SOTA na 70cm bandu

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz avgustovskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Last month the preparation of a report was rather a rush as it came just before a trip to Kefalonia in SV8. I did not intend to activate the island, but took the opportunity to check out quite a number of the summits, some of which look to be reasonably accessible, others not so. I also managed to slip the Standard C710 triband handheld into the hand luggage and did a fair bit of monitoring, but heard absolutely nothing on 70cms FM. Contacts on 2m FM were also hard to come by. I suspect that was due to the fact that my Greek is near to zero and I have no skills in QSO-speak in the language. I did manage to make contact on 2m FM with Stavros SV0FM who spoke fluent English and Alex SW3ORU who braved the language barrier to provide another QSO. I intend to pack the 817 next time, but I am still no wiser as to whether 70cms will be a possibility for activating from the island. Maybe someone can enlighten me, but I suspect it is a 70cms black hole…... or should that be white hole with white noise emanating from it?

Due to the time away, the 70cms report this time cover logs submitted for activations between 19th July and 30th August. I was pleased to note a number of new entrants into the database for the band and will mention these as I go along. The main activity has again been in the UK and Slovenia, though I had some surprises as I read through the data.


Trends

For my trends section this time, I thought I would have a quick look at how activations on the band compared with previous years. Slovenia of course has only been active in SOTA for less than 2 years, so the comparison has been made in Germany (DM – Low Mountains) and the UK with reference to Slovenia for 2008 and 2009. The number of activators in other countries is too small to consider to provide a viable comparison. I suppose that this highlights the nature of 70cms operation particularly FM which can just be a case of a casual look on the band at the end of an activation. I have also combined the UK areas since many activations take place outside of the activators home area.

Year / UK (combined) / Germany (DM) / Slovenia
2005 -------------------- 53 / 34
2006 -------------------- 56 / 32
2007 -------------------- 51 / 42
2008 -------------------- 52 / 50 / 10
2009 to end August --- 49 / 15 / 35

This highlights the rapid decline in activations in Germany with the revisions to the summits, though I must say that recent HF activations may be going some way to slowing this trend down. However, it is clear that a steady rise was cut short in its prime. Activations across the UK have on the other hand stayed fairly stable.


Slovenia

As a large proportion of the S5 activators rediscovered their 70cms rigs this month, I will start with the activations from Slovenia. There have been 45 activations between 19th July and 30th August that have included QSOs on 70cms. FM was used without exception throughout this period. For this report I am trying out a date based approach rather than an activator based one, so please let me know if this makes more sense to you or whether you prefer to see how many times a specific activator has been out.

Having said all that, I would like to start by noting 3 new activators on 70cms – S52TC activated Kepa S5/KA-003 on 29th July and Stol S5/KA-001 and 12th August. Marijan S56IAA activated Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 on 15th August and Danilo S56SFZ activated Velika Raduha S5/KS-012 on 23rd August. None of these activations made more than a couple of contacts, but Danilo’s is worthy of particular mention as it was a first time SOTA activation.

So to the diary…… on 19th July, Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX.activated Gora (Sveti Ahac) S5/RG-038 making 7 contacts between them. Two of those contacts were S2S with Jurij S57XX on the summit of Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 from which he made a total of 6 contacts. There was then a period with no activity on the band until Milan S58MU made 2 contacts from Malenski vrh S5/CP-009 on 27th July. Milan was out again on 29th July from the summits of Koprivnik S5/CP-005 and Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 making 4 and 7 contacts respectively.

On 30th July, Zvone S57PZ (formerly S57OPZ, congratulations from the Summitsbase team) activated Vrtaca S5/KA-002 with 2 70cms contacts in his log. Lukas S7LU was on the same summit and carried out a dual activation as the summit is also Wertatscha OE/KT-070, logging 3 contacts for each.

Now to August – the month started with Andy S53MN activating Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 and Marjan S57JAZ activating Rjavina S5/JA-009. Marjan qualified the summit on the band. Almost a week later on 7th August, Miha S54KM was out for the first time since April when he activated Sveti Trije Kralji S5/TK-025, a single contact being made on 70cms. There was more activity the next day which was a Saturday when Zvone S57PZ carried out a dual summit activation of Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 and Stol S5/KA-001 with a total of 11 contacts. The same day, Darko S57AX was on Altemaver S5/CP-001 making 5 contacts, Bojan S56LXN activated Kepa S5/KA-003 with just one 70cms QSO in his log and Aco S52Q managed a creditable 7 contacts from Kladivo S5/KA-006. Also to make a significant number of QSOs was Milan S58MU who made 8 contacts from Gabrška gora S5/CP-017 on Sunday 9th August.

The action continued when Zvone S57PZ activated Koschutnikturm OE/KT-079 and Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 on 12th August making 5 contacts. The next day Marjan S56JAZ was on the summit of Razor S5/JA-005, his log showing a single 70cms QSO. Bojan S56LXN was out activating on 15th August on Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004, with 3 contacts being made on the band. Also active that day was Andy S53MN on Kalški greben S5/KS-007, with just one contact made and Milos activated Mangart S5/JA-003 from which his log included 7 contacts.

Sunday 16th August saw no less than 4 activators using 70cms - Andy S53MN made 4 contacts from Skuta S5/KS-003, 3 of which were S2S. Miran S56UBS was on Veliki Javornik S5/BR-005 from which he made 5 contacts on 70cms. Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ both activated the dual summit of Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 and Stol S5/KA-001 with 11 contacts between them.

During the following week, Aco S52Q activated Prisojnik (Prisank) S5/JA-008 on 18th August with 2 contacts and two days later was on Storžic S5/KA-005 when he made 4 QSOs. The following Sunday saw Danilo S56SFZ make the SOTA debut already mentioned and a further 4 activators were out on the summits. Darko S57AX was out once again, this time on Govca (Govešca) S5/KS-015 with 2 contacts,and Aco S52Q was also out again making 3 contacts, this time from Velika Raduha? S5/KS-012. Bojan S56LXN activated Vrtaca S5/KA-002 and Wertatscha OE/KT-070 with 4 contacts and Jurij S57AJJ made 2 S2S contacts from Govca (Govešca) S5/KS-015.

The activity shown on the database includes an activation of Begunjšcica (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-007 by Lukas S57LU on Friday 28th August. On Sunday 30th August, Zvone S57PZ activated Slatnik S5/JA-035, qualifying the summit with 4 contacts and Marjan S56JAZ made a single contact from Skuta S5/KS-003.

Gerald, G4OIG

V poročilu ni vključena včerajšnja aktivacija Milana S58MU z Golega vrha.

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz septemberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

I thought that I was going to have an easy month this time as I looked at the data loaded onto the database up to 29th September…. then I got to the Slovenian entries and found a mass of entries. The server was running slow and it took a long time to download the data, but it was well worthwhile. As well as 42 separate activations in Slovenia during the month since my last report, I can also report that there were 3 new 70cms activators.

