Continuing the discussion from Trans-Atlantic QSO Party - 5th November 2022 (Part 1) - #101 by MM0VPM.
Previous discussions:
Fun day out there!
I operated only 15m with the Double Bobtail antenna and IC-7300. Fortunately, the summit was only about a mile hike, albeit a steep one.
I logged 68 QSOs with some dupes in that count. I had 11 total EU chasers today - a record for me. 3 of them were s2s contacts with 2 front Spain and 1 from Portugal. I very nearly had LB8CG/P who was patiently calling me again and again trying to catch the timing on the QSB, then a W9 station jumped on top of me and worked him. Not cool. There were others calling s2s but I just couldnāt quite hear them. I could hear EC2AG/P on 21.315 SSB, but not well enough to work him. I called back once, but I donāt think he heard me.
My summit had a much higher noise floor than I expected. It was a somewhat random pulsing noise that I hadnāt experienced out in that area before. Odd.
Many thanks to all who worked me, and my apologies to those I couldnāt hear over the noise floor.
73
Adam
K6ARK
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This year, Martin (2E0BIA) and I went for a antenna farrm on Shining Torā¦Super Antenna (10m), inverted V (15m,17m, 40m) and monopole (20m)
A tent and a tarp - luxury!
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It was a good Trans-Atlantic s2s for me on lowly W2/GC-020 (NY). In the morning 20M seemed especially noisy so I didnāt have any luck hearing EU. I eventually worked 16 EU s2s on 15M and 10M QRP CW, plus a few EU QRP stations and many EU chasers! I was running 5 watts to an end-fed inverted-L bent in the wind. Many thanks to all the SOTA stations today.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
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No pics from me from EI/IE-008 Slievenamon, but 52 QSOās in the log, 12 S2Sās of which 3 were to the US ( a first for me), so job done.
I used my KX3 @ 10W, a 20m delta loop and let the ATU worry about the swr on all the mad bands.
Thanks to all the chasers and apologies to those who got me near the end. The forecast had improved from earlier in the week and I timed it so the rain had blown away before I started the climb, so it was sunny for the day, but the wind was strong and unrelenting. The 1 deg C windchill in the forecast was probably accurate. I lasted about 2 hours and at the end couldnāt key properly and had gone ga ga on decoding.
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I set up the 10m Ground plane with 3 elevated radials on Longmynd G/WB-005 in low cloud and rain, and the first 3 contacts were made using the FT817 barefoot on CW from inside the bothy bag - W5GDW and W4JKC, and then WB2FUV on W2/GC-020. Result!
A few more calls brought no response, and then the rain stopped so I packed away the bothy. With a little more room to manouvre, I connected up the little amplifier, and self spotted for SSB. Now running about 40W, I was called by AJ2I on W2/GC-011 for a second S2S.
Further calls went unanswered, and with my phone stubbornly telling me that there was āno Internetā, I couldnāt look for spots to chase.
I moved to 12m, and called CQ on CW, quickly completing with AC1Z on W1/NL-014, and soon followed by KR7RK on W7A/CS-018 over in Arizona, FB!
By now the light was fading, and I could see the next curtain of rain heading my way, so I decided to call it a day.
I alerted for several bands, but that would have involved putting up the linked dipole for 20, 17 and 15, and time and weather were against me for that - apologies to anyone waiting for me to pop up.
After the rain:
That was fun, thanks everyone!
73
Adrian
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Mike, thank you for the QSO today on 10m, my first Trans-Atlantic S2S. You were very easy to hear with very little QSB.
John
M0WIV
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Yes John. The magic has been working on 10M around 1600Z these last weeks. Glad to make the s2s, RST 559.
73!
Mike, WB2FUV
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Made 68 HF QSOās today, Seven of them into Europeā¦ all into England, Spain, and France.
Two s2s contacts into Spain, one on 15 Meters and the other on 10 Meters.
Ten Meters was the best here with 5 Europe contactsā¦15 Meters next with 2 EU QSOās.
