In reply to G4OIG:
Why not take a few fishing poles with you and set up a vertical Yagi using wire elements on the poles. Yes, you have to move the poles to swing the beam but it’s a simple and lightweight to get some directivity.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to G8ADD:
You can bend a few inches of each end of the elements down (or up)
until it fits!
Oh yes, I’d have to buy a pipe bender though, otherwise it’d look untidy, and that would never do! 
Don
In reply to GI4ONL:
Well it didn’t work for me on Arthurs Seat GM/SS-272 last week. I
called for 30 minutes with 5 watts into a half wave vertical and got a
big ZERO in the log
Hi Victor,
For 2m fm, I took a 5/8 over 5/8 colinear up there and used about 25 watts. Took me an hour to make just 4 contacts.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to M0HCU:
Don,
You can do a neat enough job by using a piece of 20 mm thick timber in a vice. Drill a hole a mm or so larger than the diameter of your element. Mark out on the element where you want the bend. Poke element into hole in timber so mark is onside hole. Put your left palm on the element against the timber. Grasp the element near your left hand and push steadily down, The element will yield and it is important to keep the pressure on until you get just past the 90 degrees angle. It will spring back about 10 degrees. Use your left palm to ensure the bend takes place against the timber and not much further out.
You will probably have some flattening of hollow tubes but with a bit of practice this surprisingly can be minimal and the radius of the bends can be reasonably similar.
Better a slightly untidy beam in the air than a pristine one in the shed.
73
Ron
In reply to MM0FMF:
In reply:
The official view is we’re not having an official challenge for a
while. This is to simply allow activators to activate the bands/modes
they want without any pressure in their choice. Also it’s useful to
have a page on the database site showing challenge results and I’m a
bit too busy with other SOTA issues now to add one.Official challenges have to be open to all so 4m/6m which are not yet
universal exclude some people and we would not choose that for an
official challenge.However, there’s no reason why groups of people cannot concentrate on
something, such as 4m Es operation during the Summer and report their
success etc. in exactly the way the original PP3 challenge ran. I
didn’t take part in that but I did find the following the results very
interesting. I’m sure such reports would be interesting to those who
enjoy VHF and may provoke others to try.Andy
MM0FMF
Hi Andy, ABSOLUTELY AGREE that challenges should be open to all (I was going to comment that some countries - Germany included - don’t have 4m, but you beat me to it).
“Please explain” why 12m was chosen for a challenge then - given that in Australia only Advanced licensees can operate on the WARC bands, excluding both Foundation and Standard calls. I suspect the UK foundation call and some Novice calls in other countries are not allowed on the WARC bands.
Echoing your last paragraph a little, rather than a challenge run by the MT (and giving them more work), how about regional association “SOTA activity periods”, perhaps a month long where activators are asked to operate on a particular band if they can. No extra points, no special awards, no change to the database, simply a regional request. Perhaps the association manager could publish a list of those who activated on the requested band at the end of the period, purely to give those activators some Kudos.
73 Ed.
Ed,
I have no idea what the restrictions in bands, power etc are outside of the UK and generally I do not need to know.
As I recall the UK foundation licence only excludes bands above 70cm and limits power on all bands to 10W.
Stewart G0LGS
In reply to G0LGS:
That’s right, Stewart, ten metres used to be excluded for some odd reason but that exclusion was lifted some years ago. World-wide there are a plethora of restrictions and exclusions which are all subject to change, some of them seeming pretty odd - for instance in Spain IIRC 6 metres was restricted to coastal areas. I don’t know of a single source that lists them all, it would be lengthy and you would have to keep an eye on it!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to DD5LP:
“Please explain” why 12m was chosen for a challenge then - given
that in Australia only Advanced licensees can operate on the WARC
bands, excluding both Foundation and Standard calls.
Simple, it’s listed as allocated in VK to amateurs. The check was is the band available to amateurs everywhere there is a SOTA association and it is.
It was later that I think Ron pointed out it was limited to the top licence type in VK. The fact it is limited is not clear when you scan the web. By then we we’re up and running. I’m not sure if the challenge prompted anyone in VK to updgrade their licence so they could take part.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to G8ADD:
"WHY WASTE THE HEIGHT?
Oh, the height isn’t wasted, Matt! On HF with a nice slope in front of you, you can get some pretty good DX - good luck with working the Aussies on 2 metres! The point, though, at least for me, is the hill. SOTA is a nice little bonus for being in the mountains that I love nearly as much as my wife and family!"
To a certain extent I agree with you here Brian, then again working DX is a matter of opinion. On VHF its outside the UK, my best VHF DX experience was sitting on Drygarn Fawr GW/MW-003 using a newly made 4 ele DK7ZB (cost £16) working into Germany on 2.5 watts. So unfortunately no Aussies, but still nice DX regardless!!
100% agree with you regards the radio on a hill. The radio is a bonus, I started SOTA as a Radio op that went up hills. Now I feel more like a walker that takes a radio with them.
