In reply to DD5LP:
Unfortunately I have had to cancel my activation today of DL/BG-023 that would have coincided with QRPTTF due to an extreme weather warning issued by the government weather agency for the area.
Presently I’m hoping to activate instead in a weeks time, if there’s no new weather warning.
73 Ed.
In reply to NA5N:
Paul, I’m seeing two issues with the 2014 scoring summary sheet posted at http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2014/2014_summary.xls :
There’s no allowance for mixed mode, cw and ssb
It calculates total score by adding the per band score. It should calculate total store by adding qso’s and SPC/SOTA for all bands and then multiplying them together and multiplying result by the “multiplier” (3 for SOTA stations). If I have 10 qso’s on each of 3 bands and 5 SPC/SOTAs on each of 3 bands and I’m a SOTA station, the total score should be 30 X 15 X 3 equals 1350 points. The way the summary sheet is now doing it is 50 + 50 + 50 = 150 X 3 = 450 points.
73, Barry N1EU
And on the positive side, condx this morning definitely seem much better than the last few days.
73, Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
Typical! We’ve had generator problems at the contest site and we’re running behind setting up. Now it’s started raining so I’m going to wimp out of SOTA/QRPTTF and continue setting up for the contest. In the rain 
Andy
MM0FMF/p
IO74WV
In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi all,
i´m again as operator in DR5T Contest Team in the VHF/UHF Test this weekend.
I do the late evening to early morning shift in CW all night long. If Time i set up my sota rig at late afternoon beside the contest station to listen out for soem s2s contacts. sorry to the chasers this time, because i don´t call ca sota myself to much. the contest station is direct in the activation zone of DM/BW-082. also a early morning activation on sunday is possible. then again on 20m only to get some VK´s in the log. Antenna is only a extended MP1 portable vertical…no room and time for bigger antennas.
All others : have fun in the contest and good luck !!!
vy 73 Klaus DF2GN/p
In reply to DF2GN:
We have the generator sorted now… blocked jets in the carb. 70cm/23cm/3cms now QRV, 13/9cms due to be up in a few minutes. 2m talkback running too. Like you Klaus I may set an HF antenna and listen for US stations later today. Rain has stopped now, but the sky looks very angry!
Andy
MM0FMF
IO74WV
In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi Andy, good to hear your generator problem is sorted now. io74wv is way to far for 23cm to our contest site…over 1100km. so i think we have no qso this weekend. so good luck. we are testing new equipment from 144mhz to 47ghz. on 23cm we have a new 2m dish. sometimes i like that vhf contesting, but a bit sorry that this weekend is the qrpttf. hope next year i can take part again in qrpttf. good luck andy in contest and all others in qrpttf.
have fun ! 73 Klaus DF2GN/p
if i take my 2m trx and hang it up to the 8x6el group for the 2m band and go with my lifepo4. counts that for sota ? think not, because not all equipment is carried to the summit. only a few meters from car to contest site…mhhh,sorry. maybe UK contacts on cw possible this night or early sunday morning…
In reply to M0HDF:
Heard you at 1435 but you didn’t hear me.
73, Bill. W4ZV
In reply to W4ZV:
You have amazing ears Bill! Thanks for our S2S, was nice to work you again. Sorry for the poor sending, it’s been a while since I’ve used a key!
I also worked Barry N1EU and Rich N4EX, although it was extremely difficult copy at my end.
73, Colin
M1BUU
I have just returned home. Unfortunately, the conditions were bad and heavy rain was not really pleasant to work with. Thank you for your cooperation … to hear QRPTTF in 2015 in the hope of better conditions.
73 de S58R/P ( S5/BI-053 )
It was nice that a few of the QRPTTF stations made it onto 12m for some S2S action on Saturday 3rd May 2014. I reluctantly decided to not do the QRPTTF this year in order to focus on the 12m Challenge, but I hope to be involved again in 2015 as the 2013 QRPTTF was such a super event.
First, I went onto Gun G/SP-013 and made 17 QSOs (11 of which were into NA), 12 on 12m CW, 3 on 12m SSB and 2 on 2m FM. S2S were as follows:
Colin M1BUU/P on Ingleborough G/NP-005, 12m CW
Barry N1EU on Utsayantha Mountain W2/GC-026, 12m CW
Bill W4ZV/P on Rocky Knob W4C/EM-047, 12m CW
Ian G7ADF/P on Winter Hill G/SP-010, 12m SSB
Richard G3CWI/P on The Cloud G/SP-015, 2m FM
Things eventually went quiet and I drove across the valley to The Cloud G/SP-015.
The second activation of Saturday 3rd May 2014 was The Cloud G/SP-15. I knew that Richard G3CWI was still operating from the summit of this one, but I didn’t go to say hello. I set up on the grassy slope above the cliffs about 200m from the trig point, and about 15m below, so well within the AZ.
Just 9 QSOs were made as things really were beginning to slow down. This was 6 on 12m CW and 3 on 12m SSB. There were highlights though, listed as follows:
…but best of all…
Tom M1EYP
Just made it home after pulling the plug at 3PM local. This seemed to be a 99% SOTA event - I only worked a few TTF stations. Very happy to see all the EU activators and I know everybody was trying their best in marginal condx. Many qso’s took several back and forths to complete due to deep qsb and true readabiliy only on qsb peaks - thanks for everyone hanging in there and sorry if I couldn’t hear you. I might have been at a noisy location. There were 3 substantial communications shacks and towers on this summit. I could barely hear anything at all above the noise level on 20M. 15M was by far the “money” band here. Definitely the high point of the day was the S2S contacts - especially to Europe and California, and they sure didn’t come easy.
