Continuing the discussion from Advice on Beginner HF Equipment (Part 1) - #100 by AL5KA.
Previous discussions:
@AL5KA yes, it’s best to type your call into the Spotted (dx) box. It looks like you are indeed transmitting =)
Now if you can get yourself on a summit and get spotted, I think you will make some QSOs. Don’t expect to get 4 QSOs in 5 mins and leave. Plan on being on the summit for a while - my rule is no less than 10 mins calling CQ on a band before I QSY. Chasers are not always sitting at their radios, and it takes time to get there. It is very frustrating as a chaser when people bounce from band to band, and by the time I’m at my radio they have moved on to a band I have zero chance of hearing them on.
So be prepared to hang out a while. If you have a bothy bag or tent, that can make a huge difference in comfort level on cold and windy summits. Chemical hand warmers are a godsend for winter activations around here. Good luck!
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++1 on hand warmers. I just did three summits all CW on Monday and Tuesday. Not only was my keying whack with stiff fingers but today, Wednesday, I’m trying to read my paper log and it is HARD!
I’m new to this and lessons are getting learned (fast I hope).
Mike / KA4CDN
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Thanks Josh! Looking forward to trying again, maybe this weekend.
I suppose I should put an update here for anyone who visits this thread and is new. For some reason it won’t let me update the very first post.
UPDATE:
I bought an Elecraft KX2 with the internal battery charger, ATU, paddles, and mic. I also bought a PAR EndFedz 20m EFHW antenna and Explorer POTA20 carbon fiber mast to set it up as a sloper. I feed it with 4’ of RG-8X
I tried to activate my first summit with it on 12FEB, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLqapVAgDh4&t=2s
Heard lots of people but went unheard myself. I didn’t understand the concept of spotting. Have since tested that I am transmitting with the RBN and a webSDR and plan to try spotting via cellular data, SMS, or RBNhole next time I attempt a SOTA
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Yeah, when RBN gets a bit busy then there are often more new spots in each refresh than will fit on a page. Only by filtering do you stand a chance of seeing any one particular call…
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Good result!
Glad for you, you now have a working HF setup.
Next step are actual QSOs. For best chances, you may consider giving an alert (to give OMs time to prepare for an eventual S2S, for instance) and of course a spot. In addition to your plans you may consider to arrange with a ham who can reliably be reached on 2m to have him post the spot, in case you have no connectivity on the summit.
You are planning to set up your antenna as a sloper. With your 20ft pole this results in a middle height above earth of 10ft, which for a 20m horizontal antenna is on the low side. As discussed before, this may or may not be a problem as the level of RF ground on the summit is not well known.
For better / more consistent results you may try to set up your antenna in the form of a 7 as has been suggested or maybe even a Z. Why? The ends of your antenna have high voltage and comparatively low current so their orientation is not critical for radiation - they can be bent. The middle portion of the antenna which carries the current will have the desirable vertical orientation for low angle radiation on 20m.
73, Kiril
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I have a Komunica HF-PRO-2, it only came with a steel whip antenna, the stand that came with it is actually one made to put a big sound speaker like you see at music gigs so is way to heavy to carry anywhere, I would probably use it if I could find a ground spike with the correct mounting.
What I did get was a Slidewinder DX Antenna and that has been really good, so good I wore out the string in the military whip so it broke"!
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Update: Haven’t done any SOTA since Rainbow Peak, have been busy with other stuff.
I’m heading south to Homer for a race this weekend and I see there are two 1-point peaks that you can nearly drive to, which I’ve yet to see in AK. I plan to try to activate both of them but unfortunately they will probably be at nighttime in AK (around 0500 UTC), which means very late and dark for the rest of the US. Will bring the HF gear but I’m guessing UHF/VHF will be my best friend
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You should try HF. The higher bands sometimes keep on going long after dark. In the evening 40 meters goes long - I’ve worked Alaska on 40 at night. Of course if it’s dark and sub-zero temps you might not really want to do HF 
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Update: I activated both KS-622 and KS-648 in Homer, it was pretty disheartening.
KS-622, Lookout Mtn: You can drive right to the very summit of this one, but it is also the Homer VOR so I figured that might have interference. I was activating at 2000 local time so I didn’t expect much from the HF set-up anyway. I was able to hear a friend in Anchorage with it, though they didn’t hear me. Luckily we got 4 contacts in about 45min-1hr on VHF/UHF.
