The 1 Kilo HF challenge. A multiband activation pack below 1 kilogram

Hi all,
I agree with the idea of an event. I don’t think it’s worth for a challenge because not all activators meet the required minimalist setup though.

Definitely many of us are interested on having a special Worldwide HF QRP 1 kilo weekend (or day).
So we need to agree on date (May / June?). We should check not to mix with any relevant CW contest that date…
Then we could start planing the participants and encouraging others by offering ideas to prepare a setup to meet the weight target. Or we could create two categories for the event and add it to the exchange:

  • A) 1 kilo max
  • B) 3 kilo max (or something we agree that makes sense… this option for the FT817 or similar ops…)

We can keep ideas in this thread and once we have it more “baked” we launch a new thread to track participants and suggest some schedule to meet S2S.

I keep my ears open. Nice to find enthusiastic mates with this idea! 73 de Ignacio

I’m changing my suggestion on your suggestion of World QRP day, Dave - very relevant (more so than the ITU day) - Perhaps 17th. (Friday) and 18th (Saturday) June ?? Then we hit the actual day, but those who are working can still take part on the Saturday?

Ed.

Why would you make the day a Friday? Most hams will be at work that day.

Barry N1EU

And you just missed this!

Because Friday is the date for the World QRP day - why they chose Friday, beats me!

Over here, we actually have a lot of activators that can get out on a weekday - retired, unemployed, shift workers etc.

Ed.

Hello,
In the past many of us showed in this thread an interest on the minimalist HF gear subject. Therefore I would like to open soon a public announcement of a special event called: “Worldwide HF Minimalist Event”. MT is aware of that.

It will soon be June, a good time to run this event, and I just want to share here a draft text for the announcement so that you can reply and contribute with your ideas to make it better.

After your comments I will release the agreed version of the text on a new thread with the invitation to the whole Sota community.
Here is the draft version of the announcement. Do you want to suggest anything?

DRAFT VERSION OF THE EVENT: ----------------------------------------

Worldwide HF MINIMALIST / QRP SOTA event

Many of the HF activators in SOTA use minimalist equipment (reduced weight and few accessories) during their mountain expeditions.
We propose a special event to encourage and test the use of a reduced and simple gear to activate a SOTA summit.

Target
A) for Activators: to use a minimalist HF setup from a SOTA summit. All the radio equipment used in the activation including battery, transceiver, paddles, coaxial, tuner, antenna and support pole should not exceed the maximum weight of the following acceptance criteria:

CW only: maximum weight = 1 kilo (1 kilo = 2,2 pounds = 35,3 ounces)
SSB only: maximum weight = 2 kilo (2 kilo = 4,4 pounds = 70,6 ounces)
Mixed CW & SSB: maximum weight = 2 kilo

*Extra weight is allowed for other purposes, like water & food, orientation, extra cloths, etc.

B) for Chasers; to try using QRP levels to chase the minimalist activators.

Dates
Friday 17 june is the QRP worlwide day. We propose this date and the closest weekend, therefore 17, 18 and 19th of June as for the Minimalist event.

Identification of participants
Although the event will run according to the standard SOTA rules, the additional word “MINI” will be added during the CQ call and on the exchange as follows:

  • Activators to use the suggested CQ call in this example:
    CQ SOTA DE EA2BD/P SOTA MINI (the Word MINI stands for minimalist)

  • Chasers to use the suggested exchange in this example:
    CQ SOTA DE EA2BD/P SOTA MINI
    F1XX
    F1XX GA UR RST 599 MINI BK
    BK TU UR 599 MINI 73 _(MINI stands for a fixed station running QRP to chase the minimalist activator **)
    BK 73 TU.

** If the chaser doesn’t run QRP power level please don’t add MINI in your exchange.

Please help the Activators to work other S2S, as many minimalist activators and as many QRP chasers as possible.
Activators should annotate in their logs the word MINI to identify who were running QRP levels when chasing.
The Summit reference to be provided as a normal activation, not necessarily on every single QSO but regularly.

Schedule
It is recommended for participants to add in their alerts the word “MINI event” on the comment text and, if possible, to post here in this thread below their scheduled summit in advance.

After the event
The experience and results of the activators can be shared in this thread of the SOTA Reflector to provide information of the station setup and results obtained (number of QSO, number of S2S achieved, number of QRP chasers in the log, longest distance, etc).
Interchange of photos are welcome in the thread.

Suggested setup
There are a lot of options. Just check available models. Some example of suitable rigs for this purpose for activators:
CW: Pixie, Rockmite, MTR, HB-1, KX1, K1, PFR-3, ….
SSB: KX3, FT817, LNR LD-5, X1M, …
A resonant antenna will help reducing the weight as they make the use of tuners redundant.

Remember
Please be considered; this is not a contest but a nice chance to run low power on a tiny setup and have a lot of fun!
Before activating it is advised to check for any contest in progress going on on your activation date and look for cleaner bands & calling frequencies.

Good luck and 73 MINI!

