There’s a few NA alerts on for Sunday - not as many as today obviously.
Anyway, how about a “Round 2” of the Trans-Atlantic S2S session tomorrow for those of us for whom the Saturday is inconvenient?
I’ll add my alert now - probably mainly 10m (all modes) but may take 20m too after assessing what others are alerting for.
Cheers,
Tom M1EYP
Excellent idea. There’s a yellow warning for strong wind in my area, so I am unable to participate today. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow.
Well that was good fun!
The Cloud G/SP-015 - 40 QSOs
2m FM: 2 QSOs - both G - including S2S with M0PJE/P on G/WB-015
10m SSB: 7 QSOs - CU, G, KP4 (x2), PY, W (x2) - including S2S with KP4/HB9WDF/P & KP4/HB9WDE/P on KP4/CC-001
10m CW: 25 QSOs - DL, EA, G (x2), HA, LZ, SP, UR, VE (x3), W (x13), YO - including S2S with KX0R on W0C/FR-085
10m FT4: 5 QSOs - RA, SV, W (x3)
10m FT8: 1 QSO - RA
I know things would have been a lot more exciting in the main NA S2S Event 24 hours earlier, but nonetheless I am delighted with the KP4 S2S QSOs and 24 out of the 40 QSOs being Transatlantic.
Also interesting to note that the BEST mode for working Transatlantic is CW - not FT8/FT4! (Based on this 2 hour personal dataset…!)
Many congratulations to KP4/HB9WDF/P and KP4/HB9WDE/P who managed an enormous pile-up but (hopefully) got all callers worked. I had to leave the frequency and come back to it a few times during my activation, as it was too busy for my 5 watts to cut through, but eventually I did hear those magic words “There is a summit-to-summit. Please only the summit-to-summit”.
Your numbers are nearly identical to mine from the actual event, but I was CW only minus a handful 2m FM contacts. 39 QSO’s, 5 S2S, and 17 overall Transatlantic contacts. QSB plus QRN on 10m made some of those pretty “well earned” on Saturday.
I activated YO/EC-017 yesterday afternoon. The walk from the car to the activation zone was only 1.4 km and an easy climb, so for the first time I took my IC-7300 and a large battery to a SOTA activation. The antenna was the Chelegance MC-750 vertical. The weather was sunny but cold, -2ºC and a cool breeze. Unfortunately, after an hour on the summit my fingers were frozen and it was getting dark, so I had to leave. I made 37 QSOs, all on 10m band, 2 S2S (in Europe), 11 transatlantic contacts.
That’s a lovely photo Tudor. Is the mast in the background your mast or something already there. It’s hard to tell how close and therefore how big it is!
The one on the left of the photo is my antenna, MC-750 telescopic whip with 8 radials on the ground.
I was on my local mountain again on Sunday… the weather was better and I was able to stay a little longer.
Unfortunately there were no DX S2S… but a lot of chasers from the USA and Canada
73 Armin
Anyway, what say we (from 2025 on) make these into two-session events (Saturday and Sunday) officially? It’s still a narrow enough focus on the optimum time of year and optimum time of day for Transatlantic S2S, but widens the opportunity for more people to get involved.
Well that sounds like a plan. Maybe we could try a Saturday + Sunday event in April. I would be interested to see what others think of the idea. It would give flexibility to choose which day, or indeed both for the keen ones. I was QRV on Sunday, but only on the lower frequencies and I was not intent on staying on the summit with the weather up in GM not being good.
I personally prefer a single day event, primarily out of concern that the number of operators QRV at peak hours would be diluted. Second, I’m not able to dedicate myself to multi-day events, but putting a single day on the calendar a couple months in advance is a piece of cake. It was fun seeing the amount of spots hammer the cluster, and I’d hate to see that cut in half.
Indeed, that’s why I try to give a heads up well ahead of schedule. The Trans-Atlantic S2S event started in 2016 when I realised I had had no T/A S2S contacts in 10 years of doing SOTA. There’s nothing to organise other than the dates, Similarly there’s nothing to stop anyone announcing an event of any nature at any time.
But maybe it was already cut in half because it excluded all of us that are busy on Saturdays?
I reckon that moving to a two session event would have the following effects:
So overall, I wouldn’t expect to see a significant dip in the Saturday session, but would expect to see an increase in participation due to the addition of a Sunday session.
There’s going to be a Sunday session anyway - because I will add an unofficial “Part 2” like I did this time if necessary. But it would be much nicer if it was part of the official event - which has become a successful and eagerly anticipated part of the SOTA calendar.
I think having a Saturday and Sunday event might actually increase my QSO count. There were so many activators out that spots were rolling of the screen so if you weren’t forever scrolling back on Sotawatch you could easily miss spots. I was on a single point summit so I think many chasers might not have prioritised my CQ calls. On the other hand I might not have had so many S2S contacts if some of the activators weren’t out until the Sunday.
Previous SOTA weekend events have been almost-without-fail successful - International SOTA Weekend, European SOTA Day (became weekend I think?), Snowdonia and Lake District camping/youth-hostelling weekends etc.
Nothing to lose surely? Or at least try it once, and if doing so kills the success of the Saturday session, then I admit I was wrong and we revert to the original format 
Pedantic comment: Since when has the Trans-Atlantic S2S event been official? All I do is check the dates based on the previous year and give the heads up on the reflector.
I did carry out a review earlier this year based on requests made to me personally to consider alternative dates, but the general consensus was to retain the status quo. At the time it was noted that at this point in the solar cycle every weekend could be a Trans-Atlantic event.
That said, it has proved to be extremely successful and enjoyable running it twice a year. I am always pleased to read of how people get on. We’ve had 15 events so far having cancelled the April sessions on 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions. Personally I would be unlikely to participate on both days in November, but the April event is far more conducive to doing both. I’m certainly up for a two day event if others support the format.
This is true. I’ve had Trans-Atlantic S2S on all my recent activations when I’ve done 10m in the afternoon, and most have been during the week.
I would certainly never discourage anyone from activating, after consideration I think you are correct that it doesn’t hurt to try as we have nothing to lose.
The official unofficial yet advertised Transatlantic S2S event.
I think you answer your own question:
You’ve established it in the SOTA calendar, and it is always a huge success.
Seeing the Norbreck 2025 thread got me checking whether this would clash with the next S2S event. Usually we run the April session concurrent with the QRPTTF event in the USA, though any benefit to either event has, as far as I am aware, never been established. The WA7BNM Contest Calendar suggests that the 2025 QRPTTF will be on Saturday 19th April, so it does clash with Norbreck. However, the 19th is the Easter weekend which could be an issue for those with family commitments, especially if we are looking at running the S2S event on both the Saturday and the Sunday.
Soooo, my initial thought is to propose the weekend of 26th and 27th April for a double header event.
Comments please from intending participants…
Gerald G4OIG
