Poland and Slovakia Tour by Englishmen and Northern Irishman

Nice shot Phil, it looks like a group of young rascals :sunglasses:

1 Like

I do like to follow the 'OBK overseas trips, however this one is just not working for me!

Again I set up the dipole in the garden but I only detected a brief trace of SP/G4OBK/P on 14.063 this afternoon. I copied a brief burst of CW on 40m but signals were not strong enough on any band :disappointed_relieved:

Oh well, at least I’ve tried! Eu Propagation seems horrible, but DX propagation seems good - there’s some good signals coming in from Texas on 20m! Some nice DX coming in on 17m also.

Colin

[quote=“M1BUU, post:22, topic:13025”]Some nice DX[/quote]So far, down here in KI88jp near the Equator, I’ve not managed to hear a single SOTA activator in the last two weeks, though I’ve heard the occasional chaser. 15 has been best during the day, and 20 at night. 17 has filled the gap between day and night. A little has come through on 40 very late at night and early in the morning, but by 05:00z it’s local stations only. Conditions from here seem well down compared with New Year and this time last year…

Rick 5Z4/M0LEP

Comments noted from all - many thanks. Victor and I are now back at SOTA HQ after a perfect day with good weather and good food, we finished off the day with Polish Goulasz (Goulash) at the bar that sits between BZ-024 and BZ-034 which we will return to another day to activate and have lunch in between the two SOTAs.
Between us we made around 120 QSOs today on 20m, 30m, 40m on the 5 activations. Best DX was K4DY on 20m CW. On the last summit SP/BZ-070 we took this selfie and on the back of the tourist sign where we stood there was the SOTA logo, plain as day:

73 Phil

3 Likes

D**n Graffiti artists get everywhere!

Actually I’ve on more than one occasion wondered about adding a SOTA sticker to some walking track signs where it isn’t clear the direction to take to the summit …

1 Like

Today Victor and I are teaming up with Marcin SQ9OZM. We will activate SP/BZ-005 and BZ-006 on CW and SSB. I have not alerted the times but we will spot our activity from the summits. Expect BZ-005 late morning, BZ-006 mid to late afternoon. We will have our lunch (with one beer) at the mountain hut on BZ-005. The weather is warm and sunny now and we are looking forward to an enjoyable trek over the Beskidy Mountains led by our tour guide Marcin!

73 Phil

2 Likes

Or this

And just in case you didn’t realize that you are in the trig point, someone wrote

Vy 73 and GL to Phil and the others

Looks like a photo from Crimewatch if you ask me.

“Have you seen these men on your land? If so call 800-SUMMITPOLICE now”.

:grinning:

Another picture for Crimewatch Andy - taken just before we came off SP/BZ-006 tonight (at about the same height as Ben Nevis) at 1830 local time.

It was cold on BZ-006 towards the end, and suddenly cold, so headgear of different types was donned, - I look like Old Mother Hubbard (If you remember the TV programme). You could tell how cold it was from your hands and how difficult it became to dismantle the pole:

Pictured: Me, Marcin SQ9OZM, Victor GI4ONL.

Our day - Walk start to BZ-005 10.15am local - ski lift not in use… hence walk finish was at 8.00pm local, but what a good day…

HF Condx improved today, best band at midday on BZ-005 was 30m, best band with “pipeline” into UK late afternoon on BZ-006 was 20m.

Tomorrow the two teams should activate two different border summits between Poland and Slovakia - roll up, roll up, get them while you can! There is a chance of an extra bonus summit late afternoon from the OBK / ONL team depending on weather and remaining stamina on day 4. Showers forecast in afternoon…

73 Phil

local

4 Likes

We had a successful day yesterday with improving HF condx. The chosen summits of SP/BZ-019 bordered with OM/ZA-061 and later, OM/ZA-101 (which was 14 Km from the border summit) were completed.

We found both to be easy to moderate walks, and it was a much easier day than doing BZ-005 and BZ-006 which which we activated with Marcin SQ9OZM the previous day. To drive to the furthest border summit took 2 hours each way, being 70 miles from our SOTA HQ in Koninki. It took 1 hours walk to reach the border SOTA from the car, and 30 mins walking time to reach ZA-101.

Today we have heavy sleet and snow in the Beskidy / Tatra region so far. We are holding back on going out this morning and tidying up our logs and map files. We hope to go out this afternoon and activate either one or two summits close to Mszana Dolna which is near SOTA HQ. Last night we found a fantastic modern restaurant in Mszana Dolna with an extensive multi national menu. Large portions, and we had 3 courses and drinks. For example a lovely mixed grill, steak, chicken and pork with fries and 3 veg cost the equivalent of £4 in UK money. I expect we will eat there for the next two nights, before returning home on Tuesday.

