My experience from QRP says: 2 times calls is beneficial for me because the second time may be not unsettled by big power.
Wait for some seconds? My strength in working QRP is that I am before the others … if to be late five seconds… my chances are falling violently
So this backoff leave for kilowatts also DX who are usually also stronger as I …
By the way, QRG SOTA are in the area QRP so why chasers calling out there with great power? Few of us are there legally …
Bandplanning is for SOTA Chasers also !!
73 de Mariusz
Hello Geert
Thank you very much for the picture! Lovely compact setup indeed.
I am glad you are in.
Hope some more activators will join us next days…
Only 4 days left for the Mini!!
73 de Ignacio
REMINDER
Just two days left to start the event!
I managed to find free time and finally I will be able to activate on Friday. Sadly I can not do it on the weekend too. There I will try chasing with my MINI setup…
I will activate for the first time with my new KX3. The picture shows a 2,2 Ah LiPo, a cheap headset and the yellow wire is an End Fed cut for 7-10-14-18-21 MHz.
The fishpole and coax are at the moment in the roof of my apartment…
My gear is for SSB-CW and therefore max weight to be 2,5 kilo.
The alerts I can find so far in SotaWatch are:
Friday 17-June
TIME CALL REF BAND & MODE
0600 HB9BCB/P HB/BE-xxx 14-10-7-CW
0830 EA2BD/P EA5/VL-014 14-SSB-CW (Maybe other freqs depending on time)
1000 DD5LP DL/AM-156 7-14-SSB (WX dependent)
Saturday 18-June
TIME CALL REF BAND & MODE
1000 DD5LP DL/AM-156 7-14-SSB (WX dependent, if cancelled on 17/6)
Sunday 19-June
TIME CALL REF BAND & MODE
0645 PA7ZEE/P PA/PA-004 7-10-14-CW
1000 DD5LP DL/AM-156 7-14-SSB (WX dependent, if cancelled on 17 or 18/6)
1015 PA7ZEE/P PA/PA-005 7-10-14-CW
Activators: please remember to add in your alert a text showing you participate in the MINIMALIST event.
Chasers: read carefully the Rules of the event,and if you chase QRP (I encourage to do so), please give the word “MINI” as stated in the rules. Give you a chance to collaborate with the MINI experience!
My laptop here is crashing every now and then and I have troubles to connect to internet regularly. I will try to keep the schedule updated but I can not ensure I will do so often…
73 de Ignacio
Hope to be on either Moel Gyw GW/NW-053 or Feol Fenli GW/NW-051. Gear assembled, MTR5B, 500mAh LiPo, ear-buds, link dipole 30/17/12 mtrs, and Palm Paddle. Will try for both Friday 17th, and Sunday 19th but it’s a busy week-end (I’m taking a Service and preaching before the Sunday trip!!)
hope CU on air,
Les g0nmd (GW0NMD)
For clarity I will only be on one of the three days - The weather is so variable at the moment that I simply can’t trust any forecasts, so it’ll be a case of simply grab (the now much lighter than normal) bag and go!
Ed DD5LP
Hi Ignacio
This is a very nice idea! 
I can’t participate as a Activator because I will attend a club field day where they ask us to show how we activate a SOTA summits.
So, I will act as a chaser while /p and most opf the time the station will be a “mini” (MTR-3, trapped dipole, pico paddle key). This is new for me but let’s try it !
Photo of the “mini” in CU/SM in its natural state: the wilderness… 
Hope propagation will help…
73 de Pedro, CT1DBS/CU3HF
I grabbed the short straw with work and will be travelling down south on Friday to Exeter for a job on Saturday morning hopefully travelling back the same day.
I will pack my mini portable shack and try to activate a summit on my journey G/CE-003 Bredon Hill may be a possibility.
73
Graeme
I left it a bit late to get everything together and I only just squeak under the limit:
I had meant to build a trapped EFHW but that remains on the to-do list. So my antenna is a single-band lambda/4 GP, for 20m only.
