Good dx conditions, bad for SOTA chaser

Thank you for your information and tips to improve.
My CHAMPAS Antenna seemed at the time the best compromise. No space for wire antennas, dipoles etc.
Vertical, in my situation cannot place a GAP or anything that huge.
For the higher bands the SWR is OK without ATU.
My antenna cable only 7m long.

One is to keep in mind that not every radioamateur is capable of dealing with 28 or higher wpm.
I can deal up to 30wpm in SOTA QSO and standard QSO when the CW is done in good quality, difficulty in high speeds only with lenghty unfamiliar callsigns and references.

One has to keep in mind that working QRP with /P antenna from remote mountain top is not the same in propagation and QRM as chasing with QRP and simple antenna from an urban area. + I guess a good portion of y hf with my antenna goes up as NVIS

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With so many activators, activating in the Alps - the skip zone is not my friend as a chaser! The majority of activations, I cannot hear from home. When skip is long portable stations in ON are about where my 40m skip zone ends, on 20m Spain, Scandinavia and Greece are the first countries that Iā€™ll be able to hear from here.

My solution Patrick is that - I go out and activate when I can.

I did so this morning and conditions (both inter-Europe and DX) were terrible! Thatā€™s all part of the hobby.

By the way what many people forget is that even NVIS doesnā€™t work unless the conditions are right (and specifically the fxl frequency is high enough). This can get as high as 10MHz but more often than not it sits between 3.5 and 5 MHz, so not even getting up to 40m.

73 Ed.

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Hi,
Unfortunately in ON not that much to activate and not close to home.
Your chance to get around your skip zone is in Summer with Es propagation. I have the same problem that you have, with Germany. The only parts of Germany I can get with not too much difficulty is everything below lets say Stuttgart and the former Eastern Germany, sometimes Bayrischer Wald.

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On the propagation issue, the predicted major storm has begun. Everything dead.

EL

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ā€¦ it even picked up strength

I managed 6 on 30m CW just and 4 on 20m CW at 1130Z. But conditions not good.

Was hoping to get you on CW today Andy but couldnā€™t hear a thing here. Canā€™t even hear Fraser on HF :persevere:

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Never mind Allen, thereā€™s always next time. Conditions were not good. A few people were genuine 599 signals. Jukka OH3GZ is a regular chaser and he had a definite Auroral sound this morning on 20m.

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Just in time for the Trans-Atlantic S2S eventā€¦ as if the poor weather isnā€™t enough! Itā€™s going to be extremely challenging to say the least. :hushed:

Iā€™ve just read a news article dated Nov 2nd saying the bridge at Bridge of Cally may not be opened with traffic management till next Tuesday. That makes getting to Mount Blair a real pain in the anterior. Normally Iā€™d do Perth, A94 to Coupar Angus then A93 to Bridge of Cally then up to Cray and turn off and park in the layby. Job done, apart from climbing and activating.

If the bridge is out you can take the A9 to Pitlochry then the A924 over the top into Glen Brerachan down through Kirkmicheal to Bridge of Cally arriving the right side of the bridge. But that is a rubbish road. Itā€™s not fast, didnā€™t have a wonderful surface last time I did and is just too twisty for fun, German engineering or not. I did a bit of it in my A5 (with sports suspension option) and it was hard work. That car was on rails and handled brilliantly and it was hard work. So allow plenty of time.

You may want to consider an alternative summitā€¦ Blath Bhalg GM/CS-094 as you will drive past it if you take the A924. I should have a GPX from when I did if you are interested.

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VOACAP forcast for QRP stations in Europe/Germany chasing S2S stateside,

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If I am reading the graph correctly does it suggest 15/17/20m will be best?

Here the VOACAP graph for UKā€¦
It looks a bit betterā€¦

Especially 17mā€¦
ā€¦ and increasing power to 50w will increase the chances to 60-70%

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Indeed, as the weekend approaches a replan becomes more and more appropriate. As they say, the summits will always be there for another day. The planned pair would work in well with Monamenach GM/ES-028 for a trio next Springā€¦ or even a greedy quad grab with Ben Gulabin GM/CS-077.

I am thinking maybe a single summit day this time around. All the major forecasts suggest that I will get a pasting in the morning, so I could start the S2S event like a drowned rat. Iā€™d rather try and arrive on a summit less damp and with an improving weather outlook, though we all know that might not happen. :confused: I also think 16:30z might be the limit of operationā€¦ unless conditions do a complete about turn and return to being good once more.

Yes indeedā€¦

Thank you. I was testing a new linked dipole today which I have just built. It covers 15/17/20m so that looks ideal. I can only do 10W on 15m and 17m but I have a rig which is about 35W on 20m. I may have to take both. :slight_smile:

The forcast was for 5W TX into an isothrope 0 Antenna, and RX stateside Antenna a dipole. With a dipole as a TX antenna you should do much better.

ā€¦ and CW :slight_smile:

73s
Ingo

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Thanks Ingo!
For which location in the U.S. did you do the simulation?

73, Roman