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News January 2010
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January 2010Summits News is published on the first of each month (for registered users).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome To The Summitsbase Monthly News.Welcome to the January edition of the Summitsbase News. News contributions are always most welcome and should be sent to news@summitsbase.org.uk from where they will be distributed to the appropriate members of the Summitsbase news team. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOTA Milestones This Month Chasers
Uniques Chased
Activators
Uniques Activated
Other Personal AchievementsNone reported. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summit to Summit Award News A veritable 'feast' of awards this month. David 2E0DAI and Nathan 2E0OCC both earned the class 3 award (25 S2S contacts), while Keith G8HXE and Sergej S51ZJ gained both the class 3 and the class 2 awards (50 S2S contacts) while Vladimir Z35M upgraded to the class 3 award. Many congratulations to all our award winners.Details of the award programme may be found here, while details of all of the current Award holders may be found here. Mike G4BLH - Awards Manager --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forthcoming EventsThe first week in February will see Steve G(M)1INK and Mike G(M)0DSP making what seems to be becoming an annual trip up to Scotland with hopefully plenty of activations during the week if the weather permits. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summit StatisticsLies, Damn Lies and StatisticsLast month we responded to a request for statistics and produced charts showing the SOTA activators that had activated the most summits, not uniques, in each mainland UK association in 2009. This was very specific to the UK so we thought it would be interesing to do a similar analysis for some other SOTA associations. The charts for S5, HA and OK SOTA associations are shown below. Completely independently Zoli HA5CQZ produced some statistics for the HA SOTA association and the HA chart complements his analysis elsewhere in the Summitsbase news.    There were 73 activators active in S5, 37 in HA and 69 in OK in 2009. Well done everyone and especially those that feature in the charts above. We are still short of ideas for the analysis. If anyone wants a specific analysis please contact us at news@summitsbase.org.uk or admin@summitsbase.org.uk and we will see if we can produce the data in a future Summitsbase News. If no ideas are forthcoming the Summitsbase statistics team will be taking a rest. Previous statistics articles may be viewed in the Summit Statistics Archive without wading through the archived Summitsbase news articles. The best place to discuss these statistics is the News Forum on the Summits Knowledgebase which me be found here. You need to log in to use the forums. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/4/6m News 10 Metres No activity spotted or reported this month.  4 Metres (all activity FM unless otherwise stated) Several activators were out operating on 4 metres this month. Alex G7RNX started proceedings on January 1st when, accompanied by M1AVV, he activated Kirkby Moor G/LD-049 and contactd G1CCL, MW1FGQ, G1KLZ and M3BLO. January 3rd saw Keith G8HXE activating his 'local' summit Winter Hill G/SP-010 from where he made six 4m contacts including a summit to summit with Ian 2E0EDX/P on Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052. Simon M1AVV operating from Whitbarrow G/LD-056 also worked Ian 2E0EDX/P. Ian 2E0EDX managed a colossal 11 contacts from his summit including G3VVT, G4BLH, G1CCL, MW1FGQ, G8CXR, G4TUZ, G4WHA/M, G0TDM/M, G1KLZ and the two previously mentioned S2S contacts. A welcome newcomer to 4m activating, David 2E0DAI, was also out on the 3rd. David was operating from Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002 from where he worked 2E0XTL (Ludlow)and G3ZPF. Following up on his 4m success last month, on the 19th Ian G1RVK activated Bredon Hill G/CE-003 and worked 2E0SBE (Worcester) and G3LVP (Cheltenham). Ian 2E0EDX was out again on the 24th, this time from Ingleborough G/NP-005. Four stations made it into his 4m log (your scribe was not at home that day and missed out, again HI). Four metre activity was not confined to the UK. On January 3rd, S57PZ activated Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 and made four contacts. S56LXN activated Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 on Jan 4th making two contacts.He followed this up on the 14th from Gradišce {Njivica} S5/KS-020 (one contact), then on the 17th from Smledniški hrib S5/CP-035 (two contacts) and on the 20th from Lubnik S5/CP-012 (three contacts). Ian 2E0EDX ventured into Wales on January 28th and activated Moel Famau GW/NW-044 making just one 4m contact with G7RYN (Winsford). Later the same day he moved to Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051 from where he worked G0ASP and G6NWT (both in the Telford area). On January 30th David 2E0DAI ventured onto Stiperstones G/WB-003 and using his Wouxun KG-699 and the ribbon J-pole (as described in the Equipment Information section here on Summitbase) made four contacts, GC4LZP, G7VGP, G6LLX and G3LVP. Davis believes that this is the first time that this summits has been activated for SOTA on 4m. Thanks for the report David. On Sunday 31st of January, Gerald G4OIG made a brief excursion onto 4m from the summit of Red Screes