Walking in to cows in the dark. Literally the stuff of nightmares…
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HI Fraser,
I’ll still be around on a summit in Colorado for the event. 15, 17 and 20 meters. Looking forward to an S2S.
73, Joe KE9AJ
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Yeah, I’ve had a few night-time encounters. I used to commute to work cycling along the towpath of my local canal in all seasons. Not yer gravel or paved path for most of the way out in the countryside but grassy in summer and muddy or boggy in winter.
One head-torch-lit ride home in December darkness found me behind half a dozen cows which somehow had strayed from the neighbouring field onto that very narrow path. Of course they were spooked by my torch but with no where to go [canal water to the left, barbed wire fence to the right] it took about an hour to ‘herd’ them forward to a space wide enough to get past them.
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Sounds good Joe! Let’s hope we can hook up.
73, Fraser
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Looking forward to this…
Are there any centers of activities that differ from european frequencies?
Any link / ressources on this?
Thanks
Ingo
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Looks like I will be working that (all week and…) weekend… 
( I just worked 250 hours in 20 days and I was hoping for some much needed R&R, but my boss thinks I am superman 
If SHTF, and I don’t have to travel 1000km (700 miles) to work, I will be on a summit.
73 de LA3NGA Henning
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Too early for an accurate forecast 
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There tends to be more activity at the top of 20m on SSB, mainly above 14.300MHz. CW is usually 14.060MHz +/- several kHz. Frequencies on 17m vary, so it is best to keep an eye on the spots if you can. 15m hasn’t really been working in recent years, so is probably another spot watching exercise.
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And for the NA activators please keep in mind that the 20m band in Europe has the upper limit at 14350.
So pls choose your spots wisely 
Looking forward to a fun event.
73 Joe
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Hi Joe,
So does the US 20m Band :
(from Band Plan).
(40m is the main different band with UK/EU having 7.0-7.2 and the US having 7.0-7.3MHz).
The complexity comes as in the US the parts of a HF band that can be used depends upon the class of licence - Technician and the old Novice class don’t have access to 20m. General has less of the band than Advanced and Extra classes.
The area probably to avoid so as not to exclude some classes of US operator are 14.150-225. I’m not sure how Canada does it but I think in the US above 14.300 is available for all classes apart from technician and novice.
(from http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Band%20Chart%20-%2011X17%20Color.pdf)
Then again, being a weekend day, the 20m band is likely to full of contest stations and I’m hoping to use 17m if it is open.
73 Ed.
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Thank you very much for the very helpful hints!
73s
Ingo
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In general the Canadian frequency allotments match the US bands, but there is no restriction within the band based on class of license.
The Radio Amateurs of Canada web-site has a useful band plan.
https://www.rac.ca/rac-0-30-mhz-band-plan/
Ian VE6IXD
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I’ve been activating this afternoon the summit I’m planning to activate on the Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party.
With my new 10m long telescopic pole, I setup a vertical 10m long endfed wire connected to a 9:1 unun from which a 5m long counterpoise wire was extended on the sloping downhill ground with an angle of about 30 degrees.
I checked that my MFJ-941B tuner managed to tune this antenna on 15, 17 and 20m, as these are the bands I will use during the S2S QSO Party.
In about 70 minutes of operation on 17 and 20m, I managed to log 50 QSOs, 2 of which were S2S. From all these QSOs, 8 were DX U.S.A. and 1 of these DX U.S.A. was a S2S with Mike WB2FUV.
This is the full log:
Probably, this antenna is not the best performer on all these 3 bands, but I think today’s result proves that it’s a good enough compromise and I hope to have good results with it on November 6th QSO Party.
73,
Guru
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Band conditions seem promising as well, SN and SFI numbers are up. 
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In Southern California it does!
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well done Guru. 
cheers Geoff vk3sq
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Hi All -
When you consider such SOTA events, it would always be good to look at the Contest Calendar - here’s one: Contest Calendar. Unfortunately the weekend of 6 November is the CW Sweepstakes - I imagine that 20m would be wall to wall QRO when that event starts at 2100z Saturday. Let’s finish up our Party before Sweepstakes starts!
73, Etienne-K7ATN
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Unfortunately EVERY weekend has Contest QRM - often both SSB and CW.
If it’s only a big CW contest, that’s good news for me as I only run SSB, but my other plan is to try 17m, being a WARC band contesters are not allowed to pollute it.
OK, checking here https://sites.google.com/site/dl2nbycontestcalendar/ over here in Europe the main contest will be the Ukrainian DX contest which is CW & SSB 160m - 10m. So I expect some strong (and wide) signals of the SSB parts of the 20 & 40m bands.
73 Ed.
UPDATE: Here’s what the middle station on the way up to Fellhorn looks like at the moment - I think I’ll need to find a different summit if I still take part on Saturday. The weather has turned horrible. Even down here at 650m ASL it’s just over freezing temperature and constant rain!
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We all will be home and many heading to bed by that time…
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Guru,
I will not be on the same summit for Trans-Atlantic S2S event, but let’s try to duplicate our s2s QSO in the magic time 1400-1500 Z.on 20M. Hopefully the solar activity will help us.
73!
Mike
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