Hi all! today we were so lucky to make which could be one of the longest s2s qsos ever made. (Thanks mainly to Ian, of course).
It was at 06:39UTC on 14.060 mhz between Ian VK5CZ at VK5/SE-003 and me, being at EA1/BU-016. Ian’s signal didn’t move the s-meter, but it was 5-(mmm… 0?, ok, let’s say 1), and fully understandable.
I don’t know how I was able to keep on working the pile up after this…
After making some calcs through VOACAP, I think it was made via long path (IN83fd to PF96kl) making a distance of 23457 km!
My conditions: 22’ norcal doublet (ribbon comp. cable) at 6 m. tall pole, ft-817 giving abt 8watts.
Ian’s conditions: FT-857 at 20 watts, and 66’ doublet.
These kind of things makes you love SOTA!
By the way, later at EA1/BU-050, the conditions were pretty bad and was very hard to listen any EU stn on any of the bands, (7, 10, 14 and 21 mhz tested) with very poor results.
Grr! First an EA<>ZL on 30m now VK5 S2S. You’re having far too much fun, I may have to visit Northern Spain and bring some Scottish weather and midges with me!
In reply to MM0FMF:
Dear and deeply appreciated Andy:
First of all, thank you for our S2S today.
Secondly, you know you are to be welcome at the Basque Country but, if you have to bring something scottish with you, please, better if it is inside a beautiful bottle, ok?
I’ve not been to Edinbrah since 2004, and I’ve it forgotten
In reply to EA2CW:
¡Fantastico Mikel!. Mi felicitación.
Tu esfuerzo de pernoctar en la montaña te ha premiado con un excelente contacto s2s, eso compensa todos los esfuerzos.
Seguro que en ese momento te olvidaste del frÃo de la noche.
Enhorabuena.
Mikel Fantastico!. My congratulations.
Your effort of staying on the mountain has rewarded you with excellent contact s2s, that makes up for all the efforts.
Surely in that moment you forget the cold of the night.
Congratulations.
Nice, vy nice for you ! I never made S2S outside EU. I only made one SOTA qso outside EU with N1EU. I was on EI/IS-105 (Knockfeerina )
Maybe I have to stay the night next time …
PS nice to work you this weekend from SOTA. Tnx for the points.
In reply to EA2CW:
Congrats, Mikel and Ian for such amazing achievement!
You guys have written a difficult to beat record in the SOTA history.
All the best.
73 de Guru - EA2IF
I tried to work you when ending my activation today at EA2/VI-013 and you were at BU-050.
Your signals at 14MHz were readable for me but although I tried several times calling you it seems you didn’t hear a breeze of my signals… :o(
Better luck next time, I hope. I agree conditions were poor midday in 20m, although I catched MM0FMF & LA8BCA S2S.
I had far more success in VHF working 6 S2S !!! Not long path though hi hi…
In reply to EA2CW:
Hello everyone . Nice to make a good impact on your activation Mikel and making the sleep over worth while. So that is now 2 s2s with EA stations and several other s2s to EU in my log . I was starting to worry about my battery voltage the rig was down to 11.9 volts at key down at 20 watts. The 857 pulls close to 7 amps when I tested it at home on my shack pwr supply the Battery is a Zippy Flightmax 8400 LiFe . Most of the afternoon I was not using 20 watts I go by the reports I am receiving from chasers and run 5 watts if I am getting strong reports. It was a bit tongue in cheek to bust Mikel’s pile up by just sending “s2s” only once and have him respond straight away. Then I sent s2s de vk5cz that got his attention and the rest is history. I had a listen for Andy once I got home but by then the plasma tv was on and band conditions were shot after dark.
good work everyone
73 de Ian vk5cz …
Congratulations Mikel and Ian by S2S contact, once again shows that do not need a large deployment of resources for great DX, a great satisfaction for both.
For my, contact with all those chasers and activators that are out there taking our calls, along with mountaineering trips, make the SOTA program a comforting activity.
A greetings to all, 73
Marcial EA2BDS
Enhorabuena Mikel y Ian por el contacto S2S, una vez más se pone de manifiesto que no hace falta un gran despliegue de medios para conseguir grandes DX, una gran satisfacción para ambos.
Para mi contactar con todos aquellos cazadores y activadores que están ahà atendiendo nuestras llamadas, junto con las excursiones montañeras, hacen del programa SOTA una actividad muy reconfortante.
I didn’t think conditions were at all good yesterday. My first summit was from a densly forested summit. All those Pine trees do have an absorbing effect on the RF both in and out. Second summit has ground dropping away nicely but there would be no propagation at that time to VK.
I’ll need to drag myself out of bed very early one morning to try for an S2S. Nothing like hearing a VK chaser to lift the heartrate a bit and make it all worthwhile. Or ZL or KL7 for that matter.
Just for the record Ian, when you chased me on Peel Fell G/SB-004, I was sat in Scotland. The AZ is in 2 countries but the summit itself is in England, I was about 200-250m away on the flat plateau. So you have actually chased someone in Scotland even though the ref. is for England!
VOACAP is showing an 1100-1200Z window for GM/VK5 with 23% chance on 17m and 20% on 15m today. But that’s with a 5/8 vertical and 25W. Dropping to 5W shaves those figures down quite a bit. There’s a better peak at 1900Z for 20m.
In reply to MM0FMF:
I worked G4OBK at 0635 just before I found Mikel up the band a few hz .His signal was very strong I gave him 599 I think, very loud anyhow. So a lower signal down to zero from UK probably would have made the trip yesterday. The antenna farm @ G4OBK on qrz probably made a difference. My next summits trip I hope to do 2 so the easier one to get to will be afternoon this end . Thanks for the link to VOACAP too I learn something every day in this great hobby I got it in favourites now.
73 de Ian vk5cz …
I was listening to your activation and heard all your QSO partners up until you finished with G4OBK.
You were just to weak to work with only the odd couple of lettrs in a word copied due to flutter on the signal although I did copy CQ SOTA a couple of times.
I am sure you would have heard me but I did’t think that I could copy you sending my call sign so I sat back hoping that you would come up an S point to give me a chance.
Unfortunately no antenna farm here, just a 10m x 10m suburban back yard with a Comet Vee trapped dipole sitting on a 6m TV antenna pole but it has given us two CW QSO’s on 20M.
In reply to G3XQE:
G day Ken sorry you did not make it maybe next time.
The ft 857 is probably the most powerful rig in a small box but the internal noise they kick up compared to the kx3 was noticeable Saturday on hill se -003. With a good set of head phones you can pull out some really weak signals on the kx3 and it is in stereo too which helps.
My broken antenna wire may not have been 100% either and the sqid pole was not fully extended to 8 m as it was pretty windy and I had a crush injury to my squid pole last time on that hill and Pauls broke 2 times. I soldered up the break and re tested it again yesterday down the back yard you always notice these things as you are setting up on a summit HI.
73 de Ian vk5cz …
I’ve made a brief analysis of the conditions of the QSO, as it was incredible to me, and I wanted to check whether it was made through the long or short path.
Ian, I’ve checked your S2S log and EA2BD’s and there isnt any S2S qso uploaded between you two, so this could be the first EA-VK S2S. If anybody has any information about this, I’ll welcome it.
