Hello Ed,
I don’t know if the activation happened but…
I have been monitoring the bands.
DX-Cluster has been running with a ZS filter for 40M and 20M - nothing.
Also ran through APRS the ZS callsigns and only ZS1WWW has a APRS trace. Last signal on the 1st November.
As regards propagation I was not hopeful anyway. Better perhaps luck next time for you.
Mike
Hi Ed, I may be able to help, keep an eye on the alerts/spots over the next week. I hope to be active from some of the EA8/LA summits probably on 20 & 30 metres CW, but not sure which days so watch this space…
73
Victor GI4ONL
Hi Victor,
Looks like the ZS activation didn’t happen then.
Thanks for doing that but unfortunately I don’t run CW. I decided to take the hard route and stick with SSB contacts to get my SOTA awards. Also I’m too lazy to learn Morse.
73 Ed.
P.S. Anyone else watching the Philea module of Rosetta trying to land on the comet using 1980’s robotics technology?
+1 for honesty!
Like you, I’ve been too lazy to learn Morse, so I too have taken the hard route.
When I achieved Platinum Mountain Hunter, every single contact was an s2s, all ssb.
There’s no rule in SOTA that I’m aware of, that says you need to learn Morse.
Good luck with the Mountain Hunter Award, Ed.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
+1 for honesty.
There isn’t Mike. Lots of people list all sorts of unbelievable issues as to why they can’t do Morse. Very few people are honest enough to say they can’t be bothered.
That make our activations harder, as we must make both CW and phony to work the lazy ones too 
Well, as can be seen, was not Andy who said it! Reflector is guilty!
[quote=“EA2CW, post:59, topic:9406”]Reflector is guilty![/quote]…but if you click the little expand/collapse arrow it shows the whole thing, and can see who’s really to blame. 
[quote=“MM0FMF, post:57, topic:9406”]all sorts of unbelievable issues as to why they can’t do Morse[/quote]Hmmm… All I can say is that learning Morse is most certainly taking me a whole lot longer than I’d expected…
…but I wouldn’t have qualified any regions in North America for Mountain Hunter without it.
73, Rick M0LEP
Rick, there’s only one way to learn morse… PRACTICE then when you’re fed up PRACTICE and after that PRACTICE even more… when you think you’re ready, go on air and experience the nervous mistakes of the first QSOs but we have all been there. I still have the memories from 33 years ago!
If you really want to learn morse, try to avoid the 599 QSOs get stuck in and have a few “real” contacts and enjoy the adrenalin rush!
73 & GL
Victor GI4ONL
I disagree Victor, there are several ways to learn, and the PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE idea will really turn some people off. My suggestion to anyone thinking of starting to learn CW, or who has started but stuck in a bit of a rut like Rick, is to simply listen.
Make it interesting and relevant by listening to a SOTA CW activation in progress on a spotted frequency. Don’t try too hard to copy everything, or indeed anything. Just have it on in the background while you’re doing something else if you like (checking emails, doing housework, driving etc). You will be surprised at how quickly you start recognising and understanding what you hear.
[quote=“GI4ONL, post:61, topic:9406”]when you think you’re ready[/quote]I’ve got 66 CW QSOs in my log so far. 32 are SOTA chases, and 16 are from SOTA activations. There are a fair few more attempted QSOs (mostly from activations) that didn’t get completed. It’s the un-completed ones which knock my confidence, particularly when I know it’s my lack of fluency that’s the main problem.
[quote=“M1EYP, post:62, topic:9406”]Just have it on in the background[/quote]I’ve done quite a bit of listening, but it has to be attentive listening to do me any good. I havn’t found background listening helps me; It’s either a distraction I can ignore, or an annoyance I have to switch off.
For me, short periods of attentive listening (or active copy-taking) work best. The five minute passages in Thursday morning’s GB2CW broadcasts hit the spot nicely. The 15 minute broadcasts on Monday evenings usually leave me completely “Morsed out”. The hour long W1AW broadcasts are only worth sampling in small partial doses.
I’m obviously not a Morse “natural”, and it’s clearly going to take me a fair few years (I’ve already spent about four) to reach a useful level of competence, most likely with at least a few more twists, turns and roadblocks along the way…
73, Rick M0LEP
Regardless of what anyone else thinks, my recommendation is small and often and obviously that’s your experience Rick!
Anyway doctors differ and patients… Or in this scenario patience… Die!
Stick with it using whatever method you are comfortable with.
Ah now if you’ve done some cw activations Rick then you’re well down the line. Doing this almost every day on my local summit was effective in quickly progressing my early cw. Bashing away all weekend s&p in the CQWW CW worked well too. That’s coming up isn’t it?
mmmmmm… PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE springs to mind!!!
[quote=“GI4ONL, post:64, topic:9406”]small and often[/quote]Yeah, five three-minute practice sessions beats one fifteen-minute practice session for effectiveness hands down.
[quote=“M1EYP, post:65, topic:9406”]almost every day on my local summit[/quote]Oh to have a local summit worth visiting. My nearest is Botley Hill G/SE-005 ('nuff said ). Perhaps I should move house. Maybe find somewhere in Crowborough…
[quote=“M1EYP, post:65, topic:9406”]CQWW CW[/quote]Heh! The reason I’ve stuck with SOTA is that it (mostly) isn’t competitive, and my mistakes won’t mess things up for anyone else…
73, Rick M0LEP
For those who do not know it already, VE3NEA’s free “Morse Runner” provides a very realistic simulation of a pile-up and is real fun to use.
You can replace its default callsigns file by the real SOTA chasers calls to make it very close to an actual activation.
More details on http://www.on6zq.be/w/index.php/CWpractice/HomePage .
Hi Ed,
I only activate SSB and I do get chased by Europeans pretty often. DJ5AV is probably the most frequent, but I’ll get some UK, Portugal, Spain, and others thrown in there. I do run 50-100W, however.
Nick K1MAZ
For continent hunters, notice that an alert has been posted for Korea. HL4ZFF and HL4ZFA are on their way now to HL/CN-007, planning SSB on several HF bands at 0400z. Although that time is not too wonderful for Europe or the US, it could be exciting for VK land. They have a TS-480 which we ran at 60 watts when I shared it with ZFF during a climb last year. ZFF is the association manager for Hawai’i. ZFA is from Vermont and is the association co-manager for Korea.
Elliott, K6EL
Hi Elliot, I was actually up at this time (just), to get ready to drive to my planned early activation (now cancelled due to dangerous freezing fog for the complete route from here, I set off but before long I realised even if I got to the summit safely it would be too late for the long path into VK). I saw no spots for HL4ZFF - looking now I see the alert but not spots. Of course for Mountain Hunter to qualify an association/continent you need to have contacts with two different summits in the association, so unless more activity is expected in Korea, the one summit would not be emough - I’d still like to have got the new country however!
Thanks for the heads-up in any case, 73 Ed.