hi all,
thanks for nice pile up yesterday on 40m cw and ssb. a few om´s ask for my antenna due to nice signal. nothing spectacular here, only a simple linked dipole…but very high in a tree. http://www.flickr.com/photos/36645961@N00/8676686273/in/pool-640391@N21/
maybe conds was very good at this time…
now i look for todays summit on the map. will post an new alert. i´m off from work for a few days now, so i have time to do sota
but only one activation per day in future on local summits, but therefore i stay longer on the summits and most times with two antennas. maybe today i try psk31 agagin.
on the next weeks i do no more 160 and 80mtrs on my regular sota activations.
the first qso´s from a summit i do with 3watts to save battery…at the end i use full qrp power
and one info again…
at every activation i went directly from cw to ssb on 20 and 40m.
so have a look on 14.280 ±10khz and 7.118± 20khz. it would be nice to have a spot from the first one who work me on ssb on most summits i have good phonenet to send a selfspot,but not on all…
I was testing a new KD1JV ‘Mountain Top’er’ kit yesterday whilst you were activating, I don’t have a permanent antenna at my home QTH so I set up my portable dipole in a garden plot that we rent separate to the house.
I aligned the MTR RX filters by using on air signals and then was I looking for contacts to check that the whole thing worked.
I took a look at the SOTA spots to see if I could gain any chaser points whilst I had the rig up and running, I saw some old spots for 40m CW, I think we could have worked on that frequency, but by the time I was on the band you had QSY’d.
I then saw a spot for 14MHz CW appear, but I could not hear you at all, I think the skip was favouring larger distances I could hear the people working you. In the end I proved the MTR by working Zoli HA5PP in Budapest.
Good luck with your future activations, I’m very jealous of your contact with WG0AT recently.
When the spot appeared I turned my radio on and was surprised how strong your signal was on 40mtrs 59 peaking +20 at times, conditions not too good during the day’ your set up was working very well. I hope you did not climb the tree to put your di-pole up. Thanks for the points hope to contact you again soon on SSB (I dont do CW).
hi all,
thanks for nice pile up yesterday on 40m cw and ssb. a few om´s ask
for my antenna due to nice signal. nothing spectacular here, only a
simple linked dipole…but very high in a tree.
Klaus,
I couldn’t help notice how well you were doing with that antenna yesterday evening.
The RBN map was lit up like a spiders web. There were lines to every area of the globe.
In case you didn’t see it, I did a quick grep of yesterday’s RBN data.
Apart form the usual EU and NA spots look at some of the others.
11dB into ZL2HAM!
A small snapshot from RBN below.
Thanks for the contact.
I’ll be looking for that S2S on Saturday.
Pete
thanks for your work and info. i looked everytime on the list view on rbn-site.
never looked at this nice map…thanks for showing and nice qso´s on last activations.today i had a spot on PJ2T on 10mtrs…nice…with ultra bad longwire in a tree.
tomorrow late evening i´m again on a night activation to work chasers and mybe do s2s fm stateside.its not so easy here from south-germany.later from abt. 20-21utc it works nice to mid/west us. yesterday i had chasers from idaho and some more west-states. also nice s2s to n4ex/wa2usa/p in cw and a nice ssb s2s with w1dmh. on qrpttf i´m on dm/bw-228 with two antenna mast. one 12mtr rod with a 20m j-antenna and a 10m rod with delta loop 15m-band.hope the chasers from stateside calls me again on my next activations,because it will be no uniques. in night activations only dm/bw-228,057 and 157 there i drive on and activate only a few 100mtrs away for safety.yesterday on bw-168 i had no really fun by walk down in darkness…never again.
but one question my english is very limited, i don´t understand the rules of qrpttf to calculate the points so i go out only to work some s2s qso´s.don´t sure what qso counts with chasers not from a summit. but i think i enjoy it work only s2s. maybe it works again really far as that s2s with steve wg0at in colorado.
i understand that i give only rapport and ref…as → 599 DM/BW-228…no more numbers ?
today i was on hohenkarpfen summit bw-074…a old vulcano summit near my home.
