OE/F8CZI/P on OE/VB-454

Hello @ all,

I went yesterday for a new SOTA activity on OE/VB-454. The used equipment was a FT817 with a dipole at 6m height. After a small check with a QSO in SSB with F1HVH to see if it works properly, I decide to try in CW for the first time in spite that I am a just beginner in this mode.

I was able to see that it is more difficult than to chase SOTA from my shack where it is possible to listen several times and be certain to have taken well the call before answering. The most terrible for me was the pile up, may be after the spot in Sotawatch, when a multitude of station answers at the same time producing a very big noise compared to a samba orchestra from the Rio carnival. I do not know if it was the good method, but I have show patience and after the QRG was quiet again and I was finally able to decode a new call sign and make some QSO. I would thus like to apologize on the mediocre quality of my cw traffic which I hope can now improve by practising more often CW on my activity SOTA. I am also want to thank the OM which answered well in QRS continuation my requests and F8FEO who has me spotted on the Sotawatch and who there managed to make me the STRESS HI

Hope to contact you again from another summit … in cw :wink:

Best 73’s de OE/F8CZI/P

In reply to F8CZI:

Congratulations on your first SOTA CW activation Laurent. Welcome.

There was no problem reading your CW which was very clear and well formed.

As a newcomer, you handled the pile up exactly right. The best way is not to fight against dozens of callers but to sit back and wait - the chasers will not go away - and eventually you will copy a full call.

Repeat as necessary

Hope you hear you on the air again soon

73
Roy
G4SSH

In reply to G4SSH:

Hello Roy,

Thank you for your answer.

I am very satisfied to have applied the good method, I can thus continue so. I hope I can progress quickly to increase the part CW vs SSB of my traffic.

Hope ti hear you from a next SOTA.

73’s de Laurent F8CZI … at home now!

In reply to F8CZI:

Hi Laurent

Glad to know that you start in CW ! Fine !
Now you are ready to come in UFT…

Of course, the SOTA pileup is difficult to manage for the first time, but with training it will be easier.
You may try “Morse Runer”, a very good software for CW

Best 73 and congrats

Alain F6ENO

In reply to F6ENO:

Hi Alain,

Thanks for your answer. I think I am now on the right way and the next Sota activity will be only in CW (the microphone will stay at home so no possibility to switch to SSB).

Before my hollydays, I have trained with Morse Runner. Very usefull tool. I found just one point not good: you can just set the max speed in the single mode (for me 15) but you can also receive call with very slow speed and it is not glad to improve the speed level for me. I wrote a mail to Alex who answered to me that i have to use the HST Mode. But in this case, it is not possible to have just one caller at the same time. I have to found some other training software and… to make sota activation for improve my CW RX !!

73’s de Laurent F8CZI

In reply to F8CZI:

Laurent, I used lcwo.net in callsign training mode to get up speed and MorseRunner generating multiple calls to help me with the pileups. It is very daunting at first with the number of chasers who call but you just have to keep calm and work what you can hear.

What you find is the the chasers who are top of the tables are at the top because they listen to the activator and adjust their sending to best match the activator’s skill level. They make it easy for beginners like us to complete a QSO. More QSOs = more points for them!

Hopefully we can have a CW S2S QSO soon.

À bientôt,

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your message.

I see that you have the same strategie that Roy explain to me in a previous post. I want to thanks you also for the SMS spot system, it works fine… if a network is present :wink:

For me, the very difficult thing is when operator does not respect the rythm for the transmission that I can not recognize the letters. Same problem when musicians plays together the same music each with a different rythm.

73’s de Laurent F8CZI