Thanks Geoff. I will get one up and running,
As it happens I had a remarkable couple days in The Arrocher Alps on 2m FM and SSB. Awesome weather too! Just home. Need to upload logs, sort out footage and photos. Might get a report done tomorrow.
Cheers, Fraser
I had the same impression yesterday when I turned the bands at the beginning of the activation.
In the end I had 15 s2s in the log, including SV and TF.
But Lars, SA4BLM was very weak and so Manuel, EA2DT.
73 Chris
Hi Guru,
This morning I checked the setup, my coax rg174 has problem. i replace it with a 3mt of h155.
The situation on Tortoreto hill I/AB-139 was better then I work 20mt, long skip 1500-2200km. I tried also 30cw and 40ssb without success.
Thanks for the qso and for advice.
73
I know that many of us, including me, have been saying how poor propagation conditions have been recently. But thereâs still plenty of fun to be had. The 30m band seems to be the one standout exception. I canât remember when I had trouble getting contacts to qualify a summit.
I was short of time this morning and needed to do my activation (of Binsey G/LD-041) as quickly as possible. I was pleased therefore to get and give some good reports across Europe in about 9 minutes on 30m. Thanks to all 30m chasers for your enthusiasm.
BTW: Good luck Eric F5JKK on chasing the last remaining G/LD summit you need.
73 Andy
Ciao Roberto,
Thanks for the activation and the QSO today. Very beautiful picture from your summit!
When I chased you this morning on 20m, I thought âwhat a difference, whatever it wasnât working yesterday must have been fixedâ.
Knowing that my comment made you check things and find the coax problem, makes me really happy.
73,
Guru
Conditions have been interesting here the last week. Iâve managed to work AC1Z two activations in a row, including this morningâs S2S. On 30 meters I got RBN hits from VK4CT both days, this morning from ZL4YL, and on 20, too. A bit of QRM and a mental block kept me from copying JH1MXV the first time on 30. Wow! Then, JG0AWE called on 40 meters!! Later I worked TI200I on 17. Oh, and Christian, F4WBN, called in on 17 with a healthy signal. His dit dit sounded like a local. SWL calls include R875GE, 9M64MR and 9M2LAN on 20.
Listening on 18.110 for NCDXF beacons has netted ZS6DN, CS3B and others, sometimes down to the 1 watt tone. Pretty cool.
Today I was using a 59â end fed connected directly to the KX3 via a double banana to BNC male adapter. It was set up broadside to NE with a steep dropoff. The KX3 tuner does wonders finding a match.
Iâm looking forward to hearing and working more callsigns from EU and other continents. With the increasing appearance of sunspots there is hope.
73,
David N6AN
Interestingly enough, on Thursday morning, I managed to work into VK from GW/NW-070 Great Orme on both 20m and 40m ssb, a distance of 10,500 miles or 17,000 Kilometers short path from GW, although the contacts were made long path at about 0640utc. The 20m contacts were the best Iâve worked for a long time, absolute armchair copies. 40m was much tougher, though.
In the afternoon the 20m band was in poor shape for DX, with just a handful of contacts into North America.
17m was way down on a week ago, just three contacts made, all ssb. All three contacts were DX, Canada, Texas and BelizeâŠGo figure.
73 Mike
Hi all
Today the propa changed a bit and looking at the CLX around 14:30 UTC, I seen the band was open to NA on 15 & 17m !
Tried RBN hole and got this results :
Alerted Dennis but maybe he was using a TRX without these bands, I have a lot of QRM myself on 20mâŠ
Just a reminder, please if you can take a look on spots !
I know I have a bad antennas for working DX 
but need to work all of you 
73 Ăric
PS : I donât mean to blame anyone
Me alegro por ti Guru, pero si lees mi post correctamente âdije que no tengo para el DX antenasâ, ni la posibilidad de trabajar en remoto con una yagi de 5 elementos que creo que tu tienes 
Pero en 17m tengo poco ruido y aquĂ es donde puedo hacer SOTA.
sorry here the translation :
Iâm happy for you Guru, but if you read my post correctly âI said that I donât have antennas for the DXâ, nor the possibility of working remotely with a 5-element yagi that I think you have But in 17m I have little noise and this is where i can do SOTA
Lo que dijeâŠ
OK, Eric,
Efectivamente, no interprete correctamente tu comentario y creĂ que solo habĂas visto un spot de Dennis en 40m, pero no en otras bandas. Ahora entiendo la Ășltima frase âI have a lot of QRM myself on 20mâŠâ por lo que deduzco que viste el spot de Dennis en 20m, pero fue imposible para ti cazarle.
Yo escuchĂ© a Dennis solamente 429 con mi yagi. Es una 5 elementos, pero solo tiene 3 elementos activos en 20m. No obstante es una antena magnĂfica con una gran sensibilidad. Ayer pude cazar un activador de W7I en Idaho!
Me parece que vas a tener que poner una yagi algĂșn dĂa de estos⊠
73,
Guru
No, I would rather go to a level of a QRP station on a summit that uses low power with a circumstantial antenna, you and many activator-chaser know what this means
Yes I have 100 watts instead of 5 watts as before, but I have switched to this power only in the 2 years since the SOTA program has jumped and like everything in amateur radio itâs racing! Look in FT8 we could do QSOs with the whole planet ⊠what is it today?
Itâs the rat race ⊠Itâs disastrous and not very encouraging for the young people who will comeâŠ
We will wait for lady propagation of the next solar cycle ⊠There everything will be allowed with⊠dreaming
73, Ăric
I have chased quite a lot on 5W too, but itâs true that with so many people chasing SOTA nowadays and the big power many use, chasing on QRP is too hard because it puts you down to the end on the pile up most of the times and that means sometimes a too long time waiting with so many activations we have everyday.
The truth is that itâs possible to chase on QRP most of the activations one can hear.
But I also chase with 100W of my IC-706.
I have an amplifier but itâs disconnected now. Itâs a Kenwood TL-922 and I canât tune it remotely.
Sometimes I feel tempted with one of these Expert solid state amplifiers with automatic antenna tuner, but I quickly forget about that as this will only contribute to the crazy QRO competition we all know is unnecessary for SOTA chasing.
Not much lately. The last time he chased me was in June this year on 10m.
73,
Guru
The conditions surprised me again today with N51NAM from Windhoek in Namibia on 15m ssb. 100W and 20m horizontal efhw on dm/ns-122
Last qso with Mariusz 15. July.
73 Chris
Whilst testing a 12m pole (for chasing or low summits only you understand) I heard two Japan stations mid-morning - OK so too weak for me to work them but the DX is there if you are prepared to listen.
I have never had an âelmerâ but one of the pieces of advice I always remember early on is âlisten listen listenâ. I have had numerous scenarios now where (probably due to operating in a low noise environment) I have heard a DX station calling CQ that should have by all rights had a pile-up-from-hell. The last situation for me this happened was a Falkland Islands operator who was working all the big guns across Europe, then after 20 minutes was calling CQ and only I could hear him it would seem. After another 15 minutes of patience (mostly his) I had a 5w FT-817 EF trapped dipole contact deep into the Southern Hemisphere.
And thus I coin the phrase (I wonât be the first): Propagation favours patience.
But to bring this back on topic, thatâs no good if your activator is like a brass monkey
Mark.
