Microwave operators wanted !

Can we try to “organise” future microwave SOTA activations ?

I understand there are local initiatives like “Microwave Activity Days”, “Journées d’Activité”, etc., some of them being recurrent on the last week-end of every month.

As the SOTA microwave award ( Summits on the Air ) is based on the distance between the stations only, what would be the best way to “synchronise” microwave SOTA activations with these initiatives in order to maximise our chances to make long distance contacts ?

I understand “The ON4KST amateur radio chat” ( The low band, VHF, UHF and microwave chats (by ON4KST) ) is a “must” for “unusual bands” operators. Should microwave SOTA activators use it too ?

Any thoughts ?

I would not usually venture out to do SOTA microwave without first being sure that other operators were out there expecting contacts. That could be a pre-arranged activity weekend, or the monthly microwave activity evenings or contests.
I could not easily use ON4KST on my 'phone, so taking something more suitable does add more weight to be carried to the summit. You also need a network connection, which is not always available when on a summit.
Yes, I do use ON4KST from my local SOTA summit, and it does work well to organise contacts.

Perhaps we should organise a SOTA microwave activity day / weekend again?

73,
Stuart

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Hi,

also not doing much SOTA myself I strongly support to advertise more activity in the microwave bands from the mountains!
I recently started doing 23 cm from the mountains and it can really be great fun! A bit magic when you come from 2 m :slight_smile:
In the moment I use SG labs tranverter and PA and a homebrew YAGI. I co-mount it to my 2 m equipment. My tactics is to ask everybody on 2 m If they also can do 23 cm. Round about 10 % can do or other OMs QRX and ask for a QSO on 23 cms. That works quite well! Just calling on 23 cm often has no success.
The 23 cm equipment is not much extra weight, less than 1 kg and for me the 2 m / 23 cm combination works quite fine!
I also thought about using ON4KST chat from the mountains. But as Stuart said, it is not easy to use it on your mobile phone. I also did not manage yet.
I only do SSB from the mountains and usually go for DX …

BTW: I published my YAGI design on thingiverse:

A foto of my 2m / 23cm combination:

Would love to make a contact to you on 23 cm some day!

I am usually QRV from the DL/OE mountains ~JN67

73

Martin

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Hi Martin,

there are summits in my region with line of sight to some summits near Rosenheim.
About a week ago, I ordered a 23 cm transverter from SG-lab and while waiting for it to arrive I’m building a Bi-Quad antenna according to Andrew’s proposal (@VK1AD)

Maybe some more antennas will follow :wink:
If you’re interested in trying a S2S-QSO on 2m/ 23cm JN67 <-> JN48 please let me know!
73, Roman

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… time permitting I would try to join.
73, Roman

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Not having more information about other microwave “activity days”, I would propose to start with

  • the last week-end of every month
  • more specifically, if possible, on Sunday mornings between 07:00 to 10:00 UTC

2021/04/24-25
2021/05/29-30
2021/06/26-27

No hard rules of course, just a time slot when microwave contacts are more likely to be possible, not only from SOTA summits.

Bear in mind that for the SOTA Microwave award, only ONE station must be on a SOTA summit, so you can operate from anywhere and still get the award if the distance is more than 50 kilometres.

Any thoughts ?

From a UK point of view, 05/30 and 06/27 coincide with our 5.7 / 10 GHz contest and I would normally be on a SOTA with 144MHz and 10GHz with assistance from KST. I could take either 23cm or 13cm if there is any interest. (but not 5.7GHz as my amp is far to heavy to carry up a summit).
There could be some nice DX to work during the summer.

73
Stuart

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I like the idea of times / days when people are more likely to be about. There is a slim chance I will be able to activate one of the SB summits during the week next week (possibly G/SB-009) but that will be family dependent as they might object or the weather is rotten. I’ll post an alert if I can manage it. Otherwise for me it’ll most likely be G/LD summits.

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Hey Roman,

please let me know when your equipment is ready, we will give it a try.
What would be your prefered summit?