This month I have changed to an activator based report rather than one set out in date order. I think this is more interesting as it lets readers know who has been activating which summits. Exactly when the activations were carried out is secondary.

Trends

Activity outside of Slovenia continues to be patchy. I have not had time to make any comparisons this month, but the trend to add a few contacts on the 70cms band to activations carried out on other bands is continuing. Very few activations were just carried out using 70cms, indeed only two logs show that this month. Most continue to be an addition to a 2m FM activation, which in itself may be an addition to a 40m activation.

Without exception, the contacts from the Slovenian summits were made on FM. The mode continues to be the most prevalent across most of the active associations, with only 4 activators using either SSB and / or CW. While this may be due to the fact that it is easy and quick to use a handheld, I do wonder whether many are missing out on what can be achieved on the band by using a multimode transceiver such as the FT-817 and a small yagi. Antennas for 70cms are very compact, easy to make and do not add much weight to the backpack, so maybe those currently using FM from a handheld will be tempted to try something a little more elaborate when they are next out on the summits.

Slovenia

Zvone S57PZ continues to top the Slovenian 70cms table for 2009. He added two activations this month – on 6th September he was on the summit of Altemaver S5/CP-001 and made 7 contacts and on 9th September a further 7 contacts were made from Storžic S5/KA-005. This brings Zvone to 21 activations on the band during the year.

Almost all of the main 70cms activators were out on the summits during the month. Andy S53MN activated Kepa S5/KA-003 on 13th September and made a single contact. On 19th September he activated Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 and Koprivnik S5/CP-005 – in all 4 contacts were made.

Bojan S56LXN made a very creditable 6 activations. The “double” summit of Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 was activated on 2nd September, with 4 contacts made during each activation. A further "double" was activated on 6th September – Košutica S5/KA-008 / Loibler Baba OE/KT-097 with 3 contacts made from S5 and 2 from OE. The other two activations carried out by Bojan were on 20th September and were from Stegovnik S5/KA-019 with two contacts made and Bulovec S5/KA-026 from which a further 3 were made.

A single contact was made by Milos S57D on 6th September from Slatnik S5/JA-035. His activation on 12th September from Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 was commenced on 70cms and reaped an excellent 9 contacts.

The most active 70cms activator in Slovenia at the moment is Marijan S56IAA who has been carrying out 2m / 70cms FM activations. I can report a total of 8 activations to 29th September, but as I write this report, I see a 2m spot for Marijan on S5/KA-005 has come up, with 70cms no doubt to follow the 2m activation. Marijan activated Slivna S5/BI-018 on 19th September making 3 contacts. The following day Stegovnik S5/KA-019 (2 contacts) and Bukovec S5/KA-026 (3 contacts) were activated. A single contact was made from Planjava S5/KS-004 on 22nd September and on 26th September the “double” summit of Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 was activated with 3 and 2 contacts made respectively. Another “double” was activated on 28th September – Vrtaca S5/KA-002 / Wertatscha OE/KT-070 with 6 contacts made from the Slovenian side of the border and 5 from the Austrian side.

Milan S58MU has been quite activate during the month. A total of 4 activations were carried out starting on 31st August from Goli vrh S5/TK-023 with 6 contacts made. The following day 4 contacts were made from Škofje S5/CP-016 and the day after that another 4 from the summit of Straža S5/CP-029. Two contacts were made from Šmarjetna gora S5/CP-030 on 27th September.

Also with 4 activations during the month is Marko S57MS who is new to SOTA. A single contact was made on 70cms from Visok Kurji vrh S5/KA-014 on 20th September to start the ball rolling. On 26th the “double” of Velika Golica S5/KA-013 / Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 also provided one contact from each association and later that day Klek (Petelinjek) S5/KA-015 another. Well done Marko, let us hope that you make more contacts on the band in the future.

While I am mentioning new activators, I note Branko S51UJ was persuaded to move from 2m onto 70cms to make a contact with Franci S57ILF from Jošt nad Kranjem S5/CP-023 on 30th August. Will this be a one-off? – who knows? Maybe the seed has been planted. Also new to SOTA activating, Bostjan S57GB successfully carried out a 70cms single band activation from Cicelj S5/BI-024 with a really creditable 11 contacts, including an S2S with S57XX/P on S5/CP-024. This was only Bostjan’s 4th SOTA activation, so well done on that!

Well, I hope the readers have not given up by now. I did say Slovenia had produced a large amount of 70cms activations during the month. Stay with me – there’s more to come!

On 13th September, Marjan S56JAZ activated activated Brana S5/KS-006 making 2 contacts. A week later on 20th September Danilo S56SFZ also activated Brana making 6 contacts. On 29th September Danilo was on the summits of Skuta S5/KS-003 and Grintavec S5/KS-001, making 5 and 7 contacts respectively.

Darko S57AX was out early in the month on 2nd September activating Straža S5/CP-029 with 4 70cms contacts in his log. Slavko S53XX activated Pasja ravan S5/CP-011 making 4 contacts on 6th September and Jurij S57XX provided the S2S contact with S57GB on 13th September from Polhograjska Gora S5/CP-024. Miran S56UBS activated both Blegoš S5/CP-003 and Malenski vrh S5/CP-009 on 27th September with a single 70cms contact from each summit.

Jurij S57AJJ activated Police S5/JA-044 on 6th September with 4 contacts made on 70cms. Lukas S57LU crossed over into Austria to activate Loibler Baba OE/KT-097 on 22nd September and made 2 contacts on the band. Last, but not least Marijan S52TC activated Škrlatica S5/JA-002 on 1st September and Kanjavec S5/JA-007 on 8th September with a single 70cms contact made from each summit.

Phew….. sincere apologies if I have missed an activation! Maybe in the future, activity will be such that I will need to determine the highlights and just report on those.

Gerald, G4OIG

Septembra smo bili pa res pridni!

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz oktoberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

This month it was definitely a repeat of last month, with 70cms being widely used throughout Slovenia. I found myself getting quite jealous of the amount of contacts that were being made when I had had a fairly lean month, often having to resort to CW to make a single contact from a summit. Not as though I mind – CW is an excellent mode and well worthy of wider use on 70cms.

No comments were forthcoming about last month’s report, so in order to make something of the mass of information gleaned from the SOTA database, I have decided to keep to an activator based report for the time being.



Trends

Again I have not had time to make any comparisons this month, but from the database it would appear that the trends are very much the same as in recent months with Slovenia being the 70cms activation hot spot. The level of activity is now such that I will have to generalise and set out the highlights each month, as to record each and every activation would be extremely time consuming. Accounting for the activations from late September to now (30th October), there have been 72 activations that have incorporated 70cms! So apologies if anyone feels that their efforts have not been given the accolade that they should have received.

