SOTA NEWS MAY 2016 - Part 2
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USA SOTA Tour by Luc ON7DQ
Dear SOTA friends,
I started a blog on my SOTA and other ham activities, and as an “excercise”, I did a write up on my USA SOTA tour of April last year.
Read all about it here :
ON7DQ (KF0CR) HAM Radio Blog: KF0CR SOTA Tour - April 2015
Enjoy!
73,
Luc ON7DQ/KF0CR
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SOTA ON TOP BAND - Mark G0VOF
Hello everyone & welcome to this month’s edition of SOTA on Top Band.
April was a quiet month for Top Band SOTA with no activations to report. However one highlight for me was finally meeting up with the worlds leading Top Band activator, John G4YSS at the NARSA rally in Blackpool. After reporting on his many activations over the years, it was a real pleasure to meet him in person.
The rally itself was very enjoyable & there were more SOTA people in attendance than I have seen before. I will certainly be attending the rally next year!
Various photos & reports from the rally can be found on the SOTA reflector & are worth a look if only to put faces to callsigns, but be warned, I am not photogenic!
G4YSS: G/NP-004 & Blackpool Rally, on 10th April 2016
Norbreck rally (Blackpool) 10th April
It was a shock to receive a message from John G4YSS a few days after the rally telling me that Roy G4SSH had been taken into hospital. Thankfully as you will have read, Roy is now back home & well on the road to recovery 
As always, If you do have any suggestions on things that you think should be included, or if you wish to contribute tips, ideas or anything else that you think may help others on the band please email them to me at mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk
Until next month,
Best 73,
Mark G0VOF
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CW REPORT FOR APRIL 2016 - by Roy G4SSH
(Apologies for a much shortened report this month for reasons reported elsewhere)
CT activators did a magnificent job celebrating Portuguese SOTA National Day on the 2ndApril. 21 SOTA summits were activated and more than 520 QSOs were established on QRG’s between 7 MHz and 1.3 GHz, using a variety of modes.
Jürg HB9BIN, was busy activating summits in the F/JU and F/VL regions along with his wife during the first week of the month. Carlos EA8AA was active from the Canary Islands, Joao CU3AA from the Azores, Alphonse EA6/DD5LT from the Balearic Islands and Dave CT7/G4AZO was active from the Algarve region of Portugal.
The last week of April was enhanced by the “Poland and Slovakia tour” by Nick G4OOE, Dave G3TQQ, Pete M0HQO and Victor GI4ONL, and although signals were weak at my QTH, in poor HF conditions, I at least managed to contact Phil, Nick and Victor on their last day, on HF CW.
The last few days saw an increase in the generally low volume of EU CW activations during the month, with cross border expeditions observed from Mirko 9A/S52CU, Catalin YO/F4HOD, Geert DL/PA7ZEE, Kurt F/HB9AFI, Tom OE/HB9DPR, Bob DL/F5HTR, Jürg DL/HB9BIN and Markus DL/HB9BRJ.
A team of HA stations Feri YO/HA8LLH, Nagy YO/HA8QW and Miklos YO/HA8WX were activating summits in Romania.
HB9BCB was spotted calling CQ SOTA on 3.525 MHz (a much under-used band) on the 30th. Heinz says “I have had fun with my newly built 80-10m EFHW (42.5m) with coupler on 3 activations in April (total of 36 QSO on 3.5 MHz). The special fun was that each time I could also work at least one VK (home or s2s) on 14 MHz using this giant wire, hi. Besides many other nice QSO’s, of course.”
73
Roy G4SSH
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SOTA ACTIVITY REPORT FOR APRIL 2016 by Kevin G0NUP
SOTA activators submitting entries to the database for 10m, 6m and 1240 MHz during April 2016. These files produced on 30th April - by Kevin G0NUP.
Mode: CW on 28MHz: activity for April
DL/HB9FVF/P, HB9BQU/P, HB9DQM/P, HB9FVF/P, HB9IIO/P, JF1NDT/1, JP1QEC/1,
JS1UEH/1, OK1MLP/P, VK2IO/P
Mode: CW on 50MHz: activity for April
JM3HRC/3, JS1UEH/1
Mode: CW on 1240MHz: activity for April
Mode: FM on 28MHz: activity for April
Mode: FM on 50MHz: activity for April
JN3PDE/3, JN3PDF/3
Mode: FM on 1240MHz: activity for April
CT2GQI/P, G7HEM/P, GW7HEM/P, JP1QEC/1, JS1GRO/6, K7ATN, M0HCU/P,
N7LKL, NS0TA, SQ9KCP/P, WW7D
Mode: SSB on 28MHz: activity for April
CR7AKX/P, CS7AGH/P, CT1DYH/P, CT5JLD/P, DL/HB9FVF/P, HB9DQM/P, KD4FTN,
KD5ZZK, KI4SVM, KZ5WTF, N6MKW, OE5EEP/P, SV2CNE/P, SV2HSY/P,
SV2OXS/P, VK1AD/P, VK3ARR, WC5WM
Mode: SSB on 50MHz: activity for April
7K1BAE, 9A/S57MS/P, JF1NDT/1, JH1EWV/1, JI1IKC/1, JK1NRL/1, JL1BWG/1,
JM3GVH/3, JM3HRC/3, JM3URG/3, JR1NNL/1, JS1UEH/1, KD5ZZK, S56LXN/P,
SV2HJW/P, SV2OXS/P, VK1AD/P, VK1DA, VK3MCD/P
Mode: SSB on 1240MHz: activity for April
AC7T, WW7D
Regards
Kevin J Prince G0NUP
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SOTA News is normally published on the last day of each month, but there will be occasions when the Editor is not available at this time, in which case it will be published as soon as possible afterwards. It can only be as interesting as the items submitted, so if you think your particular field of interest is not being covered then please submit an article by the 25th of the month. Have you a favourite SOTA? favourite mode? favourite rig, antenna, or favourite band? How did you find your first day / month / year as an activator or chaser? Your comments and experiences will be read by enthusiasts all across Europe, the USA, Australia and beyond, in a total of 114 different SOTA associations worldwide. Your input will be most welcome.
I receive many e-mails during the month containing details of activations, milestones reached and general SOTA news. Unless advised otherwise I will use this information in the next edition of SOTA News. It is important therefore that you advise me if any information is not intended for publication.
For ease of processing, please submit your input by e-mail direct to the addresses below and not via the Reflector. Items sent to Roy G4SSH should also be sent to Mark G0VOF.
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Roy G4SSH
SOTA News Editor
g4ssh@tiscali.co.uk
Mark G0VOF
Assistant SOTA News Editor
mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk
U.S. and Canadian reports to:-
Fred K6DGW/7 [aka “Skip” on the radio]
Canada/US SOTA Reporter Dude
Sparks NV
k6dgw@foothill.net
Australian input to:-
Allen VK3ARH
VK Reporter
VK3ARH@wia.org.au (note the recent change)
New Zealand input to:-
Warren ZL2AJ
warren@zl2aj.com
Japanese reports to
Toru JH0CJH
jh0cjh@jarl.com
South African input to:-
Dennis ZS4BS
zs4bs@netactive.co.za