I wasn’t suggesting any change to the 2m FM / SSB routine, just supporting Tom’s idea of following this with the band used for the RSGB contest.
A start time of 1900UTC for the SOTA activity is the same as the contest start time and for those of us that are involved in the 2m contest, there would be no time available specifically for chasing summits. Contact would therefore be down to chance QSO during the contest period. Also, it needs to be considered that as the days shorten, a later start time will limit the activation time for those on SOTA summits.
Very good points Gerald, especially the start time/nights “drawing in”.
This is why originally 18:00 utc was suggested.
OK on Tom’s idea, I can see the sense in it, but will alert what I am doing hf wise prior to activation, if I can go along with the contest bands, ie antenna/band available on my equipment, I will try and go with the flow, sounds fair to me.
Yes, I think your original 1800z start time is the right one Mike, for reason that Gerald states, and indeed reasons that you yourself state earlier. 1900 is a good start time for “band of the week”, if it happens. We’ll just see what happens. Looking at the forecast, we might just all be staying in anyway…
If enough people could be active with 23 cms SSB then I for one would certainly look at going onto either Hailstorm Hill, Freeholds Top or Longridge Fell one evening.
The idea is to tag 23cms SOTA operation onto the 23cms session of the RSGB Activity Contest - third Tuesday evening of the month - so the next one will be July 17th. The general idea is to activate 2m FM / SSB from 1800UTC and move bands when the contest starts at 1900UTC or possibly slightly earlier to seek S2S contacts. At least some QSOs should be available from contest stations making the effort of going out worthwhile.