Weather permitting, I will aim to activate from VK2/ST-053 around sunrise local time, 2000 ish 22 april utc. 40/20/17/15 cw/ssb feasible, might get stuck on the mode and band that works.
73 Andrew VK1DA VK2UH
From my point-of-view in NA, just having one operator in VK/ZL/JA saying theyâll be operating at dawn or shortly afterward makes me really try to get on-the-air myself. Thanks for getting up early.
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I hope to be on a low-point-value summit somewhere near San Diego on Saturday. Iâll certainly hope for a JA<->NA S2S, but I wonât be able to stay up there until near the turn of the UTC day when I suspect the best propagation across the Pacific will occur. More likely Iâll need to pack out by around 2200, Iâll figure out which one and post it on the alerts when I have a more specific plan and YL approval.
Keith KR7RK
Sorry to have to withdraw my activation, it wonât be possible this time for me. This is due to illness.
Good luck to all who are out.
Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
There is now a range of Alerts from Japan ranging from 2200z to 0100z. But last weekend 20 meters was also good in the afternoon here (0600z on). Weather forecasts are promising, so letâs hope for some good propagation as well.
Can I ask a quick question. A lot of the alerts this day say things like S-2, S+8, etc. What does this notation represent. Is it an indicator of time expected to be spent on summit? Or a start time ±? Thanks.
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Good question. I have been wondering, as well.
Itâs a way of increasing the RBNHole spotting window.
What is the standard window?
-1, +3 hours.
For everyoneâs reference (since Iâve seen a few questions on this recently), a lot of this is discussed here: RBNHole | VK3ARR's SOTA Blog
Cheers,
Andrew
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I wonât be in San Diego after all, but I do intend to activate something here in Arizona tomorrow - working on my plans right now and will post an alert when I nail it down.
I activated from AZ today and was breaking down when the JA and ZL spots began. Wasnât able to hear any summits around 2300Z but I did manage to work VK7CW on 15 so there is hope.
Keith KR7RK
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be able to activate as I had indicated in my alert. If the opportunity presents itself, I may still make an attemptâsomewhereâfor the Japan-North America S2S (or any S2S, for that matter) but I do not think I will be able to make the window of opportunity for QRPTTF for my area of operations. I will try to post an alert in advance, even if it is short notice.
Umm⊠terrible condition, try next S2SâŠ
I ended up cancelling my activation due to weather concerns, and tried operating QRPTTF from a local park pavilion instead. Conditions were absolute trash, lots of noise, insane QSB, etc. After making 4 chaser/QRPTTF contacts in an hour and a half I packed up and headed home. I was able to chase one more activation in the afternoon, but it was just a ton of work yesterday making people out.
Hopefully you guys have some better conditions for the EU<>NA S2S adventure (Iâll be stuck at work).
Today I activated Mt Elliot VK2/HU-093. It was a very successful outing with 25 S2S including 3 NA, 9 JA, 2 ZL and 11 VK. Best band was 17m although DX signals in general were weak. A 50W linear was used for some 17m contacts when 12W from the KX3 wasnât enough. Antenna was a ZS6BKW at 9m plus a 20m elevated ground plane.
Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for all the calls!
Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO
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I thought there was something wrong with my equipment. I had summit access issues. Once I got on the air I only made contacts on 40m initially. The bands were staticy with no QSOs heard. Later on I had a few contacts on 20m. One chaser from Hawaii receved me at 56. It was a refief to talk to someone so I had a long QSO with him.
13 SSB QSOs
5 S2S
3.5 hours
I hope the CW folks did better
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Early results from ArizonaâŠCS-026⊠I made about 70 contacts yesterday form my summit. Made 34 s2s QSOâs (not sure yet how many unique summits).
I worked one JA, made three VK QSOâs (two s2s contacts), and one s2s to ZL1BYZ.
Twenty seemed pretty dead in the afternoon other than the JA/VK/ZL contacts which were on 17 and 15 meters.
Still crunching data, and the log needs to be submitted sometime today.
Running my FT817 and one of the imported 50W amps (about 35 watts out) to my linked dipole for the JA/VK/ZL QSOâs.
QRP otherwise with the 817.
had funâŠmy faithful pooch and I spent the entire day on the summit.
73
Pete
WA7JTM/P
W7A/CS-026
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I was on Humboldt Mountain (Arizona) yesterday. The FAA Air Defense Radar station loomed large next to me, but interference concerns were a non-issue for this activation. I had 47 contacts mostly on 20 meters. I only had six s2s contacts, three on either side of 00:00 UTC but I didnât go searching. I just called CQ and waited. I worked four VKs on 17 meters with an s2s on both days. I really enjoyed this one. Thanks to all the chasers!
Charlie NJ7V
W7A/AW-040
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I hiked up to Enebro Mountain, W7A/GR-012. It was a first activation for the summit and the hike turned out to be more challenging than I expected - it was a crazy bushwhack the whole way. Conditions did not seem great at all but there were certainly plenty of SOTA ops trying. I had planned to stay longer but Iâm battling a pretty bad flu and reached a point where my fever was taking over, and I knew Iâd better head down or risk a serious problem, so I only operated for 1.5 hours. I did work a VK chaser who was booming in on 15 right before I packed up at 2130. Looking forward to the next one!
73
Keith KR7RK
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Congratulations Gerard your enthusiasm for early morning activations has paid dividends in working NA S2S. You have a proven formula for working NA which other VKs may like to follow. 
Well done!
73, Andrew VK1AD
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