Sunset and DX in the Lake District, does it get any better than this?

Activation Reports
1

I took a trip to Gummer’s How G/LD-050 yesterday evening as the WX forecast for the weekend isn’t great. Typically I looked at the camera as I left ‘won’t need that as the light is really flat’ and of course that is a guarantee of an amazing sunset.

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I had taken the FT-857, High Power Linked Dipole and 4 x 4.2AH LifePo4s in the hope that the WX would stay nice and I’d be able to take advantage when the 20m band opened. I also had a Slim-J for 2m.

After initial setup I had a couple of 20m QSOs. I had missed the FARS 2m NET but did catch Nigel M5TUE operating portable near Haverigg Beach and Nick @G0HIK at his home QTH, both 59 with me.

I was following Knut LA9DSA/P on SOTA Spotter activating LA/HM-024 for the first time but couldn’t hear him on 20m, so jumped at the chance of a S2S when he spotted for 40m.

What followed afterwards was the slow opening of the 20m band to the West. Initial H&P brought 8 stations in the log including K2J one of the Special Event stations in the USA operating during the 4th July celebration weekend. Hearing operators consistently say God Bless America was quite interesting!

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ MODE RSR RST SOTA-RX OPERATOR QTH
19:45 EA3KE 14.278 SSB 59 59 Tony Barcelona
20:05 9A/G0JDK 14.320 SSB 59 59 Alan Croatia
20:08 M5TUE/P 145.525 FM 59 59
20:24 G0HIK 145.525 FM 58 59
20:31 9A5THR 14.290 SSB 59 59 Tomy
20:39 LA9DSA/P 7.187 SSB 59 59 LA/HM-024 Knut
20:46 YU1XA 14.270 SSB 59 59
20:51 EA4HKV 14.297 SSB 56 59 Jorge Madrid
20:59 DG9FBH 14.297 SSB 59 59 Lota Nr Frankfurt
21:08 LZ950TM 14.299 SSB 59 59
21:10 IT9GSZ 14.272 SSB 59 59
21:22 PZ2YT 14.264 SSB 56 59
21:29 CX4RT 14.257 SSB 57 59 Juan
21:50 K2J 14.309 SSB 59 59 N. Carolina

After the initial run I found a frequency and called CQ, spotting myself on SOTAWatch. What followed was a first for me, an amazing pile-up of DX - my 100 watts and a wire being heard across North and South America, as well as a splattering of contacts from Europe.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ MODE RSR RST SOTA-RX OPERATOR QTH
21:56 W3ZW 14.270 SSB 55 53 Wilf
21:58 YT2MDM 14.270 SSB 59 59 Vlad
22:01 DJ5AV 14.270 SSB 57 59
22:02 KA3YIA 14.270 SSB 53 57 NJ
22:04 S57ILF 14.270 SSB 55 59
22:04 SV2JAO 14.270 SSB 59 59
22:07 KC1GTK 14.270 SSB 59 59 Paul New Hampshire
22:09 K5UA 14.270 SSB 57 57 Charles Louisianna
22:10 OK9MAT 14.270 SSB 57 57
22:12 K0DV 14.270 SSB 56 59 Doug Iowa
22:14 9A7KJI 14.270 SSB 59 59
22:14 PY2ZZ 14.270 SSB 59 59
22:15 W4LDS 14.270 SSB 59 59 West Palm Beach
22:16 SP9AMH 14.270 SSB 57 51
22:17 LU9OZX 14.270 SSB 59 59 Frank
22:18 PT9ZE 14.270 SSB 59 59 Joe
22:19 WA1AYY 14.270 SSB 58 59 Dom Boston
22:22 W8JES 14.270 SSB 55 57 John
22:26 KG5HTH 14.270 SSB 52 58 Texas
22:28 OE6END 14.270 SSB 53 59 Andy Graz
22:29 KO1Z 14.270 SSB 55 59 Robert Minnesota
22:35 6Y5HM 14.270 SSB 59 59 Hugh Montego Bay
22:37 VE3NEP 14.270 SSB 57 57 Frank Toronto
22:41 VE3CNF 14.270 SSB 45 59 Fred
22:42 VE3OWV 14.270 SSB 57 59 Nick 30m W Ottowa
22:49 W3EMD 14.270 SSB 58 59 Buzz 16km N of NY City Hudson River
22:52 K1CAL 14.270 SSB 59 59 Cal Georgia
22:54 YV5HNJ 14.270 SSB 57 57 Ramon
22:55 K2BQ 14.270 SSB 59 59 Paul Nr. Fort Myers
22:59 VA3EMF 14.270 SSB 55 55 Peter

