I have liaised with Mike 2E0YYY and Ed DD5LP on options for the next VK JA ZL - UK EU S2S QSO Party. We have settled on Saturday 19 October 2019, timing 06:30 UTC to 08:30 UTC.
VK east coast sunset is at 08:21 UTC with last light at 08:48 UTC. For planning purposes let’s say 08:25 UTC.
For the last S2S event held in April 19, Dx SSB propagation was on 40m while CW contacts were made on 40 and 30m bands. VK doesn’t have a 60m band allocation.
Please make a note in your diary for Saturday 19 October 2019.
Party night the night before
I suspect I might not make it up in time for this
Good luck to everyone, I’ve always enjoyed the thrill of achieving a really long distance S2S on these events. See you on the next one
I was about to say “I’m in”. But then I double-checked my diary, and I’m out - working in A9. So wishing all participants nice weather and nice propagation - GL.
We can say “still” if EU is taken as European Union but I understand the real purpose of the event includes ALL European countries. So taking EU as an abbreviation of EUrope, the UK is and will always be in EU.
Cheers,
I unfortunately won’t take part this time…
With the extremely difficult propagation conditions we’re currently seeing, my guess is that DX S2S contacts will be extremely difficult unless high power and/or high gain antennas are used, but it will always be interesting to give it a try and see what the magic of radio waves can do for us.
Good luck everyone!
I’ll be reading with interest all activation reports and comments after the event.
73,
Count me in. Working VK or ZL s2s from here definitely means “trying the impossible” at the moment, but things may change until October - and at least Mike, 2E0YYY, is working DX even without any propagation
73 Chris
Looks like we may have a few stations on the air while we are trying our S2S event.
Do we have any Scout troops heading to a SOTA summit for JOTA this year I wonder?
Also for those who wish to check their gear out Christian Kudnik K0STH from the 100 watts and a wire podcast has his “Fall out” event happening a week earlier (activations from Summits, Parks and Islands are VERY welcome in this event and there are some randomly drawn prizes if you send a log in with the minimum 25 contact points or more).
Unfortunately I will be sitting this one out. My XYL has just had a foot operation and I am confined to barracks as carer for the next 5 or 6 weeks. I should however be allowed to escape for the Trans-Atlantic S2S event on 2nd November 2019… after all I am one of the organisers!
I’m still free for the EU-NA event as it stands - though it would be going some to ever surpass the remarkable results of the first one! No chance of joining in the VK etc event still, but toying with the idea of trying late tonight (2300z) and/or tomorrow morning (0800z).
OK, I have posted my alert for this S2S event. I shall be on Attensberg in Allgau (DL/AL-276) for the very good reason that the summit is in the back field from a small hotel where I, my wife and our dog will be staying - so it’ll be a pre-breakfast activation. This location has worked well into ZL & VK in previous years. This is only a one point summit so at some point, during the weekend I also plan to get to the local 8 pointer HochGrat but I can’t get up there in time for the S2S event / long-path window and space/weight restrictions mean that I would not be able to get the big antenna onto HochGrat (DL/AL-132).
I would hope a few more will be going out … please put your alerts up, even if you may need to change the details nearer to the day.
73 Ed.
P.S. Current conditions suggest 40m may be a better band than 20m for the event however we do have a sunspot at the moment and perhaps we’ll have another by the 19th so who knows - I’ll be prepared to operate on either 40m or 20m. (CW/Dig Ops your best choice may be 30m).
