A good day weather-wise up on Mount Blair, GM/ES-035, one of the first windless days we’ve had this month, but the bands were pretty disappointing. 40m was all non-EU, with 2 S2S: MW0JKS/P and Andy M0FMF/P. Just 3 ssb S2S across the pond - WW4D on 15m, KC1SRI and K2CPT on 10m and only 2 US chasers, W1WRA and N4VEP both on 15m. Strange that I got OK reports from the summits but an almost complete lack of US chasers. My first QSO on 10m was a S2S with Gerald GM4OIG/P, 57 both ways - the only other chase I got on 10m was EA8AMT. Manuel, EA2DT, was itl twice, on 20 and 17 - on 20 he gave me a 33, probably the worst I’ve ever had from him. Of the 7 other chasers on 20m, EA2WX/P was a S2S.
After the S2S with K2CPT I called fruitlessly on 10m for another 20 minutes and then packed up.
Equipment: KX3, Sotabeams linked dipole for 40/20, moxons for 17/15/10.
Activation location
Hello.
For us it was a great transatlantic day. We only worked some local stations on VHF and everything else was on 10m SSB. We decided to use a 3 element Yagi from our summit. The strength of the signals on our receiver was surprising. All signs were around 7-9. We got 5 S2S, four of them with USA stations and almost everything else with stations from the American continent and surprisingly some European stations through Backscatter that were not received in focus. A very fun day.
73 to all
Awesome! I love having the opportunity to see what things sound like at the other end. Thanks for sharing. The more I experiment with different and bigger antennas, the more I realize how even relatively small changes can make a real difference in being able to make a contact or not.
Due to wx forecast I hesitated going. I thought about which nearby summit would have something like a cabin to provide some shelter from the rain. In the end I decided short term for a summit in the Black Forest dm/bw-851. I was very lucky wx was much better than expected and precipitation came down as light snow instead of nasty rain.
I only managed to make one dx s2s on 15m with joe kc1sri, but a lot local eu S2S. I left earlier than planned…. But tbh it was much colder than expected .
It was really nice. Only sometimes the wind blew some snow into it.
This was just an hour activation for me, starting at 16:00 UTC. A lot of unanswered calling compared to my usual earlier in the day activations. 15m was the money band for the USA. Across the bands, I had a total of 24 QSO’s with 7 to the USA and 3 x S2S with @N1AIA, @VA2EO and @K6ARK and a bonus to @PY1NP on 10m.
I had a clear sunny activation, with a cool breeze. Still need a jacket and hat.
What a difference several months can make. I operated from the same summit, W6CT-228, on 4/11/23.The tally was 8 EU S2S+1 AF S2S+1VE S2S+11 US S2S, 22 EU+1 SA+11 US QSOs. Returning on 7/1/24 I netted 1 EU S2S+2 EU+10 US QSOs. Yesterday, 20/4/24, was a bust. I couldn’t make a single QSO on 10 meters nor hear any EU activators on any band. I worked K6ARK for a local S2S and KF9D on 15. 30 meters supplied the other 7 Qs including S2S with Dale and Chris, AA7OY and N1CLC. After 90 minutes on the summit I bailed and found two new local summits to activate. I was feeding 5 watts to either a 17’ or 44’ doublet, both on the same pole with the 44 footer at the top of the mast.
I got IMs from Roberto, IW20BX, showing his KX2 tuned to my 12 meter CQ frequency. And Alfonso, EA4R, forwarded a photo of the yagi Cesar, EA4IS, and Guille, EA4IZ, had set up on EA4/TO-047.
Kudos to Adam for picking a good summit, hoofing it there, having a gain antenna ready to deploy and making lots of Qs. Nicely executed, OM!
And congratulations to many others who managed across-the-pond QSOs.
On summit #2, W6/SC-237, I worked 2 EU and 3 SA plus Don, NK6A, on 10 then faced the tick gauntlet on the way down. Ascending I brushed off more than 50 of the clingers. Yuck!
My last stop, W6/SC-229, netted 1 JA, 2 OC, 2 SA, several US including Lorene and Mike, W6LOR/K6STR S2S. So 10 meters, at least, had settled down some from the morning conditions. The fog/cloud cover burned off after noon. There was no view on summit #1.
With the SFI so high I was expectant of better conditions, despite the strong Solar disturbances.
That G3/K7 event certainly didn’t help.
