SOTA NEWS - NOVEMBER 2014. PART 2 OF 2
NORTH AMERICAN NEWS by Skip K6DGW
STATISTICS [as of 2245Z 31 Oct 2014]: I realized that if I didn’t get the downloads before 2400Z on 31 Oct I might lose them, but it appears I got them just in time:
NORTH AMERICA TOTALS
Total Activations: 470 [507]
Nr Unique Activators: 146 [171]
Total Chaser QSOs: 5831 [6112]
Nr Unique Chasers: 238 [240]
Total Summits Activated: 470 [487]
Unique Summits: 335 [389]
2m: 125 (2%) [250]
6m: 0 (0%) [8]
10m: 154 (2%) [12]
12m: 181 (3%) [63]
15m: 321 (5%) [236]
17m: 203 (3%) [203]
20m: 3756 (64%) [4244]
30m: 148 (2%) [159]
40m: 936 (16%) [923]
60m: 0 (0%) [0]
80m: 0 (0%) [0]
160m: 2 (0%) [0]
Unk: 5
CW: 3764 (64%) [3800]
SSB: 1942 (33%) [2051]
FM: 122 (2%) [251]
AM: 2 (0%) [1]
Data: 0 (0%) [1]
Other: 1 (0%) [3]
Unk: 5
As usual, I wonder about one AM QSO, but for the month, we appear to be heading into winter in most of North America, when only the strongest [and generally the youngest] head for the peaks. While I’m mindful that 85.41% of the population makes up their own statistics, these come from the SOTA DB, and all of you who upload your logs, so I think they’re indicative.
AWARDS and ACCOMPLISHMENTS: [Excuse: I may have missed some on the NASOTA group, I’ll do better, Barry will have the full report further up in the SOTA News]
Guy, N7UN, reports: “Congrats to Kevin for achieving goatdom! As North America’s 19th goat, he joined the herd yesterday! Baaa!!”
Lee, AA4GA W4G AM [cool call for the GA AM, GA6AM would have worked really well, but obviously that isn’t going to happen :-)] reports, "Hot on the heels of K4KPK’s achievement of becoming a Mountain Goat (congratulations Kevin!), Larry, K4PIC has attained Super Sloth status - two firsts for the Georgia association in one weekend! Congrats also to Larry!
“Scott/W7IMC is next up with 996 points. Winter is settling in many places in the western states so the rush is on!”
And my activation Buddy Rich, NU6T, did some of my reporter grunt-work and sent me this summary:
“The growth of NA SOTA has been amazing. In a few short years the number of Shack Sloths in North America has grown to 142. Sixteen have exceeded 10xSS (ten times Shack Sloth), eight have exceeded 20xSS and 2 have exceeded 40xSS.”
“Call area Shack Sloth totals are: VE = 7, W0 = 16, W1 = 10, W2 = 4, W3 = 2, W4 = 29, W5 = 22, W6 =17, W7 =28, W8 =2, and W9 = 5.”
“That is a heap of QSOs, and a heap of activations. It --must-- be fun!”
Steve, WG0AT, also communicated: “Rich/AC7MA and I stealthily launched a signal from the 10,000’ Haleakala Crater Summit for SOTA! Park Rangers showed up unexpectedly. I quickly explained what SOTA was about and they
said: “OK, leave it like you found it” (leave no trace)”
“Sadly only 2-QSOs (NS7P, N7CW) to NA’s west coast on 20/15m before QRT’d…band was punk on Saturday? CME or something going on? Plus extended family was getting impatient for our hike down from rim.
…Still a great FUN stealthy SOTA!!”
He also quietly mentioned something about a little Rooster Dust, but we won’t go there in public.
REPORTS: This has to be a little abbreviated this month, I’m out of time. I also get so many reports that SOTA News would take many pages for all of them. I think we will drop “Reports” in favor of an interesting discussion topic that has arisen in the last month on the NA group. Comments to the contrary gladly accepted.
