Judging by the spots it seems the SSB portion of 50Mhz is the place to
try.
The UK Six Metre Group’s Summer Es Contest is on 50 MHz SSB and CW from 1200 UTC Saturday 4 June until 1200 UTC Sunday 5 June. The contest exchange is signal report, followed by the first four characters of your QTH locator (for example IO91), and also your UKSMG Membership number if you have one.
Unfortunately I am not available on Sunday, but will try to activate a summit on 50 MHz SSB on the Saturday afternoon.
Sunday morning will be impossible for me & I still don’t know whether I’ll be able to get out on Sunday afternoon, but I will post a tentative alert anyway.
Best of luck to all activating on the low (VHF) bands this weekend
50 MHz was open to the Eastern USA yesterday for about 3 hours (5 pm - 8 pm BST).
Also many European stations were easily workable, as far away as Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova and Cyprus. (Er, I think Cyprus counts as Asia.) I worked 38 stations with my delta loop from a local HuMP … alas, none of the North Americans, but I could hear them at about S5. UK stations with beams and 400w (+) were working them with ease.
Just want to say many thanks to all the people that worked me yesterday, whilst on G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee Hill.
The Weather was Vile, A stiff breeze met with showers meant I was only QRV on 50 MHz for about 45 minutes!
However I did have a steady run of contacts, this came mainly from the U.K. Six Metre Group Activity Contest! However SOTA regulars were worked, this included Frank G3RMD, Alan G7RHF, Chris G4VCH as well as S2S with Sam G7VDJ/P on CE-003 and Kevin G4CMZ on CE-004.
The 817 and Dipole performed admirably and this will certainly be getting used again on future activations…having said that I think Steve’s Delta loop may get a look in soon, when I eventually get around to making it.
SO in the end I had 7 QSOs on SSB and 2 on FM. My 70MHz actities were curtailed mainly due to the WX, had it been sunny I would have been QRV for a good few hours so apologies from me!
Once again many thanks to all people that worked me. It was nice to use my new call on a SOTA activation!
What Band next? We have done the 5 most popular V/UHF bands - Need to work on a 13 cm Transverter HI!!
I was one of the operators at G5WQ/P using 400W and a 7 Ele (10m Boom) at around 12m AGL from high ground in IO81WT - on Saturday our first USA Contact was at 16:47 and last at 17:34 GMT with signals varying from barely audible to very strong we worked a total of 25 USA stations in FN and FM squares.
We have not even heard any USA stations during this UKSMG event in the last 4 years, so getting 25 in one go is pretty amazing. This was certainly one of the best openings to USA that I have heard.
I understand that one of other multi-op stations worked just one (from IO93) and another station in IO82 didn’t manage to work any at all, so it seems (not unusually for Es) that you just had to be in the right place.
There were a few USA DX spots from Southern UK Stations in the CW Segment again on Sunday, but it seems this was a much weaker and shorter event (we heard nothing).
I was one of the operators at G5WQ/P using 400W and a 7 Ele (10m Boom)
at around 12m AGL from high ground in IO81WT - on Saturday our first
USA Contact was at 16:47 and last at 17:34 GMT with signals varying
from barely audible to very strong we worked a total of 25 USA
stations in FN and FM squares.
Congrats on your excellent results on Saturday, Stewart. May I compliment you on your nice, clean signal, which demonstrates it is possible to run QRO and big antennas and still have a good quality emission … which is more than can be said for the other G5**/P station just to the North of me!!!
I was in IO92BA with just 70 watts and a Delta Loop. I managed to work a lot of the DX, including 5B4, ER1, UT5, LZ, and many other European countries. I could hear the W’s weakly, but could not work any of them. I also heard a couple of EA8’s from the Canary Islands, but like so many others on Saturday afternoon they were only interested in working North America! I think I was right on the edge of the Sporadic E zone, because G8ADD just 25 miles north of me could not hear any of the DX!
I have noticed before - and Saturday was no exception - that 6m openings to the USA start a long way to the South of us, and slowly move northwards. Often, they never reach the UK at all, but sometimes just reach the more southerly parts of G. On Saturday, I could hear EA8’s working the USA long before we could hear the W’s, then mainland Spain and parts of southern Europe, and finally southern England. The trans-Atlantic opening never seemed to get any further north than the southern edge of IO92 square.
To Matt … sorry I couldn’t be on the air on Sunday, due to a long-standing family engagement. I was in Newbury, and did consider going up to Walbury Hill in the late afternoon, but the rain set in and I decided against it.
To Matt … sorry I couldn’t be on the air on Sunday, due to a long-standing family engagement. I was in Newbury, and did consider going up to Walbury Hill in the late afternoon, but the rain set in and I decided against it.
No worries Walt, the WX was rotten!
23cms contest was also about on Sunday, I think it was a contest organised by U.K. Microwavers.
I managed 1 contact to the Telford Club up on Brown Clee Hill, they were very strong into Ludlow…no surprises HI.
Well done Stuart on the USA contacts, I really should consider a Beam for 6m, However with a 4m and 2m beam up at home already I don’t think the neighbours will be overly pleased!
Well done Stuart on the USA contacts, I really should consider a Beam
for 6m, However with a 4m and 2m beam up at home already I don’t think
the neighbours will be overly pleased!
A 6m beam is far too big for portable use. The elements would be too long even to fit inside my Land Rover for transportation. However, my GW7AAV Delta Loop for 6m works very well. I would highly recommend it. You could make the horizontal section out of telescopic whips and use wire for the two sloping sides. I have actually made mine completely from wire, and use two short garden canes to support the horizontal part with a clamp in the middle. The clamp also attaches it to the mast. With only 5 watts and the delta loop, I worked 40 stations in the last 50 MHz UKAC.
