I’ve made a 20m ground plane on a 10m travel mast. If I activate a SOTA summit with my FT817 will 5W SSB get me contacts? Around Europe is fine.
Hi Jonathan,
From IO83, I would say possibly somewhat earlier… My recent contacts with John ZL1BYZ…
06:57z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 04/Oct
06:53z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 27/Sept
07:44z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 17/Sept
07:11z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 14/Sept
06:48z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 10/Sept
06:59z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 06/Sept
06:31z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 31/Aug
07:16z ZL1BYZ 14MHz SSB 25/Aug
And Waren ZL2AJ…
07:18z ZL2AJ 14MHz SSB 04/Oct
06:57z ZL2AJ 14MHz SSB 27/Sept
After 0715z, looks better for VK, from IO83…
73 Mike
I cut one last weekend too!
If the K index behaves, it would not surprise me in the least if you make VK with a GP antenna. ZL will be more of a challenge, however, by no means impossible.
I tried out a copy of MM0FMF’s loaded vertical on 20 metres on Friday afternoon. Not a good time of day for VK/ZL but at least my 5 watts from an 817 got me Sweden, Spain, Austria, Greece, the Czech Republic, Portugal - and the USA. Give it a bash, Richard, the results will probably delight you, though if you haven’t alerted it will probably take several calls to get the ball rolling.
1 Like
With 5W I’d be more than happy with a few European contacts. I would certainly alert first.
I did 4 activations from North Wales in August but that was 2m FM. Since getting home I have been very busy with FT8. I’ve worked Japan and the USA many times plus VK and ZL. But that’s with 50W and a digital mode that’s great at extracting the signal from the noise, so I’ve been unsure if 5W SSB would be a waste of time. Obviously there’s one way to find out!
Here’s the link to the description of the antenna Brian refers to:
I made it originally in November 2011 and redesigned it in early 2012. It’s how I made a SOTA lightweight clone of a Buddistick from Bud’s own article. I’ve been using it on 20/17/15 since then. It seems to work. It’s not going to be as good as a 1/4GP. But as that article describes, it does 20/17/15 and fits on a 5m mast. That was a major requirement, fit a 5m mast. My 60/40/30 dipole is designed for a 5m mast as well. So the antennas tune up and work on such a mast. I altered the coil and can get 30m now. Shorter top sections allow 12/10m. You need at leat a 7m mast for a 20m 1/4GP. In fact, the reason we had a 12m challenge a few years back was primarily because a 12m 1/4GP fits perfectly on a 5m mast. The sunspots were peaking so 12/10 were open plenty of time but12m was chosen over 10m as it’s less commonly used and fitted my preferred mast size! 
Answer - yes. 5 watts is plenty when using a 20m GP from a summit in all but really poor conditions.
I regularly work North and South America, Far East or Aus/NZ using my GP and FT-817, using SSB, CW and Data.
Europe is a “racing certainty”.
VK7AP, Steen, in QE36 worked on 40m at good strength at 08:00 UTC this morning.
Other VK’s and ZL’s also coming through on 40m between 06:30 UTC and 08:00 UTC.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
And down we go again!! Perhaps a CME or solar winds have hit the ionosphere?
SFI 70 but more importantly K at 5 - good luck to those activating today!!
73 Ed. (hoping this will get better before the 21st.!)
Aha - this from spacewaether.com:
GEOMAGNETIC STORMS IN PROGRESS: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are underway on Oct. 12th as Earth moves through a stream of fast-moving solar wind.
Despite the poor figures, there is still DX on 30m.
At around 0745 UTC today VK3FM and VK2AKB worked here, and DS5USH heard working Western Europe.
So never give up hope!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Was that digital or CW Walt?
30 metres is a great band.
Digital modes such as JT65 or FT-8 seem to get through on most bands despite bad conditions, CW is harder and SSB is the real challenge. (of course in Region 1 SSB isn’t allowed on 30m as it is in Region 3).
73 Ed.
Digital. I rarely use anything else these days. There has been a dramatic drop in CW activity on all bands over the past 3 months, and a corresponding increase in FT8 band occupancy.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
SOTA activation G/SP-013 Gun, Sunday 15/10… 2m FM only.
With a lift in progress on VHF, I thought I may as well spray some RF about from G/SP-013 Gun.
