Thanks for trying Ignacio, I’m sorry we weren’t able to make the S2S for this event. I had a pretty big pile going on 20M, but the NA chasers were good about giving a hole if any DX was heard. A number of times I called for EU only and thought I heard signals, but I couldn’t pull folks through. It was a morning of slow QSB on my side of the Atlantic. I worked two NA QRP operators which were harder to pull through than the EU guys I was able to work. We’ll get’em next time!
It was a fine event from my summit in WI! I always feel a little guilty about these easy summits (I mean, who get’s to work from a picnic table!) until I remember how hard I’ve worked for 2 pointers that required a bushwhack for a mile and a half 
This easy summit allowed me to haul the FT-891 and requisite battery power without a heart attack so I could put a little extra fire in the wire. I was able to get 75’ at the apex for the end fed wire thanks to a great big oak.
We had to work hard at it, but I made the following SSB Trans Atlantic S2S:
M0OAT/p at G/NP-024
GW8CXK/P at GW/NW-042
DG7ACF/P at DM/NS-111
Thanks guys! I also enjoyed several contacts with EU chasers, local S2S, local NA chasers, and several Hams who just happened to tune up on the fun.
Jason
+1 thanks for organizing the event. It was a lot of fun. I had one EU S2S (G4OOE) and seven NA S2S over 2.2 hours on W5A/CS004 and one EU S2S (HB9BIN TU for patience) and six NA S2S over 1.1 hours in W5A/CS003. I have a number of EU stations in the log and maybe 80-100 total contacts. Nearly all cw but I chased some ssb S2S. Would have stayed longer on second peak but I lost half my water and I was under assault by ticks.
I was running 100 watts but given my heavy foliage location the dipole was about 45 degrees off where it should have been. It took an hour to setup winding through and around branches and for me to climb around boulders and foliage. E In the future I will choose a better summit but I wanted to activate the new 004 summit. I may also experiment with erecting two dipoles to generate gain towards EU. I have seen that with a field day. Having capability at 17m would have been nice too. On the positive, I’m glad I took the Yaesu 857 and 9ah battery despite the 9 miles round trip as I had more power and ssb capability over my hb1b.
EA2BD sorry I didn’t hear you. I checked my logs for partials and no record. I did get a couple EA stations. Generally I could only hear the very loud stations until I worked through those. Sometimes I heard weak stations but those were drowned out. Some stations were quit powerful and I was constantly adjusting my volume. After thinking about it I should have called “CQ EU KN” or does someone have a different proposed method? I wanted to work all stations but obviously S2S take priority.
I tried to look for other stations but never heard an EU station that I thought I would be able to complete an exchange.
Were there any SSB S2S transatlantic contacts?
I struggled on G/TW-003 to get many QS0’s at all. It took me over half an hour to get my 1st QSO at 1325 despite putting out a self spot. I could hear a fair few CQ SOTA, and /Ps
9 QSO’s on 14mhz which included 4xS2Ss
EA2BD/P on EA2/NV119
M0OAT/p on G/NP-024
LZ1GJ/P on LZ/RO-144
HB9AFI/P on HB/VD-043
On 10mhz I got a couple more regular chasers, F5JKK, D5JAV and another S2S HA2PP/P on HA/KD-006.
I was calling CQ but only a couple of chasers. I could hear a few folk but I was struggling to get out with my HB1-B and 5watts. Despite another couple of CW users on G/TW summits I could almost see, I worked no other UK station other than M0OAT/p in the lakes.
Gave up after nearly 2hrs. However it was, for me a good experience and it was lovely 20c sunny WX .
I saw only two other people all day and when I got home our village, Robin Hood’s Bay, and Whitby close by, were absolutely choked with cars, people and dogs.
I know what you mean… 
and sympathize with you.
73,
Guru
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Glad you enjoyed the day Dave, despite the radio challenges. When Phil told me you were on I tried a speculative call on 2m for you from just across the valley. No trans-Atlantic joy for me (a couple of NA activators were just readable but affected by QSB which stopped me trying them). Lots of EU S2S though.
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A great day out in the sun on G/TW-004 with several NA stations including an S2S (KG5AUU) and numerous EU S2S contacts and one JA logged. Thanks for organising the event and I look forward to the next one.