G/LD-017 but his only contact was with John MW1FGQ.  6 Metres (all activity SSB unless otherwise stated) Simon M1AVV appears to have been the main (if not only) protagonist of six metres this month with his activation (all FM) of Kirkby Moor G/LD-049 on New Years Day (5 contacts), Whitbarrow G/LD-056 on January 3rd (3 contacts) and Top o'Selside G/LD-048 on the 24th (4 contacts). It is really hard work trawling through the database and alerts/spots to keep check of activity on 10/6/4m so if you carry out any activations on these bands, a brief Email notification (or even better a report and/or photographs) or indeed any information about 10/6/4m activity would be gratefully received by your correspondent via news@summitsbase.org.uk Mike G4BLH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 70cms News As I opened up the SOTA database this month I wondered what I would find. It was a foregone conclusion that there would be significant activity to report on from Slovenia as I had noted a number of alerts and spots over the month on SOTAwatch. This indeed proved to be the case and there are 15 entries in the table so far. What I was surprised to find was that amongst those active were 3 activators who were new to the band as far as SOTA operation is concerned. The 1 in 5 ratio of new to established activators was repeated in the table for England where Will M0GYZ made his debut amongst the 5 entries recorded. The weather has affected SOTA operation this month. In the UK many regular activators were snowed in and had to stay close to home while those of us more distant from the summits managed to avoid the worst of the weather and get out and carry out some activations. The Fun Day on 3rd January was well supported in both the UK and Slovenia. A number of significant 70cms S2S contacts were made as a result. TrendsI decided to make a simple comparison this month – January 2009 to January 2010. My method of recording the raw data has improved over the past year and so I had to extract the information to a common base, but I hope the following is reasonably accurate: England (G) 2009 – 9 activators, 14 summits 2010 – 5 activators, 12 summits Germany (DM Low Mountains) 2009 – no activity 2010 – 1 activator, 1 summit France (F) 2009 – 1 activator, 1 summit 2010 – no activity Switzerland (HB9) 2009 – 1 activator, 1 summit 2010 – no activity Austria 2009 – 3 activators, 5 summits 2010 – no activity Czechia (OK) 2009 – 1 activator, 1 summit 2010 – 1 activator, 1 summit Slovenia (S5) 2009 – 4 activators, 12 summits 2010 – 15 activators, 34 summits Guess where the activity is? UKA reasonable amount of activators braved the snowy conditions to activate the summits in the SOTA Fun Day on 3rd January, though only 2 used 70cms to make contacts. Keith G8HXE was on Winter Hill G/SP-010 from where he made 5 contacts on FM. Gerald G4OIG activated two summits – Fair Snape Fell G/SP-007 from where he made 4 contacts on SSB and later from Cracoe Fell G/NP-032 when 3 contacts were made on SSB. Gerald was also active on Monday 4th January, though the snow caused a change to his itinerary. The main activity was from Fountains Fell G/NP-017 with 3 contacts made on SSB. Later in the day a single contact was made from the low level summit of Arnside Knott G/LD-058 when John MW1FGQ was worked on SSB. On 22nd January Gerald started his activation of Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008 on 70cms and made a total of 7 contacts using his FT-817 barefoot to an 8 element yagi. 6 of the contacts were on SSB including a S2S with Richard G3CWI/P on Gun G/SP-013. The other 2 contacts were made on CW. The aforementioned activity from Gun by Richard G3CWI produced 5 contacts on SSB. The following day he activated Shining Tor G/SP-004 and made another 5 contacts, again on SSB. Iain M3WJZ activated two summits from which 70cms contacts were made. On 23rd January he was on High Stile G/LD-012 and made 2 contacts on FM. The following day he activated Grasmoor G/LD-009 and his log included a single FM contact on the band. The surprise of the month was reading the log from Will M0GYZ for his activation of Kinder Scout G/SP-001 on 21st January. Contacts were made with DK1NY, DK4SR and PD1OPL. As no DX appeared in his 2m log, It would appear that this was propagation via a duct. I hope Will is suitably encouraged to give the band a try when he is on the summits. SloveniaMany of the major activators were out on the summits during the month. All contacts were, as usual, made using FM. Marko S57MS currently heads the 2010 band table with a total of 6 activations to date. On 3rd January he was on Tošc S5/CP-013 from where he made S2S contacts with S56SFZ/P and S56IAA/P on S5/CP-036 and S56JAZ/P on S5/KS-029. Marko activated Veliki Javornik S5/KA-018 on 16th January making 2 contacts. Another 2 contacts were made from Pasja ravan S5/CP-011 on 18th January. On 22nd January Marko activated two summits – Kärntner Storschitz OE/KT-121 with 2 contacts made and Pristovnikova planina S5/KA-020 with 3 contacts made on the band. Two days later on 24th January, Marko activated Mali Draški vrh S5/JA-061and made 3 contacts including a S2S with S51ZJ/P on S5/BR-001. Marijan S56IAA recorded 5 activations, the first being a dual summit joint activation with Danilo S56SFZ on 3rd January. The first summit was Slatnik S5/JA-035 with an excellent 10 contacts made including a S2S with S53XX on KA-020. The second summit was Crni vrh S5/CP-036 from where a total of 8 contacts were made