I spent about 4 hours on my local summit Rombalds Moor G/NP-028. I had 28 QSOs which is not a huge number but 17 were S2S with 2 Canadian, 6 US and the rest EU. 5 QSOs on 15m CW, the rest 10m CW. The best DX was @WB6POT in CA and the furthest S2S was @KX0R on W0C/SR-052 at 7303km. I’m disappointed not to have got Brazil or West Coast S2S in the log but still a good afternoon.
Most of the QSOs were me calling for S2S. When I called CQ I didn’t get that many takers. Perhaps with so many activators out my single point summit wasn’t so attractive.
Equipment was 2 different home brew rigs with 3-5W. Antenna was a 10/12/15m GP - there is one radial for each band and the radiator has links selected for the band.
I was hoping for more, but I am still very happy. I made my first transatlantic S2S with W4GO in CW today. And I got a few more contacts with America on 10m CW where one station was from AZ and one contact with Brazil.
I really enjoyed 20m today. Insanely strong signals also from local stations. Exactly what the DARC radio weather forecast promised. One of the weakest signal rapports was 57 but I was absolutely satisfied to receive that from YB3RPS.
I faced rain for at least one hour in the beginning. Then it was dry but still cold. The summit was so far my most luxurious one with nearby parking, bench and table
Ten meters was amazing for another great S2S event. My 50W amp had a problem with only 16W or so output so I reverted to barefoot 10W KX2. And I stupidly left the summit at about 1440Z to try and get down into town for the W4V in-person meetup/workshop but I should I have known I’d be too late. Nonetheless I wound up with 10 or so S2S trans-Atlantic (UK, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy) plus another two domestic S2S and several other contacts to base stations in EU/GB and US. Pretty good for about 1.5 hrs invested! I look forward to putting in a bigger effort next time. Thanks all for the QSOs and 73,
Thanks for the S2S, Christian!
I was working with the IC-705 with 10 W and a 10 m vertical matched with a “Fuchskreis”. Regarding takeoff DM/BM-133 is a good site: I was sitting on the lookout platform of the castle ruin.
I have logged 50 QSOs with a few DX, including S2S with @VA2EO and @W4GO.
I managed 32 contacts of which 11 were S2S;
VA2NM, SV2NCH/P, SP9BIJ/P, M1BUU/P, NM3A, MW0PJE/P, GW0MHF/P, VA2EO, N0QLR, AA6XA, MM0FMF/P.
Spent the whole time on 10m CW & SSB using a K2 at 10 watts with a quarter wave vertical, fed two meters off the ground.
Didn’t find the band as good as it has been, it was getting better to the USA as darkness fell but it was getting too cold to hang around.
Thanks for the contacts, it was good fun!
73
Roger MW0IDX
For me, it was a rather complicated day. The bad weather we are suffering in mainland Spain forced me to calculate a summit with a quick escape route in the event of storms or heavy rainfall. I chose “Oliva” EA4/TO-049 which was relatively close, and with the help of Alfonso EA4R I was able to find an access road that was in a passable state, difficult because it has rained a lot these days around here. I finally found the route to the summit and although quite late, I was able to make almost all the communications in 10m. I only went down to 40m to work on my old friends. In short, 10 s2s three with the United States, good conditions, some sota worked via “backscatter” when setting up the moxon 2 elements that I have been carrying lately. The West Coast of the USA was worked on, also a surprise with Argentina and Brazil as the most notable contacts. In the end the weather was placid and a very fun day. My working conditions: telescopic rod with radials at the beginning, and finally a moxon 2el + 20w of the Guohetec Q900. We listen to each other on the summits.
Got up not-quite-early-enough, but still early, to hit up W9/WI-037 for the second time this year to qualify it for my 10m Challenge participation (no propagation in summer doldrums my first visit). I opened the morning with @MW0PJE on 10m with set the stage for another 5 hours of operating! My additional Trans-Atlantic S2S QSOs were with: DC1GB, @DG4SFF, @M5RJC, @EA4IS, @HB9EAJ, @G5OLD, and @CT2HOV. Also got some domestic S2S with W0C, W2, W6, and W7A associations.
