It always puzzled me that the ones that spent the most money and time setting up a good station are the ones that switch it on the least.
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Iâm not a contester myself but putting myself in their shoes, I can see it makes sense - especially if you have a busy family / work life - to spend a few hours every month or so intensively working many stations often very dx ones rather than working one of two SOTA activators.
Iâm hoping that in the next few months we will get at least one decent tropo opening. I was looking at my logbook for 2003, I had a new 817 just arrived and had just put up a 5el yagi on a cheap TV rotator, my very first outing with this setup and I got F, ON and PA in the log. There was a big anticyclone centred over the southern North Sea with 2m full of juicy DX, OZ, LA, SM, DL, HB9 and even a whisper of SP but with just 5 watts and the beam only at gutter level I was happy with what I got. Later that year I had got the beam a few metres higher and was lucky to spot a brief sporadic E opening, it was very localised but I got three stations in the south of Spain. It can get very exciting when 2m is playing nicely, it pays to watch the surface pressure charts on the Met Office site, what we need is a nice big juicy slow-moving anticyclone with the centre just to the east of the UK, all the better if it coincides with a contest or activity night with a few activators staying out late!
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A few years ago I had an unexpected tropo ducting experience one bright sunny morning from a modest Wainwright hill in the Lakes using my 5W 2m FM HT & RH770 with two stations on the English south coast. I probably wonât be checking tropo ducting charts to decide whether or not to go activiating, but with the 2026 Challenge I hope to repeat that 2m experience with a similar modest setup with SSB or CW.
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Finally! 
Thanks to @M1RTB and @MW7MWZ for FM contacts on G/WB-003 Stiperstones and SSB contacts (my first for this yearâs Challenge) with them on G/WB-005 Long Mynd - Pole Bank, on G/WB-002 Brown Clee and on G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee, all made using my KX3 with the UR3LMZ transverter, and a 5-element Yagi arranged vertically and pointing in roughly the right direction.
The Yagi is at present very much fixed in all axes. I guess some sort of rotator and/or polarization flipping option might be in its future. 
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A pleasure to get you in the log Rick!
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Well done today both John @M1RTB and Mike @MW7MWZ, you made it round in double quick time. So quick that I missed you on Titterstone while i was making a cuppa! You donât hang about! 
. Unfortunately i could barely hear you on Pole Bank, so much so that i didnt call in. At approx 6 miles as the crow flies this was surprising in a bad way⊠I do struggle sometimes with Pole Bank as given its flat plateau most of the signal seems to skim right over the top of me. So 3 out of 5 for me. Wondering what radios you were using today out of curiosity?
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We used @M1RTBâs ICOM 705 which did a sterling job 
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It was putting out a decent signal, but I was interested to see just how much the signal from it varied from summit to summit. I missed your activation of Corndon completely, and didnât get to hear your SSB from Stiperstones (107km), but your FM signal was S5. Your SSB from Pole Bank (102km) was also S5, but the signal from Brown Clee (90km) was a much quieter (but still readable) S1, and finally from Titterstone Clee (81km) the SSB was booming in at S9. Maybe there was some sort of enhancement going on?
Today I listened for @G0MHF who was spotted for 2m SSB on Brown Clee, and whilst I could tell someone was on the spotted frequency I couldnât pick out more than the occasional word.
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Hi Rick, thanks for listening out for me. 2m SSB didnât work well for me last Tuesday. Brown Clee was quite windy so I ducked down in a dip in the AZ, spotted, but got no calls on fm or SSB, so I moved up to the summit. Much better & with the Sotabeams filter on fm, I arranged a sked with Mike G7HEM on SSB. Despite calling, no further QSOs on SSB.
On Titterstone Clee I got out a spot for fm, did well, but couldnât get a spot out for SSB, no internet or phone coverage from my speck on one of the old radar sites. This happened last time, perhaps blocking by the radars, or just no O2 coverage there. Next time Iâll try spotting from the summit, there might be better reception overlooking Ludlow etc.
When I came to do Corndon Hill I decided not to try ssb, perhaps just as well as it was an effort to get 4 fm contacts.
Thanks again for trying,
73 John G0MHF.
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Sorry John, I had to pop out while you were on Titterstone and I was in an online meeting when you were on Corndon - I could hear you calling but I couldnât reply!
And on Brown Clee, yes moving made all the difference - you were barely audible in the dip, but lovely signal on the summit.
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Thanks James-I remember our qso last December from Corndon-you could hear me better with me standing by the trig point than me sitting on the seat!
Hope to hear you again somewhere soon.
73
John
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Iâm about 90km almost due South of G/WB-002 Brown Clee, and Iâve had very variable signals from activators on it. It seems the activatorâs position on the summit makes a lot of difference.
G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee is a little but nearer and I think the usual activator spots probably favour contacts in my direction.
GW/MW-013 Corndon is about 107kms away from me, and, at about 335Âș, itâs just a bit too far round to the west for a reasonable path. Thereâs a fair bit of local geography that gets in the way. I have worked G/WB-021 Ruardean on VHF, and itâs 8Âș further round behind that local geography, but itâs also a whole lot nearer. The ridge itâs on also gets in the way of my path to Corndon, so I listen out for it more in hope than expectation. For VHF it will probably take an activator with more than average ERP pointed my way to get through.
Yes, I think you are right. The ground falls away steeply from the trig point to the South. Always helps.
The obvious operating positions on Brown Clee donât have that advantage.
This is where polarisation becomes important. Signals diffract over an obstructing ridge more effectively for horizontal polarisation. Refraction is a significant factor, too, we used to have a rule of thumb that if an obstruction was at an elevation of less than 5 degrees then a path existed, but frankly I would have to do a lot of homework to see if that only applies to horizontal polarisation - and Iâm about to cook chicken in white wine sauce so that wonât happen for a while! 
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With some 
for the chicken and a lot for you?
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Nah! I have a date with a bottle of Glenmorangie!
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Thanks Rick, thatâs very interesting. It just shows how geography affects our little hobby!
73 John
Despite the performance advantage of certain equipment (e.g. Yagis) and locations (e.g. hilltops) sometimes you have to compromise or not take part at all. The number of 2m SSB alerts for this morning in my neck of the woods (G/LD, G/NP, G/SP) didnât surprise given the fine weather.
But I was already committed to a walk with family along the Lancaster canal, so it was chaser mode or nothing. I carried the 817 shoulder-strapped under my jacket and RH770, mic, etc in a bag whilst discreetly monitoring the SOTA spots on my phone. I could hear Tom @M1EYP/P on 2m SSB but too faintly to work him from my low-lying location.
Shortly after noon we were finishing coffee and starters at The Crooklands (s. of Kendal) when other spots arrived. I rushed out and put my Watson 6m/2m/70cm whip on the car roof and managed to work Richard @G4TGJ/P very strong on SSB only 19km away on The Calf G/NP-013 but more of a struggle to work Luke @M9WRD/P only 319 on CW 50km away on Pendle Hill G/SP-005.
Thereâs satisfaction in working super dx with state-of-the-art equipment, but also a different satisfaction in working moderate dx with a compromise setup.
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My set up was also compromised, @G8CPZ. I was using an 817 as well, with a roll up slim jim up a pole. As my 817 doesnât have a CW filter I have to use an external one. I realised after our QSO it was on wide rather than narrow which may have made a difference. You probably wouldâve gone up to 419! It was good to get you in the log anyway
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