Working with the X-200 colinear, I found conditions were good, however, certainly not exceptional. To be honest, if I had dragged myself out bed early, when conditions seemed better, there’s little doubting I would have got into EU.
Nevertheless, 95 contacts were knocked off, the best of them Jim EI9GLB, at just over 300km.
There’s still plenty of takers to be worked on VHF, especially on FM.
Thanks to all the callers.
Mike
2E0YYY
The most famous hawthorn tree in the counrty 
1 Like
LOL! Down here in IO82 square, I have not heard a total of 95 different stations on 2m FM in the whole of this year so far!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
You would if you went up a SOTA summit Walt and stuck around for a few hours. Some of the summits in IO82 are far superior to the local ones here in terms of VHF take-off. If you put a bit of time and preparation into it, you would easily surpass 95 from Brown Clee or Caer Caradoc for instance.
You need a magic hawthorn tree, Walt 
My last visit to your part of the world was a midweek activation during April this year, when I activated G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill. In precisley 70 minutes there were 26 contacts worked on 2m FM using an X-300 colinear, before I had to leave.
Without wishing to state the obvious, weekends will always prove more fruitful than mid week for VHF Activators, especially for mobile contacts. It never ceases to amaze me how many Hams monitor VHF from their cars.
On 24 July 2011, while activating G/SP-004 Shining Tor, I worked 40 stations signing /Mobile!
Mike
2E0YYY
2 Likes
Yesterday George N1GB chased me on 20m for the second time in the last 2 weeks.
My HiEndFed hung randomly horizontal between trees and the ssb power was 10 watts.
Tnx George for my sota odx.
Chris
DL1CR
1 Like
Here we go down again … This just in from Southgate News:
Geomagnetic storms likely this week
A large hole has opened in the sun’s atmosphere, and it is spewing a stream of solar wind toward Earth. Estimated time of arrival: Oct. 24th.
First contact with the gaseous material is expected to produce minor G1-class geomagnetic storms, intensifying to moderately strong G2-class storms on Oct. 25th as Earth moves deeper into the stream.
Arctic sky watchers can expect to witness bright auroras. The lights could descend to lower latitudes as well, with sightings in northern-tier US states along a line from Maine to Washington.
Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and updates.
Very Quick Report, G/SP-017 Billinge Hill, 28/10/2017.
As is customary at this time of the year, in order to work DX into VK/ZL you have little choice but to walk to the summit by head torch, however, I hadn’t banked on the drizzle that would greet me. Once again, I was plagued with strong, cold winds and was forced to work with a short antenna.
Adding insult to injury, there was a big contest and 20m was wall to wall with QRM. Finding somewhere to park up on the band was a nightmare. Nevertheless, I squeezed in and put out a CQ. After 5 minutes of calling, first in my log was John ZL1BYZ at 0717z. While we were chatting, his signal was coming up and during our last over, he was an easy copy.
A further 5 EU stations were worked before Ernie VK3DET, finally broke through the QRM. Cheers Ernie! Next call was s2s with Bojan S56LXN and dragging a signal report out of him wasn’t easy. However, his patience paid off and he was in my log. Bojan was the final call on 20m.
By now, I was pretty much fed up with the contest and WX and so it was time to pack up, however, I took a listen to 10m just before I pulled the plug. There on 28.520 was VU2RCT working a pile-up. The odd thing was, I couldn’t hear any of the stations he was working and so I assumed he was working split. I popped up 5 Kc’s and heard nothing, then went back to 520 and heard him call CQ contest. He was 5/9 on my FT-857’s meter.
When the Antron-99 pulls in a 5/9 signal on the 10m band, I can almost bet my house on it finishing in my log. However, it took a number of attempts to get his attention and then he struggled with the first number of my prefix, before calling back 2E0YYY with a contest 5/9 report. Job done. I’ve worked loads of VU contacts from SOTA summits, most of then on 10m but this contact was just plain weird. Three G stations were then worked on groundwave and that folks, was that.
Due to a combination of bad WX and dreadful contest QRM, just 13 contacts were logged for the activation. I suppose, I could have QSY’d to 40m or VHF, but the wind was giving me too much grief. Thanks to all the callers.
9 contacts on 20m ssb
4 on 10m ssb.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
There’s a huge brick building on the summit on G/SP-017. Whenever I’ve been up there in strong wind, I’ve simply set up on whatever side of that structure is lee of the wind - and fairly close to it. That keeps the strain off the antenna and the chill out of your body.