Wade is hoping to have his 14 MHz privaledges by then all going to plan
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Sorry guys and gals ā¦ I wonāt be on a summit in the morning, Iām giving a SOTA lecture at the Bergheim Funkflohmarkt ā¦ in German ! (I wonder how that will go ā¦ never done it in German).
https://flohmarkt.ov-g20.de/index.php/vortraege
But in the afternoon, if weather permits, I will be activating DM/NW-134 Sophienhƶhe. Maybe I can lure some hams in my audience to join me on this activation.
Last saturday I did my first activayion in 2018, and to my surprise, I had my first ever EU<>VK contact with VK5PAS, not S2S but hey, itās a start ā¦ I was soo happpy !
So who knows it will happen again on March 10th ?
73 Luc ON7DQ
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Just added an alert for HB/SG-046. I was looking for a summit with a reasonable driving/hiking time from home with the summit not being surrounded with trees and space for a 20m GP.
The summit might change if I find a better one, however I doubt Iāll find a really high one accessible by cable car since they donāt run at that time unless itās daylight saving time.
73 de Jens, HB9EKO
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GOOD NEWS!
I have just watched the Dr. Skov section on Hamnation and if what she defines comes to be, as of this weekend for two weeks the SFI should be coming back up to average condition (by which I read the mid 70ās), without any storms to bring the base noise level up. While mid-70s this isnāt great, itās a lot better than weāve had for the last two weeks, so with any luck we could get some good contacts happening on the 10th. !!
Ed.
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I have just added my alert for 6h30 UTC of April 10th on a summit TBD yet.
Open question to the organisers:
what do you think about splitting the available time for the LP propagation EU<>VK-ZL-JA in sections of, letās say 20-30 minutes or so for each side of the party CQing and the other side of the party working S&P and answering to those CQing?
In the following time section of 20-30 minutes, the roles would reverse and the stations who had been initially CQing, will have to work S&P to call to the other ones who will now be CQing.
This idea comes to my mind because I worked several S2S with VK in last year event and most or all of them were worked in S&P and I remember being in the dilema of starting to CQ in order to let others know that I was there for giving them the chance to come and chase me or keep searching the band or SOTAwatch trying to find some other activators from VK-ZL-JA.
If VK-ZL-JA start CQing and EU work S&P for the first 20-30 minutes and then we all reverse our roles for the other 20-30 minutes, Iām pretty sure we will maximize the number of S2S QSOs with the other side of the globe.
Letās see what are your thoughts.
Cheers,
Guru
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Hi Guru,
During this event last March, I worked 13 VKās, 5 of them summit to summit and 2 ZLāsā¦
As one of the organizers, I have no plans to change the way I operate.
73 Mike
That could work really well Guru. Why donāt you propose some specific times in UTC for this and we can all give it a go. Of course, individuals donāt have to follow this protocol should they not wish, but if the band is open, then the DX S2S opportunities could well be maximised for everyone the greater the level of cooperation with such an experiment.
Hi Guru
I have the same problem in this kind of event, i e, S&P or CQ?
So, thatās a good idea! 
73 de Pedro, CT1DBS/CU3HF
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Hi Guru,
Thanks for the suggestion and in stable radio conditions in a longer event this could work well however in my opinion - as long as one has an active 3G link and can see and post spots, the flexibility given is more applicable when conditions are challenging and variable as they are likely to be.
You also need to bear in mind, of all the stations who have alerted for 0630 UTC 20 % may actually start at 0630, others will be early, some late. Climbing time to all but the easiest summits is a variable depending upon ground and weather conditions. There are those (like mysel) who plan to start later because we have a longer drive to the car park before the climb. So getting to the summit and then thinking āhow do I fit into the schedule? can I transmit now or must I wait?ā is an extra complication to the activation.
In my experience new activators on summits first tune around to grab the S2S contacts and then find a calling frequency.
With radio conditions being variable, implementing 20 minute windows might stop contacts rather than help them. I think itās better to activate when the band is open and use the SotaWatch and SmartPhone Apps to see what is out there and let others know that you are on.
