The contest runs from 1500z on 27 April until 0300z on 28 April. There should be many NA SOTA stations QRV during this period. In last year’s QRPTTF I worked 14 summits from a non-SOTA summit before I even knew what SOTA was.
I’ve run a HamCAP propagation forecast using the latest NOAA forecast data. It appears we should have a good opening from NA to EU on 15m from the beginning of the contest at 15z until about 2030z. S/N ratios assuming 5W to a dipole will range from 12-13 dB during this time. 20m also looks good with S/N ranging from 9-17 dB from 1830z until 0030z. The peak on 20m should be about 2030z after 15m fades out.
If you’re planning an activation on 27 April, please try to stay QRV until at least 1500z and give 15m a try before you leave your summit. I will have a good antenna for EU this time and am optimistic about some NA<>EU S2S QSOs. The last time I operated from W4C/EM-047 on 2/3 November I made 46 QSOs with EU so I know the antenna and location work. Hope to work you in the QRPTTF!
This looks very interesting, thanks for the reflector note Bill.
Looking at the rules, it seems that everyone may take part, not just US stations (as in I see nothing that states otherwise). As a non-US station, I interpret that I give my SPC as my country - so G.
So if I take to my local summit for this event, my exchange will be 599 G G/SP-015, right?
If I can negotiate the pass-out, I will do 15m CW & SSB and later 20m CW & SSB, with 40m CW & SSB available for late if 20m has gone out.
So if I take to my local summit for this event, my exchange will be
599 G G/SP-015, right?
Correct. However I believe you could safely omit the “G” following 599 since it’s obvious from your call and your SOTA reference. Most of the folks in QRPTTF are not such serious contesters that they would quibble over omitting the country prefix designator. SPC (state/province/country) identification is mainly important for USA states. Even VE provinces are obvious since Canada still requires correct prefixes when operating outside your home province (e.g. VY2RX/VE3 is required for me operating in Ontario).
Previously QRPTTF has been CW only so I don’t know how much activity to expect on SSB. However I’ll definitely give it a try since I’ll have SSB capable equipment (Elecraft K2). I’m happy they expanded to include SSB since there are many SOTA newcomers who operate SSB only.
QPRTTF is definitely intended to be an international event so please join in…the more the merrier!
if wx ok i will try another 2 hours night activation on DM/BW-228.
maybe 2200utc is a good time ? will wait for more alerts on 27th.
2200z should be FB for 20m with signals dropping slightly for the next 2 hours. 2200z prediction is 14 dB S/N which is just 3 dB below 2030z peak of 17 dB. 20m is your only choice for the event because 15m is closed after 2030z, 30m is not allowed in the event and it will be too early for 40m.
I’ll be up for this.
Unfortunately I’m in between 2 night shifts.
That means it will have to be my local, G/CE-001. I can start at 1500z but I start work again at 2300z so will need to be packing up around 2200z.
Lets hope conditions are favourable, not like last years ATSprint where I only managed to work 6 stations.
Hi Bill, good practice today for next week
Thanks for the S2S GW/SW-002 - W4C/WP-012.
I also heard you later on on 14Mhz around 1600z when I was on GW/SW-026.
You were 419 with QSB. I called several times but you obviously weren’t hearing me. When you moved to 18Mhz I thought I’d be in with a chance, but nothing heard there at all.
I also got M0GYX/P on 17m and G3CWI/P on 20m after the QSO with Pete on 15m. I could barely hear a few more Activators from EU but really missed my Beverages at home. My location had a lot of towers with overhead power lines and I had some bad QRN at times. It seemed like the band was good to Europe but with very little activity. 20 of 97 QSOs overall were with Europe but I hope to do better next weekend!
I was out listening for you Bill and the many other NA stations alerted. Conditions didn’t seem too brilliant though. I don’t normally go out on a Saturday, too many things to do, but the WX for Sunday said rain and it’s tipping down as I type. So a quick bash up a local summit was called for.
I worked 36 QSOs and 18 DXCC on 20/17/15m with all but 4 being CW. On 20m I managed to work Barry N1EU and send N4EX as the call. Sorry Barry, I heard N?E? along with Tom DL1DVE at the same time and put 2 and 2 together and got 5! Nice 599 signal but Tom was even louder. 15m was strange, I called CQ and spotted myself but only had one QSO. I’m not disappointed as it was with Mike AD5A in Texas, I think that works at 1056miles/Watt. I didn’t work any CW on 17m but did work 9A2YM on SSB who gave my report as 59+10. No US S2S contacts but 2 EU ones, SP8HRP/P SP/BI-029 and HA3LV HA/ND-004.
