EA8/TF Log errors & QRM

On the Bands
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I didn’t want to write a report of my activation today as I am coming to the end of a holiday here in Tenerife with my wife and time is short now, however I feel I ought to write something due to the standard of operating by certain inexperienced amateurs who are using CW without knowing how to operate as properly as they should.

Today, on EA8/TF-012, the behaviour of a handful of malfunctioning chasers on 10m CW who were either sending their callsigns blindly and who could not hear me, or who could not understand basic CW messaging procedure, because they cannot read Morse Code, ruined the early part of my 51 contact 10m CW/SSB activation today.

With meagre power and a makeshift antenna it proved impossible to control the melee that erupted within a couple of minutes of coming on the air on 28044 KHZ, so much so, that I went QRT on CW after 12 minutes and resorted to my second favourite mode of SSB. I returned later to CW on 28057 listening up 1. Thank You to the many chasers who were disciplined enough to operate split, by calling me on 28058 - it was my pleasure to get so many of you into the log that way…

Due to the behaviour of certain operators (the worst two disruptive offenders had Belgian callsigns), this evening after the Sangria had been drunk, I decided to closely scrutinise the excellent “Show who chased me” section of the SOTA database. There was a few minor logging errors in modes, no worries there, logs can be easily corrected by the two chasers concerned, however five chasers have logged a QSO with me which did not take place. These are:

EA8CCA (Not logged - informed via email)
ON4ZD (QRM)
ON7ZM (SEVERE QRM - informed via strongly worded email)
N4MJ (Not logged)
PY5XT (Not logged)

If you are one of the five please remove the contacts from your log and the SOTA Database.

SM4CJM and F4WBN were both worked after I was forced on to SSB, but were logged by the Chasers as CW contacts in error.

The activation of EA8/TF-012 was my final activation of 4 in Tenerife this week. I will be back on the 10m band joining the Chasers on Saturday!

After highlighting this, and with the 10m Challenge especially in mind, I hope other activators will check the “Show who chased me section” - it was quite revealing. If you don’t run a routine check and ask for corrections or deletions then it appears the integrity of the SOTA database is under threat - 5 out of 51 QSOs that did not take place is a 10% error rate, so that’s not good for the database and for SOTA.

73 and MNI DX to all,

Phil EA8/G4OBK/P

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Yes Phil you are right. The frenzy of some has no limits, and it’s always about the same all the time… no comments!
73 Chris

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Hello everbody
I m sorry about this story and qrm
I don t like make qrm
All the time i help s to s info like ik2ley
Good day to every one
John on7zm

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Phil, maybe I disturbed you with my 50W mobile on POTA, I’m sorry. But when I saw your call in the spot, I really wanted to reach you too. Your popularity is certainly a significant reason for your pileup.

At least it worked for me with Bernd, DL2DXA at EA8/GC-006, who also worked split 1 up.

73 Chris

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Morning Chris… No I never heard you at all yesterday. It must be great to have 50 watts on the summit though! Gone are the days for me of carrying a 13 AH SLAB and an FT-857 in the sac, sailing up to higher places with ease! Not necessary these days, but nice to have with you for sure to help keep things in control and be well heard.

73 Phil

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I’ve decided to audit my other three EA8/TF logs before I leave the island tomorrow. So expect a few more log deletion requests, I already see some claimed QSOs for EA8/TF-013 ON 27/01/2024 that did not take place.

The weather here on the northern coast has been pretty poor and once again it’s clouded in with rain forecast around 4.00pm. I hope GI4ONL does better. Victor is on his way to EA8/GC, so I am looking forward to working him from Saturday onwards on the 10m band from home.

73 Phil

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The problem with 10 metres at the moment is its very large skip zone. It’s much easier than usual for two or more stations to end up on one frequency without being able to hear one another.

Isn’t that a WWFF watering hole?

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All my four EA8/TF logs have now been audited:

EA8/TF-008 24/02/2024 No errors found (27 QSO)

EA8/TF-007 25/02/2024 No errors found (63 QSO)

EA8/TF-013 27/02/2024 (107 QSO)
Errors:
SN0QRP 11:50 CW (No QSO)
SQ8JMZ 11:54 CW (No QSO - same operator in QRZ listed as SN0QRP)
OL90ZE 12:05 Worked - but Chaser logged the QSO with callsign OL1ZE.

SQ9JMZ and OK1ZE please edit your logs and the SOTA database.

73 Phil EA8/G4OBK/P

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Yes it is Rick. But no one owns any frequency, whether its a net, group like SOTA, FF, contest stations or whatever.
My experience yesterday now tells me to keep well away from 28044 in future and to listen up 1 if the incompetent or the deaf take to the CW airwaves. I’m all for encouraging any hams to take up CW as a mode but they need some experience before they jump into a pile up of 10 or more people calling at the same time. My thoughts on calling on 28044 to work more new callsigns in the SOTA 10m Challenge did not work - working there was more than a burden than a help in that!

It would probably not have been so bad from the UK but the propagation from EA8 is so good to EU that many more operators can hear you (or think they can hear you) so the pile up is that much bigger. That’s why in previous decades Martiii Laine OH2BH and friends built enormous antenna farms and contest stations down here to set world records in the CQWW Contest etc. The Russian HF Contesters did the same in Cyprus.

