Stateside Chasers

Old Reflector
1

It never ceases to amaze me, just how many American Chasers now chase Europe despite the big time difference. Three years ago, when I first got involved with SOTA, to work a Stateside Chaser, was worthy of a posting on the Reflector. Nowadays working 20m or above and not working a Stateside Chaser is worthy of a posting!

Oddly enough, my first ever SOTA contact was W4REG from G/SP-015 The Cloud, almost three years to the day and I’ve been hooked on working Stateside ever since.

A look at Steve G1INKs SOTA log of 12m Stateside contacts for Saturday 5th October is quite astonishing.

Thanks for all the contacts guys and keep the Stateside calls coming…

73 Mike
2E0YYY

2

In reply to 2E0YYY:
I have a lot of EU clients, so I SOMETIMES keep the same morning schedule. Unfortunately, I also keep a US night schedule. Makes for little sleep. Looking forward to getting more of you guys here. I need to go from a vertical to a beam. Beam is just on the ground waiting for the tower to go up… in my free time… heh

Kent K9EZ

3

In reply to 2E0YYY:

It never ceases to amaze me, just how many American Chasers now chase
Europe despite the big time difference.

On the flip side, I’m genuinely surprised at how few European Chasers chase USA on cw. There are a few EU regulars that often chase me. When I hear them at s7 to s9 (i.e., louder than western USA), I think I’ll get a slew of calls from Europe but it just doesn’t usually happen. I always get a few calls from EU, but it’s rare that I get more.

73, Barry N1EU

4

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Are European chasers similarly represented in North American activators’ logs?

Edit: Apparently not… In which case, I wonder why? Time differences are probably more favourable for EU chasers of NA summits than for NA chasers of EU summits. However, I know my home antennas mostly aren’t up to the job of chasing North American summits, as I’ve listened for quite a few activators, but hardly ever heard anything other than other chasers working them, and not yet heard any clearly enough to work.

73, Rick M0LEP (who has chased Europe from south of the Equator…)

5

In reply to M0LEP:

Your comment about your antennas might ring true for many EU stations. Many of us live on tiny crowded estates in comparison to a lot of suburban America and so our antennas are more likely to be compromised in comparison.

Andy
MM0FMF

6

In reply to M0LEP:

I agree with Rick. The average chaser in the UK with a multiband vertical or G5RV antenna will only occasionally be able to read signals from QRP activators in the USA

I have a multiband vertical and manage to work approximately one U.S. SOTA station per month. I just cannot hear them under the background noise.

73
Roy G4SSH

7

In reply to N1EU:

Hi Barry…

Maybe the question we should be asking is, QRP CW or QRO SSB?

The success of any activation can only be judged by the SOTA log that is entered into the Database. Right now, there’s little doubting, Inky’s QRO FT-857, SSB and dipole seems to be having the best of it.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

8

Might there also be something in the parts of the bands available to different classes of licencees in the US? I know that I was trying to figure out where I could fix a sced with a friend who has a US Technician licence, and the HF allocation overlap was quite small…

73, Rick M0LEP

9

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Yes Mike, this is true from the EU Chasers perspective also.

More chasers should be nipping into the shack during our evening time to check their SOTAWatch screen or to listen to the usual QRGs. 14062 KHz± is the favourite for me. EU Chasers are now working far more USA/VE SOTAs than we were some years ago, almost every day it is possible. Two reasons - improving band conditions and USA/VE Sota Fever which is catching now, over the pond increasing the activity from the tops, some of which are extremely remote.

As to be expected CW is the key to the majority of QSOs but you seem to be working well to the other side of the pond on SSB, which is great!

In my opinion if you are keen on SOTA it really is worth spending 6 months learning to use CW to guarantee success, even if it is only for copying and transmitting a rubber stamp report to an activator on a hill once you are competent enough to know what is happening on the frequency and who is transmitting at any time.

M1EYP, MM0FMF being two prime examples of the art (there are other new learners and improvers to the art, even the occasional M3 and M6 which I hear in the small pile ups we experience). These operators competence is improving now in leaps and bounds. It is so much easier now to learn Morse Code with the free software to help and not just the old Datong practice unit which some of used in bygone days. You just have to keep banging your head against the CW walls encountered along the way, put the effort in, you eventually overcome and the vast majority will get there in time. I reckon you are looking at putting your microphone away and practicing receiving for 30 minutes a day, most days for as long as it takes, I reckon few would make it inside 3 months. It took me 5 months to reach a good accuracy at 12 WPM and pass the test we had in bygone days, but I was a younger man then. Not sure if age somes into learning the art or not…som eliken it to a language skill, and if you enjoy listening to music of any type, you eventually find the same enjoyment in listening to Morse Code if it is nicely sent.

