European SOTA Activity Day Part 2 - Reports

That was fun in the end.

If you follow me on Twitter you will know I have been struggling with a knee injury for a while and only just started to venture out on a few, very easy, hills with radio kit. My interest had waned earlier this year for one reason or another but recently the need to be out on hills had resurfaced.

In the past I have managed to miss out on any SOTA days for one reason or another but the opportunity to be involved this time was too good to miss.

With how my knee is currently long walks are really out of the question and any significant decent has been causing pain. So with trepidation I decided to walk up Titterstone Clee Hill (G/WB-004).

Many of the pictures of the activations have shown beautiful views in glorious sunshine. Not mine at the beginning. Even before I arrived anywhere near the hills it was obvious I was in for a possible unpleasant activation. I did think to myself if it’s mizzling and damp I really didn’t want to go up.

I had alerted for 08:00utc so allowed plenty of time to arrive at the parking, some 80m below the summit, and ascend well before. I had the choice of climbing the short, sharp way or the longer gentle way past the radar domes. I chose the former, in for a penny. I descended the long way.

I gingerly climbed up the steep east side of the disused quarry soon arriving at the trig-point to be met with the full force of the prevailing wind that I had been sheltered by. Visibility was way down but there was no dampness to the low clouds. It is easy to find shelter from the wind on the top and chose a place to settle.

Spot the Trig-point

Windy

From my recent activations 40m seemed to be the most productive and had already decided to use my vertical. It survives high winds better than my dipoles, didn’t want to keep getting up to re-erect a collapsed pole. I can also make the vertical operate on 20 or 17m.

40m was the band to be on. Summits to summits were sometimes difficult to pull out of the pile-ups and QRM but we got there in the end. 20m was a little more relaxed, the band really wasn’t playing nicely into Europe.

In the 4 hours, or so, I activated I did a mixture of search-and pounce and alerting. Occasionally spots were showing up so fast my self-spot frequency dropped off the page.

The time went so quickly and by the time I decided to finish, because one of my batteries was getting low, I had made 124 contacts with 45 being summit-2-summit. All ssb.

There it is!

NATS radar

Still windy

Thank you to the organisers, the chasers and activators, sorry if we didn’t make contact.

For interest equipment used;
Yaesu FT-817
Home built HF-Packer amplifier @30W
40m 1/4 wave vertical/20m 1/2 wave Zeppelin
Li-Fe batteries

The knee? Stiff with no major discomfort.

Carolyn

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I presumed the idea was the length of activation on one summit. Though I do have mixed feelings about making this a “goal”!

Otherwise I could have climbed a local summit on Friday night, made a 2m FM handheld QSO at 0000z Saturday, go home, then climb a different local summit on Saturday night and make a QSO at 2359z!

Then again Phil @G4OBK could have done two drives to G/TW-004 and done likewise and it would appear in the database as a single activation!

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On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at. I spent just over an hour on G/NP-028 Rombalds Moor for the EU SOTA activity day. On 40M & 20M SSB using my SOTAbeams Band Hopper II and Yaesu FT817ND I logged stations in Austria, Germany, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Czech Republic, France, Romania, Portugal and Slovakia. No Activator points as I did this Summit earlier this year though 72 Chaser points isn’t a bad return in the short time I was on the Summit. I would have stayed longer but as can be seen by the photographs my pole split. This is a pole that I have had for years and it’s served me well. Luckily I have a brand new 10M telescopic pole at home.

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I totally agree with you, this was exactly my interpretation as well. But the wording of the rules leaves some space for interpretation at this time. Well, let’s await the decision.
73 Martin

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My old, trusty SOTA pole also had a similar crack some months ago, but the repair I made on it has been working a deal.
If you have an interest, I will be pleased to explain how I repaired such breakage.
73,

Guru

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I started early to participate in the SOTA activity day on DM/BW-105. Without breakfast I was looking forward to the sunrise. After setting up my station the first QSOs came in the log and breakfast followed.

Some time later a hiker stood next to me. First I thought what does he want. After I finished the QSO I realized that it was OM Jürg @HB9BIN. After a very short chat he was qrv a few meters further. Only at the end we talked a little longer. I was very happy to meet you there Jürgen. That was our second meeting on a summit.

TRX was a Yaesu FT-817, an End-Fed antenna, LiFePo battery. All in all more than 100 QSOs and over 40 S2S were logged. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of action on the bands.

See you next time. Many thanks to all participants.

73 Marcel DM3FAM

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From the previous thread…

Speaking as Andy MM0FMF not as an MT member here… my view is these kind of events work when they don’t happen too regularly. If there is only 1 EU activity day per year, people will go to much greater effort to be QRV. But if they happen too often then there is no impetus to make a big effort to be QRV because if you miss EU SOTA day there will be another in a few months.