With only 5 watts and the delta loop, I worked 40 stations in the last 50 MHz UKAC.
Yes - and beat me! I made 49, so am currently reviewing and revising my strategy for this month’s 50MHz UKAC.
Main part of the strategy is keeping fingers crossed for no more of this annoying Sporadic E. But if there is, then it will have to be more time chasing the DX and less time chasing the UK multipliers.
I am also using a delta loop, entirely made of wire and hung from a fishing pole.
With only 5 watts and the delta loop, I worked 40 stations in the
last 50 MHz UKAC.
Yes - and beat me! I made 49.
Yes, I still beat you despite them deleting two of my QSOs, including my ODX contact with YO5OHY - presumably because he didn’t give me a serial number. (I can’t think of any other reason).
You won’t have to compete with me this month, Tom. I’ll be in the Restricted (AR) Section.
It is G8LZE I need to worry about anyway. He has closed the gap to just 4 points at the top now! While the DXer in us naturally craves a good lift on 6m, it severely affects the clear advantage I normally have in the AL - by being on a SOTA summit that requires walking to! (Until somebody walks to a better VHF summit in the UKAC that is - but it seems it is only me that likes to do hillwalking at night…).
The 70cm results from May are proving very slow to arrive!
them deleting two of my QSOs, including
my ODX contact with YO5OHY - presumably because he didn’t give me a
serial number. (I can’t think of any other reason).
4d. No points will be lost if a non-competing station cannot provide an IARU locator, serial number, or any other information that may be required. However, the receiving operator must receive and record sufficient information to be able to calculate the score.
So I suspect either they discounted it in error, or there was something else wrong with the entry !
A 6m beam is far too big for portable use. The elements would be too
long even to fit inside my Land Rover for transportation.
Nope. Mine is a scaled up version of the 2m SOTAbeam, made from 1m long stuff from B and Q. The bits plug together (6mm and 8mm aluminium tube). There’s a pic (next to the bottom of the page) on
It all collapses down into a very portable 1m long package (which certainly fits inside my Land Rover for transportation); the support holding the elements is made from two bits of 22m white plumbing pipe, and one bit of 25mm black electrical conduit that the white stuff fits into beautifully. Two 30mm bolts hold them in place. The elements are held in place by grommets. The outer part of each element is held in place by friction (a bit of a bend!) and in position by some vinyl tape marking how far to push it in. The centre of the driven element is a piece of 10mm plastic tube (also B and Q) that the 8mm stuff fits tightly into. The whole lot fits on a SOTA roach pole. Simples!
I went on briefly on Saturday from Gatehouse of Fleet, but it was really duff, I had to fire up the 50W linear to get anyone to hear me - I had one contact with a group in South Derbyshire.
Very interesting about the portable yagis used by yourself and Stewart. Yes, I guess that is the solution … to use elements that divide into several sections. The only 6m yagi I possess at the moment is an old JayBeam yagi with each element in one piece, and the elements are each about 3 metres long! The trouble with having lots of “bits” is that it takes ages to assemble and dissemble on site … especially in the dark! A delta loop is nice and simple and there are few parts to get lost in the darkness.
I went on briefly on Saturday from Gatehouse of Fleet, but it was really
duff, I had to fire up the 50W linear to get anyone to hear me - I had one
contact with a group in South Derbyshire.
Tell me about it! Imagine what it’s like with an FT817 running 5 watts to a single element antenna.
That is why I dislike 6 metres, really. As soon as there’s a whiff of Sporadic E, the band is awash with stations running 400 watts or more and 6 ele beams! (Significantly, there is a Linear Amp UK amplifier on the market, rated at a sustained 1.5 kw output on 6 metres AND 4 metres!) I very soon become bored with the band and certainly have never regarded it as “magic”. Having been licensed to use the 10 metre band for over 50 years, I have never been able to work up much enthusiasm for 6 metres!
4d. No points will be lost if a non-competing station cannot
provide an IARU locator, serial number, or any other information that
may be required. However, the receiving operator must receive and
record sufficient information to be able to calculate the score.
So I suspect either they discounted it in error, or there was
something else wrong with the entry !
Yes, I had read that. We shall never know the reason, as they don’t enter into correspondence. It doesn’t matter anyway, as it didn’t affect my final position in the table of results. I put ‘000’ as the number received, as the YO didn’t send me a number. Perhaps that was my mistake, and I should have left it blank.
We shall never know the reason, as they don’t enter into correspondence
Not so. If you email the contest adjudicator, you can request a copy of your UBN - which is en Excel spreadsheet file that shows every contact for which you lost points - and why.
I understand that the long-term plan is to have this as a button on the site, so you can obtain the UBN report on demand, but currently you have to email the adjudicator and request it.
However, the receiving operator must receive and
record sufficient information to be able to calculate the score.
I would interpret this as you needing to press the station worked for your serial number, or at least making a comment in the comments field explaining that no serial number was given by the non-competing station worked.
However, the receiving operator must receive and
record sufficient information to be able to calculate the score.
I would interpret this as you needing to press the station worked for
your serial number, or at least making a comment in the comments field
explaining that no serial number was given by the non-competing
station worked.
Tom M1EYP
I would have thought that all you need to calculate the score is the guys location, preferably as a locator. Perhaps he was too vague about his position.
I would have thought that all you need to calculate the score is the
guys location, preferably as a locator. Perhaps he was too vague about
his position.
In this case, he did give his locator, which I have just checked against his QRZ.com entry and it matches.
It’s not worth pursuing, as it made no difference to my final placing and I didn’t lose any multipliers.