A request to all home station chasers (as you normally do), please give priority to S2S contacts taking place and inform the station when there is an S2S call if he/she hasnāt heard it.
A different Idea could be that when an activator calls another summit, at completion of the S2S contact he/she says something like āfor other chasers and S2S stations I will be calling CQ in 5 minutes and will spot myself for the frequencyā. Thatās helps others who wish to contact the calling summit station.
73 Ed.
PS Your alert is under 10th. April instead of 10th. March, Guru.
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Put my alert up for the Schƶckl. I hope itās a bit warmer than itās been this week, I canāt promise Iāll be up there if its -20C.
de OE6FEG / M0FEU
Matt
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As Bernard VK2IB has just pointed out on the SOTA Australia Yahoogroup list - if anyone wants to make a longer day out of it on the 10th. the RSGB Commonwealth (ex BERU) contest starts at 10:00 UTC for 24 hours, so those who are able to stay on their summits longer may grab a few distant contacts in the contest.
73 Ed.
No S2S with Mickey for you then Tom.
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OK, I fully respect your position, Mike.
Iām not one of the co-organisers of this event and I donāt want to interfere at all. What you are suggesting me to do, Tom, is something for them to do in case they fancy to.
I absolutely want to participate and Iāll fully respect the way the organisers have decided to do it. It was like in the last March 11th 2017 event and I managed to log 5 VK S2S QSOs. I lacked ZL and JA thoughā¦
Mine was just an idea and itās got pretty clear to me by now that the organisers donāt see it interesting, at least for this coming event.
Regarding the summit Iāll activate for this event, Iām in doubt on whether repeating the same 1-point summit with the same antenna setup I used last March 11th or going to a drive-on 4-pointer summit and trying to setup the same inverted L antenna configuration. The doubt will be probably cleared by the WX.
Cheers,
Guru
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Many thanks for the heads up. Itās now corrected.
73,
Guru
Hi
I registered for the event now, Iāll be activating LA/RL-062 Boknafjellet (IOTA EU-055).
I havenāt done any event like this before, is 20m the best band to be on?
Iāll be activating either as myself or LM10SOTA. Hopefully some other LA stations will also take part.
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Hi Kjetil,
Last year all my S2S contacts with VK were on 20m and Iād bet this band will be the best choice this year too.
Cheers,
Guru
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14 MHz should ve the best but I might give 18 and 21 MHz a crack if the conditions indicate.
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Hello,
Been meaning to give SOTA a go for ages and going to try and get out for this event for my first time. In at the deep end and all that. Will be on Cleeve Hill G/CE-001. Only 10W with the KX2 on SSB, so doubt I will make the long haul, but you never know. First step - work out how to post an alert!
BTW - I am now 2E0HZI, apparently need a bit more status to be able to update my callsign!
Tony
Hi Tony,
Welcome aboard - as many will tell you, SOTA is adictive but the most major point to understand is never press on when you arenāt sure itās safe to do so. Safety First. The hills and mountains will be there another day.
OK enough with negativity - Iām sure youāll get plenty of chaser contacts from around Europe and some Summit to Summit ones as well. It will be hard to make the long haul to VK/ZL in the present conditions but that does not say you wont manage it. Iāve managed S2S contact from here in Germany to VK with 5 watts of SSB, but that was when the bands were better a couple of years ago. One great thing about our hobby is youāll never know until you try and sometimes it does all drop into place.
You didnāt mention what antenna youāll be using and I see from your alert that you will be able to run 40m and 20m and aim to be on the summit for 0630 UTC in time for the start of the Long Path opening (if it happens) to VK/ZL.
As regards changing your callsign in the SOTA reflector and SOTAWatch, perhaps one of the admins will jump in and do that for you (hint, hint).
Hope to work you on the 10th.
73 Ed DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI.
Hi Tony,
What antenna are you planning to use for 20m?
73 Mike