In reply to M1EYP:
Do you have an 80m beam fixed to LA Tom?
…seriously, I’d like to try again but if is is the long skip now the sun is later, there’s not much to be done… other than move to Top Band 
73 Marc G0AZS
It is quite fascinating to observe how the propagation varies with the seasons. At Easter I was working scores of UK/EI and EU stations on 80m from GI, equally reliable right through the day. A few weeks later, I couldn’t get a thing on 80 after 9 o’clock in the morning. Now I am disciplined to be QRV nice and early, but as sunrise is getting later, it looks like it is too early!
40m remains a reliable source of SOTA contacts, but not for inter-G, apart from a couple of Cheshire stations (G3CWI and G3WKF) that often work me groundwave. I particularly enjoy my before-school/after-school 40m activations at this time of year, and seeing the effects of the skip change across sunrise/sunset, the RA, OK, OE, UR, SP etc making way for DL, F, HB9, ON, SM etc and vice versa.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Top Band might be a viable option if you knock up loading coils for the antenna, small toroids wouldn’t add much weight or windage. Not a trace of you here!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Tom, After our qso this morning on GB3MN i thought i would not make the qso ;-{
But like i said i would listen on S20, and at 6-17 utc, 7-17 bst. I heard your call just as i was about to put the radio away, So im glad to have made the qso again in the early hours of the morning. I hope our qso on GB3MN made sense of what i write and what i say, You have known me for years now and my sense of humour has been the same and will never change, all i can do is ask G4CPA about a comment i made a few years ago about a station operating on 145mhz, (sorry could’nt hear them), Any way at home breakfast on table cup of soup (Sorry tea) tonge in cheek) now for my morning sleep, Once again very happy to have been 2001st qso,
73
Steve m0sgb
Nice one Steve. Yes indeed, my plan was to operate on 80m CW and 80m SSB until 7.40am, and then to do some 2m/70cm FM, but that would have probably been too late for you. But absolutely nothing was happening on 80 after 7.15am, so I went over to 2m earlier than expected.
Nothing on 2m after you either. 2m was just as dead as 80m! Shame, I was rather hoping to work into LX, this being my 208th activation of The Cloud!
It seems my soup-notoriety spreads far and wide. Kjell LA1KHA presented me with a gift of a packet of Norwegian fish soup on Sunday!
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
<It is quite fascinating to observe how the propagation varies with the seasons.
Well Tom, not only with the seasons.
When I heared your first cq at 06:02, your report was 4 1 9, and I worried that we perhaps couldn’t make it. 5 min later you were 5 7/9 9. On SSB at 06:15 you were 57, which is outstanding on my mean s-meter.
Some frustrated ops from central Europe/Eastern Europe indicated that they could not hear you at all.
I am quite sure that condx will be different again tomorrow. This season is always good for surprises like today. Todays condx were NOT “normal”.
Regards
Mike
Hi Tom Nothing on ssb this morning but 477 on cw .I again spotted you on cluster.Atb Geoff.
Even colder this morning. Down to about 3 degrees I think. I was actually quite cold after an hour on the summit, maybe time for a pair of Thinsulate gloves and an extra fleece.
The ascent was pleasant in cloud free conditions, giving an excellent view of the stars. Orion, in particular, seemed to be looking down on me with great authority! The half-moon was very bright, illuminating the ascent and creating a razor-sharp shadow of myself on the ground. In fact it was only halfway up, when some light broken cloud passed in front of the moon, that I realised I had forgotten to put my headtorch on! It wasn’t a problem; I still had an LED pentorch in my pocket for logging, and the moonlight was sufficient for setting up.
My QRV time was 0548z today, one of my earliest ever, if not the earliest. Things started with a rapid run of three 3.557MHz CW QSOs with F6ENO, HB9DOT and LA5SAA. An attempt on my alerted QRG of 3.662MHz SSB and another on the self-spotted 3.609MHz SSB came to nought, so I returned to CW to work DJ5AV.
Conditions were definitely different to yesterday, with the G stations coming in as dawn broke. Roy G4SSH was a marginal contact for me, but Reg G3WPF was strong - presumably groundwave though. And that was it. No response to more attempts on SSB, and nothing doing on 2m or 70cm FM, on which I called at 0612z and 0642z.