Next time! 72, David N6AN
After a challenging day on Meall Ghaordaidh GM/CS-017 on Friday 19th April, I decided on an easier summit with a fairly short and easy ascent. As usual I had more kit on my back and more water and food for the longer than normal activation. Drumcroy Hill GM/CS-107 seemed to fit the bill quite nicely and indeed it proved to be almost ideal.
I was on the hill early, so I started on 40m SSB using my KX3 at 15 watts feeding the Slidewinder vertical. This was hardly the best antenna for the band, but it worked to some degree.After a session on 40m , I moved to 2m SSB where I had 3 QSOs, one of which was actually on CW.
Moving to the higher HF bands for the Trans-Atlantic S2S event at 12:30z , I found I couldn’t hear anyone across the ocean that had been spotted. However, using a combination of search and calling CQ, I made a reasonable number of S2S contacts interspersed with calls from chasers. A more detailed report will be published with the activation report for Meall Ghaordaidh. Meall Ghaordaidh GM/CS-017 and Drumcroy Hill GM/CS-107
50 contacts including 3 W S2S, 1 VE S2S and 13 EU S2S. With 15m working I feel I went QRT too early at 15:55z, but with over 3 hours to get back to base, I probably made the right decision.
Many thanks to everyone that came on for the event. I enjoyed this one and I’m really looking forward to November.
I have just looked at the results that I have achieved for the Trans-Atlantic S2S since its inception in the autumn of 2016… strange to think it was that long ago! Prior to that first event I had not made any S2S contacts across the Atlantic despite having been activating for 10 years… only contacts with home-based chasers. Although we’ve been through a minimum in the solar cycle, every event has produced at least one Trans-Atlantic S2S for me. I wonder how others have faired.
Some good thoughts there. It would be interesting to see how other EU activator’s fared this time around. I will have a look at a few logs to see who was actually worked. I was only chased by Bob AC1Z. I can explain the non-appearance of chasers like Mike NW7E in my log which was down to skip distance, but there should have been plenty of eastern States stations in there.
I called CQ for quite a while on 18MHz… maybe I should have been on 21MHz for better results. I got the feeling conditions were improving as I bailed out. Perhaps looking at who was worked at what time might confirm that. If so, does the timing of the event need adjusting by an hour or so? Not an easy thing to cater for in the November event when the light fades and the temperature drops in EU.
Looks like you did pretty well despite the wimpy conditions.
Notice that every November Event is better than the one in the spring for the EU/NA path…and that is normal based on my Six Meter observations since the 1960’s that the only openings to EU on 6M were ALWAYS in November. I believe that data is due to the fact that we are closest to the sun in the winter.
So the November event will always be better…well…maybe not always…no way to outguess the Solar Activity.
This next DX peak is coming up soon…but it is to the Southern Hemisphere…Africa, SA, VK/ZL.
Was out yesterday on a summit…worked two EA…tons of NA to the east coast, but only along the states East coast, and Easter Island. Only worked Big Gun EU stations.
Anyhow u did well considering the time of year, and all of the solar flares.
Hope we can QSO again soon! If all else fails likely in November!
Indeed it is Pete. As can be seen from the graph, a couple of the Spring events produced very little and I was pleased to come off the summit with a single Trans-Atlantic S2S in the log. Nevertheless, I firmly remain of the opinion that it is worth running two events per year regardless of where we are in the solar cycle on the principle of “if you don’t try, you don’t get”.
I recall there was some interest in a W to VK S2S event a couple of years back. Maybe someone could put a proposal in place and get one set up.
I’m really looking forward to November. I’ve already started planning a few days activating around the date with the idea of spending a bit longer on the summit to see if it is worthwhile. It will definitely be a descent in the dark, but once it’s dark it’s dark, so really it’s irrelevant whether it’s 17:00 or 18:00 or even later. Probably a bit too late in the year for an overnighter.
I’ve not heard my own round the world echoes yet on 10 or 12m. As we got nearer to November last maximum I was regularly hearing my own round the world echoes, often more than 5 echos. It made CW completely unusable
As I was driving back south after this month’s event, I had a phone conversation with Mike G4BLH who has considerable 10m experience and expertise. Mike wasn’t surprised that I had not had any results on 10m as the best period for the band has now passed until the autumn. Simon GM4JXP did manage some Trans-Atlantic S2S contacts on the band, but he was running a directional antenna. I guess he will be at the forefront of things in November.