including S2S with S57MS/P on S5/CP-013, S56JAZ/P on S5/KS-029 and S52ON/P on S5/KS-037. On 14th January, Marijan was on the summit of Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020, this time with Bojan S56LXN, 3 contacts being made. The number of S2S contacts made by Marijan increased on 16th January when Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 was activated - the 7 contacts made including 2 S2S with S56RPJ/P and S56WJM/P on S5/RG-009. On 19th January another 6 contacts were made from Dobrca S5/KA-023. I must admit to being extremely jealous as I read not only of the S2S contacts that are being made, but also of the shear number of contacts. If only the situation was the same in the UK. Marjan S56JAZ carried out 3 activations during the month. The first from Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 on 1st January produced a single contact. The activation of Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 on 3rd January was more successful and the 7 contacts made included S2S contacts with S56SFZ/P on S5/CP-036.and S57MS/P on S5/CP-013. On 23rd January, Marjan made a single contact on the band from the summit of Grintavec S5/KS-001. Bojan S56LXN activated 4 summits during January. On 4th January he was on the summit of Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 from which 4 contacts were made on 70cms including a single S2S with S56SFZ/P on S5/RG-010. A total of 3 contacts on the band was the order of the day for the next two activations – Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 on 14th January and Smledniški hrib S5/CP-035 on 17th January. A single contact was made from Lubnik S5/CP-012 on 20th January. As already mentioned, Danilo S56SFZ activated jointly with Marijan S56IAA on 3rd January from the summits of Slatnik S5/JA-035 and Crni vrh S5/CP-036, the excellent 18 contacts made including the 4 S2S as reported. Danilo was out again on 4th January from Krim S5/RG-010 making another superb 10 contacts including a single S2S with S56LXN/P on S5/KS-029. This was a weekday activation! Sergej S51ZJ activated 3 summits during January. On 3rd January he was on Škodovnik S5/BR-006 with a single contact made on 70cms. A week later on 10th January, he was on Šop (Novaška gora) S5/RG-020 and made another contact on the band. On 24th January, Sergej activated Veliki Snežnik S5/BR-001 from where he made 4 contacts including a S2S with S57MS/P on S5/JA-061. The 70cms table for January 2010 indicated a single activation for Slavko S53XX in which he used 70cms, but I noted that he was actually active on two occasions. His log for Pristovnikova planina S5/KA-020 has an error in the recording of the 5 contacts that he made on 70cms which included S2S contacts with S56IAA/P and S56SFZ/P on S5/JA-035. On 16th January Slavko was on Debela pec S5/JA-029 from where he made a very creditable 7 contacts. A number of activators made a single activation during the month. Amongst these are three newcomers to 70cms SOTA. The first, Marjan S51RU activated Žigartov vrh S5/PK-005 on 1st January making 4 contacts. I note that he was also QRV on 31st December which unfortunately missed my last report. The other new entrants to the 70cms table are Ivan S57TI and Rozalija S56RRT who activated Bezgovica S5/KS-054 on 3rd January with a total of 3 contacts made on 70cms. Zvone S57PZ was also active on 3rd January, this being from Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 where he started on 70cms and made 5 contacts. Milan S58MU was on Gabrška gora S5/CP-017 on 3rd January and made 3 contacts from that summit. Towards the end of the month Boris S57MB made 4 contacts Koželj S5/KS-056 on 23rd January and on 29th January Franc S52Q activated Porezen S5/CP-002 making 2 contacts on 70cms. With new activators already in the 70cms table for Slovenia, I would expect that the total number of activators using 70cms to rise to perhaps 60 by the end of the year. Maybe I should persuade my XYL that we need to take our next holiday in the country! GermanyJust one activation to report to date – this was carried out by Stefan DL9TX who is new to 70cms SOTA and who made 4 contacts on 2nd January using SSB from the summit of Hochsimmer DM/RP-408. Stefan made a couple of activations in 2008, but was not active in 2009. Let us hope he is taking up the interest in SOTA once again. Czech RepublicMarek OK9HAG is the first entrant to the 2010 70cms table for Hungary. He activated Plešivec OK/KA-005 on 9th January and his log included 2 contacts on 70cms. Signing offSo rather a mixed lot this month. Slovenia remains the 70cms hot-spot and I very much doubt that there will be a challenge from any other country during the year. The UK lags well behind which is a shame since many of the commonly activated summits are suitably located close to population centres to facilitate successful 70cms operation. Maybe if I keep on plugging away for the band to be used, it will eventually catch on. So once again my best wishes for your activations, particularly in respect of 70cms contacts. I hope that you all have safe travel to and from the summits and safe ascents and descents. 