73
Nick G4OOE
First of all, many thanks to everyone that went out to the summits to support this event. The bad weather in the Eastern States was certainly felt and guys you were certainly missed, but I hope everyone that was able to participate managed to get something out of the day.
For me it was lean pickings, but enjoyable nonetheless and the excellent weather made up for the shortcomings on the radio. So a brief report from my side:
Despite a 40 minute delay trying to get through the town of Llangollen, some 5 miles south of our summit Moel y Gamelin GW/NW-042, we managed to arrive at a the small cairn that denotes the highest point on time at 12:10z with a view to being on the bands by 12:30z. However, we found it impossible to set up close to the highest point as, previously unknown to us, the hill had suffered a devastating fire in mid July 2018 and mostly there was nothing left but ash, burnt peat, burnt heather and in several places, burnt rocks!
Paul moves off to take a look to see whether there is a suitable operating position beyond the summit.
The barren wasteland that is Moel y Gamelin GW/NW-042.
Just before the final section of the ascent, we had crossed a grassy area at a small coll where the path widened. Being at the bottom of two slopes, this would have been more damp than the surrounding area and so had survived the fire. Paul double checked the levels and found this area to be 23m below the highest point, so we decided to set up at this position on each side of the path leaving just enough space for walkers to get between the radials on my vertical and Paul’s operating position. Setting up took a little longer than expected.
My 20 / 17m vertical set up on the edge of the ash field.
Operating from this lower position caused us both to have intermittent internet connections, so we were not able to rely on this method when looking for S2S contacts. Indeed, I had to stand close to Paul’s position to get any signal at all. With most of the action being on 20m, Paul basically tuned the SSB section while I concentrated on looking for CW contacts… with an occasional tune up to the top of the band.
We started at 12:45z and after a look over the bands, we compared notes. I was the first to hear a Stateside call at 13:14z - Ken K6HPX. Unfortunately I was not able to attract his attention and it was not his frequency, so I continued looking. Pat KI4SVM was a good signal on 14.061MHz at 13:30z, but I was unable to get a response from him either. I did wonder whether I should raise the power from 30 watts, but when Guru EA2IF could not raise a contact either, I decided not to expend any more battery power. NM1I was heard calling CQ at 14:00z, but he didn’t hear me and I was beginning to suspect an issue, but I was making EU S2S contacts as I came across activators calling.
On SSB I found Jason KE0FKE on W9/WI-004 working a string of contacts on 14.342MHz, so gave him a call at 14:50z. At last a response! I raised the power to 70 watts and we completed a contact with many repeats and 31 reports both ways. Jason’s signals became a lot stronger after we signed and I heard him say he was running an FT-891 at 100 watts and a long wire. I realised that if it was taking relatively high power to get across the pond then, unless conditions improved significantly, there wasn’t that much chance for Paul with his FT-817ND.
Paul sat on the opposite verge of the path and operated 20m, 40m and 60m.
I copied Pete WA7JTM on 14.045MHz at 15:25z, but he was sat between two strong contest stations and didn’t hear me call anyway, even running 70 watts. In between picking up S2S contacts to bring my total to 10, Paul had made a number of S2S contacts by using 40m in addition to 20m. With nothing new found on 20m for a while, at 16:00z we decided to do some calling - me on 17m CW to be followed by 20m CW and Paul on 60m SSB.
First into my log on 18.088MHz was Walt NE4TN immediately followed by Scott KG3W. I then had a short run of EU contacts with those looking for WWFF. Most pleasing was making a contact with Paul VE1PVH. When the frequency went quiet, I moved to 20m, dropped the power to 20 watts to preserve what capacity remained in the battery pack, re-spotted and continued where I had left off on 17m. Adrian YO8AZQ/P was worked in among a number of EU SOTA and WWFF callers. At 16:36z I was called by Al NW8E which then prompted me to have another look for Pete WA7JTM. I found him on 14.059MHz, but try as I might I could not get heard. I completed my activation with a 12th S2S which was the most difficult contact that I have ever had with Juerg HB9BIN/P. Paul worked EI3GYB, G0RQL and G4OBK on 60m SSB and then moved to 40m where he worked Darek LB1DH/P and Manuel EA2DT. At 17:00z we agreed that we had done what we could given the circumstances and went QRT.