It was a very windy day, the idea of use the hentenna for 10mt faded. The last hour at home before leaving, I made 5 efhw radiator for 20 18 15 12 10. I put in the rucksack all the necessary: kx3, phone, key, telescopic pole, antennas, QRP 64:1 transformer, batts lipo and I grabbed also the ft857d… for work also in QRO and have some chance more. I remebered to take the QRO 64:1 transformer.
I reached my prefered summit I/LO-222 Mt Tesoro that has a good take off.
I think to have missed a s2s qso with @VA2YZX, your signal was poor and suffered by strong qsb, I listened only some letters, sorry Sly.
I decided to use the big gun, I passed to ft857d, yt100 atu and 50watts, I installed the qro setup and started to call but… nothing… no one spot, no one qso… I spent a lot of time to understand what was happening…
a pop up in my mind… some months ago I needed a toroid and I removed from somewhere… infact the box that I was using was empty…
Well, that is what it is all about Roberto. I see that despite the problem with your antenna set up, you did very well on 28MHz up to around 17:00z. It certainly looks like I left my summit too early. In future I need accommodation nearby so I can stay later on the summit, particularly in the April events.
Much later, here’s more of a report: will add S2S details once the logs are typed into a computer (I use paper on the hills as my handwritten scrawl is more likely to be accurate than my fat fingers on a phone!).
Our target was Boulsworth Hill G/SP-008, which dominates the town of Trawden where we are staying. We were able to leave the car parked on the drive and walk from the door. The first point of interest was the cobbled pathway running uphill opposite the cottage, which continued up where the road turned left, and as we reached its end there was a short section with embedded rails. It turns out it is the remains of what was the Trawden and Colne light railway: a tramway that ran for a relatively short period between 1905 and 1929. Leaving the road we took footpaths and tracks heading roughly south which eventually led to a lovely little wooded valley of Gilford Clough.
Emerging from the clough a slightly soggy gassy area led us to the bridleway that runs along the north edge of Boulsworth Hill. A short distance east along it led to a permitted path that climbed pretty much straight up: a bit boggy in places and steep but not excessively so in others. The path bent left along the ridge leading to the white painted trig point.
It was considerably less windy than on previous days, but there was still enough of a chill breeze at the top for us to want to drop down on the slightly more sheltered east side. We also avoided the trig point as although not as busy at some hills there were a fair number of other visitors. Caroline set up VHF/UHF propping the rucksack against a rock while Martyn set up the HP dipole a little lower contriving a position where it didn’t block any of the many paths radiating from the summit.
As Caroline set up there was a VHF summit station calling, and our first summit to summit was in the bag. Martyn first went to 40m, where we manged to both work 4 other summit stations - the hill qualified with summit to summits! Martyn then tried 60m but only got 3 contacts. Meanwhile Caroline was bobbing between VHF and UHF, picking up another S2S. Martyn then had a 10m SSB S2S which Caroline missed, but then had a run on 40m getting some more S2S. Where possible we called each other over when an S2S was available, but sometimes the other person was too busy on their own station to break off!
After some more 40m S2Ses Caroline took over 40m for a run, ending with one more S2S. She then moved to 20m during which time Martyn picked up a VHF S2S on the other station! A couple more 20m S2S and we then tried 15m looking for transatlantic contacts. We didn’t really expect much and were delighted to get a first transatlantic S2S for both of us: difficult copy but we made it. Martyn managed a second even more difficult transatlantic contact, but he faded out before Caroline could work him. Martyn then went into search and pounce looking for other S2S while Caroline continued back on 2m. It was all a bit chaotic, but Caroline ended up with 75 contacts, 22 of which were S2S (21 unique callers as she worked one person on both 15m and 2m!), while Martyn has 42 contacts, 23 of which were S2S. Caroline qualified the hill with > 4 contacts on 70cms, 2m, 40m and 20m, and Martyn on 2m, 40m and 15m.
A stunning day on the hills, but we had to stop sometime and pack up to descend as we had a moderate walk back to the cottage. The return was slightly longer as we chose a more scenic route, but it was worth it on what turned out to be a lovely evening. Heading NE and then NNW we dropped down to the bridleway, which is part of the Pennine Bridleway and Bronte Way, following the Bronte Way to the little village of Wycoller with its quirky stone bridges. Out of the wind it was sufficiently warm that we needed to shed some clothing layers.
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