73 to all, Gerald, G4OIG --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microwave News 23cms A little bit of activity this month on 23cms. First off the mark was Gerald G4OIG operating from Fair Snape Fell G/SP-007 from where he worked John MW1FGQ and Mike G4BLH (hanging out of the back bedroom window with the beam !!). A close second on the same day was Simon M1AVV with his activation of Whitbarrow G/LD-056 on January 3rd which resulted in just the one contact with MW1FGQ. Gerald finished off the day with (at his third attempt) his activation of Cracoe Fell G/NP-032. The same two 'suspects' as before were worked (Mike hanging out of the front bedroom window this time !!) Simon M1AVV made a brief appearance from Sharp Haw G/NP-029 on the 17th and was 'bagged' by G4BLH. Gerald's next 23cms excursion was on the 22nd of the month when he and Paul G4MD braved the summit of Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008 and made four contacts. Gerald continued his 23cm activations on the last day of the month from Red Screes G/LD-017. By all accounts it was hard going up this mountain (overnight temperatures of -4C) so very uncharacteristically, Gerald was 'late on parade'. He did work G4BLH/P located near Pinhaw Beacon G/KSP049 and John MW1FGQ.  3cmsNo news to report this month. Mike G4BLH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UK NVIS Propagation News January 2010 UK NVIS Propagation ReportIonospheric & Solar Data There has been no dramatic solar activity in January but the monthly mean solar flux figure is gradually creeping up, with 70 in September, 72 in October, 74 in November and 77 in December. At the time of writing the January figure was not available. The 10.7cm solar flux was slightly higher than in December ranging from 73 to 93. The peak of 93 was on the 12th. There were occasional C class flares during the month but there were six M class flares on the 20th. Geomagnetic conditions have been generally quiet with the A index between 1 and 6 except for the 20th when it rose briefly to 14 as a result of the flaring activity. The K index was at 0 to 3 for the vast majority of the month with a brief excursion to 5, storm level, on the 20th. The February predictions are for low solar activity and quiet geomagnetic conditions with flux in the 80s throughout the month and geomagnetic conditions only disturbed around the 16th by a recurrent coronal hole. The mean mid-day F2 critical frequency (foF2) in January as measured by the Chilton ionosonde was 5.26MHz which was only marginally higher than December figure of 5.18MHz. The highest mid-day foF2 was 6.6MHz on the 24thth and the lowest was 4.53MHz on the 10th, which is not significantly different to last month. There was some sporadic E visible on the mid-day ionograms but only up to 4MHz, however it may have caused some QSB on the medium and longer paths. Let's see how the solar and geomagnetic conditions translated into actual reports on 3.5 and 5MHz. Over to Dave M0MYA. Activators First out this month was Dave M0MYA/P on the 2nd, from the top of a very wintery Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002. Several inches of snow were down, with drifts some feet deep. The inverted-V was set up above a pig netting fence alongside the access road to the substantial transmitting station that the summits plays home to. Unfortunately, one of the power lines to the station had become damaged due to the weight of the icicles hanging off it and in an attempt to bring a service team up to effect repairs, various pieces of earth moving machinery were being pressed into service as snowploughs. A caterpillar tracked excavator can cause substantial audio QRM when in use but a couple of feet away from the operator’s ear! Conditions were excellent for the duration of the activation, which started out at 0947 on 5MHz. A mini pileup brought in 20 contacts, 18 of which were inter-G. The barefoot FT-817 and the use of the fence as a reflector did an admirable job - all reports were 5/8 or 5/9 both ways, with the exception of Martin M1MAJ who could heard Dave at 4/8. A QSY to 80m netted another 14 QSOs, 10 of them being inter-G. On 80m, shorter paths seemed to be the order of the day. The activation finished with a very interesting QSO with John M0AAS in Wilmslow who was using an indoor loop constructed from a roll of speaker wire purchased in a pound shop. John occupies a ground floor flat and could be heard on the Brown Clee at 5/5, sending Dave a 4/3 by way of return. David Holman 2W0DAI/P was out on the 23rd, he reports: Deep snow drifts and tumpy heather and grass made for a strenuous ascent and descent of Great Rhos GW/MW-002 on a lovely day out with Geoff Passey 2W0BTR/P. My son Thomas came along too and enjoyed himself a great deal though he went to sleep in the survival bag on the summit (the Nintendo DS was U/S with flat batteries). We arrived at the trig point so late that we had lunch / scran before setting up and I sent a Spotlite spot to SOTAWATCH to say we'd be on in 30 minutes. The activation went well with 14 contacts on 80m (FT-817ND on full power) with no man made noise to contend with. Callers were experiencing deep QSB at home and pauses while no-one was getting through were a feature. Martyn M1MAJ in Cambridge answered CQ followed by his partner Caroline M3ZCB. Furthest QSOs were with Rod EI7GAB and Andre ON4CAP. S2S was with Jack GM4COX/P on GM/SS-123. I defended my frequency vigorously from German operators trying to set up their Saturday net on 3.666. "Diese Frequenz ist im benutz" is a useful phrase! The 23rd saw John GW4BVE on top of Allt y Main GW/NW-059. Starting out on 80m, John enjoyed 16 QSOs which were generally at very good signal strengths. A QSY to 60m produced another 11 contacts including S2S with Jack GM4COX/P on Green Hill GM/SS-123 and Robin GM7PKT/P on Beinn Learnhainl GM/WS-302. Signal