The contest at the beginning of the month did little to encourage operation on SSB and I only found Joerg DL5KD and Sigmund DL5MEL using the mode to good effect from summits during the contest period.

FM continues to be the most commonly used mode across all Associations – and that includes the UK this month on account of the use of handhelds to make QSOs across the activation zone boundary. More on that later!



Slovenia

Zvone S57PZ continues to top the Slovenian 70cms table for 2009, but he has now been joined by Danilo S56SFZ who carried out an amazing 14 activations on the band during October, with a further 2 at the end of September. Quite how I record this Herculean effort I don’t know. Most activations included at least 4 contacts on 70cms. Danilo made 90 contacts in all on the band over the 16 summits. Perhaps the most challenging day was the double double summit day of 21st October when Kepa S5/KA-003 / Mittagskogel OE/KT-074 and Velika Golica S5/KA-013 / Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 reaped 20 contacts. Another double summit day on 29th October from Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 / Koschutnikturm OE/KT-079, provided 12 contacts. The best single summit performance was a very creditable 9 contacts from Krim S5/RG-010 on 3rd October. Needless to say, Danilo jumped a massive 14 places up the 2009 70cms table.

Another faster mover is Marijan S56IAA, with 12 activations over the past month. At the end of September, Storžic S5/KA-005 produced 8 contacts. Another notable day was 21st October when Tolsti vrh (Kriška Gora) S5/KA-017 was activated with 7 contacts on 70cms in the log. A double plus a single summit day on 28th October from Velika Golica S5/KA-013 / Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 and Klek (Petelinjek) S5/KA-015 netted a total of 15 contacts. Excellent stuff indeed!

You might think that two activators giving the air a lot of over-time would be enough, but you would be wrong. Bojan S56LXN used the band from no less than 9 summits and recorded an excellent 11 contacts on 6th October from the two summits of Polhograjska Gora S5/CP-024 and Sveti Jakob S5/CP-026. On 25th October, 3 summits were activated – Štedel vrh S5/CP-037, Vancovec S5/CP-008 and Mohor S5/CP-019, but by contrast just 5 QSOs were made on 70cms over these three.

Aco S52Q was another spending a lot of time on the summits. Another 9 summit tally produced 45 contacts on 70cms. 20 of these were made on 21st October and another 12 on 29th October when Aco activated the band with Danilo S56SFZ. All of Aco’s activations were in the S5/SA area with the exception of Roviškovec S5/BI-011 on 17th October when 5 contacts were made on the band.

In looking through the database, I try to keep a look out for summit to summit contacts. One entry stood out for me from the log of Jurij S57XX when he was on Golic S5/BR-015 and he made S2S contacts with S52Q and S56SFZ on S/KA-004. Jurij also activated Šmarjetna gora S5/CP-030 on 27th September with 5 contacts made on the band.

Personally I can only admire the activations carried out by Bostjan S57GB. Just two activations on the band during the month, but with a huge 28 contacts made! 13 of these were made from Vrh Staneta Kosca (Rašica) S5/CP-031 on 3rd October and 15 from Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 on 18th October. The latter activation is all the more remarkable for being solely carried out on 70cms. Not an easy task, I know I have done it!

There were three activators in Slovenia recording 70cms contacts this month. Actually the first is a club callsign - S53DGM. Two activations were made on 27th September from Blegoš S5/CP-003 and Malenski vrh S5/CP-009 with a total of 9 contacts – try this link viewtopic.php?f=48&t=8496 (a translation is available via Google). Dusan S51WX recorded a single contact with S56IHX from Sedlata gorica S5/RG-032 on 3rd October and Robert S56VHR made 2 contacts from Gora Oljka S5/KS-051 on 10th October.

Also active during the past month have been Kostja S56KM, Marko S57MS, Milan S58MU, Darko S57AX, Jurij S57AJJ, Marjan S56JAZ, Sergej S51ZJ and Andy S53MN. Hopefully I haven’t left anyone out. I must say that I am tempted to publish the results in table form with comments added as appropriate, but this would not make for interesting reading. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to record all this activity, I would be pleased to hear from them.


Signing off

After such a lot of activity, I really am wondering whether activity on the band will decline this winter in Slovenia. It does seem to be going from strength to strength with new entrants to the Slovenian 70cms database each month. It will be interesting to look back at the end of the year and see how it has gone – I feel an Excel graph coming on!

So my best wishes to you all for safe travel to and from the summits and for safe ascents and descents. I am still taking it easy myself as the heel is not yet 100%, but that does not stop me looking forward to the forthcoming winter bonus period when plenty of action is planned.

73, look after yourselves and stay safe.

Gerald, G4OIG

Čestitke vsem operatorjem omenjenim v poročilu. Spet ste se izkazali!

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz novemberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

As I write this there are a few days (including a weekend) to go to the end of the month, but I am helping my daughter move house, so it’s better early than never as far as this report is concerned.

Over the past month SOTA in the UK has been very much affected by the poor weather conditions that have prevailed. Strong south-westerly winds accompanied by heavy rain have made the many of the UK summits almost no-go areas. A few courageous activators have been out, but on the whole activity has been down.

Fortunately the weather has been reasonable in Slovenia and 70cms has continued to be used by many of the main activators. A welcome addition to the group is Boris S57MB who has been activating the summits in the Pohorje in Kozjak (PK) area using 145MHz and 433MHz FM. Interestingly there are now 42 activators in both the G and S5 tables, so it might be worth a making a comparison of the levels of activity over the year relative to the number of activators. Perhaps this is something for me to do between Christmas and New Year when I will no doubt be confined to the house as relatives will be visiting.


Trends

Slovenia continues to be the 70cms activation hot spot. The level of activity reduced somewhat in November and may well drop off in December depending on how the weather turns out. The number of activations recorded for Slovenia up to 26th was 39, so the monthly total will most likely end up between 40 and 50. Compare the 39 figure with just 4 activations in the UK, 2 in Austria, 5 in Germany and 1 in France……. as they say, no contest!

My absence from activations this month has meant that Tom M1EYP has had to fly the SSB flag on his own as far as the UK is concerned. He also made the only recorded CW contact. I did note that Sergej S51ZJ tried SSB from one summit, but only managed to work S53IZ whom he had worked earlier using FM. All of the other contacts have been made using FM.


Slovenia

Zvone S57PZ no longer tops the Slovenian 70cms table for 2009. That honour now goes to Danilo S56SFZ who carried out 9 activations during the last month starting with the activation of the double summit of Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 on 1st November with 4 contacts overall made on 70cms. On 12th November, Danilo activated Komen S5/KS-019, making 6 contacts including S2S contacts with S56IAA and S56LXN who were on S5/KA-022. Later in the day Veliki Travnik S5/KS-022 was activated with 3 contacts on 70cms making the log. A few days later on 15th November, 13 contacts were made from Altemaver S5/CP-001. Danilo activated another double summit on 20th November – Struška Kocna (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-009 / Bärentaler Kotschna OE/KT-103 with 11 contacts made and yet another double, Košutica S5/KA-008 / Loibler Baba OE/KT-097 on 25th November with 8 contacts in the log. Quite some effort. Danilo has now made 70cms contacts from 30 summits during 2009.