73 Phil EA8/G4OBK/P

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Exactly that! It is a problem I’ve found just this year really, now that everyone is chasing 10m dx. Until very recent times, 10m was pretty dead.

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There are frequencies more likely to attract alligators, and more likely to be contended in other ways. I’ve quite often found the *044 frequencies to be ones where chasing is no fun. :frowning:

Where the skip’s long there’s a greater risk that people see a spot on their favourite site but don’t see spots for other calls on the same frequency on other sites. They tune to the spot, hear a very faint station on the spotted frequency, and let hope get the better of them. :confused: In present conditions I’ve also seen two SOTA activators spotted on the same frequency within a minute or two of one another, but usually they’ve managed to sort things out.

Yeah, the Challenge has pushed at least a few SOTA types that way, but it has its moments even when the Sun’s quite quiet. I’ve had some fun on it from Kenya during the quieter part of the solar cycle.

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Well you’re wrong there as the 14300 maritime net frequency is definitely the personal property of the net goons who inhabit it :slight_smile:

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I thought that was for emergency/disaster comms (not to open that ol’ can of worms).

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No. It’s solely for the use of the maritime net. They’ve been there since 2000 and around there since 1968. It’s their frequency and nobody is allowed on it :slight_smile:

What’s most amusing is the text presented in all seriousness on their website “The original operating frequency chosen was 14.320 MHz but the net had to move to 14.317 MHz a few weeks later to avoid excessive interference.” You try and operate on 14.300 when there’s no net and see how many femtoseconds it is before some goon tells you to QSY and stop causing interference.

Of course now the licence in the UK has changed we can add /<whatever> so you could operate from a summit and call “CQ CQ M0EFI/MM” the /MM signifying your old RSL based prefix. It would be 110% Halal now to do that in the UK. And should someone ask you could say you were sailing “The good ship Meall Alvie” or whatever summit you are on.

:rofl:

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Thanks for publicising this feature Phil. It’s extremely useful to see if someone is claiming a QSO which you yourself didn’t make. Or if you have failed to log a QSO you did make. Despite there being a big blue button at the top of your own activator log, many people have missed it.

I have to say there are not many claimed QSOs for me that are not in my log at present and when there are looking at who I worked at the time I often remember that there were several stations all calling at the same time. So quite a lot of these are genuine confusion mistakes.

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Good afternoon Phil…

73 Chris

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DL1CR de EA8/G4OBK/P

Hi Chris I appreciate your video, yes, 10m is taking precedence for many of us this year. I took part in the previous SOTA challenges but this 10m one has probably seen the most mass interest I think. The points scoring has been well thought out in my opinion, some may not class it as a competition as such, but to some extent it is when comparing your in-country performance with other operators. The way things are you will always work some stations in daylight from Europe at this part of the cycle - but it’s harder from Northern Europe, to work USA/VE from mainland EU than it is from UK/IRELAND. In the mornings though you have a better path to the far east, Japan etc than we in the UK do. It is rare for me at home in NE England to hear QRP CW level JA SOTA stations in the mornings even with a dedicated 10m Yagi beam. To get the big score in the Challenge as an Activator means spending a longer and more uncomfortable period of time on the summit which does not suit me as a “binge activator” these days, as I tend to activate summits as part of a holiday or SOTA Tour. I don’t like to sit on the ground for much more than around one hour. 70+ as I now am, and less fit, ones gets rather “achy-painy” and I suffer now from Reynaulds Syndrome on my extremities which I put down to the meds I now have to take. In my case though, as I see others doing, it may encourage me to revisit summits with a 10m antenna in 2024 and try to make some 10m QSOs outside of my shack. When I do activate again I will continue to use the “See who chased me” button every time and scrutinise the list! Comments noted from Andy MM0FMF also, thank you.

73 and I hope we work again soon Chris
Phil EA8/G4OBK/P

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The added advantage when taking part in contests operating from the Canary Islands or Cyprus is that they are classified as being not part of the European continent. The Canary Islands are Africa and Cyprus is Asia. Given the distance to Europe from both these locations, a “superstation” is not needed to rack up lots of contacts and points!

Sorry to hear the weather isn’t fantastic Phil, but I hope you are enjoying your trip down there anyway.

My analysis of what I have heard on 10m over the last 2 weeks is that the “black skip-hole” where I can’t hear stations is around a 750-mile radius on most days. So if it is too early for the US, and no one is on in South Africa, I am finding it very difficult to make 10m contacts from summits. 20m is fine though, so it pays to be flexible!

73 Ed.

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I always use the Show who chased me button - I use it to correct my inability to read my own handwriting. I often find phantom chases in there. Some don’t surprise me - often I hear two people thinking they are in QSO with me but some are a total mystery. I don’t let it worry me any more. I really can’t be arsed to email anyone.

@MM0FMF How hard would it be to compare chases with activations in the database? Just to see if it was a very common occurrence.

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Phil, the goonery was afflicting SSB as well as CW. One SOTA station in the USA was just audible here, and some long-winded goons in southeast EU were repeatedly calling him while he was transmitting! Either they thought he had the gain turned well up on his mental telepathy or they could not actually hear him. Either way it was a shamefull display of incompetance, but what can we do?

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