VK Visiting US

G’day,

Just a heads up that I intend to be active in W1/W2 on Sunday, November 16, as per alerts already posted. The only caveat will be what time I wake up due to jet lag. Bad weather won’t stop me :smile:

Later in the week, maybe Thursday and Friday, depending on work, I hope to also be active in W4C (W4C/EM-058 likely), W4T (W4T/SU-022 likely) and probably W4V, with possibly more. Alerts will be posted as my itinerary clears up.

Hopefully I can work a new group of SOTA chasers as I activate my third continent!

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR

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Best of Luck Andrew I hope you enjoy the trip and make lots of contacts.
I be watching out for you.
73 de Ian vk5cz …

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Hi Andrew,
No beam here but I’ll be listening for you on Sunday in any case in the hope of a first contact into my third continent in (hopefully) two associations, then I just need to keep an eye out for others from those associations in the future, to get the two summits that I need for Platinum Mountain Hunter.

With you adding the US to it and the involvement of several UK activators and myself from DL, this VK SOTA weekend is turning into a world-wide SOTA weekend!

73 Ed, DD5LP / VK2JI.

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and may the DX gods smile upon us all :smile:

Agreed Karl, lets hope the DX Gods are on our side - by the way I wonder if your cat moves when you transmit (other forum readers see Karl’s qrz.com picture) or stays there as it’s warm?

73 Ed.

I will be listening for you Andrew, but just a head’s up that the ARRL SSB sweepstakes are this weekend. If you have an antenna for the WARC bands, you might want to consider that for an escape from the contest activity.

73, pat - KI4SVM

Hi Andrew,
I will listen out for you. Cut off time for me is 2100hrs.
Good luck anyway and enjoy your journey.
Cheers
Mike

Thanks for the heads up, I might try 12m first then. I’ve abused my 15m linked dipole on 17m too in the past.

Sitting at LAX airport now feeling vaguely OK (or about as OK as anyone can feel at LAX), so we should be good for tomorrow. Timing still remains to be seen.

Cheers,
Andrew

Not quite a disaster, but close to it. A misspelled APN lost my data connection, so couldn’t spot, and ran out of time to do my W1 summit plans. Did work the Azores on 12m to activate the summit, but that was it. Couldn’t break the contest walls to get any others to qualify it. Two summits in two associations now with only one contact each.

Heading to Raleigh, NC tomorrow evening and will activate a few later in the week. I have to get four contacts at those, right? The SOTA gods cannot be that crazy.

Blog posting about the journey now up at W2/GC-122 Shaupeneak Ridge | VK3ARR's SOTA Blog

Hello Andrew,

How long will you be in the Raleigh area? Perhaps we can meet for a beer and discuss your activation plans for North Carolina.

Rich N4EX

Hi Rich,

I’m there for two days, pretty much in non-stop meetings, but I’ll drop you a private message and see if our schedules line up. I’m in Fayetteville St at the Marriot there (or will be when I arrive tonight at midnight :smiley:)

Cheers,
Andrew

Alerts posted for tomorrow now. Times approximate, pending the time I get away from Raleigh. Summits are all drive-up or close to it, so should be fairly accurate on times in between.

Antenna snapped in high winds putting it up and so I had to keep it off the ground by draping over some signs at the first summit. Trief for a S2S with W4PH who I could hear 51. Didn’t make it, so the summit remained unactivated.

Struggled on 12m, which was the only band I could really manage. Even then it was hard to hear much and I gave up before hypothermia set in. Broken mast, somd broken links in the wind and one broken man

I have clearly annoyed the sota gods somehow. I will think about what I have done :frowning:

Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew,

sorry to hear of your misfortune. A unique comment on Sotawatch, “antenna broken, soul broken”.

You will recover! Good try in clearly difficult circumstances. Later you will dine out on the story.

73
Andrew vk1da/2uh

Hi Andrew,

Bad luck. I know very well the feeling you get when in a strange place you call but get no response and you can’t break a net. But as they say it’s got to get better as it can’t get worse.

I guess you didn’t have a roll of duct tape for that antenna. I still use a squid pole that split in the wind several years ago and was repaired with the indispensable tape.

I was seriously contemplating listening out for you - your alert indicated around my midnight. I checked WSPR and 10 m was clearly most likely to give an opening but more likely earlier and later than midnight. I was up very early for a meteor scatter sked and afterwards did hear stateside stations on 10 m around 8 AM local but they were weak. By 1030 PM I was very tired and as the prospect of a QSO was slim I retired to bed.

After breakfast I read your sad story of the failed activations. Dang. You are not alone in being a SOTA visitor to the US and failing to get the required QSOs. I’d be interested on your take on that.

To appease the SOTA gods I recommend:
Sacrifice a large rare steak grown on the Prairies.
Drown it with a couple of glasses of Californian red wine.
Get a good nights sleep.

And then get out and try again - but don’t forget the duct tape.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

Hi Andrew,

Sorry to hear your tale of woe :frowning:
Yeah, I’ve been there. When things start to go wrong, they seem to snowball!

I manged to get onto Great Orme GW/NW-070, at about 1230z, hoping to make an s2s with you.

I stayed until about 1600, when the cold wind finally got the better of me.

Good luck with the rest of the trip…

73 Mike
2E0YYY

Thanks for the kind words from everyone. I had duct tape, I had two masts, and both were broken and/or unraisable in the wind. Not a pleasant activation, or past couple of days unfortunately.

Activation report here: W4C/EM-058 Unnamed Summit (Mt Jefferson Overlook) | VK3ARR's SOTA Blog

Thanks to AD4IE for the suggestion of the summit, and to others I hit up for info before I left.

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Andrew, The Sota gods can be cruel at times. Have you considered a sacrificial offering to appease them?
Tony VK3CAT.
Loved your video! Missed an activation whilst enthralled with it!

Oh God…

That was so funny, thank you! (The video, not the failure to do anything but 1 QSO to the Azores!)
Quite the funniest subtitles to that scene yet!