Even if all modes were not equal in SOTA it would not matter, as - the way I interpret it - SOTA is a personal challenge. To get to various levels of an award but also to improve how comfortable one is in operating from a mountain top. I am constantly experimenting with different antennas and homemade amplifiers - that’s all part of SOTA for me.
I feel confident that should I be called upon in an emergency to set up a relay communications station - I could do it and know it would work.
To other people, I’m sure SOTA means something else. Like all good things in life, you make out of it what you need it to be.
(I guess you meant to type completed CW contacts).
Agreed - the same amount of power on CW has a 10 dB gain over SSB. CW will get further than SSB normally but whether that makes it easier to activate a summit? Well in the cases you quote where there were no SSB signals to be heard but there were CW ones - yes you are correct but here in Europe, I often wish there were 90% less SSB stations on the band. It is very rare that getting 4 SSB contacts from a summit is difficult, whether they are DX or Local doesn’t matter as far as qualifying the summit is concerned.
I will say however qualifying a European summit with 4 x S2S QRP SSB contacts into Australia, is a real buzz !
You are right Ed. Considering I have been there as DL/KD5KC many times, that thought should have occurred to me too. The only band I had some difficulty in Germany making SSB contacts on was 80m. QRP and 80m in Europe is tough with reasonably portable antennas. Still, I managed a few in the month I was there last year.
Here in the USA, I have had a time or two when conditions were marginal enough that getting an answer on SSB was rough, but CW saved the activation.
They say we are at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I sure hope so! Several years ago I made a S2S-SSB contact of over 1200 miles, we both had FT-7817NDs, and as we compared notes we both lowered power to 2.5w, 1w and finally 0.5w, and still were readable. We traded QSL cards on that one.
Hi Mike,
All understood. It’s horses for courses in some ways. When I lived in Australia up to 5 years ago, there was very little CW activity on SOTA only SSB activators and chasers. That has changed a lot in the meantime but back then CW only Ops going out could fail to qualify a summit for lack of contacts and while most SSB rigs will also do CW many of the lightweight rigs built for SOTA will only operate CW and not SSB.
Things are so bad in Europe at the moment that I refuse to activate on weekends because of all the SSB contests that are on almost every weekend and while bands above 20m have been dead for sometime and while in IARU Regions 1 and 2 SSB is not supposed to be used on 30m, there is no usable WARC bands to switch to to get away from the contest traffic. As we get into Solar Cycle 25, I’m looking forward to being able to switch to 17m and even 12m on weekends.
The answer is 60m, to my mind the ideal SOTA band whether you use CW or SSB. With the power restriction of the WRC15 band and the lack of contest traffic, and a good though not intercontinental range (you have to operate after oh-silly-hundred hrs for that!) you can always qualify on 60m - or pretty well always, nothing is certain - that is part of the attraction, the possibility of failure makes success sweeter!
Good point Brian - as long as there’s room on the summit for a 60m antenna. (I only have a linked dipole for 60m, my verticals stop at 40m). Of course on a busy contest weekend day the small space we have in Germany on 5.3MHz quickly fills - yes before you say it - another reason to go to CW rather than SSB - I know!
For now, I won’t be heading out to any summits until after April 20th (which our lockdown now runs to) and I will most likely continue to avoid operating on weekends - it’s just easier to get onto the summits and the bands on weekdays!
However, I will. You’ve answered your own question. It might be a welcome distraction at this unpleasant time too.
CW for the activator is relatively easy. It involves a very limited vocabulary. Chasing is slightly harder, but both are much much easier than general conversation in CW.
If you want to develop CW with the sole objective of activating (and maybe some chasing) then I can provide a system that is entirely enjoyable, motivating, and gets you there quickly. I know which methods to deploy, and more importantly, which methods to ignore. Many OTs dislike this approach because it’s not learning the language fully and properly - but if you only want/need it for SOTA, you really don’t need to.
If I have persuaded you and I can help, don’t hesitate to PM me.
As Tom says, I would never say that, I am a phone man, through and through. You can’t beat the sound of the human voice, and even better if the mike is picking up the sound of the wind!
Yes, CW is more efficient, but it is less personal. I learned morse code many years ago, and several years ago I refreshed it and improved my copy speed and listened to many CW activations by the slower senders, and you know what? I found that I wasn’t enjoying it! It was too mechanical. So I stopped. That’s just me, I don’t impose what I like on others, if people want to activate with a key, good for them!
Heh heh heh - this is most certainly true. I can activate and chase at 20 WPM all day. All I have to catch is a couple or key items, items that are usually pretty familiar.
But if you want to ask me a question, better slow it down. Because if it is words that I am not expecting to hear, 20 WPM is going to fly right past me. I was once that good, back when I passed the 20 WPM exam (like 1990). I’m not that good now, and don’t have the time to dedicate to it properly.
Historically, DX and DXCC wise, from a SOTA summit, SSB, has always been more than a match for CW.
I’ve only done two SOTA activations over the last couple of months, both from GW/NW-070 Great Orme. Even during these dreadful band conditions, the two activations netted me 190 contacts all 20m ssb, 135 of them into North America.
There were two exceptional flea power QRPP contacts, with Mark NR0R in Missouri, a distance of 4150 miles, (6680Km,) both of which he recorded.
If anyone is interested in working QRPP, well worth a listen… Here are the links…
This is another reason why I don’t entertain modes such as FT-8.
This is an excellent advert for SSB, and you certainly have the “knack” when it comes to that mode on HF Mike.
I’ve enjoyed good DX on all of SSB, CW, FT8 and PSK31. With my 5w QRP, I’ve probably found it easier on CW, and then FT8, but your results with 50w SSB are beyond compare.
But this morning I’ve found an ever better mode than all of the above put together. This morning I used the Peanut Android app from a non-SOTA (and even non-HEMA) summit, and worked 2 x VK and a ZL, receiving them all 59 with beautiful BBC quality audio.
Peanut is the way. Peanut is the future. Peanut will see us through these dark and difficult days.
Thanks for our QSO today on 60 m, Ed - enjoyed your good signal.
Several SSB roads lead to Rome. My antenna is made for 20 and 40 m and not made for 60 m. I definitively gave it a try all the same some months ago. The tuner is a good friend of mine and matches it surprisingly well.
Sure, this is not best practice and maybe the dust road and not the highway to Rome, and I am a bit lazy regarding carrying more equipment on a summit and doing additional switching work during the activations. But I am happy for the additional benefits of it
on a worldwide SSB contest weekend
for a better local coverage here in HB9 and for the countries around it.
Hi Markus,
Great to work you today. My antenna for 60m here at home is also not a resonant one. I connect the centre of the coax to my 40m full wavelength horizontal loop and tune that with the high impedance input of my MFJ-993B ATU against the shack earth as an end-fed random length wire. I use the same set-up for 80m and since I got this set up about 10 days ago, I can now work a lot of the closer activators via NVIS that I normally cannot hear on 40m because of skip distance.