Sota:- From the chaser

Good luck witth the Cobweb Steve - that could be a “killer” antenna on a summit! I know what you mean about being able to hear and work more from a /P location than at home - I think a lot of us find that.

Ed.

Yes I suppose so! Currently I get about S8 to 9 of pure noise at home on 20m. It’s so blissfull to switch on atop a summit so see S0 to S1 noise!

Any location has its advantages and disadvantages for chasing, one way or another. Of course, if you’re way outside any SOTA associations then the chasing will be harder; I’ve tried chasing from Kenya, and it’s certainly an interesting challenge from there. If you’re within active SOTA associations then, inevitably, you’re somewhat at the mercy of propagation and of activators’ choices of bands. I’ve more than once gone to a summit intending to use various bands and ended up, for one reason or another, using fewer or different ones; no plan survives contact with the summit (or the conditions, or the chasers)… :wink:

On the Brocken DM/SA-001 back at the beginning of October, not knowing the summit, and having limited time, I ended up only getting contacts on 30 and 20 metres CW because I could only find space to put up a loaded vertical. If I could have found somewhere to put a dipole up I might have worked 40, 30 and 20.

On Torenberg PA/PA-004 at the end of September I’d intended to give 40, 30 and 20 an airing, but I ran out of time before I ran out of chasers on 40, and so never got as far as 30 or 20.

That was the way things crumbled that time. Next timee the’ll probably crumble differently…

73, Rick M0LEP

I imagine that any pre-existing provisions will remain unchanged, so those who can run SSB now will be able to continue to run SSB (amongst others, that’s me!) and hopefully the 15 KHz will in future years be expanded as it will be surrounded by larger local allocations and the restriction will come to seem pointless. Meanwhile the DX possibilities continue to expand around the world and it is already clear that late-night communications can be intercontinental with low power and a dipole (I have crossed the Atlantic with 5 watts SSB and a G5RV!)

Brian

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Hi Brian,
As always time of day, band and conditions affect everything. I have worked DL - VK with 5w SSB and an off centre fed dipole at 5m above ground at its suport point on several occasions, a couple of times Summit to Summit.

I don’t think the power restriction on 5MHz will be an issue - in fact I welcome it as we’ll get more stations in the space with lower powered signals not over-loading sensitive Rx front ends (or simply splattering). The idea seems to have been accepted to go away from a channelised 5MHz to a “real” band albeit quite small to start with.

Given that Germany was one of the opponents originally I’m not holding my breath as to when the band might be made available here, assuming the proposal gets final acceptance at the WRC. Good to see the Dutch authorities releasing the band ahead of the final decision.

Ed.