In future I’ll be looking at a different key. I don’t like the feel of this one. I will sound awful - apologies in advance!
I haven’t alerted yet as I’m still not sure where I’ll go - probably somewhere with a good fence at the summit as I need every last cm to raise the feed point off the floor, since it’s only a 5-m pole. I expect to be QRV around 11:00 on Saturday.
Simon
Going to try to get out today as Saturday and Sunday have worse weather predicted (see my graphs under the “it’s raining again” thread).
Hopefully talk to someone around 1100 UTC.
73 Ed
EA2BD/p mini EA5/VL-014 4w 08:15 14300
Looks like caught me first one on air
doing well on 4w
karl
Done my activation - was worried by the weather forecast of rain coming in with an over 30 minutes walk back to the car but it never came and they have now revised the forecast to be a nice sunny day tomorrow (it was predicted to be heavy rain all day). The weather is due to change to mid 20s and no rain from Wednesday next week for at least a week - I should have known it - it’s the Friedrichshafen effect!
Back to the “lightweight” (2.4 kilo) QRP SOTA activation of DL/AM-156 Schneidberg today - the big problem was with the cell phone coverage - both Internet and SMS/phone connections kept coming and going! I’m talking from a fully locked on 3G full strength signal to NOTHING in a matter of seconds! This was with two different networks - Telekom & Vodaphone (I have a dual SIM phone). I managed to get one spot out for 40m and Don G0RQL kindly spotted me on 20m when I managed to get the 14.285 frequency and put out a CQ call. Sorry to those who had difficulty hearing me on 20m - after taking the antenna down, it looks like I unhooked the 30m rather than the 20m link on one side of the antenna - I’ve never done that before but in the middle of lowering the antenna to switch bands (I was using the SOTABeams linked dipole today as it is lighter than the 404-UL) the wire got caught up in branches and I must have mixed up the links. So the antenna probably wasn’t very effective on 20m!
I’ll be posting a report of the activation as usual on my blog at dd5lp.com in a few days time.
73 Ed.
UPDATE: My blog post about this activation is now published - you can read it at: DD5LP/P – June 17th. 2016 – DL/AM-156 Schneidberg. | DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog
Apologies to anyone who heard me this morning. I climbed Moel Gyw (SOTA Ref GW/NW-053) and set up in that wx that doesn’t know whether to be mist or rain… Got the station set up and realised I was not going to be able to hear anything… My new MTR is marginally o.k. at home with my hearing-loss, but frankly is a no-go job on a hill-top.
I called on 30 mtrs and heard one station begin a response, but when I asked for a repeat I could hear nothing. Doubtless not helped by conditions but I need to think again about how to use the MTR.
Anyone else have a similar problem? I assume it’s not the rig, but my hearing (lack of) that’s the problem. Have ordered a tiny headphone amp to help, but that won’t be here for the Challenge.
Better luck to all the other ops!
Les g0nmd
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Les,
The MTR series of rigs all have low volume - it’s not you, it is the rig! Simon G4TJC also has an MTR and has hearing loss, maybe he can provide some ideas / benefit from experience.
I consider my hearing to be fairly typical and I struggle with my MTRs when there is a bit of background noise - even just a strong breeze can wipe out all but the strongest of stations.
I know that a few stations use a mini amplified speaker. I built myself a little LM386 based amplifier in an Altoids tin to boost my MTR audio, but so far I have not actually needed to use it.
Headphone sensitivity makes a big difference, not all headphones are the same!
There are a few mods that can be done to the rig to boost the AF gain a little, but I believe that the LNR rigs already have some of these mods in place.
Hope to join in the fun tomorrow with my MTR mk1.
