UTC rollover double activations 2016/2017

Hi all,

has anybody planed UTC rollover summit activations? This means activating a summit twice: on December 31, 2016 shortly before 0:00 UTC and on January 1, 2017 without leaving the summit.

Last year, I did DM/HE-015. Sadly, I was able to get 4 contacts prior to the rollover on December 31, 2015 but less then 4 on January 1, 2016. This was somehow related to the unusual local time of 1:00 am. It was fun anyway to be on a SOTA summit on New Years Eve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbD4pSaG1B4). There were some VK and ZL stations doing rollover activations during daylight.

This time, I’ll cycle to DM/HE-044 (6 p) to be active on HF bands, including the 60m band (5351.5–5366.5 kHz), which has been recently allocated to the amateur radio service in Germany. I’ld like to encourage more chasers and maybe activators (looking forward to S2S :slight_smile:) from Europe to be active during the UTC rollover.

Anybody?

73
JP, DK3CW

it’s a very popular game on 1st Jan in Australia. 0000 UTC occurs at a convenient time: 11am DST in the southeastern states, 10am in Qld (closer to equator, no DST), 10:30am in VK5 and 8AM in VK6. So it is quite practical to activate before and after 0000 UTC.

In fact 1st Jan has become the defacto S2S party in VK. Scoring 200-500 S2S points on one day is a great boost to the s2s score.

Doing it at 1AM requires collaborators. Especially mid winter. More power to you. winter overnight activations - you earn your bonus points… respect…

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

It will be an office hours activation here in zl. Utc rollover occurs at 1300 local time so plenty of zl summits should be on the air. I hope to activate zl1/hb-020 Taraponui, a comms site north of Napier worth 8 points. I look forward to plenty of s2s action :slight_smile:

You guys in VK and ZL are way better off in terms of time offset and summertime in the southern hemisphere. :wink:
WX forecast for New Years Eve and New Years Day on DM/HE-044 doesn’t look too bad actually, quite cold (-7 °C) but no rainfall or snow to be expected overnight.
If there are no fellow activators around at this time in Europe for S2S, at least some SOTA chasers (probably situated in their warm shacks :coffee: ) on the bands would be nice :slight_smile: I’ll activate 60m and 40m on HF and maybe VHF.

73 JP, DK3CW

VK5CZ and VK5NHG will be doubling up to make a activation each from a summit before and after roll over our New Years morning. It is often common for the first operator to get a pile up then the one going second has trouble to make enough qso to qualify.
Good luck on your late night early morning activation
Ian vk5cz …

Yep that is so, I will be out tomorrow morning with a KX3, 45 watt P.A and a multiband vertical.

Will keep an close eye on spots as they appear, S2S, and particulary S2S DX would be appreciated.

Unfortunately in VK we do not have 60M which is a pity.

30M could be a good band to pay attention to, in times past have had good runs to EU on 30.

Good luck to EU activators with their overnight activations. Will no doubt be chilly at your end, I admire your fortitude.

Cheers, Nick VK2AOH

I’m hoping to be at VK3/VC-005 Mt Vinegar from 23:00z which is 10:00 am local time.
Last time I tried Mt Vinegar I was stopped by a tree across the path One SOTA activation and two non-activations | VK3ZPF Ham Radio Blog

I’ll be looking for S2S on 40m, 20m and 2m.

I will be doing mine at 4:00 p.m. local on the west coast of the US. This is my first one and plan to do it every year if possible… Depends on the XYL… In any event I am going to be at W7W/CW-076 Amabilis Mtn. Unfortunately I am only going to be on 146.520-fm. Next year I will have HF since I just got a KX2. I dont have enough time to set it up prior to this activation though…

Check out the Alert list for New Year lots of vk’s on Summits .

I will be on Mt Ginini VK1/AC-008 for the rollover - if I can pry myself out of bed in time I hope to be up there several hours before rollover to see what the propagation is liketo NA.

I intend taking QRO capability with up to about 250W, but being battery powered (of course), will not be running that all the time - only when needed or to test a path. I will try and see if there are any paths open to EU or NA, but the dismal conditions (currently SFI 73 and zero sunspots) are not looking promising. Have been calling on 17m JT65 for the last 40 minutes from home QTH without a contact - not even a JA which is most unusual!

Hoping for better conditions tomorrow.

Matt
VK1MA

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Alright everybody, enjoy your rollover summit activations. :slight_smile:
I’ll set off with my bicycle for DM/HE-044 in abt 4 hours from now.
Distance (one way): 66.4 km Total ascent (one way): 628 m APRS: http://aprs.fi/dk3cw-7

There’ll be at least another station in Europe on a SOTA summit: F5UKL/P on F/PE-142 at 0.00 UTC. I’m looking forward to a S2S contact.

