Delivered in a Richard Hammond-esque East Midlands accent:
“I don’t like repeaters. Nobody uses repeaters. I don’t like 2 meters. I don’t like 70cm. Nobody uses them any more. I like HF SSB. Easy DX.”
The supremeness of 270 delivers on the global stage yet again. Absolute zenith radio bands. 
Think about quickly hopping on 2m and 70cm before packing up next time you are on a summit or just out and about portable (preferably all mode of course 
).
You never know what you’ll get! 
Good work amazing conditions.
Regards Ian vk5cz ..
That seems to be using a well-known marine duct that appears pretty well every year, and mainly links to coastal stations in the UK and Eire, with little penetration inland. its been used for DX for many years. It may not work for higher summits in CT3, the signal reflecting off the top of the boundary layer instead of entering it. ISTR a few years ago a contact between CT3 and GM in Galloway claimed as a UK record.
PS I believe there is a similar marine duct used for DX in VK crossing the Great Bight of southern VK.
I would go further and suggest using them as main bands rather than an afterthought. There is a caveat to this though, depending on summit (obstructions and time of day etc.
I consider myself lucky in the fact that my local summit (G/SP-017) is not only a very easy summit located in between the large conurbations of Manchester and Liverpool, even 23cm contacts can qualify it (easily if alerted). With 2m and 70cm , you dont even need to spot (especially at weekend).
I think the point I’m trying to make is that in areas where people are listening qsos can be made. So it’s not just about activators making the effort, but chasers also monitoring vhf/uhf will help.
I like 2m, I like 70cm and I like 23cm. 70cm is (was) my favourite band for UKAC and with my 10 Watts and 21 element Yagi from my QTH near York at 34 metres asl I can regularly get to France and Holland even in flat conditions.
Now I’m slowly getting into the world of Sota, I’m building an arsenal of lightweight Yagis. Anyone for 23cm?
VHF and above is also great for my level of cw, I’m hardly going to get hit by a pile-up on 70cm😂
You and @GM4LLD need to have a chat. 
There is a very active 23cm community in the North West of the UK who keep an eye out for 23cm activity (sota or otherwise). My past few trips up Billinge Hill, I’ve been getting 8 or 9 qsos on 23cm without any real effort (apart from posting an alert).
I’m also hoping to have a transverter pretty soon so will have SSB capability in addition to the FM I already have. Peter MW0PJE is very active on 23cm SOTA so always worth looking out for his alerts too.
Which are you getting?
Its the SG labs one. A local amateur received some new toys so had one surplus to requirements, so have agreed to take it off his hands (for a fair price of course).
Going to use the 817 to drive it, just need to find/make a reasonable antenna that balances size and performance. For G/SP-017 it doesn’t matter since its such an easy summit to carry a large amount of gear to, but for others I’m looking at something around 13 elements as a reasonable start. For comparison, I operate the 433 alive days from Billinge (SP-017) with 50W and a 17element tonna as well as taking something for 2m as well. If Peter (M1BZJ) comes along, we will normally have 100W of HF to play with too - thats how easy that particular summit is.
Having the transverter will mean I wont have to consider taking the IC-9700 into the wild. I think that’s much better left indoors.
I also have the SG-Lab 23cm transverter. It’s a well thought out design with a few options for DC power and tx switching. I’ve just built a small simple bias-tee so I can power mine through the coax for portable operation, the idea is to mount the transverter on the Yagi boom. I’m presently building a 14dBi gain 9 ele, the overall length with transverter will be 70cm.
I guess a 13 element will be around 15-16 dBi and barefoot with 2 Watts should get you a long way. Just keep that coax loss to an absolute minimum. If you need more power I have a spare PCB so you can build yourself a 150 Watt amp.
I’d suggest people should seriously consider using patch and/or bowtie (double quad) antennas from 23cm up rather than Yagis. They’re normally much more conducive for portable ops and catch less wind than Yagis.
I’ll be on G/SP-001 tomorrow, will bring 23cm (FM only).
Dave
Brian,
The once reliable duct from southern VK3 across to southern VK6 has been absent in recent years due to changes weather patterns. Will it reappear this summer? Many of the reliable operators are now SK. There was a remote station in Albany but not sure if it still operates.
The VK-ZL ducting has not been great recently either.
It seems the famous Hawaii to California duct also isn’t as good as it used to be apparently.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
When you say Albany and VHF I immediately think of the late Bob Elms VK6BE. He must have been SK well over 10 years now.
IIRC Bob was mainly at Experance. He had a big EME class array. I worked him there many times on 2 m SSB. Wally Green VK6WG was the mainstay for DX contacts into Albany, 6 m to 10 GHz. There were others, including a guy from Perth. He ran a small station from his car and used to drive to a hedland outside Albany. He would stay for a few days when he thought there would be propagation. Mostly He got it right He was able to be on air within 10 minutes of arriving at his spot. Sorry I can’t recall his name or call. Getting old.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
