I just plotted the HFTA analysis and VOCAP predictions for my chosen summit and was interested to find that (in general - stange conditions not taken into account), 40m before UTC Midday is a better option than 20m after midday. According to VOACAP good coverage using lower power is possible into North & South America on 40m up to about UTC noon from 0700 UTC.
After midday 20m might open up between Europe and only the east coast of the US & Canada but at a lower strength to 40m in the morning.
Of course with the time difference UTC morning is still in the night in the Americas, so as usual propagation may be good but if no one is on (or in our case out on a summit), you wouldn’t know!
… the family calendar is pretty full but if the weather is good I’ll try to squeeze an activation in. Most likely from Hummelsberg, DM/BW-228 which is almost a drive- on location with lots of space and the opportunity to set up the antenna directly at the “cliff”. Clear shot towards 300° included
Most likely I’ll bring my delta loop (Delta Loop for the 20m band – dl3tu) or a vertical dipole (J-Pole antenna for the HF-bands – dl3tu).
A bit of extra power would be nice but right now I don’t know how to carry the large battery and the K3…
Well pre-midday is a non-starter as far as the UK is concerned. We’ve a final to watch.
I’m still debating whether to use an inverted vee dipole or vertical… summit considerations and the likelihood of the public being around might determine the set up. Just hoping the weather is better than today!
Would be interested in what you decide and why. I have the former and am wondering whether to bother making the latter if stateside SOTA probably can’t hear my 10W CW either way.
“A sloper with the wires end to end facing north east from the US will probably work well.”
Last Sunday, 20 October, I activated W4T/SO-024 using a 43 foot sloper with the top end about 15 feet above ground. I was on 20M CW running about 2.5 watts. Starting just before 1400 UCT I worked chasers in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain (the omnipresent EA2IF, Guru). This was on an otherwise dead band. So miracles are possible. Spotting will be essential.
For a worldwide SOTA readership, in case you’re puzzled, the Rugby World Cup final is on the same day as the transatlantic S2S QSO party (AM European time).
I use an Altoids tin for my Palm Pico, it makes a lightweight and tough storage vessel and also doubles up as a base. I found that I was getting pain after a while gripping the small key with my left hand whilst keying with my right hand. I can hold the Altoids tin with no problem for as long as I need.
I bought a roll of orange self adhesive plastic film, so I use it to make my kit visible. The issue I now have is that it’s hard to see orange stuff against all my orange stuff!
We had a short mention in the “World-of-DX” section of the just released AR Newsline broadcast, hopefully that might summon up a few more activators - we’re looking a bit short at the moment:
It looks like we may have a few portable stations on the bands from South Africa as RaDaR have an event on Saturday as well!
(This from SouthGate News):
# RaDAR Challenge on 2 November
The third and last RaDAR Challenge for 2019 takes place from 00:00 UTC to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 2 November 2019, but you only need to operate for four hours.
The RaDAR Challenge is not a “contest” as such, it is an individual challenge. All amateur bands are allowed including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. Modes - CW, SSB, FM or any legal amateur radio digital mode.
As from 2019 the WARC bands will be included.
The exchange is your call sign, your name, RS(T) report and grid locator. The grid locator of six characters is acceptable but should preferably be accurate to 8 or 10 characters for higher position accuracy.
You earn 1 point per QSO and then there are multipliers to be used.
In case you get a contact with a RaDaR station, remember to have your Summit’s Maidenhead locator with you (it’s on the Summit Information page if you don’t know it).
Dang it, of course I have other obligations during this event again. If love to get the 100w station and Half-Square antenna out on a summit for this at some point. It would be darn good fun.
GL to all, and I look forward to the after action reports and videos.
I may try FT8 on 20 m with dipole and 100 w. I did this during last Saturday JA/VK/ZL event, and received call from Japanese station with -13 signal report, but local QRM and propagation change did not allow to complete the contact.
Hi everybody,
I probably can’t take part on Saturday but want to motivate everyone else with the results of my short trip to DM/HE-059 yesterday. The Rig was my KX2 @ 5 watts and the antenna was a 40m long endfed wire (inverted-L shape: 10m up vertical into a tree, 30m horizontal to another tree). No less than 10 DX contacts in a rather short period of time, including a s2s with N1ZF.
(Same) Good luck to all of you!
I’ve still not got a gig for this coming weekend. Which is not good financially, but very good if it allows me to take part in one of my favourite SOTA events!
I think I will now go and post an alert - and then probably have a gig booking come in later in the day - you know how these things work!
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