Hpe to see u on the bands and HNY! :wink:

That was fun I did W6/NC434 16 contacts before the New Year and 13 more after. Thanks for the suggestion!

A great morning at VK3/VC-005 Mt Vinegar apart from a locked gate necessitating a 5 km hike up with 510 m altitude gain rather than the 200m stroll I had planned.
I made 17 QSO before 0000z and 20 QSOs after 0000z gaining 12 activator points, 151 chaser points and 163 S2S points.

Also saw my first snake for the summer season.

I got 27 QSOs before rollover, and 26 after, with only 12 of those chasers not being on a summit - leading to 255 S2S points (120 pre, 135 post), plus 20 points and some sunburn.

No snakes, but imminent risk of DEATH:

What a day we hit the summit by 2330 on the 31st and straight into contacts chasers and S2S
It was so busy taking chasers It was hard to scoot round the band and find other activators. We worked Paul at 23.56 and he was full bore and no spot needed not sure how many S2S he made in the first hour my total was 9 and I did not leave my cq frequency they chased me down. After roll over we only went until 00.35 and made 13 qso with 5 S2S then we had to pack up and get off the hill as the long grass was drying out and humidity decreasing. 3 Hours later we had motored 60 km to the next summit and there were still S2S to be had some what less but still made 7 qso with 1 S2S and it was time to head home. Great day everyone hope you all had fun. Now what summit will we leave for a double whammy next new year.
regards Ian vk5cz …

Hi Andrew

41 S2S contacts for a total of 230 S2S points including one (1) activator point for Mt Stromlo. Andrew to Andrew S2S QSOs included yourself, Andrew VK1MBE and Andrew VK3JBL/6, we missed not having Andrew VK1DA on a summit. :wink:

With the exception of one 40m S2S all others were made at 2.5 watts output. Chasers worked at 1 watt output on 40m were Nev VK5WG, John VK2YW, Rick VK4RF and Steve VK7CW. :smile:

20m S2S QSOs were made at 10 watts with two 20m QSOs at 20 watts John ZL1BYZ and Matt VK6QS.

FT-817ND operating at 1 watt. Photo taken after working Nev VK5WG at 22:09 UTC

FT-817 dedicated to 40m. FT-857D dedicated to 20m

Dual HF antennas (left feeding the 817) (right feeding the 857D). In the center a 2m SlimJim.

Special thanks to all the VK and ZL activators and chasers for a terrific VK & ZL S2S New Year event. Well done everyone :smile:

73, Andrew VK1AD

3 masts == real commitment

Love it :slight_smile:

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I stuck with Plan A which involved a 5am start after 4 hours of sleep. VK6/SW-004 Toolbrunup peak. I first (and last) climbed this 18 years ago.

The 2 km to the summit took 1 hour 12 minutes to cover despite the path being nicely ballasted in places:

May need to reconsider the size of the ballast.

Certainly danger was present. I however fell well after this sign on the way back down.


Tough squidpole unfriendly scramble to the top, but rewarded with excellent views and an brilliant shack. Probably a dozen lizards out sunbathing on the rocks.

13 S2S and qualified in 5 minutes. VK6 activations are sometimes like playing SOTA on hardcore or extreme difficulty, so glad this wasn’t one of them. First JA chase and S2S, second to complete the association fell apart due to QSB. Also frustratingly fell 5 points short of Slothdom… All completed QSOs on 20m with around 50W.

Thanks all for an excellent start to 2017.

Andrew

Left early and arrived at VK2/CT-012 Newnes Plateau in good time. The summit is located on a broad plateau in amongst an eucalypt forest with no views worth photographing.
Set up the squid pole vertical and straight away heard JA1UEH/1 calling on 20M and had a S2S for my first contact.
Two U.S stations came through after another 15 or so minutes of calling so at least there was a bit of dx about.
Worked VK6NU, thanks John, with an S2S on 20M which is a 3,000km hop and counts as dx in my book.
ZL as well with another dx S2S.
Came the UTC rollover and everything descended into a babble of voices, cw callers on top of each other and so many spots appearing it was impossible to keep up with the flow.

In the end 12 S2S contacts were made, a respectable number of dx contacts which I was pleased to make under the dismal band conditions we have.

A worthwhile event, lot of fun which came to an end with one of my batteries dying and some rain starting to come in.