G/SP-004 Shining Tor.
I was QRV on 40m ssb a couple of minutes earlier than Fridays activation. When I took a look at the spots, I was somewhat surprised to find most of the Activators where working 20m. Nevertheless, after completing so many early activation recently, I was pretty much convinced that it would be wise to stick to what I thought was the money band…40m.
A spot was sent, a nice pile-up followed and I was kept really busy with a mixture of JOTA, s2s calls, SOTA Chasers and Uncle Tom Cobley and all. It was time to swap antennas and head for the 20m band.
Taking a look along the frequency, there was a shed load of space and I knew this wasn’t going to be good news. I then found a QRG and put out a CQ. The going was slow… 20m was in poor shape, however, I did work 4 summit to summits but more importantly, a call from Ernie VK3DET entered my log.
The temptation to go back onto 40m was irresistible, even though I was short of time. Another 20 contacts were made, before going QRT.
107 contacts logged… Couldn’t be asked to count the DXCCs. Thanks to all the Chasers for a very enjoyable morning.
95 on 40m ssb.
12 on 20m ssb.
16 summit to summits worked.
Seemingly an endangered species into G, just one VK contact logged, highlighting the poor DX conditions.
Many VK activators, myself included, were knocked out by a large weather front. Spoke yesterday to the property owners where my summit was located, they reported a large thunderstorm and drenching rain for the weekend.
Glad I did not go there and the rest of the region was similarly drenched.
Hello,
if I’m not wrong, Jürg, HB9BIN/P did a very long activation last Saturday and bagged a bit more than 50 S2S… A huge achievement!
He also logged ZL1BYZ S2S. Congratulations!
To all the participants in the EU/JA/VK/ZL-event 2018
I worked John ZL1BYZ on 20 Meter in CW at 05:55 with KX3, KXPA-100 with 50 Watt and a Buddipole (RST 119). Tks for the QSO. John is a great operator!
I heard VK6NU/P and JP3PPL/3 on 20 Meter in CW for more than 15 minutes but no chance to work them! SSB was a waste of time to get a S2S-QSO with JA/VK/ZL!
You can see the Buddipole and the batteries on the photo on the table. My summit ZH-004 was almost a drive-up summit.
I think I was the only VK that actually managed to do an Activation due to extreme WX conditions in the Eastern States of Australia. i did not see any others spotted. Nice summit and well done on working John ZL1BYZ/P. I also worked John but its a bit easier from my end.
20m never really opened in the UK. Ernie VK3DET called me on 40m and was easily readable, however, he couldn’t pull my signal report out, so no contact. He was the only DX I heard on both 20 and 40m ssb.
Heard plenty of DX on 20m myself - JA, BY, VK, HS, 7Z, VU, PY, LU and others - but the only one I could get to hear me was JA2ATE. Never mind, another time indeed!
After a day at the local country field day looking at tractors, snakes and chook pens, getting rained out, sloshing thru mud and hoping not to be struck by the lightning, getting home at 6pm rather than the 4pm planned, I didn’t think activating from the nearest hilltop was a wise or practical thing. But by 7pm local time, half an hour before sunset, the skies had cleared and the rain had moved on. Listening on 40 & 20m the static crashes were still huge. I looked at all current spots and heard either nothing but static or only traces of some familiar voices under the s9 crashes.
I made chaser contacts from home into JA and one with VK6NU as a chaser. I wished I was out on a summit but I strongly suspect the static would have made it very uncomfortable and frustrating.
I guess stations in Antarctica (which my logging program insists on abbreviating as AA) tend to be on the sharp ends of pile-ups, so you’d probably have to be quite persistent (and lucky) to get one from a SOTA activation. I’ve only worked one, and that was from 5Z4 Kenya, which is a bit closer…
I worked a SOTA Activator in Antartica on 10m CW in 1983, but at that time he wasn’t a SOTA activator. In 2002, I worked him again, this time he was on a summit, but at that time he was back in England!
