Sota - qso with the usa

Old Reflector
1

hi there,

on yesterday’s sota-activation (oe/oo-254 and oe/oo-258) i managed my first transatlantic qso! after working the usual bunch of european sota-chasers i had a quick look on 17m and 15m … and luckily found the bands “wide open”.

with my 10 watts and mp-1 vertical antenna i was not too optimistic that my signal would get through, but i tried and called K2VV on 17m → he gave me a 5/7 report. on 15m i worked N3KS and he gave me a “real” 5/9 report.

unfortunately at this time it was 3:30 (local time) and the sun was about to disappear behind the mountains … so i had to stop the activation and head back to the car.

a short report of my activation (and all previous ones) is on my website:

http://www.oe5reo.at

vy73 de martin, oe5reo

2

In reply to OE5REO:
Well done Martin. I was out yesterday testing the N2CX “halfer” end fed dipole I’m going to use for my next activation. I was hearing GM, EI,IZ and other european stations on 20m. They were really strong into the east coast. Hopefully the conditions will be as good when November 14th comes along !

73
K1YMI – GM1YMI

3

We will be going for a G to W1/W2/W6/VE2 S2S on the NA activity day, 14 November 2009. We will be on Boulsworth Hill G/SP-008 - Boulsworth Hill SP-008
…at 1500z, with the 817 and “Magic Moggy” antenna (20m ‘DX’ vertical with radials, by M0GIA), and monitoring both 14.060 CW and 14.285 SSB.

Yes, let’s hope for good conditions!

Tom M1EYP

4

In reply to M1EYP:
Hey Tom,
The W6 crew is looking forward to S2S. The 11 fathom band has been open briefly to EU around sunrise daily. We plan to run 0.135 horsepower to a 110 cubit longwire. Hopefully, that will be enough.
Stuart

5

In reply to KI6J:

Stuart

17m may well be a good band - but who knows what will happen on the day?

73

Richard
G3CWI

6

In reply to G3CWI:

Don’t discount 10MHz. I’ve worked a few W’s late morning on the band from the odd summit, though admittedly mainly East Coast stations.

Would it not be an idea to agree preferred frequencies for the higher bands?

73, Gerald G4OIG

7

In reply to KI6J:

In reply to M1EYP:
Hey Tom,
The W6 crew is looking forward to S2S. The 11 fathom band has been
open briefly to EU around sunrise daily. We plan to run 0.135
horsepower to a 110 cubit longwire. Hopefully, that will be enough.
Stuart

It warms my heart to know that sensible units of measurement are still in use somewhere, you can never keep up - I’ve just got used to barometric pressures in millibars and now its hPa!

I hope all goes well.

73

Brian G8ADD

8

In reply to G8ADD:

Brian it’s easy to convert milliBars into hectoPascals.

hPa = e ^ ( log( mb ) / log ( 2.71828 ) )

:slight_smile:

Andy
MM0FMF

9

Nice. Remind me of my dad’s favourite piano chord: A flat augmented major 7th with no root - or Ab+maj7(no root). Brian will appreciated that :wink:

Tom M1EYP

10

In reply to M1EYP:

I was hoping someone would get the joke. I do like Stuart’s choice of units though I think I’d swap cubits for poles or chains though. Of course this is what’s missing from metric measurements… the ability to be silly!

Andy
MM0FMF

11

In reply to MM0FMF:

hPa = e ^ ( ln( mb ) / ln ( 2.71828 ) ) shirley?

12

In reply to MM0FMF:

I think I’d swap cubits for poles or chains though.

Far too tidy! After all, one chain is a half-wave on the 7 Megacycles per second band.

73 de Les, G3VQO

13

In reply to DL4CW:

Both equations work, either using log10 (log) or loge (ln).

One formula is more pointless than the other!

Andy
MM0FMF

14

In reply to G3VQO:

After all, one chain is a half-wave on the 7 Megacycles
per second band.
Now that’s a brilliant insight, Les!
Slight aside…If I were to report my station power as 1hW how many of you daily metric users would get it?

15

In reply to KI6J:

At least users whose per head beer consumption a year is measured in multiples of 1hl should have no problem :slight_smile:

Edit: Bavaria 1.8 hl per head and year

16

In reply to DL4CW:

That’s boring then, because ln(e) = 1. Andy is using the identity log(base a) of b = log(base x)b / log(base x) a

So you could have:

hPa = e ^ (log(base pi)mb / log(base pi)2.71828)

Happy days.

Tom

17

In reply to M1EYP:

I hope this thread peters out before somebody moves to transfinite numbers!

My 'ed 'urts…

73

Brian G8ADD

18

In reply to G8ADD:

No Brian, units are fantastic fun. As an (old) astrophysicist I was taught that 1 kilometer per second is the same as 1 parsec per megayear. (Astronomers measure distances in parsecs - a parsec is about 3.26 light years.)

73
John GM8OTI

19

In reply to GM8OTI:

You should have added that a parsec is the distance at which a star has a parallax of one arc second from the baseline of the Earths mean orbit…now I wonder what frequency a wire that long would resonate at?

By the way, as my field was geology, to me 1 megayear = 1 MA (mega aeon)!

My 'ed STILL 'urts…it’s having to work!

73

Brian G8ADD

20

In reply to G8ADD:

That’s the 150 gigametre band Brian, if it’s a dipole, which is 2 millihertz. You’d have some problems with the feeder though …

73
John GM8OTI