After I chased NE2P activating SOTA W4T/SU-040 on 14.062 a few minutes ago, I kept listening on his frequency and suddenly heard John @K6YK chasing him. His signal from California was outstanding real 599 and I couldn’t resist asking him to QSY up1 to say hello.
We moved 1 up and it was QRL, so we moved up 1 more and it was QRL too, so 1 more Kc up and finally could have a brief QSO to exchange signal reports 599 John vs 579 for me and best wishes + MX.
It was very nice having this chaser2chaser QSO with you today John with such great strong signal.
73,
In 2020 I worked 2 SOTAs from W6/.
Suprise was NA6MG on Oct 7th on 17m - 529 559
K6ARK Nov 27th was on 20m 539 579
Surprise for me: no SOTA from VK since Oct 2018 !
73 + cu on SOTA de Mike. dj5av
Thanks for giving me a call, Guru! Nice to have a bit of a chat instead
of 599/599 73. I hear you and other European stations every day
calling the activators with nice strong signals, louder than the SOTA
stations. I hear an occasional European activator, but not very
often.73
John K6YK
I’m not having much chance to chase NA SOTA lately since I overcame my recent cancer and got back to work. I’m usually finishing work by about 18-19h local, which is 17-18 utc and the QRM maker device (whatever it is) switches ON everyday at about 19h30 local (18h30 utc), so any weak signals on 20m become unreadable and I have to do other things. By the time the QRM maker device is switchef off, there are no conditions anymore on 20m.
Over here, of course, it’s the other way round. I sometimes hear North American chasers but very rarely hear the North American activators they’re chasing.
In that direction, at the moment, I very rarely even hear chasers…
Congratulations on beating cancer. It’s a scary thing, hope it stays
away !
Too bad about the noise maker. Not good. Most of the time I have
no noise, the S-meter just lays below S-1 and I can hear very weak signals. There are a few spots on the bands where there is some
sort of RFI from computer/TV/solar controller, I don’t know what it is
but it can make it impossible to copy some of the weak signals if
they happen to land on one of those bad frequencies.
I can hear quite a few European chasers almost every day.
I hear some right now (15:30 GMT 13 December) calling YU1CA/P
but I can’t hear him. We need a few more sunspots!
Hi John
The same in the other side, every day I can RX US Sota but without the help of a directional antenna and a good KW and remote RX and TX I just restrict myself to what my IC-7300 and my FD4 give me
Truly Éric
I agree and disagree on this, Éric.
While a directional antenna is nowadays indispensable to receive the activators from accross the Pond (I never copy them on my multiband dipole but I copy almost all the Eastern coast and even mid western with my 3 elements yagi), I don’t think a KW is at all necessary. Since I put my remote station with an IC-706 and the Remoterig interfaces, I always work barefoot 100W.
73,
I was speaking in general! Effectively everyone does according to their means !
Edit : Guru why isolate this part of my answer? I only say what I think but not necessarily about you …
In the text between brackets and the later comment about my remote station, I spoke about my experience, but the rest of the statement was made having in mind the experience of my EA friends chasing SOTA and other chaser in EU. We all manage to copy the NA activators at one moment or other with directional antennas and also chase those activators with about 100W or less sometimes.
I remember when some months ago I chased a W0 SOTA listening with an SDR in Northamerica but transmitted with an endfed wire in my balcony and only 50W output.
In my opinion, the KW is not necessary at all for chasing SOTA but a good directional antenna and a low noise floor are essential.
73,
Hey there Ed! I hear you in the pileups now & then…
My antennas: 3 ele tribander and dipoles for the rest of
the bands. And I must say having a KW isn’t really necessary
except maybe to crack the EU pileup on EU activators!
If the activators are running QRP and you can hear them, they
should be able to hear a 100 watt signal.
73
JL
Hey John, I live in an RV park here in Sac so my antenna options are extreme limited - in fact I’m violating my least as we type…antennas are endfed dipole 18’ in the air and Buddistick vertical. I do get into Asia running FT8.
Hey, good deal! Well, you gotta do what you can, and make
the best of it. NO FT8 or any other FT anything, so I have to
pump it up, put on the amp and work what I can.
73, Merry Christmas!
John
too late for me … Can copy callers