So still very quiet on 80m at this time in the morning. I’m wondering whether to stick it out for the week, or go crawling back to 40 tomorrow.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
maybe time for a pair of Thinsulate gloves
My local ASDA has a combo package of a pair of Thinsulate gloves and a Thinsulate beanie hat for £5.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to M1EYP:
Still nothing heard down here Tom… Probably better next week after the clocks have gone back… Assuming you’re QRV at around 0700 UTC
73 Marc G0AZS
Good idea Marc. I think I’ll revert to 40 for the rest of this week, and then try again on 80 next Monday. Oops, no I won’t, half-term. Yet another week off already, it came up so quickly I almost forgot…
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom.
Things were marginal between us this morning. I had problems to tune my 2x16 m dipole with open feeder - and later I found out that last night’s storm had torn out one leg of my antenna. Maybe this was the reason why I could not hear you in SSB, although the qrg was clear. I have fixed the antenna now.
If you think 40 meter will give more contacts, go ahead and qsy. I will look for you anyway.
73
Mike
Tom,
we’ll listen out for you on 40 in the morning.
James G7MLO & Tom M3XFG
In reply to M1EYP:
nothing doing on 2m or 70cm FM, on which I called at 0612z and 0642z.
Hi Tom,
I have been out of it with work the last couple of days, but I have discovered an antenna problem which is why I have not been hearing you on 2m and why I heard nothing on 70cms this morning. Hopefully I can sort it tomorrow but no 2/70 until I do. Will look for you on 80m if you do it.
Steve
Oh dear. I thought that reverting to 40m would bring me more contacts. It brought me less. Just the one QSO with IK3GER. I even found a clear QRG on 40m SSB and self-spotted it, but nothing there, and even more surprisingly, not a sausage (except IK3GER) on 7.032MHz CW despite many calls.
Called on 145.500MHz FM and 433.500MHz FM. Nothing there either. Pretty cold - and lonely after 45 minutes with no-one talking to me, so I went to work via a sausage and bacon butty at Chell.
So, has my enthusiasm got the better of me? Is there any point getting up early and being on summit when it is too early for appropriate propagation? I think I might just go for a straightforward little 2m handheld activation tomorrow, with repeater mugging an option!
Time to get the gear in the house anyway, to ensure the two 7.2Ah and 4.2Ah SLABs and the 2.7Ah internal pack are charged up ahead of the CQWW SSB, within which I hope to be SOTAing on Sunday.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom.
What a desaster!!!
I was looking for any traffic with you, and since the IK3 and your own spot were the only “sign of life”, I suspected that things could be quite bad.
Better luck on your next try.
73
Mike
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom,
I am catching up slowly with this early morning activity. I did not hear anything this morning on 7098 or 7032 kHz. Yesterday I heard QSO between you and G4SSH on 3557 kHz. I do not know why I started to switch on my PC instead of replying directly to your CQ - probably was still too sleepy.
I did not find details on your rig and antenna from this thread. Would be interesting to know.
73, Jaakko OH7BF/F5VGL
Hi Jaakko,
FT-817 5w
2.7Ah internal pack or 4.2Ah SLAB or 7.2Ah SLAB
Mini Palm Paddle or Yaesu mike
Dipole inv V - 40m or 80m
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
I should be able to hear you on 2m again. I have just repaired a fault on the feeder to my collinear. I never liked N-types and today I reminded myself why, the antenna has an N-type plug as does the dual bander. Probably due to stretching of the cable in the wind the centre pin had pulled out so it was not making contact. First I knew was when the local 70cms repeater GB3CR was 5/7 rather than 5/9+++ signals on 2m were none existent. All working happily again now but still nothing on 2m and a pirate on 70cms. Ah! the joys of amateur radio.
Regards Steve GW7AAV
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom and everybody else.
Conditions on 40 are really strange at the time: While I was waiting for SOTA OE8SPK/8 (who never appeared) on 7.032 today, I heared at 1037 UTC a CQ from John, K1ESE in Maine and worked him with my 100 watts and dipole. He was peaking s9+ (QSB to s 4)and he gave me a “solid 579”. I have been licensed since 1962 and cannot remember that I ever worked into USA on 40 meters in the middle of the day (local time 1237) - exept with high power on long path to western USA.
By the way: The SOTA police was breaking in to tell me that I was on a SOTA qrg and had to qsy. How stupid can people get?
73
Mike