A bit of a challenging day. It rained and blew a gail Dave M0JKS and l activated G/SP-004. 34 S2Ss with three transatlantic.
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Well I was working today and didn’t get up GM/CS-121 Hill of Wangie until very late afternoon. I had 2 S2S with EA, one 17m one 20m, and scraped together enough contacts to qualify the 1 pointer!
Good fun erecting and dismantling different antennae in the dark and novel for me to be operating among trees. Mild WX and lots of shelter from the wind.
I bought a Black Diamond lantern last winter and used it for the first time today. It is a great wee thing.
banknote for scale
Finally, I don’t think I left anything up there, so all good!
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There was a heavy frost on my car this morning but conditions on top were beautiful and warm in the sun - I actually received a light sunburn. I appreciate the fellow activators coping with poor weather! Kennedy Peak has a short wooden viewing platform but I rightly expected it to be popular so I set up just below and out of the way.
I believe it was worth carrying the higher-powered system and comfy furniture up to the peak despite the weight and complications compared to my usual QRP rig, as I think the extra power enabled at least a couple extra contacts. Early on I had an SSB contact with HB9EAJ but nearly all the rest were CW with a total of four trans-Atlantic S2S, including DL3TU, DL4FO, and G8CXK, and another S2S with N6AN. A few other stations I saw spotted but couldn’t hear well enough to try a QSO (using a vertical wire and a couple of counterpoise wires).
Anyway it was very exciting to make my first trans-Atlantic S2S contacts today. Thanks all!
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Weather in southern NY was sunny, calm with high temp of 10°C — a perfect day to be on W2/GC-020 near Sam’s Point. I made 13 s2s with EU (mostly 21 MHz CW) and 14 s2s with North America running QRP 5 watts CW to inverted 7. Thanks for your good ears!
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
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I’m sure I can see a face in the tree near the camera. It might be a Scottish Dryad, which is a tree dwelling fairy. You need to be careful up there at night. 
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In that case I’ll not be going back. Encounters
with Scottish Faeries don’t normally end well for us mortals.
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Thank you, Mike, for your call!
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Good to get you today. 73s!
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Hi Friends,
Today I decided to activate two summits.
Both of them have easy short access - this my choice was made to safe more time for activations themselves.
SP/BZ-043:
on the background of the photo a bit right from the mast you can see SP/BZ-045 (my second summit of today).
SP/BZ-043 was scheduled to be usual morning activation and warm-up for the trans-atlantic SOTA day.
Anyway Hideo @JH1MXV made me very happy to chase me.
Meaning of Hideo is “wonderful man” and it is definitely so !
View from SP/BZ-043 to Tatra mountains - the highest ones in Poland (SP/TA in SOTA):
SP/BZ-045 was scheduled for afternoon time when chances to catch trans-atlantic QSOs were higher.
Unfortunately no chaser this time but I worked my first ever trans-atlantic S2S.
Fredi FM/HB9BHU/P absolutely made my day.
I heard him very well on 12m but he got no copy of me I guess.
Then after a few tries we completed S2S on 15m.
Later on 15m I heard beautiful copy of PY1ZB but unfortunately he did not copy me.
View from SP/BZ-045 to Tatra mountains:
In total 112 contacts logged, 37 S2S 
Many thanks to activators & chasers !
Cherry on the cake = happy ending of today - I avoided an accident during my way back home:
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When I reached the summit, it was covered in fog and the temperature was about 4°C. Not exactly the best conditions to stay up there for long. But finally the fog thinned out and it became more pleasant in the warm sunlight.
Working conditions: CW only, KX3, vertical dipole for 17m on a 10m pole (left), random wire on a 6m pole as inverted L above sloping ground.
With k = 4 condx were not that great, yet there was no choice but to make the best of it.
I was QRV from about 13:45 utc but in the first hour no S2S from the other side of the pond was to be heard. I made some QSOs and explained visitors what I was doing.
During the next hour 17m buzzed with Trans-Atlantic S2S and after 16:00 utc 20m was good. 15m was in good shape at times, but unfortunately never produced much S2S.
QRV approx. 2.5 hrs. Tear-down started at nightfall.
Worked 9 x EU S2S and 11 x DX S2S:
- 1 x on 15m
- 6 x on 17m
- 4 x on 20m
Thanks @all for the QSOs, but especially to our friends on the summits across the Atlantic:
VE2DDZ, FM/HB9BHU/p, WA7JTM, NJ7V, KX0R, WN3F, N1AIA, N1FJ, K1RID, VA2EO, WB2FUV
It was tons of fun 
73, Roman
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Continuing the discussion from Trans-Atlantic S2S - 6th November part 2:
@M0WIV 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.
My log shows M0WIV/P 339, so you were clear enough to copy your call, but the QSB (or maybe QRM?) took the rest. Next time!
