Dear reflector,
I will tavel to the Northwest this weekend to be a tutor for a microcontroller course for young students, mainly in 7th and 8th grade, for the next two weeks near Jülich. On Tuesday evening 4th August starting around 18z, I will try to activate the nearby Sophienhöhe DM/NW-134 in JO30fw on 2m SSB and CW.
There will be a local contest starting at 17z and the RSGB contest starting at 19z both on 2m SSB/CW.
One thing I really enjoy in this years Challenge are the 2m DX S2S contacts. The summit I am on paired with my 6 element Yagi and 80 W PA should be a good opportunity to try a S2S with GB stations! The nearest G summit is G/SE-013 with just around 409 km of distance. The regions G/SP and G/MW, where I noticed quite much activity in the challenge are around 650 km away. I think this is the perfect day to try for an amazing S2S and I am hoping to find some activators on the other side who will bring good stations and ideally a morse key. And maybe we are lucky and get some tropo across the sea! 
For some inspiration, I have a list here of the DX S2S QSOs above 400 km that I made already this year. Note, that some of the other stations were only running 5 W, or in the case of OK4SU, only 3 W! And there were often other high mountains in between, which is not the case from Sophienhöhe to GB!
| Date | Time | My Summit | Other Callsign | Other Summit | Band | Mode | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-25 | 11:05 | DM/BM-013 | SO9TA/P | SP/BZ-080 | 144MHz | CW | 544 km |
| 2026-05-09 | 10:38 | DL/CG-082 | DL1HBT/P + DL3HAH/P | DM/NS-127 | 144MHz | CW | 532 km |
| 2026-06-21 | 10:50 | DM/BM-323 | SO9TA/P | SP/BZ-057 | 144MHz | CW | 530 km |
| 2026-05-23 | 09:57 | OE/OO-209 | F/DH1WM/P | FL/VO-193 | 144MHz | SSB | 514 km |
| 2026-05-09 | 11:18 | DL/CG-082 | OK4SU/P | OK/MO-005 | 144MHz | CW | 466 km |
| 2026-03-03 | 19:10 | DA/BM-602 | DK0LR/P (DL4MFM) | DM/NS-036 | 144MHz | CW | 453 km |
| 2026-05-17 | 09:18 | DM/BM-154 | S53I (S52O) | S5/CP-002 | 144MHz | SSB | 449 km |
| 2026-05-02 | 15:38 | DM/BM-344 | S52O | S5/JA-035 | 144MHz | SSB | 435 km |
| 2026-05-17 | 10:01 | DM/BM-154 | S5/OE6ADE/P | S5/TK-002 | 144MHz | SSB | 435 km |
| 2026-05-22 | 10:27 | DM/BM-261 | DL1CR/P | DM/NS-122 | 144MHz | SSB+CW | 432 km |
| 2026-04-25 | 10:51 | DM/BM-013 | DL1CR/P | DM/NS-122 | 144MHz | CW | 420 km |
| 2026-04-25 | 10:29 | DM/BM-013 | OK4SU/P | OK/MO-003 | 144MHz | CW | 416 km |
| 2026-06-21 | 11:21 | DM/BM-323 | S57D + S53YL | S5/JA-035 | 144MHz | CW | 409 km |
| 2026-07-05 | 08:49 | DM/BM-352 | S57D + S53YL | S5/CP-011 | 144MHz | CW | 401 km |
If anyone is interested to try for a QSO, feel free to send me a DM here in the reflector or mail me at [CALLSIGN]@darc.de. Of course I would also appreciate S2S QSOs with other DM or maybe ON, PA, FL, … stations. And especially a S2S with the alps!
Best 73s
Thomas DF7TR