Third NA<>EU S2S Event 18 Nov 17

[G4OIG]

Hi Ed,

I was surprised how long conditions stayed up on 18MHz. The band was still okay when I went QRT at 16:45 and I reckon it had a few more contacts in it before it closed.

The battery pack at this end is 2 x 4AH LiPOs in series with 2 x 10AH of NiMH, with the LiPOs changed part way through. It looks like the NiMH cells were the reason for the eventual demise of the pack, though I had a spare 10AH of NiMH and there was a bit left in the first pair of LiPOs.

As for the timing next year, well it is all up for discussion. Maybe a there is a balance point in the calendar when the weather is better and conditions are reasonable. It is certainly worthwhile considering late October. Of course on the European side, there is the timing of the VK/ZL/JA <> EU to consider.

73, Gerald G4OIG

[M1EYP]

Sunday 19th November 2017. With yet another cancelled gig and hundreds of miles not to drive, I fancied another 20m activation.

It was a beautiful clear and bright morning, though pretty cold. I knew The Cloud G/SP-015 would be busy, so I set up on my occasional perch - a grassy patch in a sea of heather, close the the escarpment edge, about 25 yards from the main path and around 15m lower than the actual summit.

Anyway, today’s results were not that dissimilar to yesterday’s, even 17 hours after the NA-EU S2S event - except there wasn’t a DX S2S!

QSOs: 66

20m CW: 43
20m SSB: 9
20m PSK31: 2
20m JT65: 1
2m FM: 11

S2S: 9

CT2GSN/P CT/MN-005
MW0XRT/P GW/NW-048
LZ/SV2RUJ/P LZ/KV-001
YO8SBR/P YO/EC-467
G8XYJ/P G/WB-014
G0HIO/P G/SP-001
EC2AG/P EA2/BI-009
E70AA/P E7/BO-055
F8FEO/P F/AM-671

SWL: 1

S57MS/P S5/JA-048

As I was walking down the hill, a walker ascending with his family stopped me and asked if I was doing SOTA. He’d spotted the fishing pole in my rucksack - but not the SOTA logo on my hat! It turns out it was Paul, someone who was out on SOTA’s very first day - 2nd March 2002. He wasn’t operating that day - he was unlicensed and just out for the walk with Richard G3CWI, although he did later go on to acquire a Foundation licence.

[M1BUU]

M1BUU/P, Fountains Fell G/NP-017, Saturday, 18th November. Brief report.

I chose Fountains Fell as it’s one of my nearer summits and I hadn’t activated it yet this year. It’s not my favourite summit but it’s a fairly easy, if boring, walk.

I decided to try both a dipole and a ground plane antenna. I wanted to switch instantly between either antenna but I looked at antenna switches at the dealers and decided that I could not afford their prices! I raided the junk box and knocked up a quick and dirty switch box -

The switch box worked fine and I noticed ever so slight better DX signals on the vertical, but it was very close between both antennas.

I took a ‘sun shelter’ to attempt the hold back some of the predicted breeze. The shelter isn’t very sturdy, I ended up propping it up with the spare pole section to stop it blowing flat! (see video later!)

Linked dipole and wire ground plane antenna for 20m with four elevated radials, fed at ~1m agl.

I started off on 14MHz and had a few Eu S2S on CW, I then worked Tom M1EYP/P (G/SP-015) on 20m SSB for my only phone QSO of the day.

I heard a large number of US stations on the bands but my first DX QSO was with N1GB on 20m CW. N4EX was next on 18MHz CW.

My only NA S2S was with Mike NS1TA on W1/EM-001 on 14-CW. Starngely enough, during the last Eu-NA event, my only NA S2S was also with Mike!

I heard Barry N1EU call me at one point but another summit station thought his QSO was more important and tried to bully a QSO, despite me asking specifically for N1EU only, unfortunately neither station ultimately ended up in my log. A shame, because I always like to get Barry in my log, he’s provided so many amazing chases of my flea power signals.

I began to grow a bit frustrated after a while of not working many stations so I dropped down on to 40m to seek some activity, unfortunately the band was crammed up to the point of busting, so I switched to 30m for a nice end to my activation. The video below shows some of my 30m operating, relevant here because it shows my gear and shelter. Note the pole propping up the shelter against the wind!