QSOs with 9A,HA,EA,SP,I,OH,OE,VE,LY,UA9,OK,UU,N,DL,S5,HB9,CT & F. Not bad this QRP lark
I hope to be out for QRPTTF next weekend. Maybe with a bigger antenna.
Andy I had my XYL’s DroidX and was monitoring with DL1DLF’s Rucksack since this site had good 3G coverage. I listened on your spotted QRG several times but could just detect you…ditto for SP8RHP/P. I’m sure I would have heard you on the Beverages at home but conditions were such that you might not have heard me anyway.
I did notice DL1DVE duped me once running 5 Watts which he noted on his spot. I agree condx were not the best from here and the local line noise QRN was not helping. Now I’m even considering a short Beverage toward EU/W1/W2 to help receiving for the QRPTTF.
Things were a little slow so I decided to put up an EFHW in addition to the 44’ doublet up about 20’. It was interesting to switch instantaneously and I found the doublet usually stronger except for some Western NA stations. I think that could be because the doublet was oriented NE/SW for best coverage to EU and Northeast NA. Barry N1EU called me on 20m with a good signal so I did an instantaneous antenna check (#1, #2, #1, #2, etc). Barry gave the doublet a 3 dB advantage. Then G4ELZ called immediately after and I did the same with Jeff. He gave the doublet a “1/2 S unit” advantage which agreed with Barry. So I conclude the doublet is better if you can get it up 15-20’ but it was nice to have both for the coverage.
Glad to catch you Bill - I was testing an antenna - how was my signal compared to the Eu chasers at the time we QSO’d? The RBN was logging me well in ZL and W7 too but no QSOs there unfortunately. Did catch one JA.
Many thanks for my first inter-continental s2s. 17m seemed to be in good shape, I managed several more US calls after you. The weber tri-bander is going along nicely.
I’ll try to be qrv next saturday.
73
Ian, M0GYX (usually MM0GYX but down south for some training)
Richard I don’t recall the details but you were very solid copy when you called…no problem at all to copy. As I mentioned previously activity in EU seemed to be down here but you folks in the UK were all good copy.
Hi all,
had much fun yesterday late evening/night on dm/bw-228. had made a nice test of a wire vertical antenna with a tree as mast. 16mtrs up vertical and abt. 5mtrs down to fixpoint. no counterpoise as elhw-system. a bit to long for low radiation on the bands i worked last night. but had not found a better tree in that i have a easy setup with no daylight later. tried 20 and 15mtrs and only a short test on 17mtrs with my kx3 with homebrew elhw-multiband-tuner.
one negativ point on this antenna…very much noise on this vertical as only antenna.
had made 44 contacts with 17 to north america. worked VE1,VE2,N1-N8…really nice.
and one contact made my day,
it was as WG0AT calling in on 15mtrs for a s2s qso. WOW, great.
i think i made my farest na s2s qso till now then.
Steve was on mt.herman W0/FR-063, more as 8300km away from hummelsberg bw-228.
nice qrp s2s…thanks a lot steve !!
worked also some other qrp stations … great night.
oh, what a fun is summits on the air.
for all who called in over and over to change to 40 or 80mtr band.
i had no antenna for 80 and 40m this time. i´m often on hummelsberg again
on the lower bands…but sometimes more for dx.
its no fun to try work a north american qrp station in deep qsb…
and the only thing i hear in my rx is " please please qsy to 40m "
maybe the station with that request don´t hear me, because i get no answer.
that don´t means i don´t like others callers ( there are nice chasers from G,GM and OH etc. who are many times in my log and everytime welcome ! ).
but ist not fine if the station who call and call agagin on my qrg for me,
did not copy me ? why ? lost 2 qso´s with dx by this !
in this week i will go again on this summit to make a last antenna test and work some dx with another vertical antenna.
till now i don´t know what antenna i use in qrpttf. maybe a inv.V. very high in a tree is also a good choice. if wx is good at 27.apr i will go with two antennas…inv.V. and vertical…i hope the dipole is more with less noise.
thanks all who called and in and hope to see you again from the summits !
Hi Bill
It was nice to hear you so loud. On 15m i use 100watt, on 17m 5 watt…and it works also (I love the KX3 hi)Antenna was a Spiderbeam 11m over ground.
Thanks also for the qso last sunday when i was on dm/sx-031.
I was surprised to hear you on this time on 30m.
@mm0fmf Sorry Andy…i don´t hear you when you are calling Bill, normally when i hear a station calling for s2s, i stop calling and wait.
(I love the KX3 hi)Antenna was a Spiderbeam 11m over ground.