Torn between: 20m as this works best for the locations I have regular QSO - S E Asia, 30m as this provides 24 hours propagation and is contest free but downside is it is often wiped out by large unspecified split 5NN TU DX, and 40m which would work better if I had a decent antenna. A tough one. At present it’d be 20m, if I had a very good high gain antenna and low noise levels, it’d be 40m.
2M FM got me out of the mire again last weekend. Horrible weather meant I wouldn’t risk getting my HF kit out and I was in no mood to sit about in the pouring rain and wind.
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Gerald. Many thanks for that 2Mtr. Activation on G/NP-015. Our QSO was my 99th. Chaser Unique Summit on FM. Great of you to be out in that Vry. Bad WX. Best 73. Paul M0CQE.
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30 metres, local and some DX, contest free. And it tends to deter the high-power ops a bit.
Les
Happy to help!
It’s days like this when 2M FM and a waterproof handy (in this case an FT-270) and a simple dipole can save the day. My long suffering wife Sue holding the antenna (I know I am a very lucky chap) which is why I was “fluttering” a bit. Not a great picture of me with my head down scribbling. By the way, it’s hard to tell but it’s belting with rain and blowing a gale from behind that shelter.
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Gerald. Thanks for your reply, report and photo. This shows the dedication you have to SOTA, also many thanks to your wife Sue, for holding the antenna higher which allowed me to make the QSO. The little extra height made a big difference. (2Mtr. Band/FM for me every time) 73 de Paul.
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Looking at my logs Dave, 2m FM very often gives as many if not more contacts than HF. It is often the only band that gives any interG other than 5megs, which is not available to all. I can’t really agree with your conclusion. Yesterday, on my first activation, I used 60m for the benefit of UK stations. I got 7 contacts. I got 5 on 2m FM without spotting and in a poor part of the world for VHF! I can see the attraction of just using 20m, with shorter wire antennas and few problems with low foF2 or D-layer absorption. John MW0XOT
Of course, if you also only have one mode available, then you might choose a different band…
For a single-mode rig, I’d pick 20 metres for SSB, 2 metres for FM, and 30 metres for CW.
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On shortwave, it would perforce have to be 40 m. It is assigned worldwide and has the potential for local as well as for DX contacts. That having said, I do not like the band very much, as it often feels too crowded. Some of the activity could as well take place on 160 m, 80 m, or 30 m, or even higher up in the spectrum, if conditions allow. I haven’t tried 56 m yet (IMHO, calling this band “60 m” is rather imprecise).
On VHF, 2 m would be the band of choice for similar reasons, but even if it is not very busy in my region, I’d love to hear more on 6 m and 70 cm (in particular less non-amateur traffic on the latter band).
If I could neglect physics and activity levels, I’d say 12 m …
73, Jan-Martin
I know that this is a hypothetical topic, but for the first four years of holding my licence I was indeed confined to just one band, 70 cm. This was the lowest band permitted to the G8 licence from 1964 until 1968 when we were given access to the 2 metre band. There was the opportunity of going to a higher band but my QTH was really unsuited to 23 cms and above, and it has to be said that the receivers on that band were a bit primitive at that time, towards the end of the hollow state era! One band operation may be fine for a while but eventually becomes boring, and since the amalgamation of the “B” and “A” licenses in 2003 I have made a point of being active on as many bands as possible. When I activated G/LD-033 a few years ago I found all the bands broken with a major ionospheric disturbance and it took three bands to get the four contacts to qualify the activation! In my opinion one should always have at least two contrasting bands available, and it is an interesting exercise to work out what those two bands should be. My choice would be 5 megs and two metres, I know that 5 megs is not available to everyone, but it is rarely closed and qualifying a summit is virtually guaranteed. Two metres is going to get you contacts in most of the country unless you are very remote. I have been unable to get four 2 metre contacts when activating G/DC-007, for instance, and the only 2 metre contact I got from G/DC-006 was into EA! So, my question to the Brains Trust, if you only had TWO bands available…?