Reports: Trans-Atlantic S2S event 18th April 2026

[IK2LEY]

For the S2S Party, I decide to choose a hill that’s easy to reach and climb.

I bring my usual 16-meter long LW and the vertical with elevated radials.

Rig, as always, FT-817ND with 5W.

As usual, I start the activation fairly early, to hunt down some European S2S in 40. However, the skip is terrible, with very long propagation.

Around 10 UTC, conditions improve, and the S2S list begins to lengthen. Around 12 UTC, spots from the USA begin to appear, but conditions on the high bands are terrible, with a lot of noise and no signal from the other side of the ocean, not even from QRO stations.

I set up the vertical and try to make a few calls on 17 and 21, but no one answers except ZL1TM, who probably generates his own propagation… Hi!

At this point, it’s clear that conditions aren’t comparable to those of November, where I had already logged several W and VE stations, with 5 or 6 S2S. Around 14:00 UTC, I decide it’s best to disband and head down.

In the end, there will be more than 60 European S2S, and fewer QSOs in response to my calls than usual.

Let’s hope propagation helps us in November!

73 Fabio

I/LO-479

[G0MHF]

Hi Peter, which hill were you on? I don’t recognize it. 73 John.

[MW0PJE]

Moel Gyw, at the 450m contour hiding out of the wind.

[HB9EAJ]

As with previous Transatlantic S2S events, I activated from my home summit HB/SO-015 that I can reach easily by foot or e-bike.

I found a slightly better spot right at the edge, where I could keep the radials of my AliExpress 10-17m (unfortunately just a bit too short for 20m) quarter wave vertical about a foot above the ground, mainly towards NA.

I used the same radios as in past events: My trusted LAB599 TX-500 with 10W into an EFHW for the lower bands, as well as a Yaesu FT-891 set to 80W connected to the vertical for a bit of oomph.

The weather was very mild, maybe up to a maximum of 22C. I put on sunscreen several times, otherwise I would look like a lobster today.

Like others have said, the conditions were pretty rough, and the number of QSOs was very low compared to other Transatlantic events.

I made a total of 49 QSOs, and I didn’t make any NA S2S QSOs. I have only two state-side QSOs in the log: One with Florida and the other was a P2P to Medoc Mountain State Park in North Carolina.
The map from PoLo that follows is missing a lot of contacts, and some of the info is wrong, but it’ll do for a general idea:

Several times I heard NA stations calling me, but I could not decipher their call completely and mostly lost them in QSB. Once I heard even a Japanese station, but after several tries, we gave up.

My main band for NA was 17m. On 15m, I heard a bunch of strong stations from Israel that were taking part in the Holyland Contest.

To sum it up, it was a bit of a challenge, but it was a lot of fun.

73 Stephan

[OE5LAE]

Similar to last Years S2S Event in November, a few students “found” themselves together carring

• a QRO rig
• a QRP rig
• 4 masts (12 m, 2x 9 m and 6 m)
• 4 antennas (2 EFHWs, a dipole and a Moxon - but “only“ for 2m SSB)
• serveral HTs with antennas and other miscellaneous equipment

up the Plankogel OE/ST-277 in Styria in perfect spring weather.

Once again we operated with the Callsign OE6XUG/p from the RCCW (Radio Club for Comunication and Wave Propagation) at the Technical University of Graz.

Despite the bad bandconditions it was a success - while we did in fact not manage to do a transatlantic S2S contact but “instead” each achieved a transatlantic QSO to the Falkland Islands with VP8LP.

(Photo: OE5LAE)

(Photo: OE6CBX)

All in all it was great fun with at least some S2S contacts on both VHF and HF within Europe, some SSTV, and also a beautiful sunset after which we packed up and decended in the dark.

73,
@OE5LAE
@oe6cbx
@oe6mha
@oe6pnf

[G0MHF]

Thanks Peter, I see were you where. Useful fence posts for pole support right on the 450m contour. 73 John.

[IW2OBX]

For this event I wanted to try a new antenna setup: a double delta loop for 20 meters. The two triangles are fed in parallel, the classic butterfly, but with a slightly different shape. In fact, one side of each triangle is parallel to the ground. Naturally, it focused to North America.

I climb up to I/LO-297, near my qth.

The installation wasn’t particularly difficult.The feed is direct on 20 meters, while for 17 and 15 meters I used a 1:4 balun, of course with the ATU engaged.

I started calling CQ around 14:00. I saw some spots on the RBN from China and Japan, but nothing from North America. There were two spots NA toward the end of the activation, around sunset.

During the activation, at 14:37utc, I was able to hear KC1MXB on 14.064 MHz, but Jonathan didn’t hear me. The 17 and 15 meters were practically closed. After sunset, the situation didn’t change, so I decided to pass in QRT and climb down with my headlamp on.

I’ll try this antenna under better propagation conditions.

73

Iw2obx Roberto