Yeah, the very latest I expect EU s2s is 1600z and more likely 1500Z.
Alrighty then. I won’t rush lunch 
I’m moving my activation out to later in the day - the downside is that I’ll be on a 1-pointer rather than my 10 pointer that I had planned (but would be too long a drive from home).
Weichberg DL/AL-179 does slope off in the correct direction and it’s the spot that I have made my one and only S2S contact to the states from in the past.
73 Ed.
P.S. I’ll be only on SSB not CW, so it’ll be a “challenge”.
Excellent Ed! I’ll be sure to pack the mic.
73,
Joe
I’ve had a number of EU SSB s2s contacts in the past, but it will be a challenge this weekend due to condx.
I can’t promise because of family commitments, but if I can manage to get on a summit, it will be on DM/BW-099 (Achalm, 6 pts.) some time before 18:00 UTC until after 19:00 UTC.
The activation will most likely be only with 10 Watts and a EFHW vertical for 20m but with a very good take off towards 300 deg.
Maybe some 40m/ 60m activity as well to work the locals…
hope to cu,
Roman - DL3TU
Actually maybe not… the clocks have been forward for a while and up here (56N) it’s now staying light for much longer. It’s only 10 weeks to the longest day of the year (soon be Christmas!). Also, we’re having what they call an African Plume, i.e. a large amount of warm hot air from North Africa is blowing over so it’s like mid-Summer right now. Noticeable after the bad and miserable WX we’ve had for the last 6 weeks.
Here’s the forecast for my bit of GM for 1600Z Saturday. I think I may be able to spend a bit longer on the hill if this holds true 
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It’s very unlikely I’ll be able to get to a summit that early, most likely I can reach it at 18z earliest
Here’s the forecast in town, 1500ft (460M) lower in elevation than my summit:
I’m afraid it’s still winter here. It’s very possible the road to the top will be impassable but hoping my Subaru can make it.
After several grey rainy weeks not seeing the blue in the sky at all, we’ve had a beautiful sunny day today at last and the forecast is to have like that at least until the weekend and also a temperature rise due to the African warm air mass mentionned by Andy (FMF) moving upon us. Having said that, I might take an extra battery and try to linger on summit until sunset to take advantage of the grey line.
I’m now at my rental apartment QTH in Pamplona but I was in my owned house in the village a bit earlier and with the help of my TH5-DX yagi antenna and nearly a KW, I managed to chase Hunter @K3IE, while activating W7A/AW-001. Not easy for me to receive his tiny signal though, so I presume things will be pretty tough propagation wise for most of us this Saturday…
W7A is Arizona and that’s a real loooong way of 8986 Km from here. I hope the W1, W2, W3, W4 will be easier to copy over here in EU.
73,
Guru
I worked Phil VE1WT and Rich N4EX on 20m CW last Thursday from GM/SS-094 - time was 13:30z and I was running an 817 barefoot to an inverted vee. I am normally QRV until 16:00z in these events and will be running an 857D on Saturday. As Andy says, we should have a golden orb in our sky which may help us with the staying power!
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Here’s the weather prediction at my newly chosen (close) summit DL/AL-179 Weichberg - if true, it looks like a nice day with up to 21°C!
By the way if we end up using 40m for contacts, please remember that above 7.2MHz in Europe is out-of-band. Favorite frequencies are 7.090, 7.118 and 7.188MHz for QRP/SOTA SSB contacts - do any of these clash with anything in the US or Canadian band plans?
73 Ed.
This could be a great event to experiment with using the new SOTA-Link system to co-ordinate activities with other activators and also chasers.
It’s available “over the air” using Yaesu Fusion (Wires-X 44050) or the DMR system (Brandmeister TG973). Folks with hotspots can access FCS04-73 (Fusion) or DMR TG973. Some hotspots can be used portable using a data connection on your cellphone.
SOTA-Link is available to analogue users with a suitably registered Yaesu HRI-200 and a microphone.
Try something new?
Hi guys,
I have added an alert on sotawatch.
Two week ago I worked N4EX from I/LO- 278 Mt Megna at ABT 14:45utc 20mt cw 10W, and from second summit I/LO-273 Mt Oriolo at ABT 16:45utc I putted in a log NW7E 20mt cw 10w.
Saturday, I will try again at same hours.
I hope to contact transatlantic s2s.
73
Ed, it will be wrong time of day to make 40M QRP dx contacts.
I think we should all stick to 20m for any successful TransAtlantic S2S.
So I’ll do, switching to 30, 40 occasionslly for some other S2S within my side of the pond.
Cheers
And everyone should do plenty of self-spotting to SOTAwatch.
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We’ll see … In principal 15 or 17 metres would be good around that time but the MUF is simply not getting up there at this time of year. We’re lucky when it gets to 14MHz. I’ve been surprised what I have heard on 40m at times, when you would not expect it. the last two times I’ve been out 20m has been S**t but 40m delivered (albeit only around Europe).
We’ll see, as we keep saying if we don’t try, we wont get anywhere.
Self spotting is good but spots from chasers will be more valuable - e.g. if a NA chaser can hear a UK or EU activator please spot that you can hear them - that will help us all know what is happening with conditions.
73 Ed.
Don’t forget 17 Meters for this event. I believe that for the West Coast 17 and 20 Meters are the only two bands where EU to NA s2s contacts will be possible this Sunday. The signals will likely be very weak, especially out here in Arizona and the West coast. The West Coast EU window also peaks later than the east Coast EU window, so keep that in mind.
I will stay on my summit chasing EU and NA s2s stations from around 1400 to about 1900 UTC. I expect I will make lots of USA s2s contacts, and surprised if I manage even one EU…but I will be looking hard for EU.
good luck to all
Pete
WA7JTM/7
activating W7A/CS-048 (maybe)
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