73
Martin

Weather permitting, I intend to test my initial 23cm portable setup from JO20BL (not SOTA) on Sunday 25th in the morning. Only 2 watts into a bi-square for now. Hopefully a bit more power and a yagi next month.

I will be monitoring ON4KST.

If you think we have a chance to make the contact, please let me know and I’ll make sure we have a proper sked.

More info about Microwave Activity Days in France:

  • 24-25/04/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 29-30/05/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 19-20/06/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 18/07/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) Mont Blanc (F/AB-001)
  • 24-25/07/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 15/08/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) Mont Blanc (F/AB-001)
  • 28-29/08/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 25-26/09/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm
  • 30-31/10/2021: Journée d’Activité (Activity Day) >= 23cm

From https://hyper.r-e-f.org/

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I made the first test with mine outdoors today, and the first QSO was about 235 km with the 2 watts of the SG-Lab transverter (SSB).

Looking forward to the next week “Microwave Activiy days” :slight_smile:

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I bought the Alinco DJ-G7 (and its sister radio DG-G29 for 220 & 927) and it goes with me on every sota hike. I have qualified for the sota microwave award for 50 km a few times on 1 watt FM, in one instance I had the honor of being WO2T’s first contact on 1.2 GHz and how we landed that qso is the main reason I’m replying.

I worked Al on 2m FM during the end of a nice pileup, and he was asking if SOTA operates on a “contest like” system where you go up in as many bands as possible, I replied that this was my intention once the 2m contacts dried up as I also had 70cm and 1.2 GHz capability. He immediately reponds “I have a 1.2 GHz yagi I’ve never used up there” and I said lets do it, and we worked 70 cm, then 1.2 GHz. Now I try and mention the 1.2 capability as often as possible for unscheduled QSO’s.

As skeds go, I’m lucky to have a W2/NJ association manager who has a slick base setup including 1.2 GHz, and he dodges flying toys and playing children in a most heroic fashion to get to the radio when the Sota Alert goes up. I got one non sota chaser interested in chasing sota during a contest, when he was suprised to hear a portable single operator station ready to work 6m to 23cm, now hes got the app and is a regular chaser.

I have the SG labs trasverters, but the weight can be brutal when you throw in the ft-817, an 8ah Lifepo4 battery on top of water and the FT-3D APRS HT.

I’ve been really dissapointed with the majority of the aftermarket (non sg labs) PCB yagis out there. Ive went from 3x5 signal reports on these non sg labs yagis, to full quieting on the Alinco rubber duck antenna. My 14 element cushcraft yagi preforms amazingly well, and thats what I’ll use to break the 100 km challenge, even though it means packing it up a 2000 ft elevation gain summit.

Special thanks to VK1AD for getting me interested in the sg labs transverters, and microwave sota in general. I was reading that page shortly after getting my ticket, and caught the microwave bug early on.

Dave,
K2CZH

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Congrats, Christophe, on such good results already during the first test!
Looks very promising with the Bi-Quad :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m still waiting for the SG-Lab transverter to arrive. It would be a good opportunity to test it on May 2nd during the DARC VHF/UHF contest.

73, Roman

Does anyone know if there is a manual or updated documentation for the 23cm Transverter rev 2.3 ?
On the website of SG-lab it still says rev 2.2. The transverter seems to have some new features and the PCB looks slightly different compared to the photo on the website.

Thanks and 73, Roman

The circled SMA is for an external local oscillator.
Not near my shack right now to tell you what is required to use it

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10 MHz input.

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I received a copy of the v2.3 documentation via email when I placed my order back in 2017.
Have you checked your emails?

73
G1ZAR

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Yes, no email nor announcement of the delivery. Also checked the spam folder. :thinking:

Tested it yesterday during real activations. The propagation was poor, the summit sites definitely not ideal for microwaves, but still 2 SSB QSO’s > 200 km, and 2 CW QSO’s > 100 km.

It’s a new world for me, but it seems to be great fun :slight_smile:

I’ll be QRV this Sunday morning from a non SOTA site in JO20bl. If anynone is interested in a sked on 23cm, let me know (SOTA or not).

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