VK/ZL <> EU S2S - 11 March 2017

I’ve now found out g/tw001 AND g/tw002 have planned activations for EU/vk event. How difficult would you think it is to find a clear summit at 6.30 am on Saturday morning! Lol. Oh well.

I guess the next one would be Gisborough Moor? TW-003 (I haven’t activated that one yet - I have all the other TWs), so I don’t know how difficult it would be. It should be closer for you to drive to.

If you don’t mind a longer drive TW-004 is a real easy drive up and walk a bit “summit” at Bishop Wilton Wold or “Garraby Top” as we used to call it.

73 Ed.

Hi Ed,

The first time I visited G/TW-004 I had my reservations about it. However, since then and despite it being pretty flat, G/TW-004 has chucked up some surprisingly good DX. Worth a visit…

73 Mike

No problems with TW-004, only a long drive from Hartlepool for Anthony.

It was actually my very first SOTA summit that I activated (even before my VK2 summits).

Ed.

Well they do say that the early bird gets the worm - or in SOTA speak the early alert gets the summit :blush: On the plus side it’s nice to see a cluster of activators up here.
I’ve always found 003 to be a bit of a slog. Easy, but a long walk at that time of the morning. Good luck whatever you decide

Good to hear a cw op from VK!

Last time I was able to work S2S VK2AOH but until now no cw activactors show up for this event…

I will be in summit just after 0630. Hope to work u!

Any more VK’s or ZL ops?

73 de Pedro, CT1DBS

im going to try tw003 but walk up from hutton village, should be the shortest walk up there. im going to take my resonant half wave end fed for 20m and a 40m dipole in case i need it.
yeah its good to have a cluster activators up here. two on tw001, 2 on tw002 and me on tw003

Ignacio EA2BD and I are thinking about taking part on this great event.
We have not yet made up our minds on whether we’ll be doing a joint activation of some local summit or we will activate one different summit each in order to put two different summits on the air instead of one, thus increasing the chance for VK/ZL <> EU S2S QSOs.
We’ll let you know as soon as we had a clearer idea.
I guess the most of you would prefer that we put 2 different summits on air, wouldn’t you?
73,

Guru

Pedro, I’ll be activating on CW and hope to work you.
John VK6NU has alerted on SSB and he is also a CW operator.
There is no alert up from Andrew VK1DA yet but he may be on.
Hopefully a few more VK/ZL CW ops will be able to activate.
Looking forward to this event!

Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

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Hi Pedro,
Nick VK2AOH now has a new call sign, he is VK2WP. He has posted on the SOTA_Australia Yahoo group, that he will be going out all being well for the VK-NA experiment - he has not said anything about the VK-EU one. He’s having some difficulties posting alerts to SOTAWatch at the moment but will get it sorted.

Ed.

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Good News - this from Nick -

Missed reading the VK/EU so will go our Saturday 11th evening and take part in the this. Will camp o/nite so as make a very early 1930Z start for the VK/ZL/US event.

There will be some contests about (as there are always!) so it will be interesting.

Mostly cw, might even have a crack as PSK31 if time permits. Will use my 9M vertical which works well for DX and 45W.

Looks to be a fun event and hope the wx is ok in the N. Hemisphere.

Cheers, Nick VK2WP ex VK2AOH

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Update: family complications - saturday 0700 activation now not possible.

Saturday 1900 activation still scheduled as per the Alert.

Sorry to hear that, hope things resolve soon.

After a fantastic holiday in EA8 with 4 successful SOTA activations, I’m ready for a Cloud activation in the morning. Looking forward to working everyone S2S, and all the chasers too.

Heard you guys on Sunday but no luck getting back to you. I have EA8 in my log so it is workable LP from VK6.

Be out tomorrow so see how it goes but not looking flash, no sign of Mike today.

73

John VK6NU

we are currently standing at 41 alerts between 0600 and 1000 UTC tomorrow. some of these are combined activations where two people are activating together but have each entered an alert, there will be a couple who don’t know about the S2S event but I guess we have around 30 summits across the UK, Continental Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with alerts raised.

Many people only alert on the day before once they know for sure that they can make it, so we could still have a few more.

Even if (as today) the long path between EU and VK is not good let’s hope that there will be lots of Inter-Europe and inter-AP S2S contacts!

Ed.
Other stats:
14 CW stations, 21 SSB (a couple CW&SSB included in both figures)
7 VK/ZL summits 18 UK/EU Summits 4 JA summits

RSGB are predicting quiet conditions for the weekend: Propagation News - 12 March 2017 - Radio Society of Great Britain - Main Site : Radio Society of Great Britain – Main Site

If the K Index stays up at 4 as it is now, this is going to be hard work! Here’s hoping for a change.

Ed.

G/DC-003 KITT HILL :slight_smile:
SX-37 TP-4256

ALMOST READY TO GO

Charge the Lifepo4 battery last job
and check one has all the gear required even me quick erect tent for shelter

May the propagation gods smile a little bit in morning

Karl M3FEH/p

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GW/NW-070 Great Orme, quick report and band conditions, Friday 10/03/2017

Imagine my frustration when I arrived at Junction 16 of the M6 Motorway, only to find it closed and a huge traffic jam, because of overnight maintenance work. This caused a 50 minute delay :frowning:

Nevertheless, I managed to arrive a Great Orme at 0730. It was windy and overcast and so I was forced to work with a short antenna.

Normally, Great Orme, plus my Antron-99 and the 20m band is one of the deadliest SOTA combinations available. However, not this morning. My self spot appeared at 0754z and my first contact was at 0831z, a ground wave contact was Barry GW0BTB from Anglesy Then John MW1CFN, gave me a call at 0837.

At 0845 Vlad R6NN replied to my begging, before Christos SV2OXS, finally qualified the summit at 0853 after an hour of calling. After this, the going was slow but steady until Marco PY1SX from Brazil, popped up out of nowhere at 0912 of all times with one of the best signals of the morning.

At about 0930, I decided to try 17m which resulted in one solitary contact, Marco PY1SX again! He was much weaker but easily workable! After this, I returned to the 20m band and logged a further 6 contacts before it started to rain.

The HF bands were not easy but that’s radio for you. Under the circumstances, I suppose leaving the summit with 26 contacts in the log, can be classed as a good result.

Thanks to all the callers and good luck to all who are taking part in tomorrows event.

Mike
2E0YYY

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Well, the weather isn’t looking too bad, so I’ve just alerted for Corndon GW/MW-013.

Here’s hoping for some propagation :thumbsup:

73
Adrian
G4AZS

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