Hi Éric,
After you posted here, I went to the frequency on 12m but couldn’t hear Eric VA2EO.
My multiband dipole performs poorly on all or most of the bands.
However, I chased Eric VA2EO, Alfonse AJ2I and Jimmy K2JB on 15m with the help of the 3 active elements on 15m of my yagi.
Other activators spotted on 20m have not been copied or at best buried in the QRM.
15m is the band to go. All activators having a 40m band antenna can use it to activate on 15m.
73,
Guru
Hi Guru,
I’m speaking for my parish 
wire antenna 
73, Éric
PS on 17m just worked Victor CT7/G4ONL/P with 599+ both way 
and he work N4EX, KN3Y…
Eric VA2EO was my first ever trans-Atlantic QSO this afternoon! It was a bit of a struggle and I lost him in QSB during the first attempt but then I heard him calling CQ again and we completed on 15m. I was using the Superantenna MP1 from a 79m high small hill near the sea in Norfolk, England.
Nice John 
Don’t have a resonant antenna on 15m but was listening on my FD4 (can’t tune it on 15m)!
Now Victor his working VA2EO on 18.0725 Rxing both
I did some 40m/15m antenna tests today from Andrewhinney Hill GM/SS/-083. I set up my 60/40/30m dipole for 40m then switched to 21.200MHz. As expected the SWR was bad. This is to be expected as the dipole is normally trimmed a bit shorter that the frequency formaulas give due to the end effect of the wire. So when you try it on 3x frequency the shorter 40m wire is quite a bit shorter than you need. As per predictions the SWR was unity at 21.6MHz.
At this point I connected the “dingle dangles” to the dipole. These are 2 lengths of the same wire that the dipole is made from, about 28cms long that connect where the 40/60m link is. i.e. open 40/60 link and connect “dingle dangle” to the end of the antenna. A test showed 21.060 SWR was unity and it was getting noticeable at 21.375MHz. The “dingle dangles” need trimming to be a bit shorter, probably 2-5cms needs removing as that will keep the SWR good where I want.
During the activation, I spotted for 15m and immediately worked Jorge EA5Z. He gave me 599 and I gave him 559 but looking at the Smeter when he was sending he was 599, just with wind being strong I couldn’t hear the 817 properly.
I think when I reset my 817, when it would not TX, I lost some of the factory setup info because the output on the meter looks a few blobs down on the lower bands. I need to measure the power and either restore the missing output or the power meter needs calibrating. Anyway, adding just a short bit of wire to the 40m dipole makes it blob-on for 15m. I like it when theory and practice align!
I was copying Éric VA2EO perfectly while he was making S2S with Victor on 17m, I asked him to QSY 1 up once they had finished the QSO, but he didn’t seem to copy my request. Shame!
I don’t copy Victor on 17m. Neither Phil on 20m. They must have been having a lot of fun a good DX with their choice of bands during their CT trip, but it’s a very bad choice for me, as I’m too close. Some few times I’ve been able to chase Victor on 30m and I think once I chased Phil only on 20m. 40m would be perfect for me, but it doesn’t fit their wishes for this trip and I perfectly understand it.
Hi Andy,
Today you was a real 579 on my full size InvV dipole from GM/SS-083
60m was good, 40m was brilliant, lots of strong UK SSB stations for a change and on 30m every stations was strong. If only the wind wasn’t 40-50kph and the wind chill making it feel like 5C 
Guru,
I asked Phil to take if possible a 60m antenna !!
I know a skip problem with all F/AM activation’s and the solution was coming with @F6HBI Gérald and @F5LKW Roger, they starting often on 60m and now can work these summits very close to me
Edit: About 60m
A bit of humour 
G’s cannot say the opposite and in addition they are not bothered by foreigners on their allocated frequencies on the 60m band! The most valiant, we manage to contact them on the common portions and there are, thank you my god.
Yes, 40 and 60m would suit me well but I understand they want to activate several summit in this trip, they want to work DX whenever possible and they need to do short activations. Well, I hope they won’t change to 40 and 60m in their next rip to OK…
73,
Guru
Not really after DX Guru, we will work whoever calls us and the choice of bands allows us to operate pretty close together without causing any interference to each other. 30 metres has always been my favourite band and it usually has propagation to somewhere. It’s been good to get you in the log a few times and hopefully I will get you again over the next two and a half days before this SOTA expedition comes to an end.
73 Victor CT7/G4ONL/P
Hi Eric & Guru
A special permit is required in Portugal to operate on 60m and we haven’t got them, or wished to have them. We are limiting the time on summit to 30-40 minutes operating at most, so we can maximize the number of summits activated. If 20m had been poor I would have gone on 40m but 20m has been so good throughout the day I stay there and can easily rack up at least 30 QSOs multimode in around 30 minutes. Victor fills his log on 30m and 17m and then we move on to somehere else. We leave the hotel at 0830am and return between 7.00pm and 800pm every day. Sorry we cannot please everyone with QSOs on every band but that is the way it is on these trips. I use 60m when operating HF in the UK and favour the international segment to give our friends in the EU a chance of a 5 MHz QSO.
73 Phil CT7/G4OBK
Hi Eric,
You were very loud, I was sure that you used a beam!
Incredible!
73
Hi all,
After reading this post, I decided to give a try to 15m/17m.
I have just one word for my today’s activation WOW!
In my log, a total of 65 contacts but what is unusual is 27 from Europe.
I didn’t even used an antenna for 12/15/17m, simply an efhw cut for 20m that I tuned with the internal tuner of the KX2 for other bands.
I wish that conditions will be that good for the Trans-Atlantic S2S party!
TU chasers
73
I feel bad about not working more bands than I do (e.g. 20m to reach Dx chasers or 80m/60m to reach local chasers) but usually my time on a summit is limited by my domestic situation so I tend to do just two bands (e.g. 30m and 40m). However, next time, I might try 30m and 15m.
The internal ATU for the KX2 is indeed excellent (better than my shack-based LDG Z11 Pro II) with ‘high VSWR’ bands. I rarely bother to take my 60/40/30/20 linked dipole on activations any more because it loads up my 40/30/20 EFHW on 60m, 15m, etc so well.