Hi Tom, Merry Xmas!
I was waiting for ypu on 14mhz (I had high SWR in the others) but conditions with Europe weren’t good, and because the strong wind and cold I stopped the activation before planned.
73!
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GM Takeo
I tuned to your spotted frequency several times, but couldn’t detect a signal. Hope you had a good activation.
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It wasn’t an activation as I expected, but it wasn’t too bad. I thought that due to the high SFI and the good conditions of the bands, I was going to have good conditions with Europe. Unfortunately it was not like that.
Possibly I should had start the activation at UTC 0700…
Sure better times are comming!
73
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I think the choice of band is critical. I tried 15m and 20m two days ago and they were good but 17m was absolutely dead. I could not get a single spot on RBN but was across the Atlantic into Arizona on 15m.
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It turned out to be a good day here. The XYL and I visited the section of the Appalachian Trail we maintain and did some basic work, raking autumn leaves out of the drainages that draw water off the trail. On the return I stopped where the trail crosses the summit of Wildcat Mountain, W4G/NG-020. Pleasantly surprised on 20m to have so many North American chasers today, and delighted by transatlantic QSOs with F4WBN, EA2IF, and EA7GV. And one local S2S on with N4DCW on 146.52 MHz.
Happy holidays to all!
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In my yesterday activation I started to call at 0615 approximately. After 15 minutes of calling one local called me. Tons of CQs continued and at 0704 (almost 1 hour!) ZL1TM was the fourth QSO! From Europe I was chased by F4WBN, SA4BLM and EA2IF (Gracias Guru por nuestro primer QSO!) and when conditions started to get in good shape, the Wind and the Cold told me ¨It is enough for today¨
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Hi Takeo,
Your CQ was fairly consistent here and i think we made a good contact.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
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Andrew, thanks for the QSO!
Almost all signals (except local ones) were weak but workable. The problem is that there was an atmospheric noise (as if it were the “laughs” of the hyenas) and it did not allow me to listen to the signals comfortably.
73!
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My Christmas Day summit (W4G/NG-002) was my 50th activation, and yielded a complete (thanks @WW4D) and my first transatlantic S2S!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday!
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Hi Takeo,
I was extremely pleased with our QSO on Saturday. Since I had my rotator out of service for several years, it’s been a long time for me not working JA. I have just recently started chasing SOTA activators from JA and I can tell you how things go for me at the moment.
From my experience, the time at which conditions open for QRP signals from JA getting through to my location in Northern EA is later than that.
See the spots on SOTAwatch on Saturday morning.
When you first were spotted at 07:03 you weren’t copiable here.
The same, later when your spot at 07:14 was displayed.
When your spot at 07:17 appeared with the comment Last 10min and QRT, I was there listening for you. I could feel you were there but your signal was totally unreadable.
I was thinking, “please, don’t go, please don’t go yet and keep CQing for a bit longer”
It was in a matter of very few minutes later that your signal started to become readable and then I sent my spot with the comment “Starting to copy you well now” just to let you know. Soon after that I called you, you picked me up and we made our QSO.
So, I would say your signals started to become readable for me at about 07:24-07:25
After our QSO at 07:28, I remained on the frequency and your signals kept improving, so I sent another spot with the comment “MNI TNX QSO. UR SIGS IMPROVING HERE NOW” just to let you know. I wonder whether you actually saw my spots while you were at the summit activating. Soon after our QSO and my last spot, you went QRT, but your signals were really good at that time here.
This is my experience and it will surely be different for other hams in other locations more to the North or to the East of me.
The anecdote of our QSO was a LID who couldn’t hear you at all and when he heard me making QSO with you, he apparently thought I was making a phantom QSO and he transmitted “NO, NO, NO, HI, HI” on top of you. Fortunately your signals were good enough and this LID QRM didn’t make any harm. I was perfectly able to copy your transmissions.
73,
Guru
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Hi Guru. Thanks a lot for the QSO!
Yes you’re right. The best conditions with Europe are around 0730-0800 UTC (1630-1700 local time).
But since I had seen the M1EYP alert and since the SFI was above 120 and also the meteorological service announced snow for those hours, I decided to start a little earlier.
If you take a look at my log (winter / spring) I have several activations at that time during which I was chased by several Europeans.
As you can see, I have to operate when it starts to get dark and I have to descend in the dark. For this reason, if I want to work Europe, I reserve the easy-to-climb mountains.
Thanks for the spots! To be honest with you, I read them when I returned to my home 
I hope during this winter/spring we can repeat many QSOs!
73 de JP3PPL
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I think he was generous. May be not in the form of a huge number of QSOs, but the DX you had were quite outstanding.
BTW and just in case it fits well in your SOTA plans, let me show you the mini-log I collected this morning on 15m CW via Long Path:
Perhaps this band/mode/path worths a try next time…
73,
Guru
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Thanks for the reminder that long path is an option worth trying, especially on higher HF bands, at this time of year. 
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Thanks for the info!
Possibly I should give 15m more chances!
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Hi Takeo,
It was great chasing you this morning on 20m CW via LP. When you QSYed to 17 and 15m I didn’t copy you. But 20m LP was a very good path today.
Let me say that I have a 3 elements yagi on 15 and 20m, but just a broadband inverted vee folded dipole for 17m. Should I have a yagi for 17m, I may have also copied you, but the dipole is far worse than my tribander yagi.
73 & HNY,
Guru
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Guru, thanks again for the chasing! Signals were weak but little by little are improving!
I hope that from now on, you are one of the usual ones every time I do an evening activation.
73 and HNY
Takeo
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And again this morning (your afternoon). Thanks Takeo for another JA SOTA via LP on 20m. You picked me up almost immediately but I also chased Yasu @JA5QJX as JA5QJX/0 and I had to repeat my callsign dozens of times to make my call finally copied. It was a hardly worked QSO and I think I had not worked so hard for a QSO in years… but it was worthwhile, we finally made it. I want to thank Yasu JA5QJX for his patience.
There was also JF1NDT/2 on JA/ME-092 who was chased by my friend Ignacio EA2BD, but I spent so much time trying to complete the QSO with JA5QJX that he had already left and gone to 80m by the time I finished and went to his frequency.
73,
Guru
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