END OF DRAFT ---------------------------------------------------------------------

That’s it! Do you want to suggest any improvement?

73 de Ignacio

3 Likes

Sounds good Ignacio I would be up for giving this a go.

73
Graeme

Hi Ignacio,
The suggested exchange you give is for CW, perhaps you could add one for phone modes (SSB/FM) or say no special exchange is needed on Phone as long as the fact that the operator is operating a minimalist station and this is acknowledged by the chaser.

Perhaps 2.5 kilo limit for a Phone & CW station rather than just 2 kilo, so that a lightweight key can be addded to the SSB configuration?

It’s going to be difficult for phone or phone/cw operators using an FT817 as the rig iself is already 1.2 kilos!
Something like the Chinese KNQ7A single band (40m or 20m) SSB transciever is a lot lighter though. There are plenty of small lightweight HTs for those who activate on 2m/70cm phone, so that should not be an issue, the weight of antenna and mast may be more of a challenge for VHF activators.

Perhaps those activators taking part should be asked to post a breif text in the activations section of this reflector to explain the equipment being used?

Can an activator have two (weighed seprately) stations - one for HF and one for VHF?

Ed.

Hello all,
Count on me for chasing as a MINI that weekend.
For activating, I’ll stick to my current 6.7 Kilos rucksuck with the SOTA kit inside, so no MINI for me when activating.
Best 73 de Guru

Hello,
Thanks Graeme and Guru for your interest to participate!.

Thanks Ed for your interesting ideas. Some answers here:

All right, I will add a comment for Phone. In principle it should work the same. The activator will add the word MINI in the CQ and in the exchange.
If the chaser is also running low power I think it is easier to follow the same structure and answer 59 MINI as well, so that the activator understands that this is a QRP chaser participating and can add a remark in his log.

Ok, I will do so, and increase to 2,5 kg for both for SSB and SSB+CW to allow some more gear, Probably not all people have light batteries or poles at hand…

Well, the original idea was to run only HF in this event.
It is so easy to run a HT for VHF than I don’t find a real challenge on the band. Almost every VHF only activation is minimalist if you just run HT and a telescopic vertical, for example. A yagi is another issue but I think this event is more appropriate for HF where wider coverage and participation could be achieved…

Yes, that is what I propose by adding the “after the event” section, it would be interesting to describe their setup, gear, weight achieved and pictures. Maybe I will clear the point a bit more.

Thanks a lot for your support!

Any other thoughts?
73 de Ignacio

500g seems quite a generous allowance for a key. If I took no key but used the up/down microphone keys on my FT817 to make just one CW QSO I would have won myself an extra 500-g allowance for nothing! :smile:

Is the weight of bags, protective padding, &c, excluded from the allowance?

Simon - anticipating CW-only with MTR

Good question Simon - I would have expected yes. To extend on this, is the weight of any food and water and hiking sticks taken included in the target weight??

Ed.

Welcome in Simon, good to count on you.

Dependig on the rig, 2 klio for SSB is a bit difficult to achieve. 2,5 I find is tight enough.

The bag, padding, food, newspaper, chair, dog, diving goggles or air conditioning machine are for free!!

Should I add them there? :smile:

Any other thoughts?
73 de Ignacio

Ok, so if I am really close on the 2 kilo limit, If I were using the FT817 I could take it out of its leather case to save a few grams then.

You’re title says multiband, that would rule out me using my, self built, lightweight KNQ7A then as it is only a single band (20m) rig.

Ed.

I LOVE this idea but I strongly object to doing it on a Friday. Who cares what the QRP worldwide day is? Let’s do the SOTA minimalist event on a Saturday or Sunday!!!

73, Barry N1EU

Hi Ed, yes, you are right but the confusion is caused by the title of this thread.
In the special event “Worldwide HF MINIMALIST / QRP SOTA event” it is not mandatory to have a multiband rig. A single band is allowed!

Hi Barry and welcome onboard!
Thanks for your opinion, I know this point is difficult. The event is supposed to be held on 17th, 18th and 19th so that depending on the personal duties of the participants, anyone can go out and activate one of these three days.

  • I thought it would be a bad choice a single day for the event.
  • Weekend is good but there are activators that only go out during the weekdays…
    Mmmm, difficult to find the right option, and that’s why I opted to make it 3 days long.

I believe most participants will choose the weekend anyway, so feel free to activate there. What do you think?

73 de Ignacio

Count with me - Ignacio. Great idea.

Saludos
Angel

The dates are now in my diary - World QRP Day always is in my brain anyway… I’ll try to activate a summit during that time. I’ll also be listening. Hope to have an MTR-5B by then😊.

Les g0nmd

[quote=“EA2BD, post:57, topic:10979”]What do you think?[/quote]Make it over five days (two either side of WQRPD) or even a whole week?

Please clarify, are these now the weight limitations?

CW only: maximum weight = 1kg
SSB only: maximum weight = 2.5kg
Mixed CW & SSB: maximum weight = 2.5kg