Marijan S56IAA managed to activate even more summits on 70cms - a total of 10 activations for the month so far bringing the total for 2009 to 31. The first activation was actually at the very end of October from Altemaver S5/CP-001 and included S2S contacts with S52Q and S56SFZ who were on S5/KA-002 / OE/OE-070. A week later on 7th November, a total of 5 contacts were made on 70cms from Pasja ravan S5/CP-011 and Kucelj S5/CP-021. Marijan activated Virnikov Grintavec S5/KA-022 on 12th November with 4 contacts made on 70cms including a S2S contact with S56SFZ on S5/KS-019. On 20th November, while activating with Danilo, the double summit of Struška Kocna (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-009 / Bärentaler Kotschna OE/KT-103 produced 11 contacts on the band. Two further summits were activated on 22nd November – Strmec S5/CP-020 with 5 contacts and Miklavška gora S5/CP-018 with a further 4 contacts including S2S contacts with S57MS on S5/JA-036 and S51ZJ on S5/RG-003. To top this off, two days later another two summits were activated – Mokrc S5/RG-016 and Krim S5/RG-010, with another 9 contacts made on 70cms. Another excellent effort indeed.

Bojan S56LXN is another person that has passed Zvone in the 70cms table for 2009. On 1st November he activated Crni vrh S5/CP-036, Partizanski vrh (Kotlic) S5/CP-004 and Straža S5/CP-029 making a total of 8 contacts on 70cms. A further two summits, Pasja ravan S5/CP-011 and Kucelj S5/CP-021, were activated on 7th November with another 7 contacts made on 70cms. On 12th November, Bojan activated Virnikov Grintavec S5/KA-022 from which 4 contacts were made on the band including a single S2S contact with S56SFZ on S5/KS-019. On 14th November, Crni vrh S5/BI-002 was activated with another single contact on 70cms in the log.

Sergey S51ZJ used 70cms from 4 summits this month. On 1st November Strgarija S5/BR-007 was activated and contacts were made with S53IZ on 70cms using both FM and SSB. A week later on 8th November, 4 contacts were made on 70cms from Crni vrh S5/RG-023 and another week later on 15th, the activation of Vinji vrh S5/RG-021 produced another 4 contacts. On 22nd November, Sergey activated Turn S5/RG-003 and made 3 contacts on the band including S2S contacts with S57MS on S5/JA-036 and S56IAA on S5/CP-018.

On 15th November, Marko S57MS activated Golobinjek (Sveta Uršula) S5/RG-049 and his log includes just one contact on 70cms. A week later there was more activity when Jerebikovec S5/JA-036 was activated and 4 contacts were made on 70cms including S2S contacts with S56IAA on S5/CP-018 and S51ZJ on S5/RG-003.

Aco S52Q activated the double summit of Vrtaca S5/KA-002 / Wertatscha OE/KT-070 on 31st October and made 4 contacts from each Association.

Last, but not least, is the welcome addition to the records for Slovenia. Boris S57MB carried out 4 activations during the month in the PK area. I don’t recall recording any contacts from this area before in Summitsbase News, so it would seem that interest is spreading. Boris worked Marijan S56IAA on 70cms during his activation of Ramšakov vrh S5/PK-015. Mladen S57PY was the other contact from this summit. Boris actually made contact with Mladen from all 4 summits that he activated. On 13th November, Boris activated Gora S5/PK-043 and Aleksandrov vrh S5/PK-041 working Mladen and Zvonimir S51XT from both summits. On 21st November, Basališce S5/PK-007 was activated with Mladen and Ivan S57TI. Will we be seeing more taking up activating during 2010? With this amount of interest, I would expect that we will.

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz decemberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

For once I find myself writing this month’s report on the last day of the month. Having said that it looks as though I will need to include at least one December activation in next month’s report since Danilo S56SFZ has been spotted on the summit of Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 on 2m, with no doubt contacts also being made on 70cms. Activity from Slovenia continues to be the main thrust of 70cms in SOTA and I often find myself wondering what it is like to make a decent number of contacts on the band from a summit. Whenever I have put a call out on 70cms FM from the summits I have activated in recent months, I have made no contacts whatsoever – white noise rules! The number of chasers using SSB and CW continues to be few and even with the better performance of these modes, I have failed to make any 70cms contacts from a number of the summits that I have activated.

Trends

Looking at the countries that have joined SOTA in more recent years, the following shows the number of active callsigns.

Callsigns active:
France F - 2007:1, 2008:3, 2009:5
Switzerland HB9 - 2007:6, 2008:4, 2009:3
Czech Republic OK - 2007:3, 2008:4, 2009:6
Slovenia S5 -2007:0, 2008:10, 2009:42

The number of summits activated by the lead activators from these countries is as follows:

Summits activated by lead activator:
France F - 2007:1, 2008:1, 2009:2
Switzerland HB9 - 2007:1, 2008:7, 2009:6
Czech Republic OK - 2007:5, 2008:3, 2009:1
Slovenia S5 -2007:0, 2008:13, 2009:42

Overall, I feel that it is too early to say how the use of 70cms will develop, if indeed it does develop, within France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. However, I look forward to seeing what will happen in Slovenia - will it level out or carry on increasing? Perhaps we will know more in 12 months time.

Slovenia

Marijan S56IAA heads the 70cms table for 2009 with a total of 42 summits activated on the band, 11 of these being within the past month. Marijan has been accompanied on a number of activations this month by Bojan S56LXN. On 29th November they were on the summit of Kozica S5/BI-007, both making a single contact on 70cms. On 2nd December they were on the double summit of Trupejevo Poldne S5/KA-010 / Techantinger Mit­tagskogel OE/KT-104 and each of them made a total of 8 contacts. The following day, Marijan activated Grmada S5/CP-028 and made 4 contacts. Then on 6th December Marijan and Bojan together activated Mrzlica S5/BI-004, with 6 contacts on 70cms in their logs. Two solo activations followed for Marijan – Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 on 13th December with 7 contacts made and Lubnik S5/CP-012 on 16th December with 6 contacts in the log. The following day, Marijan again teamed up with Bojan and activated Slatnik S5/JA-035 from where they both made 6 contacts. As well as the joint activations with Marijan, Bojan also activated Javor S5/BI-003 on 26th December making a single contact on 70cms.

After Christmas, it was the turn of Danilo S56SFZ to team up with Marijan. On 27th December they were on Srednja gora S5/TK-011 making a single contact each and a little later in the day they were on Javornik S5/TK-013 where they made 7 contacts. On 29th December they were on Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 and Marijan made 8 contacts, while Danilo just used 2m FM. Danilo also carried out 2 lone activations – on 29th November he was on Blegoš S5/CP-003 and made 12 contacts and on 9th December a single 70cms contact was made from Gozdnik S5/BI-005.

