15th NOV :-)

And the challenge is on again.

Request to activators please at least give 10m a try or even 6m
You just never know. I might be there calling you back :smile:
Well on 10m at least as no 6m here as yet

OE/S57MS/p has even tried on 28360 but no prop :frowning: this morning.

Karl

The challenge reopened yesterday, 14th November, in fact Karl.

Iā€™ll certainly be prioritising 10 and 6 on my activations. What youā€™ll have to wait for is some suitable weather - having just looked out of the window, Iā€™ll be staying this side of it for now.

2 Likes

Cool even better still
Yep will be watching the 10m more so now.
Really got into the last part once it got into full swing.

KARL

The trick that I use is to keep an eye on the UK 6-metre Groups website - UKSMG Desktop - UK Six Metre Group - if they are showing activity on six then there is a good chance of activity on ten. That and an occasional tune across the ten metre band to see if anything is happening, of course.

Brian

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Handy to know brian thanksā€™

Can;t hear EC2AG/p but did hear some greek stations working him and few others across 10m its deffo opening up.

Sat on antonioā€™s freq at moment in case propagation changes in my favour.
Has been know to happen in past. As earlier on 14315 with F/PO-137 nothing heard for first five minutes plenty chasers heard, then he came out of nowhere at 5/8 :smile:
Karl

I just looked and the map shows a couple of contacts from G to SM, that is possibly MS but at least there are people awake on six!

Brian

Iā€™m going to dry run the antenna setup for later this week on the beachside later this afternoon Brian and Iā€™ll try 10m then. Iā€™m waiting for it to cool a little, midday sun and all that. it wont be a summit just an antenna test.

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Rub it in, why donā€™t you! Its blowing half a gale here and there are several flood warnings out for LD!

Iā€™ve just tuned across ten and there are several strong SSB signals, plus the UKSMG display shows contacts between Africa and EU, plus activity in the eastern USA, so its a good day to try out your antenna.

Brian

25C and just a wee touch of high altitude haze. Far too hot to do much right now! Listen it was snowing back home on Friday so the change here is amazing. I checked the travel / road websites later Friday to check the motorway was OK and head about the outrage in Paris. Travelling, airports etc. are not really where you want to go when nobody knws whatā€™s happening! Glasgow was tranquil and I was randomly called out for a TeeraHertz screen, the LiPos and 817 sailed through security.

Thanks for propagation update.

1525Zā€¦ Iā€™m off to try by the sea, say 30mins before on the air. Andre GM3VLB reccomended I try the IOTA freqsā€¦ so 14260 +/- and 28.460 +/- for AF-004, so weā€™ll try there.

2 Likes

Strange thing happened. I made a large number of 10 meter activator contacts on November 14th and added them to the Sota database. However, my standing on the challenge listing does not show any advance since August 14th.

Elliott, K6EL

Well that was a surprise

Lanzarote is AF-004 beach testing out the gear 4w only from a local beach 14285

5/5 here had quick chat damn QSB not helping

And no heā€™s not on a Sota just yet

karl

Hi Karl,

Best not to spot when not a true activation;

16:16 EA8/MM0FMF/P EA8/LA-001 14.285 SSB 4 WATTS FROM LAZ BEACH QRP lol AF-004

It confuses people. Might be a good idea to delete your spot?

Night night.
Mike

yeah prob will but you can.t do it with out a a Sota ref.
Mind you brought good number to the freq he;s still busy L0L

thinks the gear is well tested now LOl

Karl

Hi Karl,

Just put a spot on the DX-Cluster - that will do to drum up business.

Use the dx-cluster for those sort of unsure jobs. I guess a lot of the ā€œgood numberā€ will be logging chases which is not good.

Anyway must go - evening meal on the table - I have just been told.

Mike

Just a friendly reminder to try and stay between 28.305 & 28.495 if you come to 10m so Technician Class License holders like myself can work you. Thank you in advance !

Brian-N2BTD

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Certainly interesting stuff! When I went to Madeira CT3 I had a real problem getting the antenna to tune on the volcanic rock compared to the ground in the UK. I learnt that the tuning radial needed to be a lot shorter. Forwarned is forarmed hence todayā€™s practice. I could not gte 20m to come on tune. To make it worse there was the choicest DX using 14.260 and my SWR was bad. Finally I realised that the 20m antenna doesnā€™t tune when the 30m coil is in use. Dā€™Oh! Now I had to fight the pileup on the DX, grrrr.

Worth the trouble as the DX was E51KIK in the South Cook Islands. Not bad for just 4w on the beach into a simple vertical antenna.

Expect activations later in the week. Thanks for the calls.

Andy
EA8/MM0FMF

Hi Elliott

Same issue for me, on 14 Nov I activated Mt Coree VK1/AC-023 a unique summit for 6 &10. After entering my activator log the multiplier count didnā€™t change. I wrote to SOTA MT (Andy), he said he will take a look at the issue when he returns to the UK.

73 Andrew VK1AD

OK, Andrew. Andy will be gone 10 days, so might as well go bowling. Ten meters has been good to me again today, with all contacts over S-9 in the 1,500 mile range. Around 150 contacts in two days on that band. I guess it will all be gone in 2016. Who cares, as long as we get our challenge done.

Elliott, K6EL

I have a few reports itā€™s getting the score wrong. Sadly I only have a tablet with me not a full PC so I canā€™t do anything. The point to note is that the challenge scoring is based on what is logged and runs ā€œon the flyā€. That means the score is only calculated when you asked for a sscore display. This means that all you need to do is to log the QSOs and when the score routine gets fixed, the correct score will be displayed.

10m was open to S. America at the same time I was on 20m. I tried a few stations but signals were only S3-S5 at best to assorted PY and LU stations. Iā€™m on the wrong side of Lanzarote for S. America, take off is immediately into the old volcanoes. Best 10m DX heard was CA7CAQ doing an IOTA activation. I only worked a Belgian special station OP7VA but he was 59+.