By 1600, I had got very cold so it was time to pack up. I left the summit at 1630 as it was just starting to get dark.

It was pitch black by the time I got back to my car at 1715.

In all I had 24 QSO’s comprising:

8 S2S including 1 S2S to NA
1 SSB
23 CW
18MHz x 2
14MHz x 17
10MHz x 5

73, Colin

[IW2OBX]

Hi at All,
On this one, I chose a new summit not yet activated, Corna Camozze I/LO-218.
I worked in 20 meter ssb, my first qso was with ik2ley that reminded me the EU/NA event, I simply forgot!

The propagation didn’t convinced me, after about half an hour I decided for QRT…

My Log:
9 QSOs
0 s2s
0 QSO NA

Many thanks to all those who chased me!

73 de Roberto iw2obx

[N1EU]

Wow, that bottom photo should be an Elecraft sales poster for the KX3! Stunning scenery Roberto!

ciao,
Barry

[DD5LP]

Yes but taking his washing with him and hanging it out - should earn more points, don’t you agree Barry?

Seriously Roberto - what are the items hung on the rope by your operating position - it looks like pages of a book.

73 Ed.

[OE5JFE]

@DD5LP

items hung on the rope

Looks like prayer flags

Prayer flag

73 Joe

[DD5LP]

Thanks for the expanation Joe.

Something a little related - I noticed lots of padlocks on the lightning arrester wire at Falkenstein (DL/AL-167) yesterday. I’ve seen these before on the tower at Friedrichshafen and indeed on the bridge over the Lech at Landsberg. These are often engraved with names or initials. I realise these a recording relationships between people however that they are starting to appear on summits surprised me. Perhaps in the case of Falkenstein, it’s the fact that it’s a castle’s ruins that attracts the padlock-crowd rather than it being a summit. Has anyone else seen these padlocks on summits?

I guess padlock manufacturers are happy with increased sales?

Ed.

[K6WRU]

That is kind of funny. The next lightning strike might end some relationships when it destroys the locks.

wunder

[DD5LP]

Actually I was wondering if I took an unun and/or ATU next time, whether I could load up the wire as an antenna. Being earther at one end would be a problem, as would intermittant earths along it’s length if people touched it I suppose.

73 Ed.

[OE5AUL]

Hi Ed

An ATU is very helpful when people sit on your antenna wire. During our activation of Schesaplana in OE/VB-019 we noticed that after some time serveral people were sitting on half of the doublet wire on one side of the antenna. The wire obviousley had come down and people did not care about a wire on the ground.
I first did not notice, tuned them up as capacative load and made the contacts with still good reports.
Only when packing up we saw the wire on the ground.

73,
Peter (& Sylvia)

[VK1DA]

Tom,
I saw your spot for 20m PSK yesterday, would have been 1200 Sunday approx, so having just finished a long documentation project I decided to try listening for you. Nothing heard of you but I did copy numerous other EU callsigns on PSK31, which is a first for me. I think I’ve come too late to the PSK party. It’s gone to FT8 now… sad.
Will look for you again next time. I was really surprised to hear any EU signals on 20m, that’s about 10pm local time and usually 20m has closed the door firmly by then, for me.
73 Andrew VK1DA VK2UH

[M1EYP]

Let’s have a sked early one morning then Andrew. That would be brilliant.

Don’t get carried away with the FT8 hype. There’s still loads of activity on PSK31, and loads on JT65. Any of those three will support a successful HF SOTA activation.

[G0CQK]

@MM0FMF

to move posts about.

I think that this does require admin capability. The functionality does not appear with TL3

[G4OIG]

Many thanks Jim. I started to attempt relocating the posts in the Practice area thinking it wasn’t visible, but it was, so thanks to whoever removed what I set up.

I will set up a new thread as suggested, but will need admin assistance to move over any relevant posts and so tidy this one.

73, Gerald G4OIG

EDIT: The transfer has now been done, so please post any comments about an event in 2018 on the new thread. Any further reports on the event on 18th November 2017, please add to this thread.

[G4OIG]

From the spots I have prepared a list of the calls of those that were active during the event and the summits they were on. Some may have been “accidentally” operational. If anyone was active that is not listed, please advise.

EDIT - updated version especially for Andy.