I do exactly the same Ed. Looking at the GW forecast a week in advance, you can guarantee that it changes at least 5 times before the actual day! And it usually pushes itself back a day, that’s from my monitoring experience.
I can hike in the pouring down rain, hot sun, snow or frost, but the wind blowing at 80mph puts me off!
If your out early this Saturday, we might make a qso, I’m away in the day, so planning a really early activation now the clocks have gone back - lighter in the morning for an early hike.
I’ll give this QSO Party a whirl, if the weather is good on the day. At the moment, the local forecast shows rain until 12UTC on the 5th - let’s see how that stands up as the week progresses.
Hi Ben,
Sorry, this is an afternoon activation for me for several reasons - the time to get to the mountain, when the cable car starts operation, when the bands open to the US (this is the Transatlantic S2S attempt) and when the others activators are alerted to be on.
Is there a standard CQ format for this event? I’ve come up with “CQ SOTA North America”, or “CQ SOTA Transatlantic” as possibilities. Any sensible reply considered
I will be QRV from 13:00 UTC to 19:30 UTC, according to voacap for North Italy the best chance will be on 17 and 15, but I will try to call also in 20-12-10. I will put in the backpack the kx3 and the ft857 for qro operations.
My buddy and I will be on W4V/HB-006, but probably not until shortly after 12pmET. That’ll be a bit late for you guys, but if you’re on the air, listen out for us on HF CW (him) and SSB (me). I’ll probably start on the high bands and work down.
Not so bad weather forecast for Saturday, I’ll be somewhere in EI/IS around midday UTC, thinking about EI/IS-031 Knockshanahullion.
20m CW, will try 17m as well.
It bodes well for the higher bands 10m-17m for those operating from summits in the Trans-Atlantic QSO Party.
I just worked Mike WB2FUV on W2/GC-101 (NY State) 579 currently on 28063 at 1600-1615z and being picked up by the EU and EA8 RBN auto-listening Stations.
Hello,
By looking at the number of NA Sota ops I am chasing in the last weeks, specially in the higher bands 15-12-10 meters, it seems this event is gonna be a blast!
Nevertheless I won’t be able to join as I have a family celebration that day and won’t have a chance to join, I’m afraid.
It’s a shame, I will miss this chance.
Good luck everybody and see you in the next one.
73 de Ignacio
Thanks for the QSO today on 10m Phil. I went back on a little later and worked two US stations but I had to pack up at 1600 to get down before it was completely dark so it seems I missed the chance for an S2S with Mike. Hopefully I will get S2S with US soon although not on Saturday as I cannot make the QSO party.
I had previously ruled myself out for this event as we have family descending at my QTH for a long weekend birthday celebration. But it turns out they are doing something [for the kids] Saturday daytime which provides me the opportunity to participate in SOTA for a few hours.
After a few 10m CW QSOs with east coast USA from home recently it would be good to do my first ever 10m SOTA S2S.
I’m taking over-the-ears headphones this time recalling that the stormy wind noise at last year’s event made hearing the weak North American stations impossible to work.
Start time a bit TBD as I’m having to be driven to and from the walk.
VOACAP suggests that 15m may be the best bet. I plan to deploy the 15m Double Bobtail (Another Peak, Another Crazy Antenna - YouTube), fed with the IC-7300 or FT-857 at full power from the SoCal desert, probably atop W6/SD-454. Hope to get some EU summits in the log.