So lets boast - since Saturday when I returned from a break in the Lake District with a few hours hanging about in the shack on two evenings doing other tasks and without trying I have logged:

5th KU6J W6/NS-306 1856z 17m CW
5th K7ATN W7W/LC-058 1951z 20m CW
5th K7RR W7W/NO-134 2107z 20m CW
5th W0CCA W7U/SJ-008 2214z 20m CW

6th KR7W W7W/PL-029 1918z 20m CW
6th W0CCA/1 W7U/SJ-019 1953z 20m CW

I failed miserably on SSB, rarely hearing any SOTA ops on that mode, however I did log Doug on SSB:

6th W1DMH W4C/CM-005 SSB 20m 2027z

If I’d sat there with the phones on and monitored more dilingently and had my eyes glued to the screen I’m sure several more USA/VE would have been worked.

With 200 watts the balance of power is in the hands of the EU chaser so if you can hear 'em you can always work 'em.

73 Phil G4OBK

Edit: Having read recent posts on this thread I have to agree it is not just about CW, a chaser having a quiet QTH (RF smog wise) is the next essential criteria and a beam antenna is the next. Power is not important so long as you can muster at least 50 watts of RF.

10

In reply to G4OBK:

it really is worth spending 6 months learning to use CW

Oh, it’s taken me a lot longer than that. I’m three years (or more) down the trail, and CW’s still something I stumble along with rather than use with any degree of fluency…

a chaser having a quiet QTH (RF smog wise) is the next essential criteria

I’d have to move house to get that, but there’s always the S2S challenge, and RF noise is sometimes quite a bit lower up on summits…

and a beam antenna is the next. Power is not important so long as you can muster at least 50 watts of RF.

Hmmm… Time to look harder at what I might do beam-wise, I guess.

73, Rick M0LEP

11

I agree that the average EU chaser antenna can probably explain much of what I’m seeing (or not seeing). I think EU could regularly chase NA on 20M with a dipole only if they have a very quiet location. Otherwise a 2-el yagi or better would be required.

With favorable propagation on 12M or 10M, a dipole would probably be quite adequate to chase across the pond.

73, Barry N1EU

12

In reply to N1EU:
I think you are bang on the money Barry with that comment regarding antenna’s. I know using a single element antenna which is non-resonant on 20m I can still copy the East USA/VE stations. I haven’t yet hit a purple pathc on 10m or 12m to USA but it should be easy to make QSOs as I’ve heard N4EX and others on 12m chasing lots of times recently off the back of my beam.

Back to Rick with improving the Morse, I think you need to apply yourself to learning it on a daily basis of at least 30 minutes to reach what was test speed in the old days. Once up to a usuable speed of around 10 wpm or so you then need to do a lot of listening rather than transmitting to learn procedure and increase speed. The RSGB Slow Morse Transmissions used to be useful. I was a sender of those in the the 1980s for a few years every Sunday night on 160m. It was a way of putting something back as I found them were useful when I was learning the code. I’m not sure if they still go out now. When you get better listen in to some of the contests, yes they send fast but its the same old thing CALL DE CALL 5NN 001 K Sso not much different to how some of us operate when on a summit, no name, no packdrill, and when you feel confident after hearing a specific station working and it goes quiet stick your callsign in and make a contact, even though you do not intend sending in a contest entry. Doing this over several hours for practice really improves your speed, send and receive.

I think some SOTA Chasers are using Morse Readers now - would anyone like to own up? I don’t have a problem with this and don’t mind working you when I am activating but these devices are only safe to use if you understand procedure and know who is transmitting when. You only learn that when it is busy by listening. A Morse reader cannot hope to cope with several stations transmitting in Morse at the same time.

73 Phil

13

In reply to G4OBK:

In reply to N1EU:
I think you are bang on the money Barry with that comment regarding
antenna’s. I know using a single element antenna which is non-resonant
on 20m I can still copy the East USA/VE stations. I haven’t yet hit a
purple pathc on 10m or 12m to USA but it should be easy to make QSOs
as I’ve heard N4EX and others on 12m chasing lots of times recently
off the back of my beam.

