CW or FT8 at 5 watts will help you a lot more than 100 watts of SSB. Plus lots and lots of experience - I well remember the frustration of being unable to get through with 5w SSB back in 2003. In 2021 I made large numbers of HF SSB S2S QSOs with 5w SSB - the only differences being 3000+ activations under my belt and 18 years operating experience.
As it happens to us with anything else in this World, some are more enjoyable than others…
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… trying to be optimistic it might be that as the sunspot cycle develops propgation is changing. 40m now has some shorter skip and for uk activations the number of stations that are within the skip range is now huge, resulting in bigger pileups and the chasers often can’t hear each other… just a few more sunspots and there should be more bands to play on, and more bandwidth ( Having had a break for 20+ years I cant belive how much better 40 is than when it was just 100 KHz wide…) … I must admit that having a small pile up as an activator is quite good, but the wall of calls that sometimes appears on 40m is hard work - chasing or activating.
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Thanks for the encouragement, yours & Andy’s words. The inner-Clarkson is getting the sack 
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10W SSB is QRP.
It could be better though. Almost every activation when I am trying to get the whole of a callsign, having asked for, for example, AB? the station I am listening for gets obliterated by someone else sending their callsign. And this happens repeatedly.
On my last activation a station called me and I replied with his call. Silence. So I work a few more stations and the same operator calls again. I reply with his call, then silence again. So I work some more stations. Then when I am trying to get the callsign of another station again comes this other station right over the station I am struggling to receive. At this point I gave up and switched bands. I initially thought the station had some technical problems but I suspect he just couldn’t hear me, or the other chasers. You shouldn’t transmit if you can’t hear what’s going on. I think that is really bad manners.
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Agreed. While CW operating standards are better than SSB, FT8 operating standards are better than CW.
Tomorrow I’ll be on FM….
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Fool’s Mode? 
Yes, why not?
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Getting to a full licence is well worth the effort. Not for the power which can be useful. But you can then operate overseas and instead of just the UK associations available to you, you have associations all over the world to pick from. Spices up holidays when you can tag on a few activations. Relax by pool whilst having breakfast, pop out and activate a nice summit and be back to the pool for a beer and to top up the tan
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Why do you need a full licence for this - I thought you could operate in Bonnie Scotland with a foundation licence? BTW you didn’t mention going INTO the pool - just relaxing beside it (smothered in anti-midge cream??)
My experience was different. After the B licensees were given access to HF, I put up a G5RV at 20 feet and made a Z-match. My first HF contact was in September of 2003, and after 12 months I had worked over a hundred DXCC entities on five continents with SSB from my FT817. I won’t say that I found it easy, it took patience to bust pile-ups, but it was successful enough to be very satisfying. Even now I do a lot of chasing with the 817, it strikes me as fair to use the same setup as the activators, but revert to the 857 when the DSP is needed. Does CW or FT8 make it easier? Quite probably, but that is no reason to avoid the challenge of using SSB! Its a matter of whether I want quantity or quality, I enjoy talking, hearing familiar voices and even the sound of the wind in the activators mike gives a feeling of what its like on the summit, that for me is quality airtime.
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So do the other modes - if you’re used to using them / fluent in the ‘language’. It’s a bit of a daft example anyway as activators tend to shield the mike from the wind, thus eliminating that aspect from the transmitted audio.
Anyway, it’s way past my bedtime if I’m out SOTAing tomorrow - gn.
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We’ll find out this afternoon, when yet again I try a 2m FM activation of an Aberdeenshire summit (which is only 15 miles west of Aberdeen) and will probably fail.
i must be safe andy , never wear caps yay
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Hi,
True, 10W is not QRP, 10W for a chaser no doubt is more decent than QRO chasers, or do I err here?
QRP chasers are rare and far between, I am only aware of 3 including myself.
What I can say is that penetrating a pileup of an activator, who is at the same time SOTA and WWFF as a QRP chaser is no walk over. Example this morning 25 January HB9CEV/P on HB/GR-103 + HBFF-0240. Took me 30 minutes to get through and 30 minutes later the pileup is still ongoing. I still wonder how I got hrough.
73
Patrick ON4BCA
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Brave man if you only have 2m FM It can be lonely on 2m at times. Though I think it’s much improved of late in GM considering the population levels compared with parts of England.
One of the joys of operating in N. Wales or the Lake District overlooking the densely populated NW of England is how easy it is to get loads of 2m FM contacts with a handy and a simple vertical. Most of the last LD event I was running the handy at just 1W and as the day wore on I pushed the power up to a heady 2.5 then 5W as the batteries lasted well.
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patience (30 minutes speaks for itself)
luck (not down in the QSB )
experience (your good operating technique)
73 Armin
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Insurance policy. The kx2 will be in the bag.
Anyway, I’m taking a leaf out of the microwavers book and organising my QSO’s in advance. Unfortunately two of them are in Newcastle! Maybe @GM4TOE will warm me up on the hilltop with half a kilowatt of lovely RF again?
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ROTFLMAO 
Good man. Just need to persuade you to invest in some 13cms gear now.
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Don’t know if it’s statistically significant but I too have been getting more 2m FM contacts on GM/SS summits in the last six months (and that’s late mornings mid week).
We had the luxury of dozens of other LD activators on 2m FM that weekend [which no doubt you could have worked on 50mW had you that option]. Despite not having any big cities in the region even on a normal [non-event] weekday, the small group of keen local chasers usually ensures qualifying on 2m FM. A decent antenna improves one’s chances a lot.
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