All told, the extra chasing and receiving S2S got me a few new badges:
Map including chasers from POTA and WWFF as well (big props to the capabilities of the Ham2K PoLo):
And on the operating report: conditions were pleasant starting with widespread frost for the drive to the trail parking lot. The hike in the old access road was much easier since the Ice Age Trail volunteers had a chance to clear the treefall from the summer storms that slowed my summer activation. Setup on the summit was a camp chair, my two fiberglass poles (after chasing end caps a few times on the trail), and a nice blanket to be the throne for the KX3. The end setup being 5W SSB into a pair of 1/4l 10m and 15m verticals with elevated radials (used on 10/12m and 15m respectively):
Since I only brought one decent length of coax with me, band switching was done by dropping the telescoping pole by one segment each and swapping the coax between each antenna. That and using the KX3 ATU to clean up the imperfect deployment and 12m operation. The light forestry of the summit provided ample tie-off points to keep all four radials above head height, though one fellow got distracted by a free end blowing in the breeze (quick and easy to tuck around the tree trunk as he moved on).
It was a beautiful day even if I ended up moderately underdressed for the consistent south wind blowing up the cliff face. Good views, opportunities for outreach, and some time for an eyeball QSO with an inactive ham hiking the park. Couldn’t really ask for anything different in this season to enable successful operating!
I initially planned to spend 4 hours on the summit of Cold Mtn W4C/CM-008 but a twist of the knee made my summit efforts much slower than I planned. Expecting a long slow walk down, I left the summit after 1 hour of operating.
Despite a good number of contacts (39), I only managed 5 S2S’s. Lots of QSB on 10m, but still managed to have an incredible time at this beautiful operating location.
I will send an op report. The notebook had problems. I will report tomorrow, I am reading the reflector on my cell phone.
2 hours operation. QRT raining
73 Carlos
PY2VM at PY2/SE-026
I was using a secondhand QCX with a quickly made (bodged) G4TGJ RX pre-amp. A handful of dB added on TX with a QRP Labs amps. (IRF510 not liking life up at 28MHz!).
and I found 10m to be in poorer shape to NA than the day before, with more QSB. I started at 1030 utc and the band was open to the East with strong sigs from VK9CV. A first spot brought 3 EU chasers from HA, YO and OH.
First S2S was SV2RVJ/P at 1113 with the band still not open to NA. Picked up some EU S2S and chasers on 20m and then went back to 10m where I got a nice chase from UB4RFT in Tatarstan, who was furthest East for the day. First NA chaser was N8XGS at 1204 and first NA S2S KD8EQA at 1218.
I pretty much stayed on 10 for the rest of the activation but it was slowwww going. I spent ages calling CQ with no replies, but I knew I was getting out as the NA chasers who did call were giving me good reports. I spent some time trying to get Carlos PY2VM, but was stymied the first time as a G-station started calling CQ on his freq. Got him a bit later though, so a S2S with him 2 days in a row, which was nice.
On CW I got S2S with VA2NM and W4GO. I could hear WA7JTM but the QSB and QRM were too much.
Getting 2 chases from Azores was nice - CU3HN and CU3HY, both 59 exchanges. Final S2S were with WN3F and KJ7OGF.
Re short skip, I worked Phil G4OBK, G5OLD/P Tim and Rick, M5RJC, with Phil easily the loudest.
One of the problems I sort-off confirmed was there were so many spots on SOTAwatch, your spot would scroll off the screen in no time at all and people no longer knew you were there. I respotted myself a few times after 15-20mins and the chasers came calling in. Pretty conclusive that there were too many spots / minute
Maybe an explanation, altho I did respot quite a lot as well. One thing I have noticed since the software update: I had the Sotawatch page link saved to my phone screen and it now only shows 10m spots; quite handy, but as far as I can see, there is no way to filter it like that from the main page - or am I missing something?
I may have accidentally contributed to the problem of scrolling spots. I haven’t got used to the new sotawatch layout yet and my phone was also losing 4G signal intermittently so I sometimes produced more than the one intended spot.
I managed 53 QSO’s in the 2 hours I was there, 1400 to 1600. Not a great tally for 2 hours, but there were so many spots being sent that you disappeared off the top 20 in a couple of minutes, so the contacts came in fits and starts.
After sitting on a cold limestone slab for 2 hours, with mist increasing, it was time to pack up. A pity because the bands were still wide open. Equipment: IC-705, 10W, 29-ft vertical on 10m Spiderbeam pole.