73, Colin
Colin,
Thanks for quick reply. Thanks for reassurance regarding the rig, but I knew I was taking a chance on it, because my left ear is 100dB down on ‘normal’ for some frequencies, and the right ear is not too far behind it, I really am deaf…
Realise I also owe you one, as I still have that Kent paddle here…
Les
Hello,
I’m glad to confirm I could succesfully complete my activation of EA5/VL-014 this morning.
All went fine although conditions were a bit poor with frequent QSB.
I will write a detailed activation report, but let me sum up the relevant info for the Mini Event:
Activators worked S2S:
- HB9BCB/P: thanks Heinz for the call!! 14 CW
- LA8BCA/P: thanks Terje. 14 CW & SSB
Chasers working QRP:
- M3FEH on 14 SSB: Yes Karl, you were the first MINI in my log.
- G0BPU on 14 CW
- ON6UU on 14 CW
- EA2LU on 14 CW
Hopefully the weekend will bring more MINI activators and chasers.
My MINI equipment… About 1,7 Kg all the radio gear.
Thanks Simon G4TJC and Colin M1BUU for giving it a try tomorrow. Good luck!
73 de Ignacio
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Congrats Ignacio!
I have already chased as a MINI my first MINI activator on 40m CW.
Tried it still as a MINI on 20m CW with a USA activator but couldn’t make it so far.
I’ll keep trying…
Cheers,
Guru
Did also try my luck today in the afternoon. All the route up to the summit I had splendid hiking weather with blue sky and sunshine. Unfortunately at the time I reached the summit the sky quickly changed to something like that:
As the sky quickly became darker and darker and as I noticed the first lightning strokes on the nearby summits I was happy that I only carried less than 1kg of SOTA equipment up to this summit. I didn’t even think about unpacking my radio equipment and soon descended down to the car park.
My own fault, taking the cable car up to the summit would have saved me at least an hour of ascent. But wouldn’t that be contra the idea of MINI, reducing the weight of the SOTA equipment and then not enjoying the lighter rucksack 
Nevertheless I had a nice hillwalking afternoon and if weather allows I will try again at the upcoming weekend.
73 Stephan, DM1LE
Ok, all is ready for tomorrow’s activation of G/LD-013.
My car has been to the garage for a service and test today and I now have it back in full health.
I charged my battery earlier on - it’s so small it takes about 15 - 20mins to fully charge!
I will be using my mk1 MTR sn#131 and dedicated 20m dipole.
The weigh in -
73, Colin
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Report from G4GIY activation of G/TW-004 with Minimalist Station.
The 1kg challenge is turning out to be a steeper learning curve than I had expected. I prepared my station: KX1, 500mAh LiPo battery, home brew paddle (leg mounted), lightweight dipole and about a 3m section of fishing pole, ear buds and pencil and paper. The station set up went well enough but it quickly became apparent that my paddle contacts were not good. I could not send a ‘/’ character and mostly my sending was terrible. I fiddled with the paddle but had no tools (under 1kg remember!) but with little effect. I ended up sending G4GIY PORTABLE to avoiding sending a ‘/’.
With the patience of several great Chasers I managed to get 7 QSOs in the log. Thank you all!
By then it was raining and with the temperature only 13C I was very cold.
Next time I will check out my paddle more carefully before leaving and will search for a summit with a tree - my dipole was only about 2.5m high in the centre.
A great idea - I’ve had a lot of fun putting a station together to meet the criteria and clearly there is plenty or room for improvement.
Let’s do it again!
Rob, G4GIY
Hello,
Thanks Stephan for giving a try and good decision on leaving the summit. Better luck next time.
Thanks Rob for your effortts. It is not a mere challenge but a real exercise to optimise the gear, more deeply for a CW-only station.
I’m sure you’ll be able to improve your paddle but well done on your activation!
Sure that after all this effort we will be usign more often our light equipment.
This event has been held on a fixed date but we can use it more and more in the future… A new event could be repeated next year if you like the idea.
The only pity is that few chasers took the chance to work us QRP…
72/73 de Ignacio