Marko S57MS has moved to 7th position from 14th in the 2009 table. A total of 5 activations were carried out. The first was on 22nd November from Jerebikovec S5/JA-036 where the tally of 4 contacts included 2 S2S. On 10th December, Marko was on Špicasti vrh S5/TK-016 and made 3 contacts including a S2S with S52Q who was on Tošc S5/CP-013. A single contact was made on 70cms from Tolsti vrh (Kriška Gora) S5/KA-017 on 13th December and on 28th December, Marko activated the summits of Debela pec S5/JA-029 and Mesnovec S5/JA-039 making 1 contact on the first summit and 3 on the second.

As already mentioned, Aco S52Q was out on the summit of Tošc S5/CP-013 where his total of 7 contacts on the band included the S2S with Marko. Later he activated Krim S5/RG-010, making a further 3 contacts on the band. Earlier in the month, on 6th December, Aco activated Mokrc S5/RG-016 and made 5 contacts including S2S contacts with Marijan, Bojan and also with Sergej S51ZJ who was on Mali Golak S5/TK-003. Sergej also contacted Marijan and Bojan. Sergej carried out another activation during the month – on 20th December he was on Pasja ravan S5/CP-011 and made 4 contacts.

Boris S57MB carried out another 3 activations during December. On 3rd he was on Temnjak (Vinska gora) S5/PK-029 and made 2 contacts on 70cms and then two summits were activated on 11th – Veliki Travnik S5/KS-022 with a single contact made and Komen S5/KS-019 from which 3 contacts were made.

Jurij S57AJJ was out on 26th December, making 4 contacts from the summit of Boršt S5/JA-048.

The level of activity in Slovenia is demonstrated by the fact that I am reporting on a total of 35 summit activations during which 137 separate QSOs were recorded, all on FM. By comparison, we managed 8 activations and 18 contacts – even adding in the monthly activation carried out by Tom M1EYP in the RSGB Activity Contest, the total number of contacts only rises to 57.


73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz januarskih SOTA novic:

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.

Trends

I 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?

Slovenia

Many 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!

Signing off

So 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

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz februarskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Unforeseen circumstances delayed this month’s report and time has just seemed to disappear, so apologies to those of you who have had to access the Summitsbase website on more than one occasion to see whether I had produced my report. Being an active activator I have found it doubly difficult to set aside time to produce the report this month, but here it is. So without further ado (and I make no apology for skipping the “Trends” section - well, we all know what is going on, don’t we?), this is the activity that has taken place since last month’s report.

Slovenia

FM continues to be the mode to use in Slovenia where interest in using the band remains at a high level. Most of the main 70cms activators use the band from their homes and this provides an excellent support network for those out on the summits. An average activation may well include 6 or 7 contacts on the band – by comparison in the UK it has been a good day if an activator makes 4 contacts, with the average being just 2 when contest activity is taken out of the equation.

I started to look at the database and had to undertake an update and make a final check before finalising this report. It was evident that some activators had been delayed in uploading their logs to the database, such has been the level of activity in Slovenia. I suspect that some still have not managed to get all of their activations online. This month there are also a number of new-comers to SOTA and / or 70cms activations and perhaps I should start the detailed report with them.

Martin S59MP placed 5 logs on the database, 4 of which were for activations carried out in January, one being the double summit of Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 on 21st January when 11 contacts were made on 70cms. On 8th February, he activated Dobrca S5/KA-023 and made 7 contacts from the summit. Martin is currently placed 4th in the 70cms table for 2010.

On 30th January, Lovro S50LD and Maja S52MBL activated the summit of Vrh Staneta Kosca (Rašica) S5/CP-031 each making 2 contacts. Lovro was out again on 21st February on Sveti Jakob S5/CP-026 with 4 contacts on 70cms in the log.

Before I get onto the more regular activators, I must just make mention of S55SZ who has submitted logs for Veliki Snežnik S5/BR-001 on 16th January and Debela pec S5/JA-029 on 24th January, these activations having been carried out with Danilo S56SFZ and Franc S52Q. I have seen alerts for this trio during February, so I suspect that more logs will be online in due course.

Delays in getting logs uploaded to the database is one issue that I have to work around. Another is a change of callsign. I think that I am fairly safe in saying that Rozalija S56RRT now holds the call S55TR. Rozalija carried out two activations with Ivan S57TI during February. On 25th they were on Mrzlica S5/BI-004 when they made contact with S57MB/P on S5/KS-025 and two days later they activated Gora Oljka S5/KS-051 and had another S2S, this time with S59MP/P on S5/KS-020.

It is good to see some of the 2009 activators carrying out activations this year. Kostja S56KM activated Trstelj S5/BR-023 on 7th February and made 3 contacts. Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ were on Vrhovcev gric S5/CP-010 the same day and they each made 7 contacts including an S2S with Sergey S51ZJ/P on Tošc S5/CP-013. Sergey made 7 contacts that day and a further contact from Vrh (Debeli hrib) S5/CP-034 on 21st February.

7th February must have been an excellent day as Bojan S56LXN was on Velink S5/KS-048 from where he made a single contact on the band. The following day Bojan actaivated Krim S5/RG-010 and made 2 contacts. The next outing was on 25th February on Dovška Baba S5/KA-011 with 5 70cms contacts in the log and two days later Blegoš S5/CP-003 was activated with 6 contacts made.

I have already mentioned Franc S52Q. On 31st January he activated Tolsti vrh (Kriška Gora) S5/KA-017 and I had to check the log twice as there were 10 contacts made on 70cms – oh I wish! On 8th February Franc was on Tošc S5/CP-013 making another 6 contacts including an S2S with S56LXN on S5/RG-010. Two activations were carried out on 21st February – Slavnik S5/BR-012 with a single 70cms contact in the log and Velika Vremšcica S5/BR-013 with 2 contacts.

Another also previously referred to is Boris S57MB. He activated Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 on 4th February and made a single 70cms contact. On 7th February he was with a new entrant to the 2010 70cms table, Mladen S57PY. They activated Skorno S5/KS-062 with each of them making 3 QSOs on the band. On 25th February, Boris activated Boskovec S5/KS-025 and made S2S contacts with S57TI and S55TR on S5/BI-004.

Milan S58MU was active during the latter part of the month. On 21st February he activated Vrhovcev gric S5/CP-010 making 2 contacts. Then on 28th February he made 5 contacts from Pasja ravan S5/CP-011. Just one place below Milan in the 70cms table is Andrej S50TA. He activated Altemaver S5/CP-001 on 27th February and made 4 contacts. Another one with a single activation during February is Marjan S51RU who activated Veliki Slom S5/GS-010 on 14th February with one made contact on the band. Marjan S56JAZ was also a single summiteer with Špilk S5/KS-043 activated on 28th February and 4 contacts made.

