Don’t look now, but an EA8 activation is scheduled for tomorrow. Good chance to bag Africa!
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RATS -missed that one as well! Didn’t see your reply until now. Just checked and today there is an EA6 (Ibiza) planned - 10:00 EB2GKK/6 on EA6/IB-005 14-ssb 1/4 wave aerial, maybe more bands…73s It’s in the Med, so Europe not Africa but would be a new assocation for me anyway.
73 Ed.
P.S. do you know if there is any way to filter the Alerts so that I can see just the associations I am looking for and just SSB?
Not that I know for the alerts, but for the spots, you can use SOTAwatchFilter .
As already mentioned in this thread, I hope to activate again, hopefully several times, EA8/GC-0011 (10 points) between 30/11 and 7/12/2014. Maybe this will give you an opportunity for your third continent 
Thanks Christophe,
I’ll take a look at the SOTAWatch filter.
It would be great to get a couple of EA8 summits, to make my third continent.
I saw some US and Canadian activators on yesterday but could not hear them unfortunately. I only have a 40m Horizontal loop wire antenna squeezed into the garden here, no beam unfortunately and the WAF (Wife acceptance factor) was stretched when I put up the loop, so a mast or tower and a HF beam have no chance.
73 Ed.
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Have a look at magnetic loops… Much better than nothing 
Ed,
All of my chasing so far has been done with an 80 meter horizontal loop, only up about 6 meters (including working you on DL/BE-094). Admittedly, it is at our radio club site in a quiet spot on top of a hill (actually within the AZ of W3/PD-029). It does work amazingly well on all bands. I even worked a VK2 summit on two days, so I have 3 continents, just not enough different associations for that award yet.
If the conditions are good enough, it doesn’t take much of an antenna. Then again, they haven’t been too great lately…I have heard countless European chasers working summits which I just could not pull out of the noise.
Good luck!
—73 Karl KA3RCS
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And my quest continues. I have now chased enough associations. However, as both of my VK2 contacts were with the same summit, it turns out that they do not yet count for the third continent.
Interestingly, I have apparently worked more summits in DM than in any other association…
—73 Karl KA3RCS
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I might have an opportunity to activate a summit or two in ZS in the week of 15th November. I am not sure how successful it could be, I can only do SSB on my FT-817 without any PA, and just on Inverted-V or a small GP. Spotting should be possible at least via SMS gate.
If anyone is interested in trying to chase me, I can confirm the plans in a separate (or this) thread.
Hello Konrad,
Good luck with the activation(s) in ZS.
The only ZS SOTA I have worked have been on 28Mhz SSB (ZS/WC-043 & ZS/EC-012), in the last 12 months, with the activations being QRP.
If I can hear you I will try 8)
Cheers
Mike
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I’ve tried to work DX out of Kenya with just an 817 and a dipole, and it’s hard work, so it’s probably worth trying to fore-warn potential chasers in ZS, and hopefully make a successful activation easier. Good luck.
73, Rick M0LEP
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Hi Konrad,
I’ve always found ZS tricky from a G summit 
I’ve been hearing ZS on the 10m band from the UK summits, although I suspect a contact with your qrp station won’t be easy.
Having said this, subject to the WX, I’m happy to try for a s2s.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Edited to correct name. Apologies Konrad,
Indeed, I take this into account. I will have also my VX-7r, so if there are any local repeaters within the range, I will also try to give some short heads-up to the local community.
I never worked 10m, if I recall, thus I will have to do some tests this weekend. Maybe I should consider something else than just an Inv-V/End-Fed/GP? I dont have a Buddipole or similar yet… (a good excuse to expand the “antenna park”… )
Make a 1/4w ground plane Konrad. It’s all I used on 12m and I was able to work 7Q7VW and 3DA0NJ using 5w SSB. In this case it was the other way round… I was trying to work the DX using QRP against all the QRO stations As the DX station you should have it easier assuming you can let the European SOTA chasers know you are on. There’s a N-S DX window in the afternoon which is the best time to try.
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Thanks, Andy
I do have a GP (but including a coil) with a counterpoise, which worked well a couple of times but has never achieved any cross-continental QSO, so far. I am not sure if the construction including a coil wouldnt limit my chances. I have also a EFT-40-20-10, so I am thinking of using this one, maybe even without its own coil, with a 1/4 wave wire cut for an exact resonance.
KriStick by SP5VR (GP wiith a coil).
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I was thinking a real 1/4w gp made from just pieces of wire. Of course you need a pole to support something like that. For 10m, the 1/4w gp is just 4 pieces of wire 2.5m long, plus some feeder.
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I once made a qso with VK on summer with a coiled gp, but I think a full size gp with 0.4 lambda elevated radials would be the best option to have low rad. angle and good size to listen as well. Not too big for 20m
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Here is my 12m GP wound up for transport compared to 2x AA cells for size. This is the radiator section (white wire) and 3x radials (grey wire). There’s a BNC socket fitted which goes to 3m of RG58 and the 817. It hangs from my 5m fishing pole and the radials clip to the guys or ground using the pink bulldog clips. Pink because the were stolen from my daughter’s school folder!
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[quote=“MM0FMF, post:38, topic:9406”]Pink because[/quote]…they’re a lot easier to find if you drop them into long grass than they would be if they were some “camo” colour…
73, Rick M0LEP (who has lost more than one inadequately lurid peg/clip/tie/whatever in vegetation…)
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Hi Mike,
If you have time to try, there is a ZS activation scheduled for 10:00 this coming Wednesday - I’ll be trying from my home station here. Of corse if I manage that, I’ll still need a second ZS summit to qualify the association/continent for the Mountain Hunter award!
73 Ed.
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Thanks, Andy. I’m a bit confused though, as I thought it was enough to have a wire cut as 1/2 wave plus balun 1:9 (then it is an End-Fed though). I’m trying to figure out how he whole installation is set up as a GP. Would you have a link or picture or a drawing of it to visualize?