Trans-Atlantic S2S - 6th November part 2

20 m and 15 m are full of stations now. 10 m is just waking up. Seems, it’s gonna be fb condx for the transatlantic party. :star_struck:

Ahoi
Pom

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Hope you won’t collapse before you reach the summit :innocent: :innocent:
Hope to hear you!
73, Sylvia
OE5YYN

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I’m still not sure about being active. It’s raining hard but there is a lull in the wind at 1130Z. Rain may stop later to give me a 45min window before sunset. Sadly I noticed season 3 of Narcos Mexico was available on Netflix so I binged watched 2/3rd of the episodes last night till about 2.30am with the help of some Appleton Estate Rum so I’m not yet running on all cylinders!

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Any hangover that lasts past lunchtime at our age is a disgrace! Do you still think you’re a teenager?

However, maybe today is a day to forget the radio and get back on the rum.:tumbler_glass:

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It’s disgraceful isn’t? I took the dog for a quick 5km drag after the rains subsided and the winds came back. I live 165m ASL and the wind was strong enough before climbing a peak to know that hearing the 817 would be challenging. It seems stronger now and the rain is back on. Anyway I’ve prepared tonight’s meal for Mrs. FMF return home later, washed all the dirty clothes, walked the dog, filled the bird feeders and will return to finish Narcos Mexico with a large quad strength pot of coffee.

Best of luck to those braving the UK’s somewhat rubbish WX. I look forward to seeing what I missed in the reports later.

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I think hangovers get worse with age…. Rather given up on today, this morning was getting my two girls across the Pennines for their Covid jab, and it turned out to be get two have one free so I’m now fully boosted. Weather on the A66 awful heavy rain and strong winds at 1300ft so Mickle Fell would have been “interesting” if it was possible to cross the swamps after the rain…

Next year….can someone book both the weather and the band conditions?

Paul

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I didn’t forget the radio, only the right aerial!!!

The rest of the plan worked a dream :joy:. It was a bit breezy…

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I brought all my aerials and I’m still out here scratching around. 2 S2S but no transatlantic yet. From GM/CS-121. Barely qualified the summit!

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Conditions were not so good as expected. I have worked some transatlantic home stations though.

The summit was unexpectedly crowded today, and I spent 70% of my time to explain the summit visitors what I am doing and what ham radio is… they were all very friendly and found it amazing that CW still exists and that we are able to talk to hams on other continents.

WX improved and the fog disappeared, which helped to stay warm.

DL6GCA/p was my loudest S2S station today. Maybe due to his MX-P50M power amp. :grin: I also brought my amplifier with me but did not use it due to a not so ideal VSWR. So at the end I just worked QRP…

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It was pretty hectic this afternoon. I could hardly keep pace with the spots appearing rapidly on SOTAWwatch.

I think I almost had a 17m QSO with @VE2DDZ but the QSB lost me I fear as I attempted to send my summit reference.

The less said about my QSO with Guru @EA2IF the better. I must remember to bring my thin gloves next time. My fingers might then do what I want.

So I gave up on CW and had a quick S2S QSO on 20m SSB with SV1RVJ in the Peloponnese.

In hindsight I should have stuck with 15m longer. I started with this but RBN Hole didn’t put a spot up so I wrongly assumed the band wasn’t working. I now see it did put a spot up but it was delayed. I suspect the system was a bit overloaded with all the traffic, or I was just impatient. Looking at the RBN map now I can see my 15m CQ call penetrated further into NA than I got on 17m or 20m.

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It was great fun activating OE/OO-330 together with Sylvia. Later on Sabine OE5SLE with Manfred OE5MBP and Andi OE5AKR stopped by and activated on 2m FM. So a little unplanned SOTA field day hi

Unfortunatly no S2S to North America but 4 S2S overall.
Those got me over the 5000 S2S point mark :smiley:.

I heard @KF7NP but only barely just above the noise floor.

But new highlight for me was the QSO with Walid OD5ZZ to Lebanon, Eric VE2CSI and even bigger surprise Luis KP4WQ (Island of Puerto Rico) all on 15 m SSB.
Station was a 817nd with P50MX to Upper-Outer vertical.

Left summit just before sunset.

So I call the day a success :star_struck:

73 Joe

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My first S2S party dealt seriously with the possibility of staying on the summit
until 15 UTC. Over 120 qso and over 50 S2S, including my first 2 intercontinental with WB2FUV and FM / HB9BHU, with in addition also a qso in 18 cw with 5H3MB … A beautiful day!

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Wet and cold but great fun. Thanks to everyone, especially to N1AIA, VE2DDZ, NJ7V, WN3F and WA7JTM (sri fer dupe) for DX-s2s-QSOs.
The 10 watts from my KX2 and my 20m inverted L worked fine on 17m, where all the NA-s2s took place. No DX on 15m, although it was open sometimes.
Here is a photo of the cold rock I was sitting on and a map of the QSOs made.
Looking forward to working all of you again!
Chris DL4FO


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That’s very impressive Fabio and Chris. We’ll done to both of you. :slight_smile:

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Amazing day for you Fabio with 50 S2S.:+1:t2:Congratulations. Great.

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I am a bit disappointed.

10 days ago I tested the place and the equipment and was totally thrilled … it worked so great.

Today I had a strong pattering noise on 20m… between S5 and S8… The band was not usable. Also on the higher bands it was to be heard, although not so loudly. On 15m it was just about okay.
I heard a few stations calling me… But could not pick up anything in the noise. Sorry.

There is a TV tower on DM/BW-018 - maybe they have turned something on there in the meantime. No idea.

At least there were 4 DX S2S and I got points to 3 chasers from NA.

At one point there were 2 OM standing next to the table and we were talking and I was reporting on SOTA… Maybe we will have 2 more in our ranks soon.

73 Armin

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Real quick summary: heading to a SOTA Picnic/GOAT celebration

50 QSO’s total

19 s2s QSO’s

All EU s2s QSO’s were made on 17 Meters… with DL/HB(GM0),

So NINE EU QSO’s total, with Four home stations, and Five EU s2s contacts in 3 countries

Surprise QSO with FM/HB9BHU/P in Martinique

Best Band was 17 Meters…all but one EU QSO on that band.

Band seemed to die completely to Europe at 16:30 UTC…very odd …

Thanks to all

Pete
WA7JTM
W7A/MN-109
Arizona

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So I am, Armin, because I couldn’t have S2S with you and give a complete for EA2/NV-151. I saw you spotted once, couldn’t go to your frequency at that time due to being busy with traffic and later I never found you anywhere. I also spent some time CQing in the hope that you would come to chase me, but now I see your post about that interference and that’s why probably you didn’t copy me.
Well, there will be many other activations from that summit.
73,

Guru

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final post before the system closes this thread will be a brief summary of my participation on this fun event.
Weather: mostly sunny but cold and windy. Temperature at the end of the activation was 6ºC. With the North wind, it felt like 2-3º.

Timing:
First QSO logged at 13h28z
Last QSO logged at 16h22z

2 different setups and 45 minutes OFF due to repeated problems of telescopic pole collapsing.

Total number of QSOs 41.
S2S: 20
Transatlantic S2S: 7

I’ll write a more detailed report with pics in the part 3.

73,

Guru

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