INTERESTING DISCUSSION TOPIC: “Leave No Trace.” It’s been a spirited discussion … protecting the same wild lands we seek to enjoy and activate on the NA Group. Those of us in the US western parts of NA are surrounded by protected wilderness, National Forest lands, and BLM lands, most of which we can access at will. I’m pretty sure our Canadian neighbors have the same, I’ve seen a few. We can, and often are good ambassadors for Amateur Radio. We can also be good ambassadors for “Taking care of the land.” The common Boy Scout maxim, “Pack out what you Pack in,” is a start, and “Pack out someone else’s too” is a good corollary.
I apologize for the brevity this month, just otherwise really occupied.
73,
Skip K6DGW
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CW REPORT - OCTOBER 2014 by Roy G4SSH
The extended summer season came to an abrupt close during the latter half of October with severe gales and storms sweeping across Europe. This was reflected on SOTAwatch where the spots rapidly decreased in number to a level where on the 22nd there were no CW spots from any European station for the entire 24 hours and just two EU CW stations on the following day. On the 24th Jurg HB9BIN informed me that he was activating during the first snowfall of the season.
Propagation fluctuated wildly at times, especially towards the end of the month. On the morning of the 26th a sudden X2-flare resulted in 7, 10 and 14 MHz going completely dead for a couple of hours whilst 21, 24 and 28 MHz were jumping. Chasers were struggling with signals that vanished mid-QSO.
Jurg OE/HB9BIN was again on an OE tour during the month. Stephan HB0/DM1LE
was again active from Lichtenstein and Austria OE/DM1LE. Hans was again very active as HB9/PB2T and Reinhard was using EA5/DK1IO
Sake took advantage of a 5 day holiday in Sauerland, with his wife, and was active as
DL/PA0SKP. The result was 9 x VK’s ! He thanks all the Australian friends for working him. He was mostly active on 14,062 MHz, but also on 7 MHz. Sometimes it was just a short activation when it started raining. His total was140 QSO’s, which included (VE1,N7,KA3 and EU-stations)
Rob 9H4RH was heard operating regularly from Malta and Gozo, where he was joined by guest ops Rolf 9H3RV and Les 9H3LA.
It was a pleasure to hear Marek EI7KH back on air, followed by Gerard, EI/VK2IO on the 5th. EI’s are relatively rare on CW (Apart from Dave G4ASA on his summer holidays).
Speaking of rare countries, also on the 5th there was Sid ZS5AYC noted active on SSB on 7090 MHz from ZS/MP-009
Kurt HB9AFI and Heinz HB9BCB were activating 10 pointers, on different bands simultaneously in the DM/BW region, so ensuring that as many chasers as possible were able to hear them on numerous bands. This was one of the most efficient SOTA expeditions I have ever heard, with Kurt and Heinz activating 4 or 5 summits per day and in order that the RBN did not broadcast incorrect information they deliberately did not give a SOTA reference number in the Alerts, but used DM/BW-??? for them all, thus ensuring that chasers had to listen carefully to every activation - and every spot with a reference was from a chaser who had heard the Ref. sent. Congratulations on a textbook expedition.
Andy DK7MG operated from DL/BG-082 on the 20th, then jumped over the border fence to activate the same summit as OE/DK7MG, OE/SB-204.
Moonlight expedition
On the night of full moon (October 8th to 9th) Rolf HB8DGV and Hans HB9BQU hiked from Villeret HB/BE-104 and then to HB/BE-102. From there they walked more than 2 hours to the next railway station in Twann. They hoped to work some DX-QSO’s during the night, but it was a false hope; Hans worked only a few EU-stations from both summits, but enough to count the activation. There was only one station in Rolf’s log (W1AW/4 in Virginia) from HB/BE-104, after more than one hour CQ’ing on 10.1 MHz, but there was a big pileup on this band. On the second summit Rolf had no QSO in the log after 45 min. calling CQ, again on 10.118 MHz.
Rolf commented “That’s life, but the hike was great. Bad results are also an experience”.
Towards the end of the month Zoli YO2BP was active from multiple summits, along with his colleague Gil, YO/DL2NGN and Petr OK1CZ activated many summits in the OK/JC border area.