Team two have gone to Krakow on a sightseeing tour and will not be QRV today.

73 Phil & Victor

1 Like

Victor and I are venturing out now (1400z) and are hoping to activate one summit at around 1530z-1600z. It could be BZ-063 or BZ-080 or none at all depending on the WX when we park. The summits are some distance away and there is no way of knowing what the weather is like for sure until we get there.

We will go on 20m SSB and CW and hope to qualify the summit on the single band with one station only in operation.

73 Phil & Victor

1 Like

WICKED to catch you on all three Saturday.

thanks again folks

Karl

Good luck with the afternoon activation - If the weather allows it. If you’re out tomorrow, I’ll listen again. Today with just 20m, I won’t hear you as you are too close to me but hope you get lots of contacts back into the UK.

Ed.

Poor conditions on both 14MHz & 10MHz this afternoon for me, but very pleased Victor came up out of the noise long enough for a quick exchange before he went QRT on 10MHz.

Very heavy local noise this morning on 7MHz & 5MHz but thankfully not as bad this afternoon. I had put it down to a neighbour’s TV but I think it may have been a washing machine, which is better in some ways :wink:

As I’ve not been on the radio much recently I was pleased to chase one summit :slight_smile:

Thanks & best 73,

Mark G0VOF

Both SSB & CW 20mts gave poor conditions for Phil to the UK I experienced. Vic was weaker for me on 30mts although my dipole antenna needs some repair work.

Yes bad band conditions. Victor and Phil today, for me, was the summit so far that got away. Very briefly heard Phil on 20M SSB and no more. I was not too surprised as the bands for me had been like that for awhile. I heard quite a few chasers from other parts of the EU so just the way the propagation goes…
Cheers
Mike

Good to hear from you all… thank you for the feedback.

Sorry to miss you today Mike, (G6TUH) but condx were just not good enough to skip into the south east, unlike earlier in the week. I worked Damien MK0BKV on 20m SSB (the only UK station on 20m I heard) and Victor worked him on 30m CW with other UK regulars, so 30m was the favoured band for the wider UK. We didn’t stay long, having waiting for the weather to improve most of the day. The walk up to BZ-080 took 30 minutes. There was an old shed there to shelter from the rain whilst operating (Thanks to Marcin SQ9OZM, for telling us about that).

My kit is now dried out and if the rain holds off tomorrow as the forecast says, we will hopefully activate BZ-034 and BZ-024, G4OOE, G3TQQ and M0MQO intend going slightly further east to visit BZ-074 and BZ-082.

Here is a picture of Victor GI4ONL and I about to leave the shed where we operated on SP/BZ-080 late this afternoon:

73 Phil

4 Likes

Today I managed to bag my first QSO with the group on 20m CW. Not easy being limited to a 40m dipole + ATU. Conditions to SP and OM decidedly poor on 30m as well over the past week. Phil - you didn’t seem to be at the end of a major pile up as you called CQ after signing with me. Hope it was better than it appeared from this end.

73, Gerald G4OIG

Hello Phil and the rest of the team,
Well done all despite the snow flurries :wink:
As for here I had to go out first thing this morning and missed your first activation but just got home to catch Pete and Dave on BZ-074, 55 here which gave me some hope for later. Planting the seed pots was therefore delayed until tomorrow so pleased to catch you Phil on BZ-034.
I hope you all have a good trip back home and thanks.
Cheers
Mike

Hello Gerald and Mike - Well, radio condx have been pretty dire all week, my thoughts of working split on CW if the frequency got too lively never materialised on any band. I had nothing that would constitute a pile up at all any day, often 5-10 minutes on a band mode would work the stations who could hear me and then I would get no answers to 3 CQs and then it would be “night night” (Mike) to that band or mode. I’ve never had to send so many repeat reports when stations did not answer due to QSB and a small number of stations who thought they were in my log aren’t, I’m sure. You two certainly are. I’ll review the “Look who worked me” in the database when I get home.

The only enjoyment in going out today in such lousy weather was to accrue four SOTA Completes thanks to Nick, Dave and Pete for activating BZ-074 and BZ-082 to help build my score. Only a matter of time before I rise to the top of the all G Completers table and I don’t mind highlighting this, so beggar’s to my modesty! The other enjoyment was the bowl of Goulasz we had at lunchtime at the bar in between BZ-024 and BZ-034.

Hope to be on tomorrow from one or two summits on my way to Krakow airport, possibly with Victor on the first one - although if we get the same weather as we had today it is unlikely we will show.

Good to see Roy G4SSH back into our logbooks today…

73 Phil

1 Like