My SOTA summary from W7A/MN-095 for the EU Transatlantic Event:
My summit: W7A/MN-095 (Arizona)
Operated from 1408 until 1710 UTC
FT818+30W, Link Dipole at 10 ft
49 QSO’s
15 s2s contacts
12 unique s2s summits
3 EU contacts
2 EU s2s worked (both on 17 Meters)
1 EU home station wkd (15M)
Bands/QSO’s:
30M 1
20M 1
17M 22 (2 EU s2s)
15M 13 (1 EU home station)
2M 7
1296 MHz 5
Had fun but a bit warm on the summit.
Thanks to everyone!
73
Pete
WA7JTM
Weather started off warm and sunny, worked a few S2S on 2m FM before moving onto HF. Only managed two S2S into North America, best DX was 7N1FRE in Japan on 17m CW who was a great signal.
Half way through the activation I was joined by Robert M0RWX, which was a pleasant surprise. He set up on 2m FM.
I tried 10m but the band conditions weren’t good enough, same on SSB.
A dark cloud approached and soon there was quite a hail shower, Robert packed up and I did the same. Heading down the clouds parted and the sunshine returned, typical.
Thanks to all who called me and the S2S’s.
73
Roger MW0IDX
K2, 14 watts, 66’ Doublet.
S2S
G0AZB/P G/SP-014
M1EYP/P G/SP-015
WN3F W4V/SH-024
G4OOE/P G/TW-004
OE/OK2PDT/P OE/NO-325
M1BUU/P G/NP-004
MW0PJE/P GW/NW-034
YU1WC/P YU/CS-046
K1RID W1/AM-300
And you got it. We spoke while I was up on Pass Mountain (W4V/SH-013). You guys were rough copy on my end (and I on yours), but we managed it. 
Chris
Kennedy Peak! Love that summit. The view from the “tower” is great.
Chris
I was SSB only on 10m and 17m and the action was slow. We got a late start due to stopping by the hamfest in Stanardsville first (the VA SOTA coordinator had a SOTA table set up). We just barely got Pass Mtn activated and were almost back to the truck when it started raining. We had plans on also hitting another summit, but the rain was here to stay until late afternoon, so we called it off and went home.
Chris
I can echo many other stations in saying that although I got lots of contacts around Europe several of them S2S, I didn’t manage to make the hop across the pond. I was on from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC mainly on 20m (but also 15 & 40) and only heard one US station in all that time (K2A at around 11:30 UTC, if I remember correctly). I was monitoring Sotawatch and the only stations spotted in NA were two Canadian CW stations - at least while I was out. I wonder if I packed up too early as, after getting home, I saw a couple of US stations spotted on 15m. I could not hear them from home however.
With the Kp Index up above 4 most of the time and the CF high, 40m was bedlam with lots of local (NVIS) traffic. 10m never seemed to open.
We were not alone fighting for contacts however as - at the same time there was the QRPTTF event, a YOTA contest and Marconi Day Special Event Stations trying to make contacts. It would have been a nice coincidence to have some Transatlantic S2S contacts on Marconi Day but, for me at least, it wasn’t to be.
At least the terrestrial weather was the nicest we have had here in three weeks and I am glad I changed from my originally planned tourist trap spot to a less busy summit (where I still had lots of visitors - mostly on mountain e-bikes).
All in all an enjoyable trip out -thanks for organising Gerald.
A full report will follow in the next few days on my blog page at dd5lp.com
73 Ed DD5LP.
UPDATE: Full write-up now posted at: DD5LP/P – April 22nd 2023 – DL/AL-179 Weichberg for S2S Transatlantic contacts event. | DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog (and linked to from the summit page)
Yesterday was a weird day…
It was not quite clear how the weather would develop. When it was still dry at noon, I spontaneously decided to activate DM/BW-018.
On this occasion I wanted to test my two standard antennas (vertical with single radial vs. Endfed 40/20/15/10m) in A/B comparison.
Already on the approach there were problems. The route to the parking lot was closed because of a construction site only 5 km before and I had to drive half an hour detour.