Myself, I was unable to take part and the WX was brilliant in GM and looks to have been very good over most of Europe and that certainly helped get more people out.

As I said, my personal view and not any kind of official view.

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Yes you are right … 2 x should be maximum…

I also enjoyed the activation day.

It was a good incentive to get out (weather was very nice too, here in Belgium). It had been some time that I didn’t do SOTA. The COVID crisis pushed me to take every opportunity to get out (safely). WWFF doesn’t require so much driving and this is how I got back to radio. But nothing can replace the kick of SOTA.

I wanted to activate belgian summits that I hadn’t discovered during my previous SOTA activities. They were “only” 2-point summits but interesting: nice scenery and walk. And driving through the Ardennes confirmed that this is a beautiful country.

The S2S were surprising for a rusted operator like me. At the first summit, the linked dipole up and ready to go, I was listening on the frequency before sending the validation QRL?. And there was OK1DU/P calling CQ SOTA from OK/LI-072. A great way to start this EU SOTA Activation day.

I activated ON/ON-021 (Plantis de Menil), ON/ON-019 (Bois de Javingue) and ON/ON-018 (À la Plate) with a KX3 (running 15W) on CW to a linked dipole.

This is the view from the Plantis de Menil.

Packed to move up to the Bois de Javingue

The view before entering the forest

And the operating position.

I had a great day! Thank you to all who participated and who had the idea to push us outside on the same day. A great way to get back to SOTA.

73 de ON4KJM

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It was great fun!

Prepared with enough food and liquid, I activated on DM/BW-002 during about 9 hours and put 114 QSOs in the log, of which 69 were S2S.

In the middle of the following picture, one can see in the background the slightly higher and highest summit of the Black Forrest DM/BW-001.

This time I brought a second mast with me, allowing to keep the end of my resonant 7-band EFHW antenna in inverted-L configuration higher than usual. The antenna wire is about 20m long with one coil that can be bypassed (will be described in a future document).

As usual, on HF I used 5W SSB from my FT-818, this time with an additional LiPo, which after about 6 hours was necessary, when my internal Windcamp 33Wh LiPo was used up. Conditions were “meh” and I didn’t even gave 17m a try.

On 2m FM, I used my Handheld with a Chinese RH-770 clone antenna with SMA connector and reached far into the Swiss Alps.

The summit got pretty busy after noon, but luckily there was a lot of space for everybody. Many hikers were interested in what I was doing and seemed to like the combination of outdoor sport and technology.

The WX started sunny and pretty warm for this altitude in September, but got covered up later on.

Thank you to all participants and organizers of this event!

73 Stephan

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Wonderful pictures! Thank you!

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Phil
I nearly decided to activate that ‘summit’ for myself - but ended up taking part in the annual York Canoe Race - I took my HB1-B with me but where we were pitched was a little too crowded for my dipole, so I never chased anyone.

The photograph of Tw-004 is the only ‘summit’ I’ve ever seen with bales of hay. Looks like a potentially sheltered spot. I like the idea of chair and table. The occasional treat does no harm eh? I could even take my base camp tent - or perhaps ask the farmer if I can put my camper nearer the activation zone… 250m is a long way when you’re carrying luxuries. :smile:
I’ll activate it one day.

David

You can park in the activation zone.

Andy
So I gather - but I didn’t want to appear unnecessarily lazy :roll_eyes: - Unless operating from within the camper is beyond the pale. :slightly_smiling_face:

David

It’s not allowed.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. My first Successful activation. G/DC002 is the nearest summit to my home QTH. Made 11 Contacts over 2 1/2 hours. 2 on CW and the rest on FT8/FT4. Winds were very high on top of Bodmin Moor and my SOTA pole snapped after about 20 mins. Fortunately I had some Duck tape. Wind was from the ENE but there are places that you can shelter from the wind. I was using a FT817, Bandhopper 2 40/20m Dipole and a raspberry pi 4 for data modes. I would not have attempted this if it were not for this specific activity day so that was a great idea. I will be looking to activate another summit in the not too distant future. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s activity reports and it is great to see the innovative ideas that are around.

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Игорь, Вы классно отработали! Слышал Михаила негромко на 10 МГц, но дозваться не смог - СТТ перешел вскоре на другой диапазон. У нас с Маратом работать одновременно не получилось - не хватило разноса антенн. Погода была пакостная - ветер гнул антенны в дугу и периодически налетал дождь.
73!
Владимир

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Я пытался на 40 работать, чтобы взять тех кто поближе. Но получилось только 2 QSO с третьим районом. Активности не было несмотря на спот в кластере. У нас между антеннами было метров 15 но аппараты все с оч высокой динамикой. Абсолютно друг-другу не мешали в любой комбинации диапазонов.

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Hi Chris
Glad you managed your activation. Is that a Kent key in the photo?

The tip of my pole I cut off - its too delicate and glued the tip-ring into the next one.
Dave