conds was very low today so i enjoyed more the beautiful sunshine and chase some s2s in europe. had a nice relaxing day
i took some photos to show where i´m located in this area and that i have many local summits. i put it on my flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/36645961@N00/8679024324/in/photostream
more are on the site…
so this evening in my week free of work, that i ever have once a month, i have to stay by xyl…she say !
but one question my english is very limited, i don´t understand
the rules of qrpttf to calculate the points so i go out only to
work some s2s qso´s.don´t sure what qso counts with chasers not from
a summit. but i think i enjoy it work only s2s. maybe it works again
really far as that s2s with steve wg0at in colorado.
i understand that i give only rapport and ref…as → 599
DM/BW-228…no more numbers ?
Klaus that is sufficient for you (RST + SOTA Ref). USA stations will also send their state since it can be different inside each call area. Stations working a SOTA summit get multiplier credit on each band for both the State/Province/Country + SOTA (i.e. double credit!). If I work you on 20m I can work you again on 15m, but remember that WARC bands are not allowed in this event. A complete log is not required…only a summary sheet:
If you don’t want to send anything at all that is also OK! This is a low key event with the focus on having fun outside in the Field. Everyone is welcome whether you send a summary or not.
info : later i´m on DM/BW-156 with my new antenna mast
looking for some dx ;-).hope it work also to mid/west us again.
i´m on the westside of the summit top with very good take off.
and it´s not so far from carpark…ideal !
will try a 2x7m up&outer with a higher mast now. will feed with wireman,
so also 30 and 17m is possible.
second antenna is an elhw for 15&20m. so i have to make short breaks in the activation to change antennas. 5 watt cw and maybe ssb with 10watt then.
hope it works,never tested before. i´m on the summit a bit earlier to setup in last daylight…i changed my antenna plans for qrpttf. monoband antennas are good, but its no fun to change wires,links…setup,setdown mast etc. in darkness.so one of these antennas will be it. never tested a simple inv.V. as dx antenna with a high mast…mhhh.
hello all,
and thanks for nice contacts on my two activations. also a big thank you for the 10 s2s qso´s from bw-147 in the morning.
at late evening i was on dm/bw-156 again.want to make a few photos from the antenna but the smartphone cam is not a workhorse on night shots so only a look on the summit top by set up. http://www.flickr.com/photos/36645961@N00/8682179835/in/photostream
the reason was to check three other antennas…number 3 don´t work
the winner for multiband was this simple antenna i set up at a 15mtr mast.
maybe i will only take as up&outer with one radial.
→ mein.DARC
i changed my big antenna plans ( monoband ants for 20 and 15m ) to the fact that the wx forecast predict vy bad wx at saturday. and then a night activation is no fun and more impossible for me.and then changing antennas and work on summit is not fine. so i change my alert at saturday to 1500utc and post a note S+12,because its not sure when i´m on the summit due to wx and plans of my xyl at saturday i´m on dm/bw-228 on saturday,because there is a small forest workers hut on the top, a dry place by to much rain !
the symetric gp works fine for me last night. and its also possible to do some contacts on 30 and 40m to make some other qso´s to eu-chasers by the searching for s2s qso´s to na.
hope the condx are better at saturday then yesterday !
mostly all contacts are to the east coast with very poor condx to mid west us.
sfi 119.
but i hope on a few s2s because i worked a few qrp stations in us. bill w4zv
test to contact me with 5watts also and it works. he had copied my 3w signal then with no problem. so it should work.
about the propagation from south germany last night i copied some rbn spots that shows that mostly the east coast works.at this time i used 3 watts due to internal batteries in kx3.
and to the rbn-spots . first rbn spotted me right on bw-156, later then on bw-228. not sure why. after send a self spot on bw-156, rbn stops to spot me on sota watch. on the rbn site all is ok…and spots are there. maybe my mistake. hope the S+12 works on 27.apr
maybe i will only take as up&outer with one radial.
Yes, all you need for Saturday evening to the USA would be a single radial in the direction of USA. It will be an easier night time set up and will also yield you a small amount of gain (~1dB).
