Has there ever been talk about holding some kind of “event” that would encourage S2S contacts, especially trans-atlantic S2S? Perhaps this could be a 2-hour time period (1700-1900Z?) held in the summer when both europe and west coast USA were in daylight, with stations congregating in a designated segment of the 20M-15M cw/ssb bands so they could find each other.
Any thoughts? Seems like this could be fun.
73,
Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
Until last year, there was the NA SOTA day, in the fall. NASOTA yahoo people are in charge, if the event is still scheduled.
There are a couple SOTA intnl weekends, I don’t recall the dates.
In reply to VA2SG:
Those events are day long and essentially encourage chasers. I’m talking about a shorter duration activators event that intentionally encourages S2S, including trans-atlantic S2S.
If not its own event, perhaps it could take the form of a short duration rally within the context of the International and NA SOTA days.
In reply to N1EU:
Could be
In this case, we would simply check the greyline times and see what would be best.
In reply to N1EU:
Hi Barry,
I’ve worked plenty of North American chasers, however, North American S2S are as rare as rocking horse manure.
How about making it over a weekend for a couple of hours? Saturdays and Sundays are probably the best days for sheer number of activators
73 Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to N1EU:
Thank you for our QSO recently on 15m, it really made my day along with the QSO with Rich, N4EX. Your signal was FB.
I like your idea, I think it would be cool to try.
Weekends would be best I think like Mike 2E0YYY suggests. Would it be best to have separate timings for CW and SSB, that way everyone gets a fair chance for a QSO.
Should I start building a capable rig for 15m? 
(my FT817 is not good without a filter!)
73
Colin
M0CGH
In reply to M0CGH:
Should I start building a capable rig for 15m?
(my FT817 is not
good without a filter!)
The 15m band was rubbish on G/SP-013 Gun today, Colin.
To rub salt into the wound, I got totally drenched into the bargain 
73 Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to 2E0YYY:
I think it would be nice to s2s 2h on for NA s2s to EU OC AF SA AS 1h for cw then 1h for ssb.
Sorry i missed you Mike 2E0YYY today i might have got you on 2m fm as i am south england for one more day
Ricky
In reply to M0CGH:
my FT817 is not good without a filter…
Get a filter?
Works for me!
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
my FT817 is not good without a filter…
Get a filter?
Write me a cheque for £80 - £90 and I will!
73
Colin
In reply to 2E0YYY:
My VHF fanatic buddies have been busy sending messages about the great conditions on 6m and above, so I guess HF will have taken a bit of a beating! I guess conditions should be pretty good when the ionosphere starts to settle down again.
After the big radio blackouts in September conditions on 20m during the night time were fantastic. I worked a guy in Maine USA with 300mW to a portable vertical antenna mounted on a caravan!
73
Colin
M0CGH
In reply to M1EYP:
In reply to M0CGH:
my FT817 is not good without a filter…
Get a filter?
Works for me!
A mic works for me and it came with the rig
73
Mic 2E0YYY
In reply to M0CGH:
Write me a cheque for £80 - £90 and I will!
Colin,
Please let me know where I can get one for that (or perhaps the CW one costs less than the ssb one which looks like £130 + P&P).
73,
Rod
In reply to 2E0YYY:
A mic works for me and it came with the rig
73
Mic 2E0YYY
Yeah, I think my rig came with a mic too. What are you supposed to do with it?
73
Colin
Please let me know where I can get one for that (or perhaps the CW one
costs less than the ssb one which looks like £130 + P&P).73,
Rod
http://www.w4rt.com/FT-817-Accessories/filters.htm
About $130 shipped for CW one.
Yes, SSB filter costs more
73
Colin
M0CGH
In reply to M1EYP:
Best thing I ever did and the best money I ever spent was on a filter for the FT817… huge difference… worth every penny.
In reply to M0CGH:
Yeah, I think my rig came with a mic too. What are you supposed to do
with it?73
Colin
According to the handbook, with menu item 36 the up/down buttons act as a paddle.
73
Brian G8ADD
Just got back from W1/MB-009 and 15M worked like gang busters at 2000Z to EU, at least 2 S-units better than 20M per G4ELZ and DJ5AV’s signals.
Any way you cut it, it is tough to hear a 5W transatlantic ssb signal using the typical SOTA antenna to receive on (versus yagi at home). If condx were unusually good, maybe. But I’d still be game to try. CW would be MUCH easier and could really be an exciting event if we had 10+ stations on each side of the pond.
In reply to N1EU:
Hi Barry,
Yep, the cw operators will certainly have the edge on this challenge. Seems, I may have to drag the Antron-99 out of retirement. The thought of dragging it up G/SP-004 with 32Ah of SLABs is beginning to depress me already
73 Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to 2E0YYY:
the cw operators will certainly have the edge on this
Conservatively speaking the SNR improvement of CW over SSB is in the order of 15-17dB. So for an SSB station to get the same SNR of a CW station using an 817 as a TX they would need to run:
5W + 16dB = 5 x 39.8 = 199W
Now of course 5W SSB stations work surprisingly well on the HF bands but that shows the advantage CW has and hence its popularity.
So an SSB op needs a PA+batteries or 15-17db of antenna gain and that would mean say a 17 to 20 ele Yagi for 15m. Something which would be quite big and difficult to manage single handed 
Of course 10m may be open in which case trivial antennas and a few watts of SSB will do easily. I’ll rely on the key and my 300Hz filter rather than the ionosphere playing ball!
Andy
MM0FMF