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Hello all,
I arrived very late at the summit Nordhelle DM/NW-204 and was QRV at about 15:15h UTC on the bands as a chaser. First I could work KF7NP (for a third S2S-QSO after 2018 and 2020) on a summit near Phoenix, followed by VA2MO, AF2V and N2MC on 17m and 20m in SSB. The last QSO was with FY5KE in South America.
I was QRV with a FT-891 running 70W in a dipole antenna 13m up.
Thank you very much for the event and the QSOs!
73 de Lutz
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My operating position today from Mount Kearsarge, W1/HA010. There was snow in the shadows!
Was qrv from 1400 till 1600 and had 20 qs, 8 S2S: 5 dx EA2CW, DL4FO, DL1GKC, EA7GV and DL3TU. Also got 3 NA S2S: W1DMH, KX0R & WN3F.
5 watts to an inverted u half square. 17 meters got hot for me at the end from 1500 to 1600.
Great fun. Thanks everyone! ditdit
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For me, Ros Castle G/SB-009.turned out to be an excellent choice. The 10 minute ascent was ideal with my heavy backpack full of kit for a long stay. It was dry and windy when I arrived at the summit and I was able to set up a basic shelter against the substantial wall that runs across the summit. Once I was ready to go at 12:00z the heavens opened. No problem… however all was not well.
First up I was going to try 60m using the IC703 barefoot. Unfortunately I had serious feedback on SSB. Eventually I managed to control it by holding the battery in one hand and the mic in the other. First in the log was Martin DF3MC/P, the mode CW. Back on SSB I worked G4SVN who turned out to be former G8CTV, an old friend from the early 1970s that I haven’t spoken to for almost half a century! Ian GI0AZB and Esther GI0AZA qualified the summit for me. 40m was very busy, so after working Ham 2E0HXS/P on SSB I skipped to 20m, but that band was the same. So up again trying 17m… then 15m where I found and worked Mike WB2FUV.
At 15:00 the strong wind removed my 60/40/30m dipole from the pole. I left it lying on the heather and set up the 17/20m vertical. After working George KX0R, I spent 20 minutes or so calling Pete WA7JTM who was peaking S5… hmm, obviously something strange going on. I decided to move up 1kHz and call - well, I was getting out to the States, Canada, Spain and Scotland, mostly S2S contacts. 
When the run ended I found Charlie NJ7V for another S2S and then Fredi FM/HB9BHU/P. The band closed to the US shortly afterwards, so a change of links and it was down to 20m for 5 more contacts (2 US), finishing with Phil G4OBK.
22 QSOs in all, including 6 DX S2S - WB2FUV, KX0R, WN3F, VE2DDZ, NJ7V and FM/HB9BHU/P
Apologies to the chasers as i didn’t make many CQ calls today. Could do better, but a very enjoyable event as usual… QRT at 17:25z. Oh, the rain stopped around 13:30z and the wind dried everything out. That’s a bonus!
73, Gerald G8CXK/P aka G4OIG
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I activated Grant Hill [SOTA Summits]. 336 meters ASL.
I had minimal success - 5 contacts in about 1hr 30min, all on CW and one S2S into the US on 20m. Thanks to VE7HI and F4WBN for getting me to a successful activation. I could hear many stations on 20m CW/SSB that didn’t hear me, but 17m and 15m was nearly silent.
This was my first setup in the dark, and first activation in the rain & under a tarp for me.
Mike
VE7ESE
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I set up just a little down from the summit on Mont Hereford, VE2/ES-010. I had my amp along to help get my dits and dahs across the pond. I made 70 QSOs running 40-50W into a 44’ doublet, 19 into EU and 51 NA. Of 17 S2S contacts, 7 were trans-Atlantic (EA2IF/P, EA2CW/P, HB9EKO/P, DL3TU/P, DL4FO/P, HB9IIO/P, and G8CXK/P). Some of the EU QSOs needed many repeats, thanks for your patience, Mont Hereford is not the quietest summit.
I worked NA S2S with VA2EO and VA2MO (we had our own Quebec S2S QSO party going I guess) as well as NA6MG, N6AN, KE9AJ, NJ7V, KX0R, W7UM, NS1TA, and WA7JTM.
It was cold to start on the summit, there are indeed patches of snow in the first photo, but it warmed up nicely as the day went on.
CU next time.
73,
Malcolm VE2DDZ
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As per normal, nothing for me regarding S2S into the EU.
I did have 4 S2S to the south of me.
On a good point, it was nice to have a warming fire.
Malen
VE6VID
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I tried listening for you but yeah the bands were not in good shape today.
73 De VE6JTW, Jesse
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Had a great time on Parker Mountain (1,410 feet), W1/NL-010, with an untested 20m ground plane. First QSO was Trans-Atlantic S2S, but not in the direction I expected. It was FM/HB9BHU/P on Martinique!
In 2 hours (starting 1 hour late – sorry!), I worked 34 stations and 19 were on summits, 11 of those in Europe (Spain, Switzerland, Germany). Fair signals with some QSB. Very satisfied with the antenna, running 5 watts.
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