I will be on a summit if it is allowed.
We have been asked (but not yet ordered) not to leave our “region” which really restricts my choice of summit. But if it is possible to participate, I will.
73, Malcolm VE2DDZ
During our FD I was activating a summit on Saturday last (21 March) and at 0504 I worked KE4TWI on 20m cw, nice signal heard, 589, gave location as TN. Quite unexpected. So there may be contacts to be made, albeit chaser contacts rather than s2s, later than the 2100-2300 UTC timeframe.
I always love making those unexpected dx contacts. I just had an ordinary chat about radio, antenna, power, etc, offered the sota summit code if he wanted it, then excused myself to look for FD contacts. Got to keep the “social” in the “distancing” aka dxing. Anyway, even without sunspots to speak of, contacts like that keep happening. his power was 500w and I don’t recall the antenna details. Still he copied my 10w very well.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
I made another trans-pacific QSO today on 20:31 UTC from W6/NS-181 with John, ZL1BYZ on 18 MHz. So, we can start party a little earlier - maybe at 20:30 UTC?
Unlike Europe, the guidance currently being issued in the US actually encourages outdoor exercise while maintaining 6ft (2m) of separation between people, even if there are shelter-in-place restrictions in effect. I don’t believe there’s any conflicting guidance in Asia and Oceania. Unless this changes, we’ll plan on going ahead with the Trans-Pacific S2S QSO Party on April 18.
You have a bigger wilderness that the UK. Here are pictures of hill walkers yesterday exercising social distancing.
(picture copyright(c) dailypost.co.uk)
(picture copyright(c) dailypost.co.uk)
You couldn’t make it up.
The US has plenty of stupid people, too, but we might have a few more summits. Activators can always turn around and go home if the place is too crowded. Especially in the western US, we have a lot of government-owned land that is not parks—US Forest Service. Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, etc. Those places are less crowded.
Marin County (California) had so many people breaking the rules on Saturday that they closed all parks to motorized vehicles on Sunday.
wunder
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ZL goes into total lock down at 1100z Wednesday 25 March (16 hours from now) for four weeks. Although we are allowed out to exercise we have been advised to avoid the back country and all Dept of Conservation huts and the great walks are closed. I don’t think anyone wants to be that guy who requires rescue!
Therefore at this stage it is unlikely you’ll see anyone from ZL for the QSO party.
73 and be safe
Mark ZL3AB
I am interested and will try to participate this QSO Party.
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Date & Time in my diary. I’ll be in VK2 not far from Syndey.
Compton
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We still on for this event?
Perhaps folks should express their interest by posting an alert for their proposed activation on April 18. I encourage everyone to go ahead if their local situation allows.
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Under the current restrictions in VK/Australia it woud be hard to undertake an activation. I’ll happily chase though.
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Presently here in West Texas, we are under an unnecessary travel ban. In addition, the one and only local summit I feel comfortable activating is totally closed, gates locked. I could easily bypass the gates and hike it. But somehow, that is not in the spirit of SOTA. I will continue to play from home as I feel the need. Good luck to any that do participate.
Vy73 – Mike – KD5KC – El Paso, TX.
Please let us know if the newly declared state of emergency in Japan will affect SOTA activations.
Yes,it was declared state of emergency in some cities and prefectures like Tokyo, Osaka, Kanagawa, Hyogo, Saitama, Chiba and Fukuoka. But this wouldn`t affect SOTA activations because it is not a ¨Lockdown¨ We must avoid closed spaces like pubs, malls, public transportation, etc. But it is recommended to go to open spaces of course respecting social space.
Here in VK3 at present (11 April 2020) we can only leave home for 4 specific reasons and ‘playing radio’ isn’t one of them.
We are due to get an update on restrictions on Monday 13 April and there is a very slim chance of restrictions being relaxed.
I am working on plans to activate a summit in Northern Arizona for this S2S party. Not sure exactly which summit I’ll be on yet but I have XYL permission and that’s 95% of the challenge.
I especially want to try for 10, 12, and 15m QSO’s. I’ve had numerous QSO’s with ZL1BYZ on all of these bands, including some within the past 2 weeks (yes even on 10 meters!) so I’m optimistic. It’s always worth a try!
73 es hope cu on Saturday de KR7RK
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I also had few QSOs recently with ZL1BYZ on 15 m, so I expect to make some trans-pacific QSOs. Not sure if it will be S2S contacts.
So far it looks like the only activations on the Asia/Oceania side of the Pacific will be JA and BV. I encourage all possible participants to go ahead and post an alert now for 18 April so there’s a good idea of how much activity may occur. You can always change the alert later.
(update: now there’s only a single alert for As/Oc)
I am interested. Some of our park areas are closed but not all of them, so still many summits for me to choose from in my local area, with very few users, so keeping physical distance is easy. We are not restricted here from travel or hiking or cycling, although it is generally frowned upon to travel any distance to the point where you are coming into contact with others in small towns.
Yes, ZL1BYZ is a very active chaser and I have worked him 3 times now on either 20, 17 or 15m. Hopefully 15m might be a goer…