I think you’re right when it comes to persuading more people on. However by setting a challenge it worked a treat for 12m, so if the MT decide on another. Please consider UHF as 70cm is so quiet. I know there will be less DX but wouldn’t it be nice to see some more activity on that band.
Andy
“In Scotland? Really? Edinburgh? Really? You have results for this? ;-)”
No I dont, I have been above the border twice. Went on GB3CS and like Gerald said, I think my accent was one of the reasons for no activity! I call through nothing, my Glaswegian friend 2 mins later calls through and gets a call straight away.
Still if you do SSB then you could work us lot down here! I seem to recall a certain FMF having a blast at a UHF activity day??? 
Anyway, I realise that getting more people on VHF will be hard and as Brian says, if they want to come back they will. But I think we all know that wont happen, sad times 
Each person does their own thing and that’s what is nice about SOTA and the Hobby! I think sometimes we all forget its just a hobby, its not the B all and end all!!
73 all
Matt G8XYJ
70cm strikes me as a possibly good choice as well, something suitably different to what we had with 12m, and a whole new characteristic to the Challenge - if and when we sponsor another one.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M0LEP:
GW7AAV Stephen’s delta loop designs are very good, cheap and work well straight away once finished.
https://sites.google.com/site/gw7aav/main-index/antenna-index/antenna-design
I have used this ribbon feeder J Pole antenna many times.
http://www.summits.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=4m+J-pole
It works straight away too.
73
David M0YDH
In reply to M1EYP:
I could get into a 70cm challenge myself, it would be a real “blast from the past” for me!
70cm has no sporadic E, no auroral or auroral E, and meteor scatter reflections are MUCH weaker, but there is one great plus - tropo openings are more frequent and stronger, so participants would be anxiously watching the weather map and compulsive barometer tapping would be the order of the day! Also aircraft reflections are stronger and more useful. Antennas would be smaller and you could afford to carry more gain. It would be useful IMHO if no 70 cm challenge is launched until the new UK beacons are in service, but that is just me, I feel blind without an all-conditions beacon to confirm that the receiver is still working in the deathly silence!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
You and Matt are doing a great sales job even without a challenge, Brian!
70cms is one of the bands that I have not really explored - yet :o)
Adrian
G4AZS
In reply to G8ADD:
I’m sure a few will find such a challenge interesting and rewarding. But you wont get much buy in because you wont find plenty of non-SOTA chasers to work.
The PP3 challenge worked because ignoring SOTA chasers, there are plenty of QRP enthusiasts lurking on 30m looking for QSOs. This means you have both SOTA chasers looking for points plus general non-SOTA QSOs. Likewise with 12m, you didn’t need SOTA chasers to find the band on many occasions full to bursting with people calling CQ or people looking for others calling CQ. Of course SOTA chasers made it more fun. But in both cases you could make scoring contacts without SOTA chasers.
The problem a 70cms challenge faces is the dearth of general purpose chasers on the band. They exist during the activity contests and yes you can find some stunning tropo. But if the dedicated band of SOTA chasers are not hearing you then you’ll find it hard going. The nice thing about the other challenges so far was that if you had a few hours free, you could pop up a local hill and have some QSOs and they will be hard to find outside of activity sessions etc. Without regular rewards, i.e. a good number of QSOs, people will give up a 70cms challenge quickly.
I’m not saying it wont work, or that a few people (yourself, Gerald, Matt for example) wouldn’t give it a good bash. But I don’t think you will see a large take up.
Andy
MM0FMF
2p’s worth.
I would vote for 80 and/or 160M ‘Challenge’ .
Mike
In reply to G6TUH:
…or (for a penny) something to challenge folk to work multiple bands?
73, Rick M0LEP
In reply to M0LEP:
I like the idea of having to do something on multiple bands.
Say Topband and 24GHz!
Seriously I do feel there could be something here with choosing 2 bands out of 3 for each activation.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to M0LEP:
…or something to challenge folk to work multiple bands?
Or maybe multiple modes, only get points if you have contacts in more than one mode during the activation perhaps
Colin G8TMV
In reply to MM0FMF:
The problem a 70cms challenge faces is the dearth of general purpose chasers on the band… I don’t think you will see a large take up.
I agree Andy. It is one thing to have a go with a homebrew antenna and your 817 from a summit, but the home QTH requires something a little more permanent and probably rotatable. However, I feel that we ought to have some more activity days on the band - preferably not at the beginning of January so fair-weather activators can take part and we can all spend a bit more time on the summits.
Thinking along those lines, would a 6m activity day be of interest? At least it would provide an indication of the likely take up of a 6m challenge.
73, Gerald G4OIG
IMHO, 70cm would have little success, as I see little or no chances for a good number of QSOs during an activation. Much less with a 5w QRP rig.
I feel more tempted by trying something on 6m this summer.
I must confess that after reading in this thread some comments about doing something on 6m, I have prepared a 5/8 wave vertical and I’ll try to activate on 6m this weekend.
I hope to work you on 6m…
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF