Wow!!!
You heard me in England!
That’s something I’d have never expected.
I copied Pedro @EA2CKX calling me but I replied to him with signal report and he didn’t copy me.
Should we have made a QSO, you would have made my day!
I hiked to our local summit with a HH because it was raining a bit.
I may repeat tomorrow, as it’s a National holiday to conmemorate the arrival of
Cristobal Colón (Columbus) to America on October 12th, 1492.
73,
Guru
Not a bad evening activation. No contacts into EA - but did get into Dewsbury!
24 QSOs, all 2m FM. Used FT-817 and MFD.
Hey that’s a rareity Tom LOL
Tom seems to carry his own bubble of activity around with him! 
Even so, for those of us that were active during the heyday of V/UHF even the contest days sound pretty sparce. I remember days when you couldn’t shoehorn a CQ into an empty channel on SSB and FM operators were overspilling into the CW section. There often seems a lot of activity on the data band, but finding three phone contacts going on at one time now seems “busy”!
Some evenings here nowadays you might have to drop as far as 250 for the nearest clear channel to S20 as 275 through to 575 are all busy!
Maybe other contests are “sparse” but the Tuesday night VHF/UHF events are very busy. It was difficult to find a clear run frequency last Tuesday on 2m, right through from 144.150 to 144.400.
My “bubble” is just a case of activity breeding activity. Works well over most parts of the UK I visit.
Hi Guru
You trying hardly 
73 Éric
GL
Sorry Guru I missed you today!! A neighbour called me round to fix his computer so by the time I got back you’d been and gone… Hopefully some other time.
Best 73
Did you manage Eric ? well done mate
Yes, I have hiked the 400m vertical meters of Mt. Ezkaba EA2/NV-119 three days in a row this long weekend in EA and I feel happy and in great physical condition.
We were having constant light rain in the morning (what, in Basque language, we call tsirimiri) but I decided to hike Mt. Ezkaba with my HH because the ascent on the Southern side of the mountain is usually well sheltered of this light rain with Northern wind conditions and the hike can be dry.
The ascent took me 35 minutes, just like in the old good times, and the light rain had stopped when I got to the summit.
However, the sky was mainly packed with dark, thick, clouds and a cool wind was blowing from the North.
I informed my friends through our whatsapp group that I was on SOTA and about to start on 145.525. Ignacio EA2BD was the first chaser and after our QSO, I selfspotted on Sotawatch in the hope of some distant chasers.
I had much better results today than yesterday with 6 QSOs in my log after having worked on 2 different frequencies. I also scanned the band and heard a station speaking French on 145.500, but it was too weak and impossible for me to understand and try a QSO.
I called CQ SOTA in Spanish, French and English just in case.
Well, it was very nice chatting with my chasers today and I look forward to meeting them all again soon.
I have learned from Tom @M1EYP and many others that a bit of rain shouldn’t stop us from going out to the mountains and a light and easy to setup 2m HH is the perfect rig for a successful and very pleasant SOTA activation.
73,
Guru
Enjoyable effort today from Billinge Hill G/SP-017.
44 QSOs:
2m SSB: 25
2m CW: 3
2m FM: 16
S2S: 2 (both with Gerald M0WML/P on Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002).
My hero. 
Sundays are often busy here and I don’t have much time for SOTA, but I had two periods at the rig, and I was surprised both times to find there was nothing much happening on HF but 2/70 were very busy - it looks as if the glove has been picked up and the challenge well accepted!
Great! 
To a degree I think this is true. But I think its very region (not Sota regions - just general areas) specific.
For once, I seem to have gotten lucky and live in an area where activity is reasonable, and even my lowly white stick antenna is doing well. Its also something I do have an interest in so I am making more of an effort too. Having said that though, due to living where i do, and not being available 24/7 I am surprised how far up the chaser table I am after almost a full month.
Taking all G, in the challenge table I am 3rd in the list.