I don’t know whether it was due to the propagation moving the open path to the North, or a DX cluster effect, but I ended this run mostly with chasers from Canada. It was great to work deep into North America with contacts onto the West Coast. When the run dried up I went searching again to bag a few more stations.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ MODE RSR RST SOTA-RX OPERATOR QTH
23:01 UT1AN 14.267 SSB 59 59
23:05 KU4SD 14.188 SSB 59 59 Garrett Athens GA
23:06 K2L 14.319 SSB 59 59 S. Carolina

Give that we had now hit midnight local, and I had one battery left, I thought I would try and work a frequency one last time, and amazingly I attracted another batch of mostly North American contacts, the exception being Rami 4X6HU near Tel Aviv, from whom I have had a surprising number of contacts recently. Emil LU3MCJ would prove to be my longest DX of the evening at 11841 km.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ MODE RSR RST SOTA-RX OPERATOR QTH
23:08 NW7E 14.188 SSB 54 57 Oregon
23:10 N1FSX 14.188 SSB 42 57 Chris 100m SE Denver CO
23:30 4X6HU 14.164 SSB 57 58 Rami Nr Tel Aviv
23:34 VO1CH 14.181 SSB 59 59
23:41 LU3MCJ 14.188 SSB 57 59 Emil
23:43 VA3QAK/P 14.188 SSB 59 59 Adrian Ontario
23:45 WB3DSB 14.188 SSB 58 59 Terry
23:47 KA1KA 14.188 SSB 58 59 Adam Boston
23:49 KC1OSX 14.188 SSB 59 59 Steve
23:51 KQ4TL 14.188 SSB 56 59 Ted Ohio
23:51 NW7E 14.188 SSB 53 56 Mike Oregan
23:53 KI5KEE 14.188 SSB 58 59 John Paris TX
23:54 W5ZZ 14.188 SSB 59 59 Werg Alexandria
23:57 W6FDR 14.188 SSB 55 59 Mel S. California
23:57 WX8G 14.188 SSB 59 59 Gary S. Ohio
23:59 K2BQ 14.188 SSB 59 59 Paul Florida
00:13 VE9RK 14.188 SSB 59 59

I’m sure the number of contacts was helped by being the 4th July weekend, but it was great to be able to work so many stations, and many with a quick chat. The weather was still fairly warm as I left the summit at about 1:15am, there was no wind, you can probably count on two hands the number of evenings you’ll get like that in the Lake District!

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Contact with Emil LU3MCJ

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West Coast Contacts

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Westerly DX

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Easterly Contacts

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Rami 4X6HU near Tel Aviv

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Knut LA9DSA/P activating LA/HM-024

If anyone would like to play with the Google Earth KML file that I generated from this activity, it is available here. If you click the link this will download the KML file, you then need to open a tab for Google Earth, click on the Marker Icon (labelled Projects) and import the KML file from computer.

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Regards, Mark. M0NOM

13 Likes
2

Fantastic log Mark! And all the 20m contacts ssb! Amazing!

73 Mike

3

Mark I can see the DX kept you up way past midnight. I guess that was a bit addictive :+1:

Nice report and inspiring to change the habits and go for a summer evening+night activation soon.

73 Joe

3 Likes
4

Very impressive Mark.

5

Congrats, Mark, for this great result.
Thanks for the report and the beautiful pictures, particularly the 2nd one.
73,

Guru

6

It would be lovely to spend the evening on a higher summit, with more modest equipment too. It was great to get a S2S with Norway, still get a real buzz from DX S2S.

One of the US contacts last night was running 6w, so QRP was making it across the pond.

Cheers Mark

7

Hi Mark,

Mike 2E0YYY told me what you were working so I listened for a while on the Hack Green SDR. I couldn’t hear you but I could hear the American chasers working you. I must say the chasers sounded rather enthusiastic!

I enjoyed my evening activation a couple of weeks ago and I’m hoping to do another one soon. I have some more radio gear in the works at the moment.

Great report and pictures!

73, Colin

2 Likes
8

Very cool! What a fun outing and beautiful sunset. I had a contact last week from Ohio to Slovenia (S5IDX) with my FT818 at 6w using an Endfedz 20m antenna SSB. This was my first contact outside N America ever on the HF bands. Was also easily making contacts into N Ireland.

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Erik
KE8OKM

3 Likes