I almost felt like going home again.
Arrived at the top I have then built everything. To become active in the direction of the west I use mostly the place at 47.77862, 7.69999. It is quiet and still in the AZ. On the summit itself is a lot of tourism.
Pretty quickly it was clear that the condx are not so great. Not only did I not hear any activators from NA, I didn’t even hear their chasers… That was unusual. It often happens that you only hear the chasers.
Every now and then something came up in the QSB. Roy @WN3F was quite audible at times. Unfortunately I was not heard. But basically it was lousy.
Eric @F5JKK made my day! and gave me a complete with F/CR-257. TNX
For comparison:
I kept repositioning and retuning the antennas right at the antenna input of the KX2 when receiving at 15, 17, 20, 30, 40m. In general, I felt the Endfed as a little better. The difference is not so excessive and there were moments when the vertical was slightly better.
At some point the sky made good on its promise and dripped… that was the moment I packed up.
73 Armin
See if you can get Saisie SOTA Colin, by Alain F6ENO, produces a clean ADIF and CSV file for onward processing wherever. Used for last 10 years at least and still works FB with new James Bond database. Other software products are available to use with SOTA database, but I like Saisie SOTA as I am very familiar with it.
Thanks for the 18 MHz chaser QSO yeesterday and congrats on working America - CW rules OK!
I am not trailing over to NARSA Rally today, not sure if you are. Planning to have a go in the BARTG 75 Baud Sprint contest this evening on the “green keys” instead.
73 Phil
Just go to the upload site Sotadata3
The system should save in the background and offer to restore the saved content (on the device you used to enter I guess)
I was also unable to achieve my original goal of increasing the score of my pocket-sized antenna by at least one s2s with an NA station. When I saw on Propquest in the morning how slowly the F2 MUF was rising, I changed my plans regarding the objective and summit and only did a short activation at noon on the neighboring Gibelegg SOTLAS (photo on sotl.as).
The result was then only average, in addition to some chaser and s2s QSOs (also on 60m), only one dx QSO (7N1FRE).
Is this a reason to be disappointed?
Not at all, because if you could also program the desired propagation conditions, there would be no fun at all, at least for me.
Weather on Saturday in southern Germany was close to perfect, blue skies at first when I started setting up at 1000z, with scattered clouds later in the day. The temperature reached 20°C, and winds were mostly very light, with a stiff breeze building suddenly at about 1300z, but that dissipated quickly.
I had decided to try a delta loop for 20m, and eventually (with a permanently bad back I find it difficult to move about) got it erected just in time for my alerted start time of 1200z. This is a new antenna, and had not yet been cut/tuned to the final desired frequency of about 14250 kHz - I had brought a NanoVNA to test it, but of course I had forgotten to pre-calibrate the NanoVNA to 20m so scrubbed that idea. The G90 SWR plot showed a SWR minimum at about 14000 kHz, and about 3:1 at 14325 kHz - not great - but fortunately the G90 internal tuner took care of that, so I was good to go.
Spotted myself using sotamat, and was soon jotting down a good number of contacts from around Europe - but not one single NA station to be heard on 20m in my 2 1/2 hours on the air. So much for building an antenna with low take-off angle to get over the pond! I had also brought along a portable multi-band vertical but eventually I didn’t set it up.
All in all, it was a great day out on my local easy SOTA summit, with 66 contacts, of which 11 were S2S, the opportunity to stretch the legs and also enjoy the sunshine and mostly balmy conditions. Let’s hope condx will be better “pond-wise” in November!
Rob
I tried that already, no luck 
I’ll fire up my computer later on and do the log again from scratch.
73, Colin
I tried calling you a few times Rob, but you couldn’t hear me. Next time…
A closed gate made me late (@wx1s’s note cautions “closed in winter,” but it is not winter!).
To get on the air quickly, I pulled up a 17m dipole and started calling CQ with my RockMite ][ at 1344z. I got no spots, so I self-spotted… and still got no calls. I gave up and raised a second antenna, an EFHW for 40, 20, and 15. I was already 90 minutes past my announced start time and nobody had heard me yet!