So that is the Sixth Trans-Atlantic S2S (NA <> EU) event done and dusted - quite literally in our case. Hopefully we will pick a more congenial summit for the next one on Saturday 2nd November 2019.
73 to all and many thanks forall the contacts,
Gerald GW8CXK/P (aka G4OIG) with Paul GW6GGP/P (aka G4MD).
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Pat was getting here in good conditions and it was quite disappointing when I called him and he never seemed to copy me. I called with 100 watts on my yagi and I assumed Pat possibly was in a summit with some QRM from windmills, other transmitters nearby or something like that. You probably did the right thing not raising your power and saving it for other contacts.
Thanks for the report and pics.
73,
Guru
Yes Guru, I knew that you would be running at least 100 watts. The way things were going around that time, I suspected that an element of one-way propagation might have been occurring. It has happened on other occasions when I have heard Stateside stations at reasonable strengths, yet they have not been able to copy me, even with the power up at the 70 - 80 watt level. It is not as though the receiver on the FT-857D is particularly good and it is certainly not state of the art. 
73, Gerald
Gerald,
OK…now you did it…
I was happy…now I am Bummed out we did not work…I gotta get my ears fixed apparently.
dang
73
Pete
Haha, I feel the same way as Pete! I hate that we were not able to work each other. My summit was not that noisy (S4 on 20/17) and I listened very intently for calls, especially EU calls. The EU chasers that I did work had good signals so I don’t know what was up.
Till the next time, 73, pat
Setup one phone as a hotspot up at the highpoint (hidden if needed) use other phones to access hotspot with Wifi or Bluetooth. Needs 3 phones for 2 of you unless you share one phone but only the hotspot needs a valid SIM. You could use an old phone to access the hotspot. I’ve done this when I’ve needed to sit away from the spot where the internet waves can be found.
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My phone has the Personal Hotspot greyed-out and permanently off 
I assume that this is because I don’t pay EE enough.
My older phone (also iPhone) appears to lack a setting for this; age, or not paying O2 enough?
Could it be worth upgrading before our next trip?
73,
Rod
PS, Andy, thanks for White Meldon today.
iPhone? Just say no! Actually I don’t know why, I avoid Apple stuff as it fails to hit my VFM index. There again Android is rubbish in other ways. I pay as little as possible for phones, this one is a Motorola G6 Play. 8 core CPU, 3gb ram, 32gb flash, plus all the usual stuff and was only £89.95on a deal at Amazon. Battery is huge and it goes for days and days without charging.
Phenomenally windy on White Meldon today, but calm at the car park. Humongous amounts of traffic too. Sky was part broken but managed AB4PP & N4EX on 20m, 60 & 40 were quiet.
For many years I had Android tablet and phones. I’ve now come over to iPad and iPhone, and got to say they knock spots off the Android stuff. No going back. Got good value too by going for a refurbed iPhone 7 and iPad Air 2.
Of course, also have a Windows tablet, necessary for WSJT-X.
It’s funny but where I work, we have provided design services to the major phone semiconductor manufacturers for years and years and so we know what goes on in phones. None of the engineers has an iPhone only Android phones. The only iPhones in the office are company provided ones. Some people who have a company iPhone also carry their own Android phone despite them being free to use the iPhone for personal use and to install any apps they want.
Cleverer people than me may be able to draw conclusions from that. 
Cunning plan Andy wish I’d thought of that! As it happens I have a handy brick spare that would do the job nicely we’ll bear that in mind for the future 
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REMINDER - The first post in thread ended so -
P.S. Long-stop date for your diary:
Autumn 2019 Trans-Atlantic Event - Saturday 2nd November 2019 between 13:00 and 17:00 UTC.
Book the good weather now!
Some may prefer to be QRV from 12:00 UTC. Hopefully we will manage some more S2S contacts then
73, Gerald G4OIG / G8CXK
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I plan on making it this time! Thank you for the reminder!
73
Mike NS1TA
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