North America <> Europe SOTA S2S Party - 19th November 2016 1400 - 1700 UTC

Yeah, get that kit ordered! I liked everything, the price, the quick shipping, the kit quality, the great build instructions and the way it works! I especially like the fact that you don’t have to modify either the rig or microphone in any way.

I logged my two S2S as well as the rest of the chaser contacts on sotadata. What other logging are people doing?

Hi Barry,
Taking a quick look at the Elecraft site, it appears that the KX3 has Bias (aka Phantom power) on the microphone element connection (suggesting they use an Electret insert as ICOM do) - so to use this unit, you’ll need to do more than just make up (or have made up) an adapter lead. Doesn’t the KX3 have an RF-Speech compressor built into the unit? Or is that just in the big units like the K3S ?

By the way for others considering this inline unit - the handbook in German and English is located here: http://www.box73.de/download/bausaetze/BX-8x7_2014.pdf
It should be noted that this unit is NOT an RF-Speech clipper/compressor however. It is described as an AF Dynamic compressor.

73 Ed.

Ian,

I heard you, and tried to contact you without success, unfortunately.
I also heard one HB9 station trying to contact you too. but I don’t think he managed to get through either.

Hopefully next time!

Don
m0hcu

Thanks for the info Colin. I have both the 817 and the 857, so having an external piece of kit that runs off the rig makes good sense. Mind you, some people say I don’t need a processor… it’s built-in! Hi :laughing:

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That is a shame Ian. I copied you quite well and was about to call when an OK station came up right on top of you and persisted in calling CQ. The same was true for Eric VA2MO who was on 14.285 with an LZ calling contest on the frequency - some people! I also copied Malcolm VE2DDZ, but he was calling someone at the time. Hearing all the Canadian activators in the event can’t be bad… at least my receiver works!

73, Gerald G4OIG

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As Gerald noted, yes there were some “CQ LZ contest” over many of us… During the first 8 minutes I was in a big pileup situation immediately after my first contact thanks to Don G0RQL who spotted me ! so i tried to grab as many chasers as i could but it was difficult.

I was able to hook up with Mike 2E0YYY,this was my only European S2S. I could hear others calling S2S but but could not pull them thru all the chaos…i’m sorry.

So after this short pileup i went S2S “hunting” the old primitive way by turning the VFO !
…No cell. phone yet to see the spots.

So in this manner i was able to work two other S2S this time in America: K2JB on W4C/CM-101 and KI4SVM on W4C/US-030.

Overall: 20 contacts,half of them with Europe and three S2S, mostly on 20m with only on qso on 15m.

20,15 and 17m bands were good here with plenty of traffic.Unfortunately I could not tune my antenna to work 17. I was using my usual setup: FT-857 @ 30w and the end-fed tri-band sloper.

I was a bit worried concerning the weather as we normally have rain or snow in mid november but…none of that !!
There was thick fog at ground level but as soon as i started to hike up the slope i was quickly above the fog with a beautiful sunshine.

The scenery was fabulous at the summit and the temperature was real mild.
The neighbouring summits peaking above the white sea of fog clouds gave the impression that i was much higher.



The complete photo album is Here

Thanks to all for this event and see you next time !

73
Eric
VA2MO. :slight_smile:

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Hi Gerald,
Both the the 817 and 857 use the same microphone, so an option built into the microphone and simply switch it beween rigs is also a possible solution as well as the “in-cord” ones.

Ed.

Hi Saku,
whereof six S2S qsos (OH9XX/p, F5LKW/p, HB9AFI/p, G0POT/p, G0MFR/p and EA2IF/p).
What about me, F6HBI/P? I have you in my log.
I did only 6 S2S and no one from NA, F/AM-617 is not a good place for radio.
73 see you soon from summits
Gerald

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Unfortunately, the weather conditions and the time of activation is very bad … the only success was that I participated in this event … The next day the weather was beautiful.

What is the problem that the S2S party takes place on Saturday and Sunday?

We would have two time periods and thus would disappear many problems (the time zones … the loss of participation because of poor conditions. In particular, this would ensure more safety and pleasure.

73 de S58R - Rado

Hi Rado, the only potential problem I see is that by extending the window we spread the activations out and possibly lose the high intensity of the last 2 events. As someone above said, the numbers of activators on at once make it worth making a bit more effort to carry better radio, battery, antenna systems! That’s not to say it wouldn’t be worth trying though. Good luck next time

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Adding to your question Rado, I wonder how many activators would be available for a mid-week S2S activation event - that way we DEFINITELY avoid any contests !
I know many people are working, so it could be an issue but many are not, or work shifts - so it’s worth consideration.