strength were also generally very good. John reports that his low activation count for January is due to the fact that it was only possible to leave his home QTH near Welshpool, via 4x4, for two weeks during the month! Geoff 2E0BTR/P managed to sneak one in on the 30th, this time from Titterstone Clee Hill G/WB-004. Starting off at 1319, Geoff had a string of 14 contacts on 80m. Signals onto the summit were consistently good throughout the 23 minute activation, with all sent reports bar one being 5/8 or 5/9. Geoff started out with a good run of 5/9 reports, which began to dwindle a bit as the activation progressed. However, all reports except for the final QSO were Q 4 or 5 on audio, a considerable achievement in light of the post activation discovery that the radio was in fact only running 2.5W into the inverted-V! Geoff was lucky enough to work Jack GM4COX/P who was activating Green Lowther GM/SS-056 for a summit-to-summit. Chasers This month, all reports except two are from John GW4BVE, who started out the month working Robert GW0PEB/P on the 2nd. The QSO took place on 5MHz at 1230, quickly followed at 1235 by Gwyn MW0GWY/P, who is Robert’s brother. The pair were activating Moel Famau GW/NW-044 and 5/5 reports were exchanged all round. The next day, John worked 2E0EVK/P, who was activating Detling Hill G/SE-013. The contact was had on 3.5MHz and reports of 5/9 were exchanged both ways. John’s activation of Allt y Main GW/NW-059 on the 23rd netted him S2S with Jack GM4COX/P on Green Hill GM/SS-123. The contact took place on 5MHz at 1325. Jack could be heard in North Wales at 5/7, while John was making the return trip at 5/9. Immediately after this, John worked Robin GM7PKT/P on Beinn Learnhainl GM/WS-302, also on 5MHz. John could hear Robin at 5/7, receiving a 5/8 in return. Dave MW0MYA was fortunate to work John on 5MHz during his activation, using a barefoot FT-817 into a W3EDP slung over the roof of his student house in Bangor, North Wales. Dave sent John a 4/9 due to high local QRM, and was making it onto the summit at 5/5. Geoff 2E0BTR/P worked Jack GM4COX/P on top of Green Lowther GM/SS-056 on the 30th. The contact was a S2S, with Geoff being on top of Titterstone Clee Hill G/WB-004 at the time. Jack was making it into Shropshire at 5/8, while Geoff’s 2.5W netted him a 4/3. The contact took place at 1332. That's it for this month. Thanks to David 2E0DAI, John GW4BVE, Geoff 2E0BTR and Dave M0MYA for reports. Please send any reports and snippets for the January report to nvis@summitsbase.org.uk. Discussion can take place on the Miscellaneous Forum on Summits Knowledgebase. 73 John GW4BVE & Dave M0MYA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CW Report The new year got off to a relatively early start (just after 8:30z) with the activation of Tukora HA/ND-079 by Feri HA7UL (who later in the day also activated Vár-hegy HA/ND-007 and Zápolca HA/ND-012). There was also activity from OH7BF, OK2BDF, and OK1FFU with OK8NO (2 summits). The weekend (2/3 Jan) was relatively quiet with only 12 or 13 activations during the entire weekend, but this included activity from ON, OK, HB, G, SM, S5 and F. The weekdays Monday 4th through to Friday 8th were also pretty quiet, which was not surprising in view of the weather. Here in the UK snow was plentiful (with over 15cms covering much of the country). This was accompanied by some very cold nights with temperature of -13C or lower, and very icy roads. I understand it was not much better in other parts of Europe, but a few hard souls made it up the mountains. Feri HA7UL was out activating on three of the days and was the only CW activator on the 8th from Nagy-Hárs-hegy HA/KM-025. DL/HB9BAB activated three DM/BW summits on the 6th and there was other activty from HB, S5, F, OK and DL. Another quiet weekend followed on the 9/10th with just five CW activations on the Saturday including Norby ON/LX1NO from Fraiture ON/ON-010 and Plantis de Mesnil ON/ON-021 and three CW activations on the Sunday (LA1ENA, OK1DDQ and S51ZJ. With the very cold weather taking a very firm grip, the following weekdays, Jan 11/15th were very quiet. F5UKL was the only CW activator on the 11th from the 'virgin' summit of Pic d'Elaudy F/PO-233. Our friend Kurt HB9AFI did two activations on the 12th but the only other CW activations that day were from F5LKW on Pic des Mouches F/CR-142 and F5HTR on the previously unactivated Pic de Fourneuby F/AM-432. Only OK1FFU made it out on the 13th and there were no CW activations at all on the 14th. Janos HA4FY was the only CW activator out and about on the 15th. The weekend Jan 16/17th brought a welcome boost to CW activity with 9 activations on the Saturday and a further 8 on the Sunday including DF3MC from the previously unactivated summit of Wamberg DL/WS-101, OK4DX from two summits, Sedlo OK/PL-018 and Svatobor OK/PL-089 and Andy MM0FMF made a CW appearance from Penvalla GM/SS-145. Despite winter loosening its icy grip a little during the week Jan 18th to 22nd, there was no CW activity on 18th, six CW activations on the 19th, and just two CW activations on the 20th and 21st. However, on Friday the 20th things picked up on the CW front with DL/HB9CMI activating both Zunderberg DM/BW-195 and Grashalde DM/BW-168. Soum de Dabant Aygue F/PO-155 was activated for the first time (by Andre F5UKL) and the supporting cast durng the day included Kurt HB9AFI, Hugo HB9AFH, Zoli HA3HK and Milos S53X (who had also been out on Tuesday). The weekend of Jan 23/24 saw a real flurry of CW activity. A group of amateurs including HA6OY, HA6PJ and HA6QR activated Karancs HA/EM-012 on 80m and 160m CW and I notice that Phil G4OBK made it into the 160m log and Roy G4SSH into the 80m log. HA3HK activated three summits in the Dél-Dunántúl(DD) Region on the Saturday and Gyula HA2VR activated one summit on Saturday and two on Sunday. Feri HA7UL was also active over the weekend so our Hungarian friends were out in force over the weekend. There were other multiple activations over the weekend including Jirka OK1DDQ (3 summits) and PA/LX1NO with PA0HRM (2 summits). 