All Europe QSOās between 1557 and 1706, so about one hour into Europe from here in Arizona.
Lots of stateside s2s contacts, and some local 1296 action also, so well worth the effort.
I had fun as usual.
thanks to all!!! 
73,
Pete
WA7JTM
W7A/MN-106
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Today was an unusual weather for the time of the year, it was like summer, just over 20C but very windy.
I used an 66ā inverted-L efhw and a KX2 at 5 or 10watts.
A total of 8 DX S2S, LZ1GV, IK2LEY, GM4OIG, EI9KY, HB9CEV, EA2GM, G0KYS and OE9HRV.
Also, 17 more European chasers in the log.
Thanks for participating to this special event and see you next spring.
73, Eric
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Great time on w2/GC-011. Thanks to all the chasers and the s2s with @CT2IWW ,@oe9hrv, @G4AZS ,@g0kys,@mw0pje and I just saw the earlier thread, sorry to @MM0VPM i just couldnāt pull you out, didnāt have headphones.
I was running 50w into a ny4g 40efhw and a Yaesu 891
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I normally avoid operating in the rain but in my neck of the woods ā NW England ā the weather often switches to rain whilst Iām out. This time I knew it was going to be heavy rain and strong winds [remnants of Hurricane Martin] but not having done a SOTA for five weeks I was itching to do this transatlantic event.
I was alright in my waterproof clothes plus biscuits and flask of strong hot coffee but I had a lot of concern about my precious KX2 inside a repurposed see-thru toilet bag. With the bag lying on its side, I had the zip open to let the antenna feeder and headphones cable out and also so I could key the twin paddles on the KX2.
It was very foggy at the summit (G/LD-052) despite the strong winds and in no time, rain was on and running off the toilet bag. I found it hard to concentrate on the weak transatlantic signals whilst worrying about the rig. I apologize to any chasers about my receiving and sending, Iām not used to iambic keying with a bag zip touching my fingers.
In about half an hour on 12m and 15m I got 7 QSOs, 3 in EU and 4 east coast USA including 1 S2S @AC1Z on W1/NL-014. I was trying for 10m when I noticed several patches of condensation on the inside of the KX2 display panel, so decided it was time to quit.
Sodās Law: the rain had lessened to drizzle on my walk down.
Good experience and I enjoyed it despite the weather.
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The āproblemā with long antennas relative to the frequency that get deployed randomly is the pattern is not that predictable. It often looks like a hedghogās backside with spikey lobes pointing anywhere and everywhere. Sure it will work and if a lobe happens to point in the right direction then result! But it can be hit and miss.
Mine is exceptionally docile. It always has a nice match no matter what ground it is above. It seems to work when there is propagation. My setup needs a tweak to make deployment easier but it fits on a 5m mast so itās not massively unwieldy. The full info for mine is on here (Delta loop antenna on higher HF bands - #30 by MM0FMF), the setup should be omni directional and vertically polarised. You do need a length of 75ohm cable to make the match section.
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Sitting on Shining Tor G/SP-004 , transatlantic S2Ss were a bit sparse. Just a Canadian one VA2MO. However we did get a few USA chaser QSOs and the icing on the cake was a Brazilian Chaser PY2VM. 42 QSOs with 18 S2Ss
As you can see from Daveās M0JKS post above conditions were horrendous, with high winds and continuous rain. We had three antennas up, as the rain waterlogged one, we moved onto another.
QSOs on Bands is interesting
10m 8 QSOs - Super Antenna
15m 2 QSOs - Linked Dipole
17m 2 QSOs - Linked Dipole
20m 29 QSOs - Vertical/Linked Dipole
40m 1 QSO - Linked Dipole
Radio Xiegu G90 20w
Brazil and Canada were both on 10m
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Good result for the Trans-Atlantic QSO Party. Operating QRP with the Yaesu FT-817 and a vertical, 4 DX S2S on 15 meters. No luck on 20, 17 and 10 meters bands. I had to get off pretty early. Nice fun day, (140 qso, 53 S2S) Thank you all!
