A FANTASTIC day up on the summit. My first ever summit contacts on 17M let alone any S2S on it (2). A wire came off on my headphones which definitely muted everything but but I carry a set of ear buds just in case & today was a “just in case day”. Thanks to all the chasers.
David, N6AN… I heard Gerard in VK working you but you were a bit too far down for me to copy sorry.
All in all a great day out. It was nice to have the propagation AND the weather gods agree to work together hand in hand.
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Well, I have to say mine was an unmitigated failure. I set out at 4.30am local time when Brisbane was fast asleep and I had the road to myself. I arrived at the base of Mt Cotton (VK4/SE-115) just before sunrise and slogged up the very steep 1km climb to the top. I was able to erect my Sotabeams linked dipole and attach the feeder to my G90 and Packer HF amp no problems at all. For me, the bands were stone dead. My set up was okay as I was being picked up by RBNHole on 20m; I heard absolutely nothing on 20m and 17m. Eventually I gave up in disgust and headed to a motorsport event to watch my son compete for the remainder of the day. So at least the day wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Still buzzing after today’s event - the best ever for me!
Three S2Ss with NA on 17m CW so thank you K6EL, WY7N and N6AN.
Also 9 JA S2S with all but one on 17m CW. One YB S2S on 20m CW.
Then 15 ZL S2S on a mix of 17m, 20m and 40m and on SSB and CW.
Antenna was a ZS6BKW doublet at 9m.
I started out with the KX3 @ 15W and after 30 mins switched to the IC7300 for 100W on 17m and 50W on 20m. DX signals were incredibly weak so the extra power was needed. The battery lasted for four hours then I switched back to the KX3 for the last four contacts. Total was 91 QSOs with 31 S2S.
Thanks to those that gave chase and hope to work anyone missed next time.
Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HzYF5V9eRKtjyBwj9
73, Gerard - VK2IO
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Wow Gerard that is awesome, looks like you were in the right spot and well prepared for the Activation. Well done, considering how bad conditions have been over the weekend.
I only managed 3 contacts this afternoon and that was my total for the weekend and I was around or in the shack most of the weekend. VK6 had terrible conditions so wasn’t worth getting out of bed even to chase from the shack this morning
73
John VK6NU
Although the propagation was less than stellar, it was fun to see all the activity. On SSB, I only managed 3 S2S with North American stations (NS1TA, N1EU, and VE7ESE) but had a lot of fun. The day was unseasonably warm so I could find a nice warm dry spot between patches of snow for a comfortable activation. Thanks to those whose brainchild this event was and to all the activators and chasers.
Paul
VA6MPM
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I usually work with John ZL1BYZ on regular basis. However, this time I operated from Eastern Arizona - about 700 miles to the East from my normal location in California. I listened for John on his spotted frequencies, but was not able to hear him. I made two Trans Pacific FT8 contacts (JA2KVD and JA5GYU), but not S2S.
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ZL1/WK-147 Klondyke
You never know what your going to get when out on SOTA but these events sure increase the fun. Thank you all the activators for the s2s contacts, chasers for the chase and the again contacts as I moved up the bands. Every contact appreciated.
My first QSO was at 19:53 on 17th and last 00:24 on the 18th utc so about four and a half hours on air at the summit.
Here is a summary.
I had already activated Klondyke this year so it was the s2s points that was the attraction. The 34 s2s contacts yielded 110 s2s points. 
Klondyke is an exposed site near the west coast. WX has seen some heavy showers all week and although Sunday’s outlook was good I decided to pitch a tent for wind, rain and sun protection. Here is the station. A KX3 @10w into an EFRW antenna.
The view.
There are a few communication installations at Klondyke. The tower in this picture below is the amateur one. Thank you to the Auckland VHF Group for allowing me to activate at this location
It didn’t rain and only light breezes.
73 John ZL1BYZ.
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Something wrong, Grant! I’m only 100 km west, and I thought the JA activators were the strongest I have ever heard! Like others have mentioned, USA activators were just too weak to work. Japan certainly gets the gold star for getting activators out - many of the calls I worked were new in my log. “Top Dog” on SOTAWATCH was flipping so fast I gave up trying to be strategic, and just tried to work whomever was the most recent spot.