'New' summits activated included Les Ubacs F/AM-674 by F5IUZ, Le Prarion F/AB-361 by F5VGL and Roetelstein DL/EW-019 by DF3MC. Summits in G, LA, HB, S5 and Z3 also got an 'airing' during the weekend. It was back to the doldrums on Monday 25th with no CW activity that day, just 3 cw activations on the 26th, 1 CW activation on the 27th, none on the 28th and just 3 CW activations on the 29th in the shape of HA6UL, S53X and Roger F5LKW on the previously unactivated Sommet de Fleossier F/AM-459. By normal standards, the final weekend of the month, Jan 30/31st was extremely quiet on the CW front. Just 4 CW activations on the Saturday, but including two 'new' summits, Rosenberg DM/RP-435 activated by Norby DL/LX1NO and Králova stolice OK/ST-072 activated by Miro OK1CYC. The month was brought to a close on the Sunday with just 2 CW activations from Z35M and G4RQJ. It would be really good to include some photographs of CW activations in the CW Report, or indeed to receive some reports from activators - how about it folks ? You can send any contributions to news@summitsbase.org.uk where they will be very gratefully received. Mike G4BLH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contest AlertThere is only one contest during February that could possibly cause worldwide QRM to activators and that is the ARRL CW DX contest although there are a few others listed which may cause some problems to European stations. None of the contests listed in the VHF/UHF section this month are likely to cause any significant QRM to activators either but they should create a bit more activity on the bands - and maybe act as encouragement to visit a summit. The only weekend contests are on 4 metres and 70cms so why not give these little used bands a try when you visit a summit ? As ever, if you suffer significant QRM from a contest not listed then please let us know and we will include that contest in our listing for next year. I am also aware that this section of the news is very UK orientated, at least as far as VHF and above is concerned, so if there is a major contest in your area that you feel I should mention then please let me know. This month I thought I would include a couple of photographs and below we have two views of my antenna taken on Winter Hill G/SP-010 (not in the activation area though) in the June 2008 Backpackers contest. The first one showing the array of major antennas, including the TV mast, which are located on this summit, and the second showing the tremendous view to the North West. Anyone else have any to share ?   Specific Dates and Times for contests in February HF Contests Sat 13th at 0000z until Sun 14th at 2359z CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest 80/40/20/15/10 metres RTTY Sat 13th at 1200z until Sun 14th at 1200z Dutch PACC Contest 160/80/40/15/10 metres SSB/CW Sat 20th at 0000z until Sun 21st at 2400z ARRL International DX Contest 160/80/40/20/15/10 metres CW only Sat 27th at 0600z until Sun 28th at 1800z REF Contest 80/40/20/15/10 metres SSB Sat 27th at 1300z until Sun 28th at 1300z UBA DX Contest 80/40/20/15/10 metres CW Sat 27th at 1200z until Sun 28th at 1200z European PSK Club WW DX CONTEST 160/80/40/20/15/10 - data sub-bands only BPSK125 VHF/UHF/SHF Contests Tuesday 2nd 2000-2230 144MHz UK Activity Contest All modes Sun 7th 0900-1300 432MHz Affiliated Societies Contest All modes Tuesday 9th 2000-2230 432MHz UK Activity Contest All modes Tuesday 16th 2000-2230 UHF UK Activity Contest 1.3 / 2.3 GHz All modes Tuesday 23rd 2000-2230 50MHz UK Activity Contest All modes Sun 28th 1000-1200 First 70MHz Cumulative All modes Keith G8HXE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipment - Used and AbusedIs it really the Holy Grail ? - The Vaude Aracanda 30The one thing we can be fairly sure of is that when enjoying the great outdoors in the UK at some stage there is going to be water falling from the sky, be it in a fine mist, huge thimblefull raindrops, part frozen and horizontal, or even in a gaseous damp cloud form. This is bad for the skin, the body's ability to retain and maintain heat levels, but absolutely disastrous for radio/photo equipment. Now then, most of my gear is carried in my backpack, and for years I have used a drybag which fits inside my normal rucksack and once filled the drybag is sealed shut thus preventing water from damaging its contents, this method is still a very good way to keep water out of your gear, but it has always been a little cumbersome to find things at the bottom, or even just organise the contents into some kind of accessible order. The problem has always been that none of the manufacturers have been able to make a fully waterproof backpack, due to the stitching process used to put them together, well now there is a waterproof rucksack and it really is awesome and does exactly what it says on the leaflet and all thanks to ultrasonic bonding.  