I’ll look for you Klaus if I’m still active at that time. I hope to have a 44ft doublet suspended from a fire tower with my KX3.
Hi Barry,
nice big signal last night from you ! perfect…thanks for calling in.
hope there is not too much rain at saturday. maybe i go today again on bw-228 to have a quick sota fun. but not too long. but not sure, first i need the ok from my xyl
in two weeks again i´m working lateshift again, so i will try to have a free day to work some dx an night from bw-228 or bw-156.
have made a screenshot from the hummelsberg ( bw-228 ). so all can see that it is a safe activating per night. pos.1 is the best for qrpttf,because the terrain falls at dir us. i can set up the antenna driectly at the cliff at a fence.
pos.2 is by too much rain, there is the forest workers hut.
hope cu in qrpttf ! also i´m only for a short time on the summit, let´s see how the wx come.
Well whatever antenna you were using just now, you blew my ears off Klaus - true 599 and one of the loudest 5W sigs I’ve ever heard from Europe. Please describe the details of the antenna you were using at 2000Z.
In reply to N1EU:
Hi Barry,
back home now. had luck with wx,had a nice quick activation in a break of rain.
at the end it begins to rain.better say … it was a mix of rain and snow on the summit.hope the winter don´t come back
your signal was very loud on 20m. worked also a few 2 way qrp qso´s to na.
antenna works very well, but maybe the condx was good at this time or the location of my antenna was the reason for that good signal.
normaly i don´t want to send a photo from this antenna, because its so ugly style.only a test version to look how it works,normaly i do more work on my antennas but here it is … 6.8m wireman with two times 7m wire. installed as up&outer at a 12m spiderbeam mast with a added top section from 3m thin fieber rod because the 12m mast have a stable top. but its to heavy for longer hikes. ahhh, ok…now the antenna … tata cheap and simple : http://www.flickr.com/photos/36645961@N00/8683746525/in/photostream
if the wx too bad tomorrow , and forecast say yes, i´m only for one or two short times qrv. its only a 10min walk and near my home qth. and i´m only there to look out to do some s2s contacts. if the wx better i will do more.
i hope eu chasers will forgive me from monday on i´m again in regular sota mode with better antennas for lower bands and 40m cw/ssb again.but tomorrow i look for s2s hope i can work a few of the many sota friends on the summits.
If you want to know why you are load on top of a mountain with a cliff or a gentle slope try the software called HFTA written by N6BV. It is on the CD part of the ARRL Antenna Book. First enter the elevation data of your hill, select a dipol and then compare against the same antenna over flat terrain. Then try to move your antenna away from your cliff (e.g. 1m, 10m, 100m) and see what happens to the elevation angle of your antenna. Another option is to try a dipole roughly 1m above ground over a cliff (e.g. the antenna is supported by your hiking poles) and compare it against a dipol over flat ground.
Just today, N6BV gave a webinar with the title “What I’ve Learned in Two Decades of Terrain Assessment”. See Upcoming Webinars | World Wide Radio Operators Foundation and the replay should be posted in the archive section soon.
Whenever possible I pick my antenna location on top of a SOTA as close to a cliff / sloping terrain in the direction I want to operate best. It easily enhances your signal by 10…20dB compared to flat ground.
BTW: HFTA only works for horizontal polarized antennas. For verticals you can use e.g. EZNEC.
73 de Dominik, W4/HB9CZF (unfortunately no SOTA near me … for another 2 weeks)
Hi Dominik!
Tnx for the info and wow W4/HB9CZF
(no SOTA but lots of IOTA there…hi).
Will you run the H26-contest from there?
Have a good time and a save trip back home!
Vy73 de Fritz HB9CSA, DL4FDM
Hi Dominik,
thanks info. i knew´ed the story abt. groundgain. but never heard about a software to calculate this. thanks for the link ! maybe i try my 42mtr hw-wire on that summit at the cliffs next time
from this qth i will do my first 144mhz ssb actiavtion in summer. maybe from there i make my first 144mhz contact from jn48 -> G later this year. can´t wait for autumn / tropo season.
I could hear the people working you. In the end I proved the MTR by working Zoli HA5PP in Budapest.
