Hi Kjetil,
Wonderful place!
My waterfall was full of strong signal interfering with chasers and low signal.
I hope to contact you next time!
73
2 Likes
Everyone seems to agree that my clock was a bit out. 
Windows decided to reassign the COM port for the GPS at some point. 
Thanks for the QSO.
1 Like
I managed to chase Tom @M1EYP on Sunday from home, having just missed Simon @G4TJC. I was too late for him on 80m, and couldnāt get a decode on 40m. Then I saw Tomās spot for 80m, and arrived in the shack in time to decode the S2S between the two stations. By the time I had workd out how to call G4TJC without him calling CQ first, I had missed him again! But it was good to have my first successful chase in the log, thanks Tom.
Flushed with success, and the WX looking good, I took the same equipment out to the Wrekin today, G/WB-010, having posted a rather late alert for 40m.
Within a minute or two, I had a partial contact with @IK2LEY, @F5LKW and @EA1AER, but didnāt manage to complete any of them.
I was using a Windows 10 laptop thingy, and checked everything that I could think of - time (tethered to my phone, and apparently synchronised), power out and low ALC, both of which responded smoothly when I varied the āpowerā slider in WSJTx, in tune mode. Moved equipment and cables around in case there was RF getting in somewhere, but no joy either calling CQ or trying to respond to CQ calls.
Then I decided to try 30m, in case it was an RF feedback issue, and might be different on another band.
Straight away I completed with IZ4RCQ. Things were not perfect by any means, but half an hour later I had five stations in the log, adding SP8MCE, SV1ONU, Z35T, and IS0KNG.
Most surprising on 30m was a decode from Don @G0RQL, calling CQ. I did try to reply, but without success.
Hi Roger - sorry we didnāt complete. To a rooky FT8 operator like me, the āmistakeā is not obvious - but it might have included some finger trouble at my end! I can see that we were not on the same frequency, but that should be okā¦? Iād appreciate your comments.
So it was a successful outing, in that I made some contacts and qualified the summit, but I will have to work out why it was not as effective as I had hoped - particularly on 40m.
Many thanks to all who listened for me and tried to make contact, much appreciated.
73
Adrian, G4AZS
5 Likes
Hi Adrian,
Noticed your alert so had a listen for you this afternoon. 40m was long but just about copying you on groundwave at the home QTH in Stourbridge. (Nothing seen on 30m)
Iāve had a look back over the FT8 log and it seems you were transmitting in the same time slots as Roger, first odd then evenā¦ not sure how that happens :-s
FT8 looks at a 2700Hz wide slice of the band so so long as both stations are transmitting and receiving within this no problem!
For activating Iād say you should definitely check the āhold Tx frequencyā box so you donāt go skidding about the band with every contactā¦ in fact if you (or chasers) state your offset frequency in any spot, it makes it easier for chasers to find you especially when band conditions are good and thereās no time to scroll through pages of QSOās between 15 second refreshes!
Good luck with the FT8 and hope to catch you one day! (not able to transmit today due to issues with the radio talking to the computer 
)
73 de Paul G4MD
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Its a pity this weeks Datamodes Challenge Flavour ends on Friday as on Saturday we have the CQWPX RTTY Contest. That should obliterate the FT Machine modes for the weekend Feb 08 0000z - Feb 09 2359zā¦
On behalf of the Chasers I want to thank the activators out this week using DATA on SOTA - great effort needed to take a computer and associated tackle up to the summit and get it all working. So much to go wrong.
73 Phil G4OBK
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Well Iām slowly getting the hang of this FT8 lark! Since my first data activation a couple of days ago, Iāve installed the Meinberg NTP Daemon, which has improved the time accuracy of my Windows 10 device, noticeably smaller ādtā values showing. Still tethered to my phone for Internet connection.
I also found it useful to trawl through the saved āALL.txtā file afterwards, to review what had been happening.
So, today I activated Long Mountain Beacon Ring GW/MW-026. This wasnāt my first choice for today, but blocked roads caused me to make a plan B.
This meant that my prepared callsign and TX macros were wrong, and it took me a couple of minutes to mistype, misread, mistype again and finally get sorted. Many thanks to Roger F5LKW/P with whom I eventually managed a good S2S!
13 QSOs isnāt great for a 3 hour activation, but it was fun, and at least I could walk away to read all about the ancient hill fort whilst still calling CQ 
73s and thanks to all who looked out for me.
Adrian
4 Likes
Thanks Adrian for nice s2s ==> GW/MW-026 to F/CR-254.
Great fun. I do hope hear you soon.
I did s2s QSO with Juerg @ DL/HB9BIN/P on DM/BW-015 and DM/BW-115
Also with Marcel @ DM3FAM/P on DM/BW-067
Many chasers.
73 QRO
Roger
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Hello Roger,
thank you for my first FT8 s2s QSO with you 
But my name is Marcel, not Pascal 
73 de Marcel DM3FAM
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MW-026 Roger, probably a typo on your part.
73s and TNX to all SOTA FT8ers!
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VK2JDL qualified a SOTA summit on JS8call yesterday.
vk5cz
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Everyone who uses FT8 should at least try JS8 once ( http://js8call.com/ ).
It works perfect with QRP, would allow the exchange of much more information like reference and rig and is not as crowded as FT8.
I have not tried it as an activator but plan to do so tomorrow (last day of DATA flovour).
Yes !
Marcel, my apologies for the mistake.
Today I stay a very long time for the Datamodes Challenge but I succeed only 1 / 3 summits s2s with Juerg HB9BIN/P. I want all chasers to thanks for QSO. Always nice to have followers. 73 QRO
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Interested in hearing how you make out with JS8. I found FT8 boring when sitting on a summit.
Malen
VE6VID
2 Likes
Along with the rest of the bands! 
Well itās the last day of the Datamode flavour in the 2020 Challenge. Thereās a few stations active today on FT8 and this evening looks interesting with several alerts and the potential of DX S2S.
Iām intending being out myself for one or two activations this evening, probably on 30m FT8, but not sure of times etc yet.
Same here will do some FT8 somewhere in DM/RP or DM/SR but not sure where enroute and when. Most likely DM/SR-006, Trautzberg - 604m, 6 points around 1330 UTC.
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I have a question about the Database of 2020 Challenge Chaser Roll.
I found the log of a QSO made by D-STAR Simplex on February 1 is counted
in Datamode. Is it a counting mistake?
Aki, JI3BAP
Yes, that looks like an error in the code. Iāll pass on to Andrew @vk3arr to investigate.
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yesterday I activated I/LO-187 Legnoncino.
the first qsos I trasmitted wrong reference, Sorry for my fault.
I managed 6 qsos in 40 ft8.
As the last activation wsjtx decoded many stations calling me, but I couldnāt conclude all qsos due to interference with other stations calling in ft8 and qsb.
With a dedicated and clear frequency it would be easier.
73
iw2obx Roberto