I bought my Aracanda from Onward and Outward in Clitheroe, where I live, and they seem to be a bit of a specialist in Vaude equipment and even after much searching I still couldnt find it cheaper elsewhere, and I liked the fact I was buying locally. The appearance is sublime, no flappy dangly bits all over the place like my Lowe Alpine, its very neat and streamlined, and sits really well on back. A lot of 20 - 30 litre day rucksacks are made to fit a 10 stone fell runner whose lithe physique allows them to slip through railings with a backpack on !!, for the big lads this means the same pack sits like a Notre Dame hump annoying the hell out of your shoulder blades and feeling a bit uncomfortable. The Vaude is different, it sits well, spreading across the breadth of the shoulders but with good support.Internally the Aracanda is cavenous for a 30L pack and it will fit plenty of gear and food in there, but with a difference to most other backpacks in that once the pack is closed there will be no water ingress to destroy the contents. This is due to the construction of the pack, in that all the panels are joined and sealed by ultrasonic welding/bonding. Apart from the obvious waterproofing benefits to this method the secondary benefit is a 20% reduction in weight making the pack one of the lightests in its class. This pack has been some scary places with me but the one that tested it the most was the back of my truck where I unleashed a Honda NS GC 6hp power washer on the pack to test it. Stuffed with blue industrial tissue which shows even the slightest bit of water. I blasted the pack for a good 10 mins at all angles and when I opened it there was not a single drop of water evident inside, fantastic. A great piece of kit that is second to none, I love it and although it was the only waterproof pack available last year I now believe there are equivelents from Berghaus and Deuter. See the Vaude website for more details on this one or visit www.vaude-rucksacks.co.uk Lee M0LMP --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo Of The MonthThe winner this month is a photo by Boris Slokar S54Q S5/TK-013 Javornik  With the severe weather experienced in the UK over the Festive season I really wanted to use a photo from our country, some of Geralds (G4OIG) photos from the Yorkshire Dales are fantastic, but I came accross this photo by Boris and it just blew me away, then I saw that Gerald had already commented on the photo so that was it, I made my choice. A truly stunning image with great composition, love it !! Lee MØLMP --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lost and FoundNothing reported this month --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other NewsVHF Fun Day. The VHF fun day on January 3rd seems to have gone very well with many stations active (although several stations did not make it to their intended summit due to conditions which were, to say the least, taxing). The only report received at Summitsbase News was in an Email from Geoff G6MZX who commented 'If you are interested I made 20 contacts on the SOTA fun day from Sharp Haw G/NP-029 of which nineteen were on 144MHz FM, one on 144MHz SSB and among which were five summit to summit contacts.The photo (right) in which Geoff looks absolutely frozen is courtesy of G6MZX. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOTA HA statistics - 2009 (gratefully received from Zoli HA5CQZ)2009 was a booming year for SOTA in HA. We have compiled some statistics to have an idea where we stand. In 2009 there were over 20000 QSOs made out of 768 activations. This is equivalent to daily 2 activations on average. The total number of QSOs since the start of SOTA in HA (2005) is 31400. That is 2/3 of the QSOs have been made in 2009. This high number is owing to some prolific QRO activators like HA5LV, HA5MA, HA3HK and HA7UL. Not only the total QSO number was high. Joska HA5CW has made also a record activation in terms of QSOs (245) jumping straight to the second place on the toplist compiled by Vlado Z35M. Looking at the distribution of QSOs by bands we see that the most used band was 40m CW (well, no wonder) with a bit more than the half of all QSOs. The second most frequently used band is the 2m FM (25%) which is mainly local traffic. Then comes - quite surprisingly - 30m CW and a bit lagging behind the SSB segments of 40m and 20m. Regarding the summits, there have been 27 uniques activated in 2009. Seven of them were activated by Feri HA7UL. There are still 60 non-activated summits out of the total 190. So keeping this pace we have two years to go.  2009 brought the first activation of a HA summit by non-HA activator: on 8 August Frank ON6UU activated Szent-György-hegy HA/KD-022 and Haláp HA/KD-038. (The photograph to the right shows Frank operating from the summit of HA/KD-038). He was then followed by OK2QA Irott-kö HA/ND-001 on 2 November.So, we had a busy 2009 and hope that 2010 will bring even more fun. 73, Zoli --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Falkland Islands (VP8) ExpeditionRobert G0PEB has been given the opportunity to work on the Falkland Islands for 3 weeks from March 7th (TBC), and since the Falklands are now listed as a SOTA Association (what a co-incidence!!) he plans to activate some summits during his spare time. His main aim is to activate and qualify two summits on West Falkland, VP8/WF-010 and VP8/WF-025, and one on East Falkland, VP8/EF-006. Robert's callsign will be VP8DMM, and he will be using a Yaesu FT-857D running 100W SSB on the 14 and 18Mhz bands, somewhere around 