Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party - 3 November 2018

Yeah, I’m more concerned about the white stuff than the propagation :roll_eyes:

we also already have considerable snow in the local mountains

Barry N1EU

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The atmospheric winds are my main concern. Early forecast for next Saturday is wet and windy. I’m hoping to be out, but will wait for the forecast to firm up a bit before finalising plans

Weather forecast for Austria is good.
So we will try to make contacts with a vertical delta loop and an elevated groundplane as alternative (we’ll see which one performs better). Transmitting power will be about 50 W.

73
Peter & Sylvia

Ditto! Tal y Fan GW/NW-040 is a strong contender for Gerald and I but subject to confirmation…

Hi Peter,
I like the idea of the delta loop antenna for SOTA and have built and used a diamond quad (single element) for 10m. I have also reshaped my 40m linked dipole, with a bit of added conductor to replace the end effect shortening, to make it into a diamond quad on 20m, albeit with the connected ends only a metre above ground. I will try that idea again as I think it has potential to provide some free gain.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

I once used a full wavelength 40m horizontal skyloop from VK2/HU-093 Mt. Elliot - it worked well but certainly not an option for a one man activation.

Ed.

I will be on W7A/MN-070 Saturday from 1400 to 1900 looking for EU and NA s2s. Two element wire beam on 20 and 17. I will also be looking for USA s2s, and NA chasers at some point.

I worked G4OBK from a W7A summit on October 27th (last Saturday) at 16:38 on 20M CW. He was quite strong, so maybe this Saturday will be just as good!

EU stations look for my self spots!

C U then

Pete
WA7JTM
W7A/MN-070 Saturday

P.S. putting in an alert is problematic here…took a few tries to get it to show up

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I’m on duty all that weekend 12hr Day shifts so I won’t be around to chase i’m afraid. Maybe if another one comes up I will be home to take part. Good luck to everyone and hope it’s a huge success.

Don GW0PLP IO72 West Coast of Wales.

Look what coincidentally is planned to take place also on saturday:

RaDAR Challenge on 3 November

The last South African RaDAR Challenge for 2018 takes place from 00:00 UTC to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 3 November 2018.

The RaDAR Challenge is a unique event aimed at promoting the use of Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio stations. Categories - fixed, field or moving, may be changed at any time during the challenge. RaDAR operators are encouraged to be self-sufficient during each challenge, with not only power supply and communications equipment but food, water, protective clothing and shelter.

RaDAR operators define their own operating time schedule. It is up to each individual to plan his or her maximum, single period, four-hour operation. All amateur bands are allowed including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites using CW, SSB, FM or any legal amateur radio digital mode.

The RaDAR challenge requires more than a minimalistic information exchange; accurate information exchange is considered more important than a large QSO count. Exchange your call sign, your name, RS or RST report and your grid locator. The grid locator of six characters is acceptable but should preferably be accurate to 8 or 10 characters for higher position accuracy (especially for moving RaDAR stations). Get all the information in the 2018 SARL Blue Book.

South African Radio League

I planned to bring a Delta Loop too :wink:
The design is described here:

TRX is my K3, running up to 100 Watts if really required.

cu on Saturday, 73,
Roman - DL3TU

I suspect the winds from the Coronal Hole will hit tomorrow - ahead of schedule as 20m is full of US and Canadian stations at the moment at 57 to 5-9+ just on my wire loop. So the 20m band is open.

(1500-1600 UTC - 30/10/2018)

73 Ed.

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Forecast so far for Saturday:
G/NP & LD - heavy rain
G/TW - dry, but 30mph + winds

Afraid I might be giving this a miss. Good luck to you all

Planned my participation for the event. Does anybody in the States plan to activate with FT-8? I could take my setup with me, hoping that there’s still space on a table at the summit I plan to activate.

20m is open again (14:00 UTC 31/10) Canadian & US stations at good signal strengths - I hope this lasts until Saturday!

This weekend I will be hiking and will try to activate 3 summits: YO/EC-002 , YO/EC-044, YO/EC-042
We will sleep overnight close to YO/EC-044, so we might activate it later in the evening. We hope to be there at 14:00 UTC. I will have the KX3 with me, not sure about the antenna (linked dipole for 20/40, or vertical for 20). Unfortunately SSB only.

I will post some alerts later.

73,
Petronel

PS: if we have FT8 activators/chasers I can try to get my tablet with me, otherwise I wont carry it with me for 35-40km (20+ miles)

With more winds forecast for Saturday, I have decided to change my Saturday activation to Hesselberg, a summit about 2 hours drive north of here, which has the advantage of being a drive-up summit and hence has no reliance on cable cars or seat lifts.
I will try to get to Hinteres Hoernle (where I was planning to go on Saturday) tomorrow to test out all of the equipment for Saturday. At the moment the snows have cleared and the winds are not supposed to be too bad tomorrow.

We do have a few more alerted for Saturday now:

I have added a provisional alert pending further information on the WX on Saturday. The summit in North Wales is 2hrs 45 mins drive from Paul’s QTH, with another 1hr 30 mins for me to get over to him (motorway roadworks prevail) from here in the East MIdlands. If it is going to be particularly inclement in North Wales, then a summit closer to Paul’s QTH will be selected. We are discussing options, but won’t be letting the WX rule the day.

73, Gerald G8CXK (G4OIG)

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Yes Ed, 20 m band was in vy good shape this afternoon for transatlantic qsos. I was on S5/BR-019 today and logged 10 NA East and West coast CW/SSB chasers from 15:10 to 15:40 UTC. My antenna was a simple nonresonant Endfed, inverted L on 7 m pole, tuned by ATU in KX3@15W. Shame, no chance for me to participate in the event as activator. Good propagation and good luck to all.
73,
Mirko S52CU

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The weather forecast for Saturday doesn’t look great here. I will be on the summit if at all possible, but I will have to see on Saturday how long I can stay on the air.

73, Malcolm VE2DDZ

Quite nice wx forecast for DM/TH. But I’m a bit worried about the expected G1 solar storm that might hit us on Saturday afternoon.
Anyway, nice condx yesterday and today. On 17 m SSB, I worked K2 and K6 yesterday (from a GMA summit), and today from DM/TH-844 more W-stations than europeans! :sunglasses:
Let’s hope the condx will last!

Ahoi
Pom