73 Fabio
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Awful weather on G/TW-004 Bishop Wilton Wold but Dave G3TQQ/P and I still had a good time under our tent with several s2s qsos including a couple with the USA and one with Canada. We also had short skip on 18 MHz working Martin 2E0BIA/P & David M0JKS/P on Shining Tor and Colin M1BUU/P on Whernside also we heard Gerald GM4OIG/P working Eric VA2MO just before we did.
Picture shows Dave G3TQQ/P in action!
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Looking at all the pictures with tarps/tents, Iām kicking myself for not climbing into my Bothy bag I had it with me! Doh!
My Transatlantic S2S event activation yesterday was a wet one - and a cold one - hereās a picture of me from the webcam on DL/EW-001 Wank mountain at over 1700m ASL above Garmisch-Partenkirchen near the Austrian/German border in Southern Bavaria.
Yes, Snow on the ground (it arrived 36 hours before the event) and in the clouds with occasional snow/sleet/rain storms. At least I had the bench to work from.
As for contacts - I only got onto 20m SSB and all contacts were from within Europe with one S2S contact into Spain. Nothing from the other side of the pond. For the hour that I was on the summit, the few NA stations spotted were running CW (which I donāt do), perhaps the SSB activators came later in the afternoon, but after an hour in these conditions, I had to call it a day.
Iāll be putting my report together over the next couple of days and post it on my blog at dd5lp.com
And here is a link to my report: DD5LP/P ā November 5th 2022 ā DL/EW-001 Wank. | DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog
73 Ed DD5LP.
UPDATE: Hereās what that very same spot looks like 24 hours later 6/11/2022 ā¦
āWhat a difference a day makesā
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Andy, thank you. You might recall I built a delta loop for 6m recently. The original had a piece of plastic pipe holding the top side of the delta horizontal with the feed point at the bottom apex. You suggested turning this the other way round and using guys to spread it. I subsequently used this from a summit and it worked well although I did only use FT8 which probably wasnāt much of a test. 
Iāll now look at making one for 10m according to your design you linked to.
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I decided on GM/SS-192 Craigowl Hill, near my birthplace of Dundee, as we were visiting family there this weekend. Mo dropped me off at the bottom at 1130 and I had until 1615 to get back to be picked up. Or Else!!
It was an easy ascent up a tarred road to reach the heavily masted and heavily fogged summit. As it was raining, I first put up a tarp (for only the second time ever on an activation) and then erected an antenna farm to rival the resident one.
the mast behind me is lost in the cloud
Ā¼ wave for 10 m
Delta loop for 15 m (untested)
Inverted V EFHW as a back up for 40, 20, 15 & 10 m
2 m slim g
I also had my 20 m up and outer but it stayed in the bag as Iād run out of masts.
antenna farm
I was using my Elecraft KX2 (with s small linear at times).
It took me 40 minutes to put that lot together, so I started later than planned. 10 m SSB was great at first, with Nova Scotia, California and then a host of Europeans. I then switched to 15 m and worked California again, then lots of EU, including a few summits. Great to see that many activators were equipped for 15 m.
20 m was OK for EU but not for DX, using the EFHW.
As far as I could see, there were only @G4OIG Gerald and @MM7MOX Andy out on GM summits. I worked them both on 15 m and then worked Andy again on 2 m FM. It was like Gerald was standing next to me. And shouting!
46 QSOās in all, 14 Summit to Summits, all within Europe. Three North America ground stations, so a decent haul in a 2 hour stint.
45 minutes to pack everything up and a quick jog back to the car park. The cloud finally started to lift as I was coming down.
Craigowl Hill
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Hi Fraser,
Nice antenna farm that you setup. Thanks for our first S2S 
But I think you had some QRM from the commercial antennas?
Btw. for
if you mean John KI6EAB/W4 then he is operating a remote station in W4 (so US East coast - Florida as far as I know)
I worked him too on 15m. Great contact with a bit of small talk.
73 Joe
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