Evening Activations

Nice to work you tonight Stewart. It was much less windy, much warmer, and generally much more comfortable on The Cloud G/SP-015 than a week earlier. Still pretty nippy by the time it came to packing away and descending though!

I made exactly 100 contacts, all on 2m SSB, in this event. DXCCs worked were G, GW, GI, GM, GD and EI. Locator squares worked were IO62, IO64, IO74, IO80, IO81, IO82, IO83, IO84, IO85, IO86, IO90, IO91, IO92, IO93, IO95, JO01, JO02 and JO03. I heard, but didn’t manage to work IO75. I never heard IO94 or JO00, or anything from the continent at all.

As always, nice to get a few known SOTA chasers in the contest log.

Tom M1EYP

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A bit of SOTA history in this thread - in that in it lies the birth of Tuesday night SOTA “Fun Evenings”, which in turn led me into RSGB Activity Contesting.

Anyway, the weather tonight looks reasonable - dry and not too windy, even if a bit chilly. So I’ll be out on my usual summit in the 2m SSB event starting at 8pm local time (1900z). I won’t be self-spotting as that would not be appropriate for the contest, but I shouldn’t be too difficult to find for anyone wanting a chaser point!

I wonder further, if with the fair weather forecast this evening, but on the first day of Autumn (ie it’s only getting colder and darker from here) if any other activators may be tempted out to create a SOTA Fun Evening like in the past?

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Ah well, no other SOTA activations were detected on the evening of Tuesday 1st September 2015. Some people experienced some cndx into OZ, but I didn’t get a sniff of anything like that. I got 84 contacts into squares: IO64, IO74, IO81, 82, 83, 84, 86, IO91, 92, 93, 94, JO00, 01, 02, 03. Also heard were IO80 and JO21, but not worked. Some usual squares thought to be on were never found - for instance IO75, 80, 85, 90, 95. Hmm, bit of a pattern there…

All good fun. All contacts on 2m, 83 on SSB and 1 on CW. Dry night despite many surrounding areas suffering rain (visible from summit). Nice red moon over the eastern horizon (Merryton Low, Roaches, Gun). Slight breeze but nothing disruptive.

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Have you seen the revised scoring proposal for VHF and up contests Tom? Look good in that they encourage people in JO01 to point their antennas North but don’t penalise anyone who lives near the SE of England.

They produce almost exactly the same rankings as M7, but closer together in terms of points. I would have liked to have seen M5 and M6 in the supplementary white paper, not just M7 (current) vs Bonus F (proposed).

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I had intended to come on last night to work you and hand a few points out, but first we had a vicious little thunderstorm with ground strikes nearby, and when that cleared I found my beam jammed around to the southeast again. I shall have to strip down the control box again - grr!

Brian

Well I did listen out for Tom between 19:00z and 20:30z, but didn’t hear him. There were plenty of stations around at decent signal strengths. I can only assume Tom was running S and P most of the contest.

About half-and-half Gerald.

Well it’s strange that I didn’t hear you. Maybe I will find the time to go portable in the next 70cm event.

FB - see you next week then? You thinking from a SOTA summit?

“Tuesday Night is SOTA Night”

I think Richard @G3CWI after Paul @G4MD proposed some sessions back in the day.

I thought it was a good idea. I still do! And that is why I’m heading out now to my local SOTA summit for some 2m FM and SSB fun, to coincide with the RSGB VHF activity evening.

My usual MO is to use V-pol for the first half-hour of the 2m FMAC, then switch to H-pol. Then H-pol will obviously remain for the 2m UKAC which is predominantly on SSB.

There’s sometimes 4/5 SOTA activations on simultaneously on these evenings - let’s hope tonight is one of them. There will be at least one anyway!

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I remember doing Ingleborough one evening, it was a heck of an effort for a few QSOs! It was fun though.

Nowadays with Ingleborough in my back yard, a night time activation isn’t so difficult, indeed I have thought recently about doing another evening activation of G/NP-005 like I did last June.


Headtorch required!

I might be tempted :slight_smile:

73, Colin

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How about tomorrow (Wednesday) night for the 2m FT8 event Colin?

Tonight was a good one for me.

99 QSOs made from The Cloud G/SP-015:

29 on 2m FM
70 on 2m SSB

7 DXCCs worked: G, GW, GM, GD, GI EI and F.

23 QRA squares worked: IN99, IO62, 63, 64, 67, 71, 73, 74, 75, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, JO00, 01, 02.

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FT8 isn’t my thing (and yes, I’ve tried it).

I was thinking about going during some nice warm weather and enjoying the other aspects along with the radio.

I’m working today and I’m not sure what my finish time will be, as they’ve cut down the number of vans going out from 3 to 2. My van potentially has an extra half load on today.

73, Colin

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Sorry I missed you last night Tom. A failure worthy of the Keystone Cops.
Arrived on site…oh dear, no co-ax.
Drive home, collect co-ax, return to summit.
Antenna up…hold on, where did I leave the battery?
Pack up and home to relax.
See you next week on 70cm ?

73…Stuart

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Hi James,

The first time I visited Long Knoll I was also looking forward to seeing the art installation but unfortunately, it’s not there any more. I was there again more recently and there is a similar CD installation in an adjoining field below - it’s occupies most of the field and is arranged in a ‘catherine wheel’ layout so catches the light quite well.

73, Lea M0XPO

[post note edit: I now see this thread dates back to 2007, but my comment still stands]

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possibility for a SSOTA program maybe? lol Sky scrapers on the air?.. :rofl:

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Fair enough Colin, you’re not alone there!