I haven’t seen this posted yet, but this is a fun event every year with high participation and is next Saturday 25 April. It’s a great opportunity for S2S. NA activity will begin at 1300Z with many of us NA activators looking especially for NA-EU S2S. Below is the message posted by the organizer Paul NA5N.
73, Barry N1EU
You are cordially invited to participate in this year’s QRPTTF/SOTA event on
Saturday, April 25, 2015. This is the 4th year of our joint partnership
which has been very successful in creating plenty of contacts for us both
and an extra measure of fun. Both CW and SSB categories.
Its a shame that I had forgotten to check the date of this event this year and have something organised for that date
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed last years event and would highly recommend it whether just to do a short activation or a long one (I did 5 hours last year).
Barry, I’ll try and get out.
I missed last year’s activity due to work, but have enjoyed the 2 years previous to that.
I’ll be looking for the usual NA S2S
Normal set up ATS4 or MTR and EFHW, and might even take the Rockmite for some QRPp ops (300-400mW).
This weekend seems to be one of those when lots of things have come along at once. I’d be doing VK chasing and taking to the hills QRP if I didn’t have at least three or four other things also demanding my attention, but I havn’t yet figured out how to be in more than one place at a time…
Andrew, this is in the wrong thread, there is a thread for the ANZAC commemoration, I suggest you cut and paste it so that those following the ANZAC thread don’t miss it.
Barry, I think there is interest! Unfortunately I won’t be on air tomorrow, it my wedding anniversary weekend and radio does not feature in our plans!
Strangely enough, QRPTTF always seems to fall on my wedding anniversary weekend! Last year QRPTTF was moved back a week, and it allowed me to take part. It was great to work you, and Bill W4ZV, for my only ever chases of US summits.
I think the fact of the time difference, and the fact that mostly CW is used, this makes it a less attractive event for Eu ops.
I wish you all the best for tomorrow and I hope the propagation is favourable, of late it seems to have been very up and down.
Apologies for my confusion. Removed the post and placed it in the other thread.
Conditons in VK for the QRPTTF event were unpleasant in much of the south and southeast. Recent torrential rain in the Sydney/Newcastle area gave many operators something different to attend to.
Andrew vk1da
It was a fun day with a fair level of activity both in Europe and USA. Conditions didn’t seem great from where I was and I was unfortunately hampered by a high noise level from commercial communications gear on the summit. I used the new OCF dipole from Spiderbeam that I had on loan and hung it sloping downward from about 60ft up a fire tower down to a tree. It seemed to play quite well with my KX3 in spite of mediocre conditions and my high noise level. I made 17 S2S contacts, but some were the same summit on multiple bands. I did manage S2S across the pond with G4ISJ, OM3CUG, and S57X. S58R had a good signal but I called and called without luck. I was monitoring SOTAwatch and listened for every cw activation spotted, but I just couldn’t hear any of the other European activators. A few times I couldn’t make out some of the weaker signals calling me due to my noise level and I apologize for that.
Hi Barry,
It was good to pick you up eventually on 15m where you were a good signal. Nothing heard however on 20m from you.
It turned out to be quite a nice afternoon here, but condx were very marginal.
I spent most of my time playing with various antenna configurations (all EFHW) rather than doing very much serious chasing or activating!
After a quick run on 20 metres I decided to play on 17metres with a new EFHW tuner I have just built.
I’d brought along my antenna analyser so that I could do some wire trimming etc.
After I set it up with the analyser I proceeded to call CQ on an eerily quiet band for over 10 minutes without a bite!
Even RBNGate didn’t pick me up. I eventually self spotted and still nothing.
To my horror I realised that the feeder was still connected to the analyser and not to my rig!
Plugging it back in made the band decidedly noisier, and a few contacts were made
I don’t think that’s the end of it however.
I’m pretty sure I’ve blown maybe one or two of the PA transistors.
The battery voltage was uncharacteristically constant throughout the remains of the afternoon, dropping only 0.2V.
I fear, but haven’t checked yet, that I may only have been running about 1W or less…
RBN seems to back this up with reports well below normal.
Anyway it was fun, dry and pleasantly warm out of the fresh breeze
I got a late start (partly for dragging my feet because of the low temps - I’m not as brave as Barry - and then further delayed by a few local ham friends who flagged me down as they were having coffee as I passed through their little town. Way late. Got to summit W2/NJ-003 a little before 1700z. Rig was KX3. Antenna was 44’ end fed with 9:1 unun tossed in the trees. Didn’t hear/work a heckuva lot of TTF-only stations, but I did get a few here and there. Lots of good contacts on 40 & 15m - especially the latter to EU around 1800z. Had a little euro pile going for a bit there. Didn’t stir up too much on 20m for some strange reason and I parked there a couple of times. Did get 7 S2S QSOs. Barry your 17 - that is awesome!
I had a great time yesterday operating in the QRPTTF 2015 event, from St Boniface Down G/SE-008 on the Isle of Wight. Conditions weren’t at their best, but enjoyable all the same.
Rig of the day was a home-brew Small Wonder Labs SW20+, coupled with Mini Blue Racer Goat Paddles.
The weather was variable, the shelter started to leak during heavy rain, then dried out !
On a less positive note, I just want to mention that during the many times that I called another activator on Saturday, signing “N1EU S2S”, I’m not aware of a single instance of the home chasers standing by or alerting the presence of “S2S” on frequency. Yes, my signal is relatively weak, but I know many of the chasers could hear me.
Generally speaking, most chasers still need to learn and practice this courtesy. This is one of the most frustrating things I experience as an activator.