I am always impressed by the size of the logs submitted by Slavko S53XX. Two of his logs this month have featured 70cms contacts. On 8th February he activated Kokošinjca (vrh 1401) S5/JA-068 and made 4 contacts on the band and 27th February the summit was Plece S5/KA-027 with another 6 contacts made on 70cms. These activations were spread across four bands – 40m, 30m, 2m and 70cms which takes quite a lot of time and effort.

So what of the top runners in this month’s table? Currently lying in 3rd position as I write, Marko S57MS made three activations when he used 70cms. On 31st January, 3 contacts were made from Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 on 27th February 2 more 70cms contacts were made from Gora (Sveti Ahac) S5/RG-038 and the following day Sveti Lovrenc (Gora) S5/TK-021 was activated from where 2 more contacts were made.

Marijan S56IAA placed three entries on the database for February. On 7th Slivna S5/BI-018 was activated with 3 QSOs made on 70cms. Then on 25th February 6 contacts were made from Dovška Baba S5/KA-011 and two days later the ever popular summit of Blegoš S5/CP-003 produced 6 QSOs on 70cms.

Topping the table is Danilo S56SFZ. I rather suspect that there are more logs to come, but those submitted include one for Porezen S5/CP-002 on 29th January with 2 contacts made and another for Tolsti vrh (Kriška Gora) S5/KA-017 on 1st February containing 6 QSOs on 70cms. Maybe I am not the only one that has been busy!

In all my information says that 49 activations have been logged in Slovenia during which 70cms FM has been used. As I said, I suspect several activators are behind in getting their logs online and the total is somewhat higher. Perhaps the total number of 70cms activations per calendar month could form the basis of a study relating to the use of the band – something for me to consider…… when I have time!

Signing off

So once again apologies for the late report. As can be seen, Slovenia remains the main area of activity on 70cms with 24 activators having made entries to the 70cms table so far this year. Just how much activity there is can be seen from the fact that only 2 of the 24 were not active in February. Will there be a challenge from the UK – well, I’m not going to put a bet on, but I certainly hope that there are a few more handhelds will be switched to the band and a few more antennae erected during the coming months.

My usual best wishes to all readers for safe activations, particularly for safe travel to and from the summits and also on foot during the ascents and descents….. and keep thinking – 70cms, but then if you are reading this, maybe I am preaching to the converted!

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz marčevskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

I started this section of the Summitsbase News with the idea of increasing interest in the band. I don’t know whether it has played any part in the increase in activity, but that is indeed what has happened and continues to happen. So far this year there have been 28 activators in Slovenia using the band and 16 in England, up from 24 and 10 respectively. Perhaps more noticeable is the quality of many of the logs with a very worthwhile number of contacts being made and a good number of Summit to Summit QSOs. Even on SSB the number of chasers is on the increase with new calls logged on a regular basis.

The time has now come that by necessity I am not able to make reference to each and every activation and I will therefore be moving the emphasis of this report to concentrate on activations that are worthy of particular note for one reason or another. It is also appropriate to refer to activations carried out by those new to the activating on the band. As much of the information overload comes from Slovenia, I wonder anyone there would like to produce a separate report for 70cms activity within the country and present it to the Summitsbase team for inclusion in the news as a separate article. That would leave me more time to concentrate on and hopefully help expand activity in other countries. I would also like to include some photographs and analysis into this report, which at the present time is just not practical.


Slovenia

A rough check revealed that there were 67 activations during March that included 70cms. On 43 of these 4 or more contacts were made – that is quite some statistic for what many consider to be a minority band. Another check showed that there were some 257 contacts logged, all of them without exception being on FM.

Perhaps the most prolific activator this month was Franc S52Q who activated 8 summits making 51 contacts on 70cms. His first activation was on 7th March from Lubnik S5/CP-012 with a typical bag of 8 contacts was a joint activation with Danilo S56SFZ. The following day another 7 contacts were made from Mokrc S5/RG-016, again with Danilo who made the same number of contacts. The activation from Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 on 13th March had a superb 10 contacts including S2S with S57MS on S5/BI-002 and S59MP on S5/CP-001. By contrast the joint activation (again with Danilo) of Mali Golak S5/TK-003 on 18th March produced only a single QSO and that from Veliki Bukovec S5/TK-004 the same day another 5. The best day for S2S contacts by far was 20th March. Franc activated Krim S5/RG-010 and made 9 contacts including S2S with S58MU and S57XX on S5/TK-022 and S57AX and S57AJJ on S5/CP-002. Two further activations were carried out – the first, another joint activation with Danilo, was on Blegoš S5/CP-003 on 21st and produced 6 contacts and the activation on Dobrca S5/KA-023 on 24th a further 5 contacts.

As can be seen from Franc's logs, there were several joint activations during the month - Milan S58MU and Jure S57XX were on Sivka S5/TK-022 on 20th March making 5 and 6 contacts respectively. Also Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ on Porezen S5/CP-002 making 4 contacts each. The same day, Bojan S56LXN and Marijan S56IAA both activated Velika Raduha with S5/KS-012 5 contacts in their logs. Darko and Jurij also jointly activated Blegoš S5/CP-003 on 14th March each of them making 8 contacts including an S2S with Ivan S57TI on Bezgovica. S5/KS-054. Having noted these contacts in the database, I then realised that there were three entries for Gabrška gora S5/CP-017 on 14th March when Darko, Jurij and Milan were all on the summit.

Two of the new entrants into the 2010 70cms table this month were Joze S56VJM and Janko S56RPJ who jointly activated Stene Svete Ane S5/RG-022 on 27th March making 6 and 4 contacts respectively. Joze also activated the summits of Triglav S5/JA-001 on 13th March making 4 contacts and Veliki Snežnik S5/BR-001 on 19th when a single contact was made on 70cms. Joze has started adding 70cms to his main operations which take place on 2m.

Before I move onto individual achievements, I must mention another S2S that took place on 19th March. This was between Slavko S53XX on the summit of Virnikov Grintavec S5/KA-022, his 6 contacts including a contact with Rozalija S55TR on Skorno S5/KS-062. On that occasion, Rozalija made 2 contacts on 70cms; the day before 4 contacts were made from Sveti Križ S5/KS-040. Ivan S57TI accompanied Rozalija on these activations and also made contacts on the band.

The main activators in Slovenia continue to log multiple contacts more or less each time they carry out an activation. Danilo S56SFZ still leads the 2010 table, now having teamed up with Franc S52Q. The 5 joint activations carried out in March provided Danilo with a total of 27 contacts.

The only double summit activated during March was Bärentaler Kotschna OE/KT-103 / Struška Kocna (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-009 by Marijan S56IAA on 14th March, a single contact being made from each side of the border. Marijan carried out another 3 activations during the month which provided a total of 16 contacts on 70cms.