On 15m CW, my first 4 contacts were Arizona (@WA7JTM S2S), Portugal (@CT2IWW), California (@N6AN S2S), and France (@F4WBN). It was an exciting start, but the pileup ended quickly and when I tuned around I heard only @G4TGJ from across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, Richard didn’t hear me.
The rest of the morning, after a quick 7 QSOs on 20m, was a struggle. I added several S2S within the US, but I heard nothing when checking spots for European activators.
After lunch, I was happy to connect with @EA2GM on 20m for an S3 S2S, then found Javier again on 15m with good signals both ways. I also caught @G4OOE on 15 for my only other TransAtlantic S2S.
I ended with 37 QSOs, 14 of them S2S. I heard quite a bit of QRPTTF activity and should have made more contacts that way. Instead I kept searching in vain for summits across the pond.
Whilst band conditions were not great for transatlantic contacts, overall it was a very successful day. Dave M0JKS and I struck up an early camp on G/SP-004 (a summit I have activated a few times now :-). With four radios (2 handheld and 2 HF) and 3 HF antennas, we managed 45 S2Ss Just one US. Weather conditions were excellent, it was dry and mild.
A special mention should go to a few chasers, who whilst making a contact, alerted activators that other S2Ss were trying to get through… thanks EA2DT Manuel! Also MW0RWX/P for getting in my log three times on different summits.
Thanks for organising a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Martin
2E0BIA
Yes, it was definitely not the best propagation, but nice to be out in nature!
The weather was changeable, from sunshine to rain and drizzle.
Most bands were noisy, especially 20m with a strange “generator sound” that I heard also other times when the solar wind speed was higher than normal.
This noise appeared and disappeeard form one moment to the other, like somebody would toggle a switch, just to reappear some minutes later.
At around 11 UTC, I heard a VK station on 15m SSB and also a few NA stations on 17m but all signals were very low.
In the middle of my activation, I swapped my 7-band EFHW for a 17m OCF vertical, but could only work two European stations on this band.
At the end of the day, I did a total of 45 contacts and if I remember correctly, 26 of these were S2S, but no DX at all.
73 Stephan
Hi Martin,
Great to have S2S contacts with both of you.
Were you sharing equipment as you seemed a little louder than Dave - perhaps you were just talking louder into the microphone?
73 Ed DD5LP
Ed we were sharing for some, but both monitoring different bands. I think we both used the same radio for you… i am probably a bit louder on the mic!
Great to get you.
Martin
Indeed! Not only was Manuel my first chaser, but he also then alerted me to the fact that Dave (JKS) was calling me. Thanks Manuel
I’m always up for DX SOTA, so the prospective of “easy” S2S DX persuaded me to get on a local summit and try my luck: Monte Croce dei Fo’ I/LG-029.
Nice weather, not too windy and not too sunny, the many wild horses inhabiting the area were not in sight, good.
Setting up the station is tricky with an EFHW, the feed point is often too low to the ground due to the lack of supporting trees and SWR is less than ideal.
My station was an Icom IC-705 powered from an external LiFePO4 battery, 10W output. I try to bring a comfortable chair if weight is not an issue.
First problem, mobile coverage was poor and I needed it to spot myself and find other activators, I’d rather avoid fiddling with the interface designed for ants of the FT5D to spot via APRS2SOTA. Second problem, band conditions were not conducive to Trans-Atlantic QRP contacts.
First contact: S2S with Beppe @I1WKN, you can count on him, always activating in any weather or season.
I managed 31 QSOs, 10 SSB, 31 CW, 20 S2S.
Now the best part: just before wrapping up Gary @KT0A on 15m CW, S2S to W0D/BB-024 (South Dakota), while I was trying to copy him a passerby curios about my equipment was asking what I was doing and I mumbled something about amateur radio and talking with the US, I’m not a good multitasker nor an excellent steward of the hobby.
Did I mention this was my first CW activation? Chasing is easier.
Despite the ionosphere not collaborating it was a fun day, I met the horses on my way back.
