Weather forecast for Southern Germany for Saturday is also “interesting” - as well as expected sunshine - snow is also possible.
I really don’t know how these weather forecasters get away with such rubbish. They cover themselves. Most likley will be icy roads in the morning and rain showers in the afternoon. Luckily the ice should have cleared from the roads when I start my planned 2.5 hour drive, but I could well end up driving back through a snow storm. I do have a couple of alternatives lined up in case I wake up to 1 metre of snow on Saturday morning.
G/SB-008 looks promising. Not as exciting a walk, but I might be able to combine it with a “cultural” visit to a neighbouring National Trust property in the morning (which will please my wife).
Life is all about compromises!
Nearest NT to SB-008, Cragside House closed this Saturday. Bit further away, Wallington, same, as is Lindisfarne Castle (this till 2018) - be careful what you promise the XYL. As well you will have some driving to do to make your alert (at this time) for NP-007 at 14:00.
Jim
RM for SB
We have a HTC / SOTA QRP-Event in Switzerland on Saturday… If the event does not go too long, Manuel (HB9DQM) and I will also be QRV. HB/ZH-018 is planned. We will use the same equipment as the VK-EU party: KX3, PA with 160Watt in a 20m monoband J-pole Antenna (15m Mast).
We look forward to a few s2s-QSOs.
If we have s2s please wait for a QSO also with the second operaiter!
WX here was scorchio & 28C yesterday and should be scorchio & 24C on Saturday. It’s quite windy though, I guess that’s why the island is called “Strong Winds”!
I think a lot of people are Andy. Maybe a few more will join in at the last minute to swell the ranks. I’ve not had a count up for a few days, but it is looking good. Great to see Matt’s post about the possibility of HB9 being on air.
Dam’ right! Here we are in the middle of the November doldrums, there’s not much to chase - a distinct shortage of red print on Sotawatch . I’ve done a few minor repairs, got my database entries up to date, even in desperation tidied my desk (and now I can see that I’ve got to clean it!), and now as desperation increases I’m eyeing up old uncompleted projects as time fillers! A diversion such as the S2S party will be VERY welcome!
Good luck to all the activators, we chasers will be staying out of your way when necessary!
Sorry to hear that Andy, I know you don’t consider an activation to be correct unless the temperature is under 3°C and there are Icy winds!
At present my summit looks like only light showers, but constant and no local cover, so it’ll be a matter of seeing how long I can stand the wet - it probably won’t be the full three hours.
Forecast for The Cloud G/SP-015 steadily improving in terms of probability of rain/sleet/snow, but it still looks bitterly cold. And I am beginning with one of those (a cold) now. Still hope to make it though - we will see.
Weather forecast for Saturday is looking good here with 58F (14C) and mixed clouds. A storm is just behind that, so there might be some static crashes to deal with. Still, for this time of year it’s a remarkably nice looking day. I just hope the window in that tower hasn’t been fixed and bolted shut when I arrive! It was beautifully rusted in an open position, which suited me just fine. I’ll have some kind of plan B if needed, but it won’t be as good.
I’m excited about this and hope the weather holds for everyone who wants to participate.
VOACAP indicates that 17 meters might be the best bet, so that will be my main area of concentration.
VOACAP is design for long-term median area-coverage predictions so on the day things could be different of course. It’s a handy indicator non-the-less.
FYI, for those who might be wondering, my antenna choice in the tool was a (very) rough estimate for the 6 wavelength longwire I’ll be using. Based on earlier experiments, that seemed about right. Even with all that, the numbers aren’t outstanding. Then again, my modeling choice may be a case of “asking the doctor to touch up the X-Rays” in hopes of a better result.
That’s the fun of all this, though, isn’t it? Get out and see what the day brings!
I wonder if we can possibly all agree to allow other s2s activators to jump in after an s2s qso completes, if they are hearing either station that just engaged in the qso?
For example, I hear WB8OGK complete s2s with DD5LP, who I’m hearing. I would like to then call DD5LP on the frequency, irrespective of who might “own” the frequency. Eventually the frequency could return to the “owner”, once the additional s2s qso was finished.
Hi Barry,
As normally we can all self spot, once I had worked WB8OGK, I would normally then spot where I was calling CQ.
The other (better?) option is the calling station (Barry) to jump in with a “DD5LP 5 up please” or similar (having checked that freq is clear while listening to me working WB8OGK).
If you try to “take-over” the frequency, other EU summit stations who are awiting to work WB8OBK will feel “shut-out”.
Ed, the problem is that frequencies clear enough for weak signal work are hard to find and I know that I’d be willing to share my frequency for other NA-EU qso’s as long as there is an understanding that it eventually would return to me.
I think the “5 UP” technique is good but really only works less than half the time.
Didn’t mean to create a confusing issue, just thinking out loud about facilitating qso’s and helping activators find each other.
An alternative might be for several EU or NA activators to team up on one frequency and jointly try to work any trans-atlantic activators calling in. This would be more easily accomplished on ssb.
The challenge here would be for the EU or NA activators sharing the frequency to hear each other.
Understood Barry - it’s a difficult situation - it’ll be interestng if others have suggestions.
The fact that the summits in NA may hear those in EU but not in NA because of skip distance and also that EU may hear NA but not EU, makes it difficult.
I agree it can be very difficult to find a free frequency that stays free. More and more I hear “crocodile stations” simply starting up on top of a SOTA activator, becuase they can only hear other KW stations!
