2026 SOTA Challenge (Part 5)

Notices Challenges
65

VK1 and nearby VK2 park (VKFF) activators using VK Port a Log android software have discovered the utility of the Maidenhead button. :hugs:

Andrew VK1AD

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66

Andrew,

I’m doing something wrong. No teenage sec on any drive ups, 10 pointers or others. Unlike the old Drive In Theatres.

73

Ron,

VK3AFW

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67

If you at your age are engaging in such things, we have a much bigger problem to discuss :slight_smile:

But you reinforce my point - lot of people talking about it, not a lot of it actually occurring.

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68

…what’s the best time of the day to work others on 2m and 70cm ssb in VK?

Geoff vk3sq

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69

There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern to this at present.
Some activators are mid-morning, some in the afternoon, some in the late afternoon.
Some activators will post alerts at https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/. For some, like me, it will be a spur of the moment decision, with little planning or forethought.

Watching spots on https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/ and https://parksnpeaks.org/ will give you the best chance along with subscribing to the VK SOTA OZSOTA@groups.io | Home and VK1 area SOTAvk1area@groups.io | Home io.groups

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70

Hi Geoff

My yagi antenna polarisation is horizontal. I am using horizontal polarisation to match the antennas of well know 2m DX operators in Victoria and NSW. The 2m DX group operates from 7:30 to 9:30 local time daily. Call frequency is 144.200 MHz USB. Propagation over 400 to 500 km is achieved via Tropo or aircraft scatter. Listen on 144.200.

Is there scope for you to construct a 2m oblong loop for use at home. The oblong loop is horizontal polarisation.

Your vertical antenna should be okay for the Hotham gathering in March.

Andrew VK1AD

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71

…thanks Andrew, no longer have any tools to built anything now.

Geoff vk3sq

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72

I will mail a 2m oblong loop to you in a postal tube :slightly_smiling_face:

Andrew VK1AD

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73

Another two 2m SSB activations today… plenty of contacts too. I’m really enjoying this!
I still do 2m FM and HF, so it’s been an addition for me, not a replacement.

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74

While looking for something else I came across an “Antennas to go” booklet that came with an issue of “Practical Wireless” in 2004, and the first item was the “Suspend a loop” by G6VNT. This is a two wavelength square loop for 2m, made with 5 amp insulated wire, having a little bi-directional gain, it is 1068mm to a side, with dowel or bamboo rods top and bottom. It is fed at the centre of the bottom and the loop has a 75mm gap at the top. It is fed at the bottom with 500mm of 300 ohm ribbon which transforms the impedence to 65 ohms, and further matching to 50 ohm coax is achieved with a 10pf trimmer mounted on a piece of veroboard, in line with one side of the ribbon and the centre of the coax - and just two turns of the coax for a balun. The author suspended it with a cord and crocodile clip to any suitable point (he mentions a lamp shade!) but I used one of those plastic mouldings for fastening pipes to walls, selecting the size which fitted about half way up a roach pole. The joy of this antenna is that you can roll the wire sides around the dowel, along with the coax, into a narrow bundle and put it across the top of a rucksack. This is of course a horizontally polarised antenna, quick and easy to make for the challenge, the wire just held to the bamboos with electrical tape - I actually used a bamboo cane from the garden, previously used for growing runner beans!

I should add that I never used this for SOTA, I built it after a friend built one and gave glowing reports on its performance, but for SOTA I obtained a more convenient dipole which folded down to quarter wave and the loop eventually vanished.

I hope someone finds this useful.

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75

By adjusting the loop dimensions you can eliminate the need for the matching and have a direct 50 ohm feedpoint (or other convenient values).

The dimensions given here are for 10m, but you can scale those to other bands as desired.

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76

One of the things that I am liking about this year’s challenge, is the way it prompts you to do things differently. And then doing things differently you learn new things. For example;

Having now used my IC705 on a few activations for 2m SSB this year, I have realised that I am getting a slight off frequency problem. At first I thought it was other stations, but I now realise, it’s probably them tuning to my slightly off transmit frequency. Yesterday speaking to Dave, @G6AEK, he suggested temperature could be the problem. It then dawned on me that after a few QSO’s, or a longer QSO it improves. I will try insulating my IC705 from the wind on my next activation, to see if that helps.

Has anyone else noticed this problem with the IC705 in cold weather?

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77

Dave G6AEK was one of 8 2m SSB stations I worked during my yesterday’s SOTA activation (on G/LD-050). On several SSB QSOs (maybe, maybe not Dave’s) I had to use the FT817 clarifier (RIT) to resolve the voice audio correctly. On one QSO with G0MHF, John gave his dial frequency so I could tell my dial frequency was off from his by ~150Hz.

With my nearly-25yo 817 and its 30yo design that’s not bad but frankly my having to use the RIT or have others report a different dial frequency is the kind of SSB operation I ‘grew up’ with.

I think it’s only with modern radios (e.g. SDR) like the IC705 that some folk expect everyone to be bang on the same frequency.

Don’t really have this problem with CW – it doesn’t matter if some signals have low or high pitch, and I use the RIT only to ‘zero’ on them to get an accurate S-meter reading.

I’m enjoying CW and SSB on 2m – more again soon I hope.

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78

Thanks, that’s good point, I have never really had to use RIT much. Looks I maybe using it more for this challenge :grinning_face:

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79

You should check the diversity of RX/TX frequencies on my 48yr old TR-7010 VXO SSB 2m radio

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80

My FT-857 is doing the same thing. Off freq transmission. I need to investigate using RIT.

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81

If you’ve ever listened to any ARC’s weekly SSB net, you’ll find at least one station who’s not bang on the same frequency as the majority - requiring everyone else to switch their clarifier/RIT on/off for his over. No big deal.

Some ops used only to SDR rigs are a bit spoilt and have unrealistic expectations, like SSB should work like FM does. I like SSB because it isn’t channelised: you shouldn’t expect the other signal to be on a frequency with an exact 1kHz. Working a 1-to-1 QSO isn’t a problem although some chasers are too short with their first over so I can’t resolve the audio properly in time.

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82

This!

Then there are some people (no names, no calls) who delight in tweaking their own TX frequency between overs to get the hypercritical-must-be-zero-hz-netted-hams infuriated and concerned their rig is faulty.

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83

Not that you would do that :innocent: :rofl:

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84

Those of us who did VHF/UHF SSB 30+ years back with 40+ year old radios will remember the fun and games when someone had a rig with a TX drifting high whilst their QSO partner had a rig drifting low and they would each tweak their own RX and slowly drifting further and further and further away over a long QSO till they may drift out of the other guy’s RIT range.

Kids of today with their synthesised radios, they don’t know they’re born :wink:

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