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SOTA CW ACTIVATORS SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE DATA BASE ABOVE 7 MHZ DURING OCTOBER 2014 - from Kevin G0NUP
This file produced on 29th October 2Ø14
Mode : SOTA CW on 1ØMHz : activity for October :
9H3RV/P, 9H4RH/P, DF3MC/P, DJ2FR, DJ9MH/P, DK7FH/P, DK7MG/P,
DL/HB9AFI/P,
DL/HB9BCB/P, DL/HB9BQB/P, DL/HB9CLT/P, DL/HB9DST/P, DL/PAØSKP/P, DL/PB2T/P, DL1AIW/P, DL2EF/P, DL3VU/P, DL4FDM/P, DL6AP/P, DL8JJ/P, DL8RL/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, EA2IF/P, EA4MZ/P, EI7KH/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, G4OBK/P, G4RQJ/P, G4TJC/P, GW4AZS/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HBØ/DM1LE/P, HB9/PB2T/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BHW/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CMI/P, HB9CSA/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9DST/P, HB9EWO/P, HB9IIO/P, HB9TVK/P, I/F6HBI/P, IK3/DF3MC/P, K1JD, K2UFT, K4KPK, K6EL, KD5KC, KE5AKL, KK6C, KR7W, KXØR, LA1ENA/P, MØHDF/P, MØIML/P, N1EU, N6JZT, NF1R, NK6A, NS7P, OE/DK7MG/P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/DL6AP/P, OE/DL9MDI/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE/HB9BIN/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE1HFC/P, OE1MVA/P, OE1WIU/P, OE5EEP/P, OK1CZ/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BTK/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2PYA/P, OK2TX/P, OK2VWB/P, OK3EQ/P, OM/HA5CQZ/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4XA/P, PA7ZEE/P, S5/OE6WIG/P, S52CU/P, S53XX/P, SP/OK2HIJ/P, SP/OK2VWB/P, SP9AMH/P, VK2AET/P, VK3CAT/P, W4/PA3BHF, WA9STI, WB4SPB, WB5USB, WH6LE, YO/DL2NGN/P, YO/HA8BE, YO2BP/P
Mode : SOTA CW on 14MHz : activity for October :
AB1VL, AD4IE, AD5A, AE5KA, AE7AP, AG5CQ, CT1BWW/P, DD5AM, DFØFHH/P, DF2GN/P, DF3MC/P, DF8KY/P, DG5WU/P, DK7MG/P, DK7MX/P, DL/GM4COX/P, DL/HB9AFI/P, DL/HB9BCB/P, DL/PAØSKP/P, DL/PB2T/P, DL1AIW/P, DL3VU/P, DL4TO/P, DL6CGC/P, DL8DZL/P, EA1AER/P, EA2/F5UKL/P, EA2BD/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW, EA2CW/P,
EA2IF/P, EA5/DK1IO/P, EA5FV/P, EI/VK2IO/P, F/HB9BCB/P, F5LKW/P, F6HBI/P, F8FEO/P, G4ASA/P, G4OBK/P, G4RQJ/P, GIØODA/P, GM3YTS/P, GWØODA/P, HA5LV/P, HA5MA/P, HB/GM4COX/P, HBØ/DM1LE/P, HB9/PB2T/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9AFI/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BIN/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CKV/P, HB9CMI/P, HB9CSA/P, HB9CZF/P, HB9DAX/P, HB9DGV/P, HB9HVK/P, HB9IAB/P, HB9IIO/P, I/F6HBI/P, IK3/DF3MC/P, IV3/S57X/P, KØFTC, K1JD, K1TNT, K2JB, K2UFT, K3EL, K6HPX/P, K6SU, K6TW, K7JFD, KB7HH, KD5KC, KD7WPJ, KE5AKL, KR7W, KTØA, KXØR, LA1ENA/P, LJ1GB, MØHDF/P, MM/PAØINA/P, MMØGYX/P, NØTA, N1EU, N2GDS, N4KGL, N5XL, N6JZT, N6KZ/P, N7CW, N7KRN, N7RR, NA6MG, ND7PA, NE1SJ, NF1R, NK6A, NM5S, NN5K, NSØTA, NS7P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/DL6AP/P, OE/DL9MDI/P, OE/DM1LE/P