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John thanks for the S2S and CONGRATS for your stunning log!
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John thanks for the QSO
For the event I went to a summit with very easy access but with its disadvantages. There is a meteorological station and yesterday it was noisy than ever.
I installed two antennas, a dipole towards the USA and as with Oceania we always have conditions, a GP.
Unfortunately the conditions with the USA were practically nil (only some very weak chasers) and every time I changed to the GP the noise got worse …
Despite this, I can say that the balance was positive.
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Thank you Barry and all the activators for the S2S contacts. Although the propagation was poor, I worked four S2Ss with NA: N1EU, K7MK, W1EJ and K6EL and four S2Ss with OC: VK2WP, VK2IO, YB1TIA and BX8AAD. All contacts were on 20m.
Arrived at Minoyama JA/ST-017 at 2030 UTC. There were beautiful sea of clouds.
Here is the setup. IC-705 and Hardrock-50 running 30W to avoid interference for the station who was operating 6m next to me.
The antenna, Linear-loaded Vertical Dipole Array.
The battery, 3.6kg weights and 346Wh capacity. It’s overkill for the amplifier. Only 15% were consumed after the three hours activation.
I managed 31 QSOs including five JA S2Ss and eight DX S2Ss during the activation. Thanks to all chasers and activators. Hope see you next time.
73, Minoru JL1NIE
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This was my first HF Activation and was thrilled to get 4 North America S2S.
I heard one Japanese QSO on 20m on the same freq. as a ZL spot.
Some Lessons learned for me:
- Pre-program audio memories for calling CQ.
- Need to print out some log sheets with columns.
- Need to have a band plan paper reference and a paper beacon reference.
- 2 QSOs I copied incorrectly and couldn’t verify contacts at home.
- My EFHW has a touchy BNC connector that needs to be repaired / replaced (bought used - quick fix)
- I filtered the Sota Spotter to SSB and missed some VHF S2S opportunities. Forgot I filtered.
- I packed too much
I had a blast and look forward to the next one. Working on my CW skills…on lesson 29 of LCWO.
Mike VE7ESE
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Fantastic result Gerard, well done.
73 de Geoff vk3sq
Amazing work Gerard. Absolutely dead on my summit and so disheartening considering the effort. I think I may stick to DMR for a few years until I come right. Or perhaps I am just getting too old for this.
Not sure what my problem was John. I am sure all was okay as I was spotted by RBN. I think the poor no of activators generally in VK4 probably is a good indication that our conditions aren’t favourable for SOTA. I sometimes think I must be the only nutter here! Very disheartening.
hi Grant,
I noted your report of hearing no activity, a surprise as most others seem to be reporting lots. How far would you have been from VK4CT, do you think the RBN signal level looks right? it only needs to be 10 db down for weak signals to become unreadable. eg. perhaps there was a fault in your feedline that allowed you to be heard by the local RBN spotter vk4ct, but prevented you hearing others. Have to sympathise though, it is frustrating when things simply don’t work as you expect and hope.
On your suggestion of activating that summit I will try to do that in the next week when I’m in the area.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
Hi Andrew,
VK4CT isn’t far away at all. May even be within sight from the summit. Check out his antennae (https://johnloftus.com.au/). Could be problems with the amp and its connections. I should have tried disconnecting it and going commando. Ah, the problem with wisdom is that it’s something you get when you no longer need it.
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Grant,
So you may have expected to be a lot stronger at his qth? you may be onto the problem in that case.
That is one of the amplifiers with the plug-in filters, I think?
will be interesting to see what you find on testing it.
73 Andrew
I am curious for the Oceania activators. Who in NA was your easternmost contact? Looks like W7A activators had success but I have not seen any references to contacts in the Midwest or eastern NA.
Go to Sotawatch spots, make sure that VK, ZL, JA & BV are within your filter, change the time range to “spots in last week” and note which Oceania activators were spotted between 1900 and 2330 UTC last Saturday. Then go to the database and look in their logs to find the easternmost s2s contacts. Voila.
Elliott, K6EL