Reactivating U-VHF from the summits!

I have an idea. Why not nominate the 1st Tuesday of each month for some /P 2m SSB activity? Say starting at 8pm (1900z) to give people chance to get home from work and have their dinner. I think it could take off.

It hasn’t receded, its just moved a little!

Good idea Tom. There should be plenty to work as its the 2m UK Activity contest night. I have heard people working you but not actually you.

With a mandatory requirement to point to the North East of Scotalnd at some time in the evening. Gets very lonely here just talking to Scandinavians!!

Dear all,
I am sorry for the delay in producing some replies but I am really amazed by the number of feedbacks received here and also during my last weekend activations. I think some conclusions can already be drawn… the future of the UVHF is in our hands and together we can do many things. It is clear to me that we must sow the seeds doing more publicity.

A challenge on 2m/70cm would be a good idea in order to give us a strong boost and move much more people than usual to these bands. This movement will be creating a bigger impact into the surrounding areas to attract new users. Really 3 element yagi or slim jim antenna hanging on a fishing rod and 1w, can be very productive from high altitudes. It does not take much effort to have a handheld radio listening on the 2m FM sota calling frequency when we are activating on HF, but this lies in the hands of the activators.

Besides this, the idea of a new challenge could be helpful way to be more polyvalent operating the greater number of bands.

73s de EB2GKK, Inaki

Dear Jimmy,
So you will be travelling to Tenerife next September… it sounds great. If you would like to call the attention of the listeners, I recommend you to introduce your activation periodically through local repeaters. This action at least could help you to increase the number of contacts. Next link will bring you to URE web site, there you will get information about some repeaters in EA8.

http://www.ure.es/principal/2013-07-03-10-24-44/1022-repetidores-144-mhz.html

I will let you know that in EA2 we have a usual channel for sota activation located on 145.525-fm, it was chosen close to the calling frecuency dedicated for movil, 145.500. You can use the same frequency in EA8 during your activation time but It won’t be easy to heard you from EA2.

Who knows… maybe someday we will be surprised by a new tropo pass :wink:
73s de EB2GKK, Inaki

Dear Andy,
The suggestion of managing a local group doing VHF activating into EA2 is easy, but the problem arises when we move away from our operational area. There are few users at particular times of day and those which remain are jumping to digitization. It is clear to me that we must sow the seeds, doing more publicity, introducing periodically our activation through local repeaters… but as was said before, the idea of a challenge could be welcome in order to give us a strong boost. Besides this, It may be helpful way to evaluate chaser’s skills and their strategies to be more polyvalent operating the greater number of bands.
73s de EB2GKK, Inaki

Dear Brian,
I agree we are the ones to blame, because we weren’t able to continue riding the wave of success in time. A challenge on 2m/70cm would be a good idea in order to give us a strong boost and move much more people than usual to these bands. This will be creating a bigger impact into the area to attract new sota users.
73s de EB2GKK, Inaki

Hi Inaki,

Thank you for the link to the Spanish repeaters. This is very useful. That’s good you have a SOTA calling frequency in EA2.

I have emailed quite a few EA8 radio amateur to ask for their local knowledge on calling frequencies in Tenerife and for any recommended routes up some Tenerife SOTA summits. I’ve not had any response yet, but that maybe because I sent the email in English. I may send the same email again, but with a Spanish translation on it.

Jimmy M0HGY