KS-648, Epperson Knob: Drive nearly to the summit, tiny hike. Activated about 1500 local on a beautiful day. I tried DESPERATELY to get an HF contact and was unsuccessful. Starting with spotting myself on 14.320 USB and got nothing. Scanned the bands for a while. Heard numerous people, including Japanese and Russian speakers. I heard NI6IW, the USS Midway, clearer than I’ve ever heard anything before on that radio. I tried so hard to get a contact with them and they never heard me. At this point I switched to CW. I put in another spot for 14.062 CW (not sure if it was appropriate for the second spot or not but I did it anyway). Very shortly after I think I nearly made a contact. Here’s what I made out: “**** HOWDU BOB NICE TO SEE YOU WHAT ***” and then nothing else. I am thinking it is someone from this forum? I never made out a call sign or anything after that.
We were on Epperson Knob for 2 hours, ended up getting all 4 contacts from VHF/UHF
So yeah… although it was technically successful, the HF SOTA was a total bust.
On the bright side, the Anchorage SOTA association has 24 peaks that have been activated and now I’ve activated 22/24. One of the remaining two is in Kodiak (an island) so I will probably never get it lol.
Also if you’re curious, the entire state of Alaska has 18,445 peaks and exactly 45 have been activated. Only 18,400 to go!
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I think you are still missing something out in your HF setup. HF is by far the easiest way to activate summits. At 1500 local time you should be drowning under the pileup. The west coast of the US is only 2500 km distance, on 20m, this should be like telephone.
From home, maybe try again to test your setup on webSDRs located in Washington or California ?
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Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble with HF. I missed you on those activations as I was away from the shack those days. You need to try some other bands - I only see spots for 20 SSB and 20 CW. Most likely 20 just wasn’t the best band at that time, and you should have tried 17, 15, 12, 10. Almost certainly one of those bands would have worked for you.
I also think you should experiment with a different antenna. We would have to be in the midst of a major flare / HF blackout for you to NOT work big guns like W0MNA, WB0POT, WW7D, KF9D, etc on some band. I’m 100% confident that I could activate those summits on HF using CW and my normal kit. What has worked very well for me all over the world is a 41’ wire with a 17’ counterpoise, a 9:1 unun, and my KX2. I usually put the wire up as an inverted V, or L. I find that sloping it isn’t as good as a the V or L. This is a very simple antenna to construct, and a proven performer. This antenna along with the ATU in your KX2 will work well on all the bands 10 thru 40.
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Remy - Good idea, I will try that this week sometime
Josh - I didn’t mention it but I did try both 40m and 10m. Only tried those two other bands because they’re nice multiples of the 20m EFHW I’m using. I scanned through both of those bands but didn’t hear any conversations, whereas on 20m I could hear 4-5 different conversations at any time. I think you’re right, I should make that antenna. I saw Elecraft recommended the #26 silky wire in their owner’s manual
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When you go to another band, post a spot. Just because you don’t hear activity on a band doesn’t mean it’s not open. Give the chasers a shot at hearing you.
26 gauge wire is fine. I like the poly stealth stuff because it holds up forever. Go for a bright color so you can see it on the ground.
Hope to catch you on a summit soon.
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Although you may have posted an alert, the chasers are unlikely to be sitting by the radio awaiting your call. I find that spotting every frequency or mode changes brings in new chasers.
I suspect many chaser do like I do. I have a screen open watching the spots whilst I am doing other things, maybe in the shack, maybe not. I’m sure there are those that won’t going looking for activators until the see a spot.
Such is the reliance on spotting!
When activating I usually wait at least 10 minutes after posting a spot before I QSY or give up.
Great to hear the activations weren’t a failure and VHF/UHF got you over the line.
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Since you’re using EFHW, you can also try to orient the wire north-east (bearing 45°), that will make your HF stronger in western coast.
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At my age [70s] I’ll not sit there calling CQ for 10 minutes especially in winter. I’ll call CQ and listen 2 or 3 times for about 2 minutes before QSY’ing to another band or going into hunt-and-pounce mode or going QRT. I cool down quickly just sitting in the cold no matter how many layers I’m wearing.
If a chaser really wants to work that particular summit they need to be monitoring for a self or auto spot starting a bit before my alerted time. Monitoring my progress to the summit on aprs.fi is a good guide. I’m sorry but my schedule, comfort and safety come first.
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You don’t need to apologise for that.
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I agree. It’s just a figure of speech. I’m really expressing regret should someone miss working the summit because I needed to move on. But hey, most things in life are a compromise.
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I aim for 10 minutes, unless I’m calling on CW, in which case 9 is better!
If RBN spots me, then it will spot me again 10 minutes later…just as I’ve decided to QRT on that band. 9 minutes avoids that confusion.
Having said that, I agree that safety and comfort always come first.
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