YO, YO/xxx systematically ignore chassers of Central Europe, why?
No like us or bands 7, 10MHz, too long wires?
Strange regularity: The more people in the team of the harder it counted.
Vy 73 de Mariusz
I am afraid it’s a matter of conditions Mariusz. Paul HB9DST has been struggling on 30 and 40 and had to complete his 4 QSO’s on 2 and 20.
73, Hans YO/PB2T
Agree with Hans, no one in the team is “uninterested” for his neighbors, it’s only a matter of conditions. The strange thing is that SP can be worked very well on 20m from YO, I have a lot of QSO’s with SP on 20m in my logbook. So what’s the problem? If there are no conditions on 40m, you can move to 20m and the QSO will be done.
73 de YO2MSB/P Sorin
Conditions have been some what funny this summer even here in SW UK
Normally on 40m during day get good conditions across UK and into Wales and Scotland.But this summer it has been bit harder and hit and miss.
Just one of those things.
Plus doing KITT hill twice now as activator
Had two difference kind conditions
Day one was nice quiet noise level and 40m seemed subdued across the UK and mainly Europeans heard.
Day Two 20m was being hammered by QRN from thunderstorm static and 40m was nicely open across UK and Holland and France being my 40m radio neighbours as well dipping down nicely into CT and EA.
No two days are the same conditions change for what ever reason epically for activators with small power and antennas.
For example the couple doing the DM/SX tour one day working every summit there doing on 10m following day simply can’t hear them.
It is pot luck if you can hear therm or not but its harder for me to reach because of me low power limit of ten watts. Yet if I reach them is another thing. Some times its matter of waiting for the Pile up to die away, Know when its good to join in as you know the propagation is favouring you has been known.
But end of day we are at the mercy of the radio conditions of the band that.s the great thing about being a ionosphere jockey.
Karl
Propagation in last time is bad so we must use many bands.
This is the results of all YO (not YO/xxx)
stations on 7MHz in the last 12 months: 113 QSOs
Myself done at this time on 7MHz 232 QSOs.
Digits speak for themselves so neighbors have no reason to be happy.
vy 73 de Mariusz
You can say that again Hans. I was pleased to work you on 20m (many thanks for the QSO), but with my signals only 339 and running 60W output on my side, it can be seen that conditions were not good. Nothing heard from the team on any other band.
It has been a strange year all round - on some activations I have been able to work both inter-G and make contact with Matt KA1R on 10MHz. Then when I have moved up to 18MHz, it has been all European contacts. We just have to take what comes.
73, Gerald G4OIG
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I don’t know what Matt uses,but he seems to be able to hear a pin drop over here. Impressive chaser.
The lower bands DO open, but timing is critical. Mid-day it is usually useless. Mornings and mid evening seem to yield the best results from what I have experienced. 60m seems the most usable.
Jonathan.
Mariusz, talking about figures:
- active chasers in Romania in 2015: 14
- active chasers in Hungary in 2015: 19
- active chasers in Ukraine in 2015: 3
- active chasers in Serbia in 2015: 1
- active chasers in Bulgaria in 2015: 1 (no association)
- active chasers in Moldova in 2015: 0 (no association)
These are our neghbouring countries and the total number of chasers active during 2015 in all these countries is 38.
Let’s look at other countries, that are in the summer day 20m coverage area:
- active chasers in Spain in 2015: 145
- active chasers in Germany in 2015: 153
- active chasers in England in 2015: 314
- active chasers in France in 2015: 33
- active chasers in Switzerland in 2015: 66
Just for these 5 countries we have a total of 711 chasers, but of course there are many more if you add PA, ON, I, CT, etc.
Considering the propagation is modest and sometimes you can’t even get the 4 contacts, you probably can understand why any activator from YO would focus on the upper bands. Two weeks ago I couldn’t get not even one contact from a summit and I’ve tried 40m, 20m, 17m and 15m.
The other way to look at it is just by activating on 20m (or sometimes 17m) I managed to log alot of SP chasers, so it can be done. Working 40m from here gets you in the range of alot of uneducated but very powerful russian stations, and sometimes the struggle is to manage to hear anyone rather than be heard. I have worked 40m from DL and I know at that longitude things are much better though, but for example a few days ago when we were on YO/MC-006 we wanted to work around 7.118 and ended up around 7.18x since the band was packed with russian QRM. I usually look for S2S on all bands at the beginning or at the end of my activation and I haven’t copied yet even one activation on 40m from /P.
I can assure you and the other guys that didn’t get the chance to work the YO SOTA Marathon that it was the best we could do, we worked until the last chaser we could hear and we tried to activate all summits on 20m SSB, 30m CW and 2m FM, plus extra bands where/when it was possible. And we still had some problems getting the 4 contacts for every guy on the team, once we even had to come down from the summit and leave someone there just so he could get his contacts with us.
I will personally try to move to 40m at the end of every activation (as the time/weather allows) so the nearby chasers have a chance to log the summit, and in the next YO SOTA Marathon we will try to include 40m as well.
Razvan (YO9IRF)
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Hi Razvan!
There is a lot of truth in Your calculation although is is limited only to the closest neighbords.
But we must not forget that the stations in Western Eurpe are long time on SOTA but many Your neighbors just starting (I too)!
You can not discourage anyone right from the start!
By the way it is the problem also in SP, OK,OE etc…
Vy 73 de Mariusz
Well if I hear them, I chase them. Trouble is, lately I haven’t been hearing them. I need some of that DX grease for my antenna! 
Brian
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Sure Mariusz, as our associations grow and more people are involved we will have to adjust our ways, especially now when the conditions are getting worse and the contacts are harder to get. I would also love to have more chasers on 2m, but that’s another thing.
Catch you down the log !
73 de Razvan (YO9IRF)
… or to keep the hands clean one could read again (and again…) the physical law of HF Propagation.
Pass the tin over when you’ve smeared your antennas Brian. I have even gone online to check whether the local websdrs are receiving anything and they have heard nothing like me… at least that has stopped me ripping down my antenna to cure a non-existent fault!
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Hi Gerald,
I didn’t need to rip down my antenna, a storm that came through here on Friday did it for me!
That’s moved my planned antenna maintenance forward! But before that happened I was hearing, or rather not-hearing stations that I would normally expect to hear as others here have reported.
73 Ed.
P.S. where do I get the DX Grease from? While I have the antenna down, I may as well grease it up at the same time HI. 
In the DIY store on the next shelf to the elbow grease! 
Brian
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Thanks Brian - found it - next to the Bees Knees.
Ed.
Hi Mariusz,
Just to let you know, for every activation on the YO SOTA Marathon, the only antenna I took with me was my 30/40 EndFedz. I would call CQ on 40m for 15 minutes or more without any response at all; 30m was generally my savior, generally with only a handful of QSOs. I was generally lucky to get the four QSOs at all, and as was noted, in a few cases I had to resort to 2m to get the four QSOs.
Further, on one summit we had room for only one antenna for about 7 guys to make their contacts, and only Hans PB2T and I worked CW. No single operator got much time on the air, because we also had to keep an eye on other things like the time of day and wx.
You’ve chased me very many times before, and I didn’t forget my 40 / 30 meter friends – the situation just didn’t allow more activity, and that despite our very best efforts.
73
Paul HB9DST
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