The 10 m S2S EU <> VK challenge (Part 1)

@VK1AD my work plans have unfortunately changed tomorrow. However, I’m determined one way or another we will have another 20m or even a 10m S2S soon!

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No problem and thanks for trying and waiting so late @VK1AD. I believe we missed you by a matter of minutes. The final third of the mountain saw the weather turn horrible with snow; cold, wet, poor viz with very slippery treacherous snow, slowing us down. We had to stop to put layers on, including persuading the dog to get into the orange jump suit of shame !

I worked 14m, very busy at this time of day. Very kindly @VK1MA called in and thankfully I was able to pick his Aussie accent out in the pile up - so another VK long path in the bag !


@GW4BML with @GW5OLD in the background on a hastily slung 14m vertical on GW/NW-007

Thank you very much and hope that we can be more prompt next time. The clocks changing should help !

Full report to follow.

That’ll make it worse. . .:upside_down_face:

Now my head hurts, hoping I didn’t have another screw(up). Surely G gets an hour more in bed before sunrise and VK gets to go home an hour earlier at sunset ? Of course daylight hours march on to be earlier and earlier in the UK until silly o’clock, being a further latitude north.

Well I mean if you wanted to repeat todays antics on Sunday, you would have to get up an hour earlier.

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Saturday 6 April is the last full day of VK1 daylight savings where after our clocks go back one hour at 0200 local Sunday 7 April 2024.

On Sunday 7 April at 1600 local, UTC will be 0600.

VK1 Sunset will be at 1750 local or 0750 UTC. That means the 20m LP window will open at ~1630 local or 0630 UTC for ~90 minutes.

Daylight savings will recommence on Sunday 6 October 2024.

Andrew VK1AD

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Thanks Andrew for the clarification, a great help. PS hows the leg.

Geoff vk3sq

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I can hear all EU activators on 10m but you can’t hear me.

Pretty much the same for me. DG7AC was booming in for a while but no luck. Too much local noise at my summit, and what fool goes out on a contest weekend to work DX…? Me apparently…

10m to EU is a short window.

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Sunset at Mt Stromlo

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I saw your message Andrew,

but couldn’t hear you. I ran 100w into a moxon. Unfortunately there were a lot of very strong contest station here in Europe, which didn’t made it easier. Anyway it was fun to try and another time we will be successful :-). But it is good that you could hear me, I really started to doubt my setup… btw. your summit and the sunset is just stunning.

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This was fun (not). I had no idea that the CQWW ssb test is on this weekend until I switched on the rig and found 10 m full. Some free frequencies above 28.600, but the overall noise was pretty high. No chance of working the VK summit stations, as there was always some contest station calling on the same frequency.

s2s DK3RN/P DM/NW-204


My mast is the left one.

I can hear all EU activators on 10m but you can’t hear me.

Sorry, Andrew. And all others who called in vain. I don’t know if the overall contest noise is to blame or if this was a one-way path? I logged VK5PAS at 0657z s31/r53. He was the only VK signal I heard.
I then gave some points to the contesters and later heard VK1AD/p well on 14 MHz with the 10 m oblong antenna. After changing to the omnidirectional multiband vertical, a wide italian station sat 2 kHz besides Andrew. I once tried and called in S2S, but I wasn’t even sure my call was regognised as the italian buried the signal.

Saturday 6 April is the last full day of VK1 daylight savings

Give it a third try? I would be qrv from 0630.

DG7AC was booming in for a while but no luck. Too much local noise at my summit, and what fool goes out on a contest weekend to work DX…?

At what time?
No major contest next Saturday. Hw? :wink:

Ahoi
Pom

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No S2S stations heard here again, just the regular chasers on SSB but did get my first contact in Japan (on FT8).
The 10m band was empty when I started but as propogation changed the contest stations started creeping higher and higher up the band.
Still in shorts this morning, still a mistake, but no hail/snow today.

GW/NW-051 and GW/NW-044 in the distance, possibly also 053 and 054. GW/NW-062 is just out of shot on the right

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I tried listending for the VK (and other) activators when everyone switched to 20m. I’m sure you were there but all I could hear was splatter from bigger stations.

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From the moment you first spotted ~0640 UTC to 07:10 UTC, I could hear all of the 10m EU activators. Pom you were the strongest signal at 5-5 and no matter how much ‘yelling’ I did into the microphone, you and the other stations did not hear me. I tried and tried :slight_smile:

20m SSB was awful but I did find a half-clear 3khz slot at 14.343 with strong contest stations either side of me. Nonetheless I did, to my surprise, complete weak signal S2S QSOs with Stephan @HB9HCS (MM/HB9HCS/P) at GM/WS-345 and Simon @GM4JXP at GM/ES-065. Both were completed in challenging conditions, I can’t recall when I last attempted a 20m LP SOTA activation during a contest.

I did hear Peter and Pom call S2S on 14.343 MHz, however conditions were such that I couldn’t complete a satisfactory reply.

Only 13 20m QSOs in the log. 10m was open to JA, ZL, VK1 and VK6. Thanks Chris VK1CHW/2 for the 10m surprise S2S at VK2/ST-006.

Thank you all for your efforts and thanks to all chasers for the contacts.

73, Andrew VK1AD

Left 20m inverted V dipole at 7m, right 10m 1/2 wave flowerpot.

Reflection of the sunset on my digital clock. Radio is a FT-857 @ 25 watts.

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This is weird. I didn’t hear anything, except twice when signals deep in the noise were noticed. But they weren’t readable. Even my phase-shifted contest headset didn’t do the trick.

FT-857 @ 25 watts

Maybe you find another 3 or 6 dB? :wink:

I did hear Peter and Pom call S2S on 14.343 MHz

I heard you 33 for one over and just gave it a go. Then the loud station 2 kHz below again startet transmitting…

Alert for coming Saturday is up. The challenge has to be completed. :wink:

Ahoi
Pom

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Hi Andrew - typo on my summit. It was 065, not 45. I heard you repeat it back, so I’m happy we had a good QSO, although I was surprised you heard me, given all the contest noise. I was running 10w to a 1/4 wave vertical with 10 radials. On 10m later I heard a few JAs in the contest but no VK/ZL at all. H44MS was very strong on 12m.

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Thanks Simon for the note.

I had the correct summit code in my log, I have made the error in this thread.

Interestingly in the photo of my tablet, you can see the summit code entered in VK Porta log :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers

Andrew VK1AD

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Planning to be on G/WB-010 around 0800 UTC tomorrow morning (2 April). Perhaps too late, but would love to get VK from a summit, S2S or otherwise, if anyone is around. Will start on 10M CW given the challenge, but other bands available and I’l take my mic just in case.

Tony
M5OTA

This topic was automatically closed after reaching the maximum limit of 100 replies. Continue discussion at The 10 m S2S EU <> VK challenge (Part 2).