I wonder if anyone was successful on HF today?
We had a day off, so drove over to Dalwhinnie and wandered up Càrn na Caim GM/CS-039 & A’Bhuidheanach Bheag, the other Munro in that area.
I wasn’t expecting my log to look like this:
The two 2m SSB stations weren’t Chasers. When it came to HF, I’d brought my 40/20/15/10 EFHW, so plumped for 15m and pressed the PTT hoping for the best…
73,
Fraser
I heard you faintly on 15m Fraser and John on ben Nevis but it was dire today for me getting into Scotland. Anyways I hope you enjoyed yourself. Is there a video coming please?
Best 73
I think 20m was better, at least during late morning today. I gave my new Super Antenna MP1 a trial from the Caravan Club site at Brecon today. Using CW I could clearly hear GM4YSS/P on Ben Nevis dealing with a big pile up. I waited for a gap but then switched to CS7AWB in central Portugal. We almost had a QSO and I heard him repeat my callsign but we didn’t complete I think. I’ll see if he logs it. Switching to 40m I did have a successful QSO with GM4ZAO/P on Allermuir Hill south of Edinburgh. This was at 12:34 UTC and by then 20m had faded a bit.
This was the RBN screenshot for 20m and 10W into the MP1.
This also probably explains why I struggled to contact Portugal. 
And the MP1 - which was impressive I think in a far from optimum location.
I was going to say 15m sounds like there was some Es about and the 20m reports tend to confirm it. You should have tried 10m Fraser, you might have worked a few around Europe.
Hi Fraser,
I was QRV when your 15m spot showed up, went to the frequency, heard nothing, waited and waited not hearing anything from you or your chasers and I finally left to chase some other activator.
However, I’d dare saying I’ve been successfull on HF today:
73,
Guru
No video today Allen. I was keeping it simple! Thanks for the report of my signal. Shame we didn’t have a QSO.
Cheers,
Fraser
Guru, You have been sucessful!! Well done. 
20m was dead and 40m was a mess when I was listening at 1000z.
Cheers,
Fraser
Yeah, i think you’re right there Andy.
I’d spent 50% of the planned one hour summit time on 2m SSB, beaming this way and that, so by the time I’d rerigged there wasn’t enough time to experiment. I’d only chucked the EFHW in as a backup, having convinced myself that 2m would do the job.
Yesterday around 1200utc I heard JW5MUA on 20m in the noise with 33.
My loyal chasers Jose, Ea7gv and Manuel, ea2dt have reached him, unfortunately I didn’t. But that was my first Japanese activator :-)).
At the weekend, Japanese stations on 17m were very loud.
73 Chris
Thanks for everyones views. Very interesting. I suspect maybe my northern position and early activation time meant that the lower bands were still closed or poor after the geomagnetic activity.
On a plus note, I Chased @GM3YTS Rob who was on Ben Lawers GM/CS-001 as we were walking, just using the handheld and whip on 2m. However no S2S, as we were well across to our second Munro by then.
Cheers,
Fraser
Not guilty your Honour. It wasn’t me - I was having a pleasant chat with John YSS on the Ben. 40m SSB was certainly working down in Middle England. The skip did lengthen later in the day.
Hi,
Yesterday September 8, a YB Station was heard by me with 559 on 17m band, nothing special? My antenna is only a 3m long whip, so there were or are conditions, SFI yesterday was at 101.
HI Chris
Check your prefix list - JW5MUA is not Japan but YL op Anna Solvieg who is a new ham operating SOTA from Svalbard (Ref. QRZ.COM). She was working the pile up well yesterday, sorry you didn’t make the S2S with JW/MS-063.
73 Phil
I was activating Allermuir Hill GM/SS-171 yesterday 08/09/2021 between 1200-1300’ish on CW. I had over 30 QSO’s and most on 40m, with the others on 30m and 20m. I tried 17m but it was dead. I don’t usually get many QSO’s on 40m due to poor conditions, so it was unusual in that sense.
73’s
David
G4ZAO
On the 8th I had a strange day. Working on Shining Tor G/SP-004 with Dave M0JKS, 2m was pretty predictable but not stunning. On 20m I seemed to be getting a high number of Austrian stations. Then out of the noise I got a Chinease station… I put it down to my Xiegu trying to communicate with home!
Thanks Phil for your clarification. My enthusiasm ran away with me. See you soon on some frequency, hopefully.
Chris
I’m excited to see what else the ionosphere has to offer. After all, we talked again after a long time, Guru.
Hi Chris, the best conditions between Europe and Japan are about 0700-0900 (±1) UTC, 16:00-18:00 JA-time
I was chased by many DLs during the fall and winter. The problem is that there are not many mountains to activate during the evening and then have to descend in the dark. I hope we can have a QSO.
73
Hello Takeo,
Thanks for your hint. Since my activations usually take place during this time, this is good news for me.
I hope to see you soon 2S2. That would definitely be a high point in my Sota enthusiasm.
73 Chris