, OE/HB9BIN/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE1HFC/P, OE1WSA/3, OE5EEP/P, OE5EIN/P, OE6WIG/P, OE7PHI/P, OE9AMJ/P, OH2NOS/P, OH3KRH/P, OK/OE5EIN/P, OK/OM1HI/P, OK/PB2T/P, OK1AU/P, OK1CZ/P, OK1DTP/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK1NF/P, OK2BDF/P, OK2BWB/P, OK2CLL/P, OK2PDT/P, OK2PYA/P, OK2SAM/P, OM2JU/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4XA/P, OM6AZ/P, PA7ZEE/P, S51RU/P, S52CU/P, S53XX/P, S57X/P, SV9/MMØDHY/P, VA2SNL, VA2VL, VA7VJ, VE3DTI, VK1DA, VK2AET/P, VK2AFA, VK5CZ, WØCCA, WØCP, WØMNA, W1ZU, W1ZU/6, W2CKL, W4/PA3BHF, W4EON, W4PH, W4QO, W6AH, W7JET, W7USA, W9FHA, WA6KYR, WA7JTM, WA7NCL, WA9STI, WBØUSI, WB4SPB, WB5USB, WH6LE, WSØTA
Mode : SOTA CW on 18MHz : activity for October :
9H4RH/P, AB1VL, AG5CQ, DFØFHH/P, DL/OK1NF/P, DL6AP/P, EA2/F5UKL/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW/P, F6HBI/P, G4OBK/P, HA5MA/P, HB9/PB2T/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BSH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CSA/P, HB9IIO/P, K1JD, K3EL, K6SU, K6TW, KB7HH, KTØA, KXØR, MØHDF/P, MMØGYX/P, MWØIDX/P, N4KGL, N7CW, N7RR, NA6MG, NK6A, NS7P, OE/DL4MHA/P, OE/DL6AP/P, OE/S52CU/P, OE5EEP/P, OK1CZ/P, OK1DVM/P, OK1MLP/P, OK1NF/P, OK2BDF/P, OM2JU/P, OM3CUG/P, OM4DW/P, S52CU/P, SV9/MMØDHY/P, VA2SNL, WØCP, WH6LE
Mode : SOTA CW on 21MHz : activity for October :
AD5A, AE5KA, DF3MC/P, DK7MG/P, DL/PB2T/P, EA2/F5UKL/P, EA2BDS/P, EA2CW,
EA2CW/P, F6HBI/P, HB9BAB/P, HB9BCB/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CGA/P, HB9CMI/P, HB9IIO/P, K2JB, K3EL, K6EL, KD5KC, KXØR, N4KGL, N6KZ/P, N7CW, N9SE/4, NA6MG, NM5S, NN5K, NSØTA, OE5EEP/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2SAM/P, OM/HA5CQZ/P, OM3CUG/P, S52CU/P, VA2SNL, VA2VL, WA7JTM, WA7NCL
Mode : SOTA CW on 24MHz : activity for October :
9H4RH/P, DL6AP/P, EA2/F5UKL/P, EA2CW, EA2CW/P, EA2IF/P, F6HBI/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CSA/P, K1JD, KD5KC, KD7WPJ, MMØFMF/P, NA6MG, NK6A, OE/DL6AP/P, OE5EEP/P, OH2NOS/P, OK1MLP/P, OK2BDF/P, S52CU/P, VA2VL, WØCP, W6AH
Mode : SOTA CW on 28MHz : activity for October :
9H4RH/P, AE5KA, DF3MC/P, DK7MG/P, EA2/F5UKL/P, EA2BD/P, F6HBI/P, HB9AFH/P, HB9BRJ/P, HB9CBR/P, HB9CSA/P, K2JB, K6SU, K7JFD, KD5KC, N7RR, NA6MG, OE5EEP/P, S52CU/P, W4/PA3BHF, WA7JTM, WB5USB
73 de Kevin GØNUP
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SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by SOTA enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 24 different countries. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.
73
Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk
U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW [aka “Skip” on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Auburn CA
k6dgw@foothill.net
Australian input to:-
Allen VK3HRA
VK Reporter
arharvie@gmail.com
South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za
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