Just a thought about why not have an International SOTA day or weekend? I mentioned this on another thread but instead of hijacking that thread i have started this one dedicated to the idea.
Brian G8ADD has already shown interest and thinks a annual SOTA QSO Party sounds good, whatever its called there could be the potential for lots of S2S. Sean M0GIA
In reply to M0GIA:
Sounds like a great idea Sean.
73
Mads, LA1TPA
In reply to M0GIA:
good idea.
in Germany we have SOTA-activity-weekends for some years.
It’s not a contest, but a nice party.
the dates for 2009 are:
Winter 07./08. February 2009
Spring 02./03. May 2009
Summer 01./02. August 2009
Autum 03./04. October 2009
Vy73 Fritz DL4FDM, HB9CSA
In reply to M0GIA:
I think this can only be a positive idea and “International SOTA Weekend” gets my vote Sean. QSO Party is too American for my liking… we can go that route when there is more than W2 involved in SOTA (which hopefully won’t be too long).
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
One rare place, I venture to suggest, where the Americans have got it right! An Activity Weekend sounds a bit boy-scoutish, it is more of an opportunity to celebrate SOTA and make more friends (social networking - Ugh!)
I would suggest adopting one of the German dates and if it is a success perhaps adopt all of them!
73
Brian G8ADSD
In reply to G8ADD:
Sounds good to me Sean. I agree with Brian, adopt one of the German dates.
We will need plane tickets to get to any after event social though:-)
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
The idea of German beer sounds interesting! Think i will stick to a local summit for financial reasons!
If enough are interested then i dont see why one of the German dates can not be used? IMHO the better weather dates would attract more participants and allow more time on summits.
One of the dates posted by Fritz like May or August? I know Brian mentioned best months for propagation and this is something im not very well clued up on, anyway see how it develops. Sean M0GIA
National SOTA day sounds a great idea.
What bands/modes ?
If VHF/UHF a date that avoids contests might be a good idea.
Chris 2E0FSR
In reply to 2E0FSR:
Hi Chris,
If all SOTA Associations are involved this would mean HF as well as VHF / UHF and all modes, maybe a list like the NP one could be posted on the sota forum with what bands and modes are going to be used along with who is on what summit? Sean M0GIA
Hi all,
The international SOTA day sounds great, but how we will be able to OD (Lebanam) interested because there hasn,t been any activations over there, and we’ll need to find ways to get contries like PA (Holland), SP (Poland), SM (Sweden), OH (Finland), GD (Isle of Man), GI (Northern Ireland), EI (Ireland), W2 (NY-USA), ZS (South Africa) and (HB0) Liectenstein to all take part in the international SOTA day.
Jimmy M3EYP
A good idea for an international SOTA day would be to allow 2 time slots, ie X hours for uhf/vhf then Y hours for hf, or longer time slots if in the warmer weather. This offers the possibility of many international s2s QSOs as well as domestic ones, it will also offer a piece of the action to those who usually only operate on one band.
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
SOTA NEWS NOVEMBER 2007 Part 2
In this issue on summitsbase I had a little note for something like that. Unfortunatly no reaction of any SOTA participant at that time. But nice to see people are interested in. Who will organise it?
Ralf DH3IAJ
In reply to GW0DSP:
Hi Mike,
Limiting the activity to a time slot could limit the possibilities. That’s why I am all for a weekend rather than a single day. Personally I see that this could provide the opportunity for both a lot of activity and a wide range of operating techniques. Imagine the first European chaser bagging the first USA summit or even the first Europe to USA S2S achieved using grey line propagation. Even on VHF there is the potential for something different. Anyone for an S2S via meteor scatter?
Are we on for early May?
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
Indeed Gerald, fair comment.
73, Mike
In reply to GW0DSP:
Maybe I’ll have to borrow Marc’s 100AH SLAB to power my BNOS linear and stack the pair of 5 elements I have… 27 27 27 27 G4OIGP 27 27 27 27… perhaps not. FSK441 seems a better idea - much quieter on a summit!
73, Gerald
In reply to M3EYP:
Maybe the idea of being involved in an International SOTA day will get them on the hills just as contests bring the bands alive?
This will take some organsising and to get all the Associations notified and agreeing on a date but im sure there would be enough interest. Sean M0GIA
In reply to G4OIG:
There’s a very good chance tha the first EU/USA s2s will be on cw. I have worked a W2 from Hope on 10m-cw, if only he had been on a summit, what a contact that would have been.
73, Mike
In reply to M0GIA:
I agree with your comments Sean - look what the Backpackers Contest does for portable operation in the UK. 2nd / 3rd May looks promising as we would already have the German Associations active. Really it needs notification of interest from other individuals to see whether it is likely to succeed. Maybe it is something that needs to be put formally to the MT as they have the relevant points of contact for each Association.
73, Gerald
In reply to G4OIG:
Mike EU/US S2S on CW? Maybe or maybe SSB? Possibilties are endless given the conditions.
Either way it would be something! I will be using SSB and CW both at QRP and have worked the States on both modes with 5w from summits. I think the key is get our cousins climbing with the radios at the same time on the same bands and modes.
Gerald May looks good however lots to do to organise and agree on bands modes times etc. I think its still early days yet but Mike GW0DSP came up with something interesting with slots for bands and modes, thing is some may only be able to use only certain modes and bands and may not be able to make the slots.
This is of course only an idea i had after the succsseful NP day along with SOTA growing around the world i just thought why does SOTA not have its own spot in the diary? Sean M0GIA
In reply to M0GIA:
Get enough people active in enough countries (we could have hundreds of activations!) and organising time/band/mode slots becomes almost irrelevant. It would be difficult to work them all, anyway, and skip would be changing all the time. Given decent WX (and no coronal holes!) we could have late night and early morning activations (some activators would probably not hesitate to do overnighters!) and a reasonably well publicised event (magazines, QRZ, eham etc) could bring SOTA to the attention of countries around the globe that we would love to entice into SOTA!
73
Brian G8ADD