There’s no substitute for actually activating with these modes on a summit. Only then do you get to identify issues, diagnose problems etc. As I said on air this morning, I don’t think I’ve ever got any of FT8, PSK, SSTV or MS working properly until the 3rd or 4th activation attempt!
Certainly in one case this morning it was the presence of RF that was disruptive, which of course wasn’t an issue on the bench with a dummy load!
Nonetheless, it was very pleasing that five stations went out with the intentions of activating on SSTV this morning. That three got it working and the other two diagnosed their issues ready for another try in the coming days has to go down as a success I feel.
I was very pleased to make 4 QSOs on 2m SSTV. I am grateful to Ian @GW8OGI for his advice to use PKT mode selection on the 817 for data in FM mode (as opposed to DIG for data in SSB mode). Switching from DIG to PKT meant that one chaser could suddenly decode me having not been able to do so despite receiving a strong signal.
Two of the SSTV QSOs were S2S which was very satisfying. There was a lot more S2S action to be enjoyed as well. What with having a horizontal 2m beam in place for the VHF SSTV attempts, I hoped for a bit more activity on 2m SSB than my previous non-contest effort (zero).
It was a lovely morning, and I ended up staying two hours longer than planned, and well into the afternoon. The activation comprised 61 QSOs:
2m SSB: 11 QSOs
2m SSTV: 4 QSOs
20m SSB: 8 QSOs
20m CW: 4 QSOs
20m FT4: 4 QSOs
2m FM: 23 QSOs
2m FT8: 7 QSOs
SWL: 4 - G6WRW/P on G/CE-002 (2m SSTV), YO8SDF/P on YO/EC-584 (20m SSB), F4VPX/P on F/MC-183 (20m CW), OE6FEG/P on OE/ST-371 (20m CW).
S2S: 14
2m SSB
G6WRW/P on G/CE-002
G4YTD/P on G/LD-015
GW8OGI/P on GW/NW-051
2W0BTR/P on GW/MW-002
M7LCX/P on G/SP-009
2m SSTV
GW8OGI/P on GW/NW-051
MW0NLG on GW/NW-002
20m SSB
SV1RHJ/P on SV/AT-014
IV3NGF/P on I/FV-153
EA5INS/P on EA5/CS-044
MW0UCL/P on GW/SW-007
20m CW
HB9AFI/P on HB/VD-039
2m FM
2E0HQS/P on G/LD-004
MW0NLG on GW/NW-002
Here’s some photos of the hill’s residents, and on the next post I’ll show some screenshots of the SSTV QSOs (or attempts).