, however a second USA station sent me the 73s but the QSO was not completed due to QSB unfortunately, and not for want of trying on my part⌠This practice I find is more likely to happen when using CW rather than SSB.
OK, so everything still in front of me. I hope the stations are still likely forgiving me, as my copying skills are so faaaar from perfection⌠Anyway, the case I described earlier was an isolated one, and I noticed most of the stations do follow the etiquette, which helps a lot. But to be fair, I also noticed as an activator - my obligation is to be clear on expectations and certain order in managing the frequency, I learnt it in SSB not long time after I started in 2014 as a HF newbie - I learnt that first I need to be consequent as an activator - making an exception is (1) a bit disrespectful to those who patiently wait for their turn (2) encourages a flow of other exceptions during this and possibly next activations = messâŚ
So, I decided one day to follow the rules strictly and very consequently deny stations calling me for example if I do by numbers, and they are with a different number. I either started to ignore their call or kindly request them to wait for their turn (ah those good days with a pileup at SSB up to 150+ QSOâs⌠)
At CW now - I think after first sweating just to at least copy a callsign, now it is time to do some etiquette execution - this is the job for us as activators. At least this is in an ideal world⌠as with sometimes fingers freezing or ducking under an umbrella on the ground with the shack, desiring a third hand taking the notes, while it pours pretty well, sometimes it is still difficult. But what will not kill me, will strenghten me, as my friend used to sayâŚ
Thanks Phil, a good thread and conversation. So much to learn yet. But all is so much fun at the same time!
Hello
I have found Christian F6EAZ to be polite and I have worked him many times. Recently I have also misread his callsign as F5EAZ but when I have sent the wrong call he has corrected it for me so no problem!
73
Nick
Bob, I can speak only for myself. I am not trying to judge F6EAZ as well as I am not saying that your judgment is right or wrong - I am just trying to encourage contacting him first instead of group talk without his presence. Sorry if you may have gotten a different impression.
I fully agree with Konrad⌠Moreover, can this topic ânaturallyâ comes back to the original matter, i.e SOTA activation on magic CT summits by Phil, please.
We all are just mountaineers and/or radio addicts, with sometimes different ways of practicing our activities.
Vy 73
As a (very) distant observer, I am saddened to read criticism of a specific operator on this forum. I would have thought that was against the policy of the reflector?
It is an unsociable thing to do, to criticise a person in their absence, no matter what has happened on air, it would surely be better to deal with this kind of issue direct and offline from a public forum.
We would ALL be mighty annoyed and offended if we were treated in this way, ie. public criticism and humiliation.
As an unrelated example, criticising someone who has a disability for example, can backfire on the critic.
So please, Mr Forum Moderator, take action and remove posts that contravene the forum rules.
I havenât got a good enough internet connection to listen to the audio clip here in Dresden but I will listen to it when I can. I can understand your frustration Bob - made worse by the lack of any contact address for the said operator, which would enable a private exchange. When I can I will listen and give an opinion - either on the reflector (unless the thread is closed by the moderator) or privately. It was in January 2016 that I raised concerns about the disruption caused to my own activation then by the same operator, like you I was frustrated by the lack of any contact address which is why I quoted the specific callsign in the initial posting.
). In addition to what you said, my observation as an operator to chasers - wait until you hear CQ or at least âde XX0YYYâ or anything indicating you are invited to contact as CQ, or in other words: the spot itself or/and silence is not enough.