14.285, 14.345 and 18.150Mhz into either a 1/4 wave vertical or an inverted V link dipole. He is going to try and plan his activations to coincide with optimal propagation into Europe, but this isn’t guaranteed. He is hoping that he will have access to broadband in order to post alerts. All activations will be totally dependent on spare time from a busy work schedule and most importantly the weather. There is a station, Bob VP8LP, that is fairly active near Port Stanley and he puts a good signal into the UK on 14MHz SSB between 0900 and 1000z. Have a listen for Bob in the next few weeks to assess your chances of working Robert, but remembering Robert may be 10dB or so weaker as Bob is running 400w to a beam. The Falkland Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean approximately 350miles from the coast of South America and approximately 750miles north of Antarctica. The seasons in the Falklands are the opposite of those in the northern hemisphere , the summer months are December to February (hence the seasonal bonus being in the Falklands winter June to August). Falklands time is 3 hours behind utc, so Robert is likely to be operating at 6am Falklands time. This trip will is Robert's second to the Falklands Islands and he is looking forward to operating portable from that part of the world. Any breaking news about this exciting expedition will be posted on the Latest News section of the Summitsbase site. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GPS DisruptionWe have not been notified of any GPS jamming exercises in February. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activators Beware.In this section we list events (usually fell races) that are due to take place on or near summits (or parking places used for summit access) so that potential activators can take them into account when planning their activations. Saturday February 6th - TITTERSTONE CLEE Race starts at 11.45 a.m. from Cleeton St Mary. NGR SO608788. Sunday February 7th - LONG MYND VALLEYS Race starts at 11.30 a.m. in Carding Mill Valley. NGR SO443946. Sunday February 14th. WINTER HILL RACE starts at 10.00 a.m. from Rivington High Barn. NGR SD636145. Sunday February 21st ILKLEY MOOR Race starts at 11.30 a.m. from Wells Rd, Ilkley. NGR SE115470. Saturday February 27th HIGH CUP NICK Race starts at 2.00 p.m. from Dufton Village Hall, Dufton, Cumbria. NGR NY688252. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Injuries and IllnessAs far as we know all activators and chasers are fit and healthy. If you have any information please send it to news@summitsbase.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ErrataNone this month. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enthusiasm or DespondencyThe title says it all and describes the moods of the Summitbase News team at times. On one hand we are at the beginning of a new year and a new decade and are planning a redesign of the Summitsbase site and the Summitsbase News pages, but on the other hand we often despair at the lack of contributions. We look with amazement every month as we see people logging on to try to read the news even before it is due for publication, but then as we prepare the next news and we only have contributions from the same group of people despondency sometimes sets in. It takes a lot of hours to put the News together, and while we like bringing you the News, it would be so much easier and much more rewarding if we could get more contributors taking part. Could you not spend just a few minutes to send us a photo or send Dave M0MYA your NVIS activator or chaser report, or send Lee M0LMP a note about your latest bit of kit, or send Keith G8HXE some information on contests, or send Gerald G4OIG a report about your 70cms activity. If you were really enthusiastic you might even take responsibility for one of the subsections of the news, for example the Monthly Interview or the Summit of the Month. If you don't want to contribute to the news then how about adding some information to the summit pages on the site or starting a discussion on the forum. We get very little feedback about the News and if it wasn't for the fact that we can see who and when people are logging in, we could be forgiven for imagining that nobody actually reads it and that we that are wasting our time. This is your news and your site and if you don't contribute something the despondency may win and one of these months you may find there is no Summitsbase News for you to read, no Summit to Summit award and no summit information to help you when you are activating and chasing. Come on, please show us that you value the Summitsbase News by contributing to it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AcknowledgementsThis month, thanks go to the following for their contributions to Summits News: John GW4BVE, Mike G4BLH, Gerald G4OIG, Dave M0MYA, Lee M0LMP, Keith G8HXE , Geoff G6MZX, Robert G0PEB, Zoli HA5CQZ, Geoff 2E0BTR and David 2E0DAI. Apologies to anyone accidentally left out. Once more that’s it for this edition of Summits News. The Summits News Team hopes that there is something of interest for everyone. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is very welcome so that we can do our best to improve the Summits News for you and include any other topics at your request. Feedback or general discussion on the news can be left here. Created by: admin last modification: Sunday 31 of January, 2010 [19:34:15 UTC] by gw4bve_1 |
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