That’s part of the problem, isn’t it, Pom. It’s hard to get a big pole and a long Yagi for VHF Dx in your rucksack and walk solo up most SOTA summits. Even my more modest setup (FT817, 3m pole and 3-el 2m Yagi) is enough for me to man-handle which limits the summits I can choose.
You can see Brian @G8ADD 's point - fewer people in this day and age are willing to undergo such a trek [unless it’s a drive-up summit for contesting, not SOTA] and probably most who do, activate as a small group so that carrying of the radio equipment can be shared between them.
This week Friday would actually work out for me so im looking to get out somewhere relatively local (sp region) . What time would be best to maximise chances of s-t-s.
If its Sp-17 billinge hill you may have to put up with saying your 59 but can you repeat everything. Last time i used the 817 on 2m ssb up there , there was quite a bit of breakthrough. Hence depending on the type of day pass i am granted i may look for a different summit. Easington, Longrdige or maybe even The Cloud.
“Ohne Fleiß kein Preis” is a favourite german saying. “You can get it if you really want” would be a translation matching.
The real cause I wasn’t on a SOTA ref, is a lack of SOTA references in JO50. I was on Schneekopf 978 m asl DA/TH-001 (GMA). It used to be a SOTA summit until MT moved the goal posts in 2016 and deleted this fb VHF summit from the list. I use this setup on a regular basis, regardless of the hilltop (SOTA or GMA).
Please note that my VHF station is no role model at all. I really want the DX. A casual activator will be fine with 25/30 W into a HB9CV antenna.
BTW, the pole is a DX-Wire 10 m Mini, a quite popular SOTA mast. The Yagis (“5 Elli and her sister”) are homebrew and designed to be light weight and also durable when used frequently. Each is 600 g.
Anyway, great activity and fb condx! 105 QSOs, 47 squares.
But this was on a Tuesday activity night, so this post is just off-topic. In northern DM, SSB activity apart contests or activity nights has declined over the past 5 or 6 years. And that’s what Chris’ subject is.
My standard 2m aerial and support. For easier summits I sometimes take a bigger support.
I don’t believe this is difficult to carry or deploy.
The problem is that there are just not enough on SSB for a casual activation, and if you go horizontal then you risk missing out on FM contacts as they as nearly always vertical. I found out during the recent LD weekend how dramatic this was as I could not hear many on FM until I changed the aerial to vertical, where they became S9.
Perhaps a simple dipole is the answer where polarity can easily be changed.
I’ve managed to negotiate a pass out for Friday. Still not decided on summit, but possibly G/SP-004 (will alert when decided). Hope to be on summit about 10:30am local time and hope to stay up there 2 to 3 hours.
Mainly 2m SSB but open to AM too. Will also take the arrow antenna just in case there are any ISS or SO-50 passes. That also gives me the option of some 70cm FM and SSB too.
I can’t see a reason why wx should change before Friday. So, there still is a good chance of lift condx, see Hepburn or F5LEN. I’ll have to work in the morning, but I think could be qrv on DM/NS-135 from 1200/1300z. Hw?
At 800km between our two summits it is a possibility. I will take the 25W amp for a bit of extra in case conditions are favourable. Although I’ve alerted for 10am UTC (11am local) I tend to stay on summits for a few hours so should still be around when you are available.
I’ve alerted for G/SP-004 (IO83 square), which is an 800km trip to OZ/OZ-001. Conditions allowing would be great to make the trip. I’ll keep watching the spots.
Ian, I saw your alert yesterday and that no one else in the UK [as I write] has alerted for 144-ssb. But then with your setup you will probably get EU contacts.
I hope to go to G/LD-050 or G/LD-052 mid morning tomorrow but I’m working on a couple of technical issues mainly to do with my old Yagi and coax feeder (which haven’t been used for a while). If I’m convinced later today they are okay, I’ll post an alert later,
I pointed my 3-el Yagi (on a tripod) out a window in my bungalow’s upstairs conversion towards the GB3NGI 2m beacon 240km away in Ballymena N.I. Hearing its Morse ID and digital burble 5/2 suggests the Yagi is receiving alright. But the 3-4 bars on the FT817’s ‘SWR meter’ during CW transmit keying worries me.
I’ll ‘wing it’ and hope it works on the day.
I’ve been taking a tarp recently to hide from the direct sunlight. But setting up both the Yagi / pole and tarp would take forever so I’m probably going to activate [tarp-less] only for an hour or so before it gets too hot, humid and midgy. And because I’m an optimist I’ve also alerted for 144-cw.
I’ve noticed quite a disparity between my 817 SWR meters and my KX2. Something on 20m on the 817 would show 2 bars reads as 2.1:1 on the KX2. Solved with the ATU in the KX2. I think maybe the calibration for the 817 SWR needs repeating after I gave my a full factory reset.
It’s the classic mariner’s time saying “Don’t take 2 clocks to sea, take 1 or 3.” With 2 meters you’re not sure which is correct but with 3 you can do some majority voting.
Now that’s a point, I do have another 2m ‘clock’: my KX2 with Ukrainian 144MHz-28MHz transverter. The latter puts out a few more watts than the FT817 and Tx-sense works well with CW mode. But why complicate things? Last time I did this the FT817 did pretty well with 5W SSB [getting 5/3 to 5/9 reports] with the 3-el Yagi.