If you take the same “All G” but for all mode for 2m in the honour rolls, I am 16th and this is including my extra efforts on SSB. FM only I am 69th (which is normality) . So, the inference I take from this is that only a few people are making the switch from FM to SSB, since under normal circumstance, I shouldnt be that far up the list. If at the start, someone would have said “you’d be in the top 30” I would say that was a satisfying result.
The picture gets worse when you look at Scotland, and Ireland (both GI and EI) where there are no claimed chaser score.
On the opposite side, in the USA there are some truly large scores (and not due to inccorect position data) showing what can be acheived.
Is it a lack of equipment or “I’ve worked them on FM so I dont need to mess around with SSB” or something else?
Today (Sun 25th) I worked 3 summits on SSB that would not have been possible on FM (thankyou Gerald and Peter). No change in antenna, just the mode.
Its good (from my perspective) to see more activity on SSB (wish there was more on 70cm SSB but small steps). It wil be interesting to see what happens when the months tick on and the weather gets warmer and longer daylight hours.
I’m also seriously considering re-entering things like the backpackers events. Not as a serious entry, but just to get those unique chasers in the log (also don’t need to worry too much about obtaining the locatior as its part of the contest exchange). I would consider the activity events on Tuesday nights, but Billinge Hill is not a place to be after dark unless I was wanting other activities after the contest 
After that waffle, my hopes are that more people will give SSB a try and we all get lucky when the E’s seasons kicks off.
That’s a good haul! I’ve been doing 2m SSB this year as part of the challenge. I have had a few summits with around a dozen contacts. But 25 is very impressive!
Good to get you S2S.
73
Gerald
A good haul indeed. Despite its height (or lack of) and reputation, Billinge is actually a good summit for VHF (when you don’t have issues with the breakthrough). Being able to see both Manchester and Liverpool at the same time give additional potential qsos.
It looks like from the photos that Tom gave himself the extra challenge of putting a stone building between himself and Manchester and to the South. Thats dedication 
What surprises me though, is I never have much luck with EI or GI from there despite it being mostly open water. I wonder if Tom managed any today.
Also thanks for the 2 chases today Gerald, G/WB is always marginal for me on FM but not an issue at all on SSB.
The building was strategically placed between me and the prevailing icy wind.
There must be a few holes in it as I worked several people straight through it!
That’s why as an activator I try to work CW or SSB first and leave FM to the end.
Fortunately some chasers are happy to work me on 2 or all 3 modes, which makes for an interesting comparison.
So far I’ve been doing FM first and letting people know I will be doing SSB later. I’ve also been asked if I will be doing SSB later. I think people are more likely to be monitoring S20/V40 rather than the SSB frequency.
On my one and only outing I did 2m SSB, and 70cm SSB/FM. I didnt even use 2m FM.
I could just about hear you today on Cracoe Fell (on SSB only) , it was marginal at best, so I didnt call in. But it was a pleasant surprise considering getting out to the North of me (in Wigan) is nigh on impossible from my location and the slight matter of Winter Hill and the West pennine moors being in the way. I could tell when you were talking and occaisional words and sentences could be made out, but no matter what I did with the RF gain or any filters it just wasnt stable enough.
Maybe next time
If I have 2m with me [occasionally I’ve taken only my non-VHF KX2] I always work 2m FM (as well as CW/SSB) for those FM-only chasers. I don’t want them to think they’re being ignored for the 2026 Challenge. Also, as Richard said, some ask are you planning to do SSB or CW, and I said yes even if I did it earlier.
I’ve worked some faint to very faint SSB chasers - not Richard on Cracoe Fell, he was strong and my first 2m SSB S2S this year - and they’re still readable despite being S1-S2 because on summit I’m getting S0 noise on 2m. It’s interesting how well 5W of 2m SSB works with a simple vertical J-pole. Actually, the limit to readability is often the wind noise on summit - so far I’ve been using the FT817 on loudspeaker (something I never do with the KX2).
