I periodically read yearnings for more 2m SSB activations on here. Well, tonight’s the night!
Tuesday Night Is SOTA Night / SOTA Fun Evening / RSGB UK Activity Contest, call it what you will, but I’ll be activating. Hopefully for 2.5 hours until 10.30pm, but I reserve the right to retreat depending on how heavy the forecast showers are.
A once a month contest makes $&££ all difference Tom. It is a commitment to chasing 2m SSB activators that is required, not contest activity. I reckon most of the receivers your signal reaches tonight will stay off once the contest ends until next month’s session.
I have run 2m SSB almost every activation since I started in SOTA, from Cornwall to Orkney and have seen the number of regular dedicated 2m SSB chasers slowly reduce in number. There was a time when I would usually log 10 to 15 on the mode, but now there are just a couple of regulars which often has me wondering whether it is worthwhile carrying the additional kit.
BTW, I am writing this during the 2m SSB contest period, so where am I?.. taking a 5 minute break while working.
Hope you managed to work a few.
73, Gerald G4OIG
68 QSOs. 2m SSB SOTA is alive and well!
And somehow, so am I. Two very nasty downpours passed through, both with gale force winds as they did. Thought very seriously about abandoning at one point, but made it through.
Squares worked: IN99, IO64, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, JO02, 03.
DXCCs worked: EI, F, G, GD, GI, GM, GW.
It might be once a month (or in fact around quadruple that if you widen the remit to “VHF SSB” and include weekend events too) - but they are the optimal times for this type of SOTA activating!
In East Coast VK land there is an active group of 2m SSBers doing Aircraft Enhancement around 7-8 am in the morning. I have previously popped up into the group from a Summit. They are there pretty well every day.
Correction - 2m SSB is alive and well… for two and a half hours each month and occasionally a little more. The only association with SOTA is down to the fact that you were on a SOTA summit.
The only association with SOTA is down to the fact that you were on a SOTA summit.
The best truism I have heard in a while 
“2m SSB” + “SOTA” = “2m SSB SOTA”
68 QSOs = “alive and well”.
Obviously for a successful VHF SSB SOTA experience, you need to choose the optimum times. I choose Tuesday evenings. I’m sure you wouldn’t choose 3am on a Monday morning (for instance).
If when you do 2m SSB SOTA you aren’t getting satisfactory results, then why not try it at the times I do it, which are highly successful?
Yes, but how many of the 68 stations you worked were SOTA Chasers and recorded the QSOs with you in the SOTA database?
That’s what would make it “SOTA”.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Really? Can you point me to that in the General Rules? I was doing SOTA, so they were all SOTA QSOs. I’d imagine that around 3 or 4 of those 68 logged the SOTA chase.
…although as of yet, using the new feature on the Database, I can see that no-one has logged a chase of me. Maybe it wasn’t a SOTA activation and I imagined the whole thing…
I would venture to guess that hardly any of the 68 even knew that you were operating from a SOTA summit.
Not much of a SOTA activation.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
LOL. 
Really? You must be reading it a different way to me.
Yes, that’s a great idea Tom. I’ll have a word with Paul and see what we can arrange around Tuesday evenings and perhaps VHF NFD weekend for a longer outing. It would mean a lot of traveling for little return by way of summits, but then of course that would be our fault because we activate Uniques.
Im sure i spoke to Tom last night from the local radio club , using the call M0RSD ,
didnt give a thought about SOTA points as it was CQ CQ Contest , not CQ CQ SOTA ? .perhaps i missed out there , 
…Gez (M0NTC)
Nor 20.00 on a Wednesday night!
It is an awful reflection on the decay of 2m SSB SOTA that in order to stand a chance of qualifying an activation you have to ascend a summit in the hours of darkness on one particular night of the month in whatever the weather throws at you. This might be a successful stratagem but it is hardly a satisfying one!
Brian
Not much of a SOTA activation.
It was a SOTA activation. How, therefore, can it possibly be “not much of a SOTA activation”?
“2m SSB” + “SOTA” = “2m SSB SOTA”
LOL.
I’d be interested to learn how you are reading it, if you conclude that doing 2m SSB on a SOTA activation is not SOTA.
our fault because we activate Uniques.
That’s your choice. As I have said before, you are restricting yourselves from a huge amount of fun and enjoyment through this policy (just ask Mickey 2E0YYY if you don’t believe me), but SOTA can be tailored to however you personally like. You do that, and so do I. What you do is SOTA even though you never offer chasers any repeat opportunities to work you on any given summit. What I do is SOTA, even though I sometimes do it at night and often work people who are not yet SOTA chasers.
CQ CQ Contest , not CQ CQ SOTA ? .perhaps i missed out there
You did indeed Gez. In fact I was calling “CQ Contest and Summits on the Air” about every 3rd call when I was running. When searching and pouncing, I gave the summit reference whenever I recognised the call as a SOTA chaser. I see elsewhere on the internet you have stated that I was not calling CQ SOTA. You are incorrect in this, as I was, as explained above.
Anyway, you didn’t miss out, as you can go ahead and log that chase now. Furthermore, you can log many more from the past. Virtually all my Tuesday night VHF contesting is done from a SOTA summit and in accordance with SOTA activating rules, so you may have a whole batch of points you can claim. Feel free to check my SOTA Database activator log to verify that I was on a SOTA, and which one it was.
It is an awful reflection on the decay of 2m SSB SOTA that in order to stand a chance of qualifying an activation you have to ascend a summit in the hours of darkness on one particular night of the month in whatever the weather throws at you.
It would be Brian - if it were true. It is relatively easy to qualify a normal daytime SOTA activation on 2m SSB from most English summits. It is relatively difficult to rack up 50+ QSOs outside of a contest period though, I’ll give you that.
Anyway, I must say that I am rather disturbed at this belief that the only valid SOTA is when the activator makes contact with those who are already SOTA chasers. What about those who are potentially SOTA chasers? I’m personally more interested in promoting the SOTA Programme to the SOTA chasers of the future.
Also Brian, it will soon be 20:00 on a Wednesday night. I won’t be doing a SOTA activation then either.
TBF i didnt expect to hear anyone calling CQ SOTA during the contest , but maybe next month i can grab a point or 2 when we are searching and pouncing . HI 
Sure thing. In fact I do the 2m (1st Tuesday), 70cm (2nd Tuesday) and 6m (4th Tuesday) events, always from a SOTA summit and under SOTA-qualifying conditions.
And as you can retrospectively claim SOTA chaser contacts, with no time limit - fill your boots 
2M SSB Fun Day anyone?
73 Chris M0RSF
Great shout Chris. Let’s do it!
Or the next challenge to include 2m SSB and CW?
Ed.
How about choosing the date of a major contest so 40m is stuffed and we can expect a few listeners on 2m ssb?
73,
Rod