I ran my KX3 with a 44ft doublet about 30ft above the summit and fed with twisted pair feedline that I stripped from some CAT6 ethernet cable. It seemed to work quite well fed directly into the KX3, which tuned it to 1:1 on all bands.
73, Barry N1EU
(S2S with M1BUU, DH7FK, M1EYP, EA2BD/DT/BSB, G3CWI, G0PEB, S58R, S57X, DF2GN and 14 in NA - thanks guys!)
In reply to W4ZV:
Hi Bill. Thanks for trying. There was a lot of noise in the band, splatter from the ARI contest (ssb). I had to use the hb1b attenuator at times or lower the IF. I had an efhw sloping towards you on a 10m pole. I also had to bear the pulses of the radar up there.
What gear did u have with you?
I was also at 18.00 at g/wb-002 but my spot failed - no internet access and was very time limited.
Good fun anyhow. I will post some pics in my blog in the next couple of days.
73s de Angel M0HDF
Hello,
I activated together with EA2BSB and EA2DT (on the activation side this time!).
I just ran on 21 MHz. During the week I prepared and tested a Vertical moxon (2 elements) and its results were promising.
I was a bit afraid that conditions were turning bad in the last days, less DX available… but anyway I had it ready so went to try it.
Things were brilliant. WX good, contrary to what was in the last days. Some sun, little wind.
I could deply the Moxon standing up without difficulties an it ran well! Logged 8 NA stations with ease and some more EU. I fould a single TTF station in the other hand. Big signals from chasers and easy to copy from Activators… S2S a pleasure!
Quite satisfied with it. A pity I couldn’t prepare another for 14 MHz ;o)
Some pictures will be uploaded in Flickr soon.
Thanks to all, look forward to next year’s Sota Intn’l day and TTF.
73
Ignacio EA2BD
A good afternoon on the hill for me. I was testing a new dual-band antenna for 14/21MHz. 21MHz was the star band for DX. NK6A was a good S2S catch. Chasers from WA, AZ etc.
Most interesting contact was a short chat with Paul W0RW / Pedestrian Mobile in CO on 21C.
As others have mentioned, I heard no non-SOTA QRPTTF callers at all.
Tally
S2S N1EU (21C), W4ZV(21C+S), EA2BSB (14S), EA2DT (14S), G7ADF (14,21S), NK6A (21C), HB9DST (14C), S57X (21C)
Gotaways: NA6MG (21C), G0PEB (14C) - both good signals but not hearing me.
73 Richard G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
I managed EA2DT/p on 14MHz from the contest site whilst demoing my SOTA gear to one of the contest team. Also had a good chat to KR0E in Boulder, Colorado on 24MHz SSB.
Currently we’re sat in the cloud and pouring rain hoping it will dry out a bit for take down time. Cold, wet, muddy, windy… must be May Bank Holiday Weekend
Andy, MM0FMF/p
IO74WV
After being out of activating for a while and never having done a full on HF activation this seemed like a good opportunity to get some practice in and test the sandpiper MV6 in noiseless conditions.
Location G/SP-010 Winter Hill
FT-817 5w SSB
Operated mainly on 21Mhz and 14Mhz although 14Mhz was virtually unusable due to A.R.I contest.
21Mhz was wide open for most of the day and listened to a myriad of Japanese stations whilst setting up.
Overall an excellent day and whilst I didn’t “go for it” with long runs of CQ calls , I had lots of fun picking and choosing and being patient waiting for the higher power stations to work the dx before making my calls.
Highlights: 10 s-t-s (4 continental EU and 4 G). 6 different US states with best DX being Colorado. Being called by VE2 from one of my few cq calls. Working The Cloud on 3 different HF bands (should have tried them all) 
.
Lowlights: 20m being almost unusable due to contest splatter. After calling CQ for a few minutes frequency was “taken over” by a contest station. This wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t worked me for points after his first CQ call.
Ones that didn’t make the log but were fun from a SWL point of view: Kuwait, Qatar, Japan, Brazil, Arizona, Oregon.
In reply to M0HDF:
Angel I really tried everything I knew to work you including cranking my K2 up to maximum power (~13W on 20m I think). Conditions were much better on the higher bands so it’s too bad your setup didn’t allow higher bands. 15m was excellent and I was amazed that even 12m was in good shape (1st QSO at 1053z). I even heard J28NC on 10m but couldn’t break the EU pileup (which I could not hear). Unfortunately my K2 had some kind of RX problem on 40m and I only made a few QSOs there (using my Weber TriBander backup rig). Antennas were a 44’ doublet oriented NE and an EndFedz Trail EFHW (better for Western NA).
Rough initial tally from my scribbled log is:
Pre-1200z: 9 EU QSOs, 3 CW S2S, 1 SSB S2S.
CW: 116 QSOs, 40 S2S, 12 EU S2S.
SSB: 14 QSOs, 13 S2S, 7 EU S2S.
EU condx were a pleasant surprise but NA condx seemed down from usual. No idea how many S2S points or QRPTTF score but the fun score was off the charts. Thanks to everyone!
73, Bill W4ZV
In reply to W4ZV:
Congrats on a great effort Bill - wow, 53 S2S! What do your WARC-less numbers looks like (i.e., QRPTTF disallows WARC qso’s)? I had a meager 21 distinct S2S mults on 40/20/15, which is actually down from 26 last year.
I agree on the fun, but the discomfort factor subtracts a bit from the fun for me - 7 hours operating without a good chair takes its toll on my body. I have to come up with something for next year.
I wish we had at least one more similar event each year. Nothing else comes close for SOTA.
73, Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
I wish we had at least one more similar event each year. Nothing else
comes close for SOTA.
There would be nothing stopping you from organising something Barry. SOTA has a long history of folks organising special days for this or that. Get the details right and make it attractive and the activators will turn up for sure.
73 Richard G3CWI