The 150 feet of wire I had dangling in the air from a kite was working really well on Gun yesterday Phil, until the wind dropped and it fell out of the sky :frowning:

On the plus side, at least I got it back this time :wink:

73 Mike
2E0YYY

14

In reply to G4OBK:

So lets boast - since Saturday when I returned from a break in the
Lake District with a few hours hanging about in the shack on two
evenings doing other tasks and without trying I have logged:

5th KU6J W6/NS-306 1856z 17m CW

Thanks for the call, Phil! Here is where I was:

Yesterday I was up on W6/NS-151 but forgot to do 17m. Too bad, it would have been nice to work an Englishman from English Mountain:

73,

Eric KU6J

===========================================
Free SOTA Spot Monitor Software + RBNGate FAQ:
http://www.ku6j.com

15

In reply to G4OBK:

Back to Rick with improving the Morse

There seem to be many different ideas about learning Morse, and quite a few of them are contradictory. About the only common theme is that it takes plenty of practice. I personally prefer SOTA activations for listening practice, as I can find them most days, and I’m at least vaguely interested in the who, what and where… :wink:

There are a few reliable GB2CW broadcasts, though not as many as the RSGB’s schedule page would imply. G3UKV’s dual-mode one on Thursday mornings has worked well for me. G0IBN’s Wednesday evening one is usually on the edge, propagation-wise, so I only occasionally hear it, and then often in the mud. However, being that way, it’s possibly good practice for poor conditions.

The noise floor here can be quite high, especially during daylight and TV-watching hours. I suspect there are still a few plasma TVs within a couple of hundred yards of my antennas. The cobweb I’ve got for 20-10 picks up less noise than the vertical for 160-20, but QRP stations in North America are still not usually audible, so I’d certainly stand a better chance of catching North American activators with something directional.

73, Rick M0LEP

16

In reply to M0LEP:

There seem to be many different ideas about learning Morse

You’re right. I once wrote something like “it’s easy to learn if you want it enough” and someone pointed out they wanted but were having problems. So I’ll change that rather crass statement to “if you want it enough it’s easy to motivate practicing”. Age may have something to do with it too. I was late 40s when I took learning seriously. I don’t how easy it is to learn if you are late 50s or late 60s.

I think the important thing is I don’t care if people think I’m an idiot and barely capable of a QSO. I don’t care making myself look stupid. I want the points, the chaser wants the points. They lower their standards to mine and we both get the points! Some people are so very easy to work and some are hard. I’m sure the easy ones just have slightly better weighting/spacing for people like me. That gives them the edge over others.

There are some people who I have difficulty with. They’re the machine gun senders. It’s so very easy to fail to adjust your sending speed to the caller. I’ve been concentrating hard on trying to match speed as there are always newcomers who should be encouraged. My keyer needs a battery so I’m using the inbuilt keyer and changing speed is a pain compared to twidling the knob on the keyer. So I just s p a c e o u t the words and letters. Still I get people who call at 35wpm+ when I call CQ at 18/19wpm. I don’t bother telling them to QRS anymore, if I can’t get their call after 3 attempts and they’re too stupid/arrogant to match my speed then I send 599 or such and don’t log them. Their loss not mine!

If you can do 8wpm you can activate a SOTA summit with CW. Start on a quiet band… not 40/20m! There will be some who ignore your speed and picking calls out is hard. But in general the chasers will do their best to help you work them. And after you have 4 QSOs, you have nothing to lose and they have everything to lose so they have to be good. The odds are stacked in your favour.

After a while it’s just sheer joy to hear the same calls and recognise the sending etc. Every single CW QSO gives me as much a buzz now as the 1st random one I had with OK1KT 4 years ago. Every single one. And the overwhelming majority of chasers really do listen and behave and act properly on air. They make SOTA fun for me.

Andy
MM0FMF

17

In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi Andy,

I agree with everything you have said, some good points. I remember my first 80m CW qso and let me tell you I was sweating and fretting… but on subject it’s as you say enjoy it at your own speed and don’t worry about the ones you don’t get, mistakes are part of life, you will always make a few, don’t worry too much about them,all part of the learning curve and in the end it’ll be old hat, oh! and lots of lovely weak signal 10 pointers too on CW =0)

All the best,
Steve MW0BBU.

18

In reply to MW0BBU:
Oops sorry mike… HiJack. =0(

Steve.

19

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Steve G1INKs SOTA log of 12m Stateside contacts for Saturday 5th October is quite astonishing.

Klaus DF2GN had quite an impressive run on 12 metres on DM/BW-042 (Rainen) today, too…

73, Rick M0LEP

20

In reply to M0LEP:

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Klaus DF2GN had quite an impressive run on DM/BW-042 (Rainen) today,
too…

The 10m band was in good shape yesterday, Rick. I gave up in the end and went back to 12m. Couldn’t get through the wall of Ukraine and Russian callers on 10m…

73 Mike
2E0YYY