Marko S57MS carried out 7 activations during March, the most intense period of activity being on the weekend of 13th / 14th March when Kum S5/BI-001, Crni vrh S5/BI-002 and Javor S5/BI-003 were activated. In all 20 contacts were made on the band during the month.

Bojan S56LXN has now moved up to 4th in the 2010 table for 70cms activations. 7 activations were carried out during March including the joint activation with Marijan already mentioned. It was interesting to note that the activations were spread around the CP, JA, KS, RG, TK and BR regions, a total of 17 contacts being made on 70cms.

Just a few mentions in closing this section of the report. Andrej S50TA activated Begunjšcica (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-007 on 19th March with 2 contacts made and Polhograjska Gora S5/CP-024 with 4 in the log. Kostja S56KM activated Škabrijel S5/TK-031 on 6th March making a single contact on the band and on 20th March an activation on Krim S5/RG-010 provided 5 contacts. I must also make note of an activation by Boris S57MB on Temnjak S5/PK-029 which produced a single contact on a summit that I do not recall having mentioned before. Last, but certainly not least, I must also make note of the contacts made by new SOTA activator Beno S56KZ who made 4 contacts from Tolsti vrh S5/BI-021 on 17th March.

Apologies to anyone whose activation is not mentioned or who has only been mentioned in passing; also for any errors that have crept into the write-up. The database this month had me on near overload as there was so much activity!

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz aprilskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

This month’s report is obviously based on partial information as a result of the problems with the SOTA database. Quite a few logs have not yet been uploaded and some activations will inevitably get missed as a result, but I have attempted to minimise the effect this has on the report by leaving its preparation until the last possible moment. One interesting fact that I have found from attempting to obtain information while the database was down is how few 70cms contacts are spotted on SOTAwatch. This may be due in part to the fact that some activators operate on the band as the final part of their activation and do not encourage spotting by chasers since they are close to packing away. However, there are many examples where an activation may produce 10 or more contacts on 70cms, yet there is no spot placed. I just wonder whether a little more keeness spotting might produce additional contacts. I would be pleased to hear what people think if anyone wishes to email me on the subject.

The activity in each Association continues to grow, with more activators including the band in their operations. The UK has increased from 18 activators to 25 during April, two of these being Welsh and Scottish activators. Slovenia saw a modest increase from 28 to 31 activators. The largest increase by far in proportion to last month was in Hungary where Janos HG0NPJ was joined by another 5 activators. Marek OK9HAG was joined by another 4 activators and the activity in Germany produced a healthy increase from 5 to 9 activators.

So to the reports, which I am presenting in date order for a change -

Slovenia

Again there was a lot of activity during the month. A number of activators have yet to upload their logs, but I am still able to report on many interesting contacts and activations. Danilo S56SFZ continues to head the 70cms SOTA table for this year. He carried out 2 activations on Saturday 3rd April, one on Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 producing 7 contacts on FM, the other on Javornik S5/TK-013 producing 4 contacts on FM including S2S contacts with Franc S52Q on Trdinov vrh S5/RG-006 and Bojan S56LXN and Marijan S56IAA on Plešivec S5/KA-028.

The following day, Easter Sunday, the LXN / IAA team were out again, this time on the summit of Mrzlica S5/BI-004 with 4 contacts on 70cms in each log. Jurij S57AJJ and Darko S57AX also made 4 contacts each the same day from Pasja ravan S5/CP-011. On Monday 5th April, they activated Limbarska gora S5/BI-033 (7 contacts) and Tratna S5/BI-080 (5 contacts). Marko S57MS also activated 2 summits – Planski vrh S5/RG-035 (3 contacts) and Jermanov hrib S5/RG-056 (4 contacts) as did Bojan S56LXN who activated Gabrška gora S5/CP-017 and Malenski vrh S5/CP-009 and made 5 contacts from each including an S2S with Zvone S57PZ on Škofje S5/CP-016. Zvone made an excellent 11 contacts from this summit.

On Wednesday 7th April, Bojan S56LXN and Marijan S56IAA were on Rodica S5/JA-030, each making 7 contacts on FM including S2S contacts with Danilo S56SFZ and Francs S52Q on Kalicni vrh S5/RG-008. Franc’s log shows 7 contacts made on 70cms from that summit and a total of a further 4 contacts from Blošcek S5/RG-015 and Gora (Sveti Ahac)S5/RG-038. Presumably Danilo also activated these summits.

Friday 9th April saw Bojan S56 LXN activate Sveti Jakob S5/CP-026 with 7 contacts in his log. Zvone S57PZ activated Gabrška gora S5/CP-017 the same day (the spot said with S56WDN) and he tried both SSB and FM making 4 and 9 contacts respectively.

On Sunday 11th April there was a large amount of activity. Zvone S57PZ together with Milos S57D and Sabina S56BNX activated the summit of Kucelj S5/CP-021. Again SSB was used, this time to make 2 contacts, with a further 8 on FM including S2S contacts with Janko S56RPJ and Jose S56VJM on Obolno S5/BI-031 and Sergej S51ZJ on Goljava S5/BI-023. Another round of S2S contacts took place amongst other activators on 11th April. Bojan S56LXN activated three summits – Planica S5/CP-025 (9 contacts), Jošt nad Kranjem S5/CP-023 (10 contacts) and Šmarjetna gora S5/CP-030 (6 contacts). His activation on S5/CP-030 produced S2S contacts with Danilo S56SFZ on Vivodnik KS-028 and Marko S57MS on Šentanski vrh S5/KA-029. Darko S57AX activated Rifnik S5/BI-057 and made 2 contacts on FM.

The next significant day of activity was Saturday 17th April. Marko S57MS activated Ilija S5/RG-029, Martin S59MP activated Rodica S5/JA-030, Darko S57AX activated Slavnik S5/BR-012 and Milos S57D (possibly with others) activated Vrh Staneta Kosca {Rašica} S5/CP-031. This information came from spots on SOTAwatch as the logs had not been uploaded when I collected the data.

While the database was down, I noted several spots for known 70cms activators, but the spots were for 2m FM, so I don’t have the details of many of the 70cms contacts that were made during this period. Some logs have however, been uploaded and I can report that on Sunday 25th April, Marko S57MS activated Gric S5/RG-024 and Debeli vrh S5/RG-028 making an S2S contact from the latter with Sergey S51ZJ who was on the summit of Goteniški Snežnik S5/RG-001. Also out the same day were new SOTA activators Jaka S51JS and friend S51TS (sorry, name unknown) who activated Boskovec S5/KS-025 and made 2 contacts on 70cms FM, the main part of their activation being on 2m FM.