As I said earlier in this thread - these events are simply started by someone with an idea, starting a new thread (ideally) and seeing if there’s interest. these are not formal or MT run events.

73 Ed.

The only contest I heard was the LZ one you originally identified. I heard plenty of contest stations and thought about calling in but far too many contesters have brain failure when you present a complex call like EA8/M0FMF/p so I didn’t bother. There was plenty of space on 20m and 17m SSB was really full instead.

Mid-week is probably viable but there will be a lot fewer stations to take part as many of us are still working. That doesn’t preclude running an event however. The same sort of applies to having a weekend event or 2 days of events. Having one relatively short event concentrates the activity into a real feeding frenzy and that is part of the fun in my book.

However, the only way to find out what works is to try.

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What is the problem that the S2S party takes place on Saturday and Sunday?

I think the event benefits from a narrow activation window. My preference would actually be to narrow it to 2-3 hours. We need to try and get everyone on their summits at the same time. And depending on the time of year, summit conditions can be very cold so it is an advantage to keep the time limited.

As far as weekend vs weekday, a large percentage of activators have jobs during the week that would prevent them from participating during the week.

73, Barry N1EU

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You are right, Gerald.
Saku realized in addition a crystal clear s2s with me on HB/FR-036 (confirmed) and your call is unfortunately logged as F6HDI/P.

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Well the kit is just about dried out and logs updated on SOTA website (and loTW/clublog).

All in all a great event and as someone new to SOTA this year I learnt a lot and will be better prepared next time!

In terms on planning I put all my eggs in the “20m” basket which was probably a mistake though I did manage to get QRV on 17.

Arrived on site at G/SC-008 at about 1420 (with 11 y/o son!).

The antenna setup was a pair of 1/4wave verts, with 2 raised radials each, 5/8 wavelength apart fed in phase to theoretically give broadside gain. I’d tested this from home on Wednesday and the results into NA were pretty positive. (SWR for each vert was 1:1 so together it was 2:1 - the planned matching network never got off the todo list…)

Set up antennas and tent, in worsening rain, opened chocolate biscuits and started to tune 20m SSB.
Heard some NA activators and listened to them running decent pile ups. Put a few calls in but the 10w wasn’t cutting it so after an interesting ‘SWL’ session went back to CW!

First call in the log was OH9XX/P S2S #1 !
Called CQ and had a nice run of EU S2S but despite RBN spots in NA had no EU<>NA S2S.

Son had to bail out at this stage so short break to meet up with XYL!

WX getting really rubbish now - rain horizontal but was determined to make an NA S2S.
Checked SOTAWatch and all the action seemed to be on 17m.
With a bit of adjustment I got one of the verticals resonant on 17. Spun the dial and the first signal I heard was EA8/MM0FMF/P in QSO with N1EU.
Worked Andy first call for my first ever inter-continental S2S.
Figuring N1EU was in S&P mode I called CQ and sure enough the first NA S2S was in the log :slight_smile:
WB8OGK soon followed.

Last QSO in the log was K2TQC back on 20m at 1610 - at which point I checked the WX radar and the approaching “Storm Angus” looked horrific so bailed out quick!

Bit disappointed my 20m setup didn’t yield more NA S2S but 10 S2S QSOs across 3 continents I was more than pleased with :slight_smile:

Thanks to @N1EU and @MM0FMF for two milestone SOTA QSOs for me!

I think propagation was slightly down on earlier in the week. My RBN numbers suggest I was doing better into NA when I was testing from home on Wednesday and the summit definitely has a better take off than my QTH.

73, Gareth

RBN DATA

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Gerald,

Sorry, sorry, sorry - you are right, me wrong! :slight_smile:

My papers were fully wet and difficult to read later, so I copied to my log call F6HDI/p at home and did not find the summit (on paper text was unable to read). But now I fix it.

“whereof seven S2S qsos (OH9XX/p, F5LKW/p, HB9AFI/p, G0POT/p, G0MFR/p, EA2IF/p and F6HBI/p)”

73, Saku OH2NOS

It’s a good thing the event was not today. Conditions on 20 are very poor at the moment.

http://dxplorer.net/wspr/tx/dxgraph.html?callsign=g3cwi&timelimit=3d

Not to mention conditions outside :thumbsdown:
73,
Rod

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Saku,
Sorry to come back. You might have overlooked my comment above regarding our s2s (which is correct logged in your activator log)?

Your summary will then read as: “whereof eight S2S qsos (OH9XX/p, F5LKW/p, HB9AFI/p, G0POT/p, G0MFR/p, EA2IF/p, F6HBI/P and HB9BCB/P"

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