Jure S57XX activated Vrh Staneta Kosca {Rašica} S5/CP-031 on Monday 26th April and made an S2S contact with Marijan S56IAA on Begunjšcica {Veliki vrh} S5/KA-007. Sergey S51ZJ activated Travica S5/BR-002 the next day with 2 contacts in the log. Jure was again out on Wednesday 28th April from Marutnik S5/TK-024, another activation with just 2 contacts made on the band.

A few spots appeared on 29th April, for Darko S57AX on Mohor S5/CP-019 and Zvone S57PZ (with Miha S54KM) on Kojca S5/CP-007. I also noted Boris S57MB alerted for Kavnikov vrh S5/KS-032 for 30th April. Hopefully they all had successful activations on 70cms.

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

Zaradi nedelovanja SOTAdatabase je poročilo nepopolno, saj je bilo aktivnosti v S5 veliko več.

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz majskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Intro

The Slovenian activators once again showed everyone else the way this month. There is obviously now a very keen level of interest in 70cms FM as many activators logs reveal contacts with a regular band of chasers and in addition many make contact with other activators operating from their home QTH. I can imagine the camaraderie across the country which must be very much akin to the dedicated team of 2m SSB chasers that I work every time that I go out on an activation and which form the background to a successful and enjoyable activation.

Elsewhere there continues to be a steady increase in the number active on 70cms. To get a feel of the situation, I decided to look at the month on month rise in the number of activators and seeing that we are almost half way through the year I thought it might be a good time to set down some figures. Unfortunately time and circumstances have been against me so it will have to wait for another month. However, one interesting fact that I discovered is that the rate of increase in the number of new activators (or rather those making contacts on the band) is currently greater in England than it is in Slovenia. This of course only shows one aspect of the activity. A study of the number of QSOs tells a totally different story and that is plain to see just looking through the logs.

Slovenia

The main feature of this month’s activity in Slovenia was the large number of joint activations carried out by Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ between 19th and 25th May and also on 30th and 31st May. – 13 in all. Darko even managed another 4 activations on his own on 1st, 2nd, 9th and 27th May. The schedule ran out as follows:

01-May Hom S5/BI-075 1 FM
02-May Veliki Javornik S5/BI-006 4 FM
09-May Šentanski vrhS5/KA-029 7 FM incl S2S with S57TI / S55TR on S5/BI-004
19-May Jance S5/BI-029 2 FM
19-May Slivna S5/BI-018 7 FM
19-May Smledniški hrib S5/CP-035 4 FM incl S2S with S56LXN on S5/RG-034
21-May Hom S5/JA-050 4 FM
22-May Dovška Baba S5/KA-011 5 FM incl S2S with S56IAA on S5/JA-069
22-May Klek (Petelinjek) S5/KA-015 5 FM
23-May Struška Kocna (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-009 2 FM
23-May Bärentaler Kotschna OE/KT-103 3 FM
25-May Velika Golica S5/KA-013 4 FM
25-May Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 5 FM
27-May Lubnik S5/CP-012 9 FM
30-May Kopitnik S5/BI-016 1 FM
30-May Gora Oljka S5/KS-051 4 FM
31-May Straža S5/CP-029 3 FM

Danilo S56SFZ still heads the 70cms table for 2010, but has not entered any activations for May. Bojan S56LXN has been very active, with a total of 6 activations logged during the month as follows:

01-May Petelinjek S5/RG-004 1 FM
07-May Limbarska gora S5/BI-033 6 FM
16-May Vrh Staneta Kosca (Rašica) S5/CP-031 2 FM
19-May Vivodnik S5/KS-028 1 FM
19-May Srebotnik S5/RG-034 5 FM incl S2S with S57AJJ and S57AX on S5/CP-035
29-May Vivodnik S5/KS-028 13 FM

Marijan S56IAA maintains third position in the table with the activation of Planski vrh S5/JA-069 on 22nd May during which the S2S contacts with Darko and Jurij were made. Marko S57MS similarly maintained position in the table (currently 4th) with the activation of Šentjoški vrh S5/KS-037 on 22nd May when a single contact was made and two activations on 30th May. These were Stegovnik S5/KA-019 (6 contacts) and Bukovec S5/KA-026 (1 contact). Franc S52Q activated Altemaver S5/CP-001 and Štedel vrh S5/CP-037 with 6 contacts made from each summit. Franc had a S2S contact from Alternaver with Slavko S53XX who was on Dovški križ S5/JA-055.

Joint activators Ivan S57TI and Rozalija S55TR carried out 3 activations:

09-May Mrzlica S5/BI-004 3 FM S2S with 57AX on S5/KA-029 and S55KM / S55NM on S5/KS-029
22-May Lisca S5/BI-065 2 FM
23-May Gora S5/PK-043 2 FM

Another joint activation team were Stephanie S55KM and Monika S55NM who activated the following summits together:

01-May Basališce S5/PK-007 2 FM incl S2S with S57D on S5/RG-016
09-May Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 5 FM incl S2S with S57TI / S55TR on S5/BI-004 and S51JS / S51TS on S5/KS-051

In addition, Stephanie activated Hom S5/BI-075 and Sveti Križ S5/KS-040 on 23rd May making a total of 5 contacts and Monika activated Vivodnik S5/KS-028 on 30th May where she made 3 contacts on the band.

Jaka S51JS was also active in the S5/KS region and made some useful contacts –

01-May Sveti Križ S5/KS-040 2 FM
09-May Gora Oljka S5/KS-051 2 FM incl S2S with S55KM on S5/KS-029
09-May Vivodnik S5/KS-028 4 FM
23-May Brezovec S5/KS-061 5 FM

Milos S57D activated Mokrc S5/RG-016 on 1st May and made 7 contacts including the S2S with Stephanie and Monika. The following day Miro S52ON made 6 contacts from Boskovec S5/KS-025. A week later on 9th May Toni S51TS activated Gora Oljka S5/KS-051 making an S2S with S55KM on S5/KS-029 and later on from Vivodnik S5/KS-028 4 contacts were made. The same day, new activator S50MP operating from Plece S5/KA-027 was persuaded onto 70cms by S57ILF to debut on the band.

23rd May was quite a busy day. Besides the activations recorded above, three more activators were out on the summits. Sergej S57ZJ activated Javor S5/BI-003 and made 4 contacts on 70cms as well as his usual haul on the lower frequencies. Boris S57MB activated Velika Golica S5/KA-013, but only had a single contact on 70cms and Zvone S57PZ activated Planica S5/CP-025 making an excellent tally of 8 contacts.

Anyone that read the Summitsbase News at the beginning of the month will have noted the absence of my report which was due to having family issues to deal with. Presenting the information partially tabulated has helped me get the information down quicker than transferring everything from the database long-hand. This made me think about using this format to reduce the considerable workload in reporting the contacts that have been made and perhaps then more time can be taken to include photographs and the details of equipment used, presuming activators will be willing to send them to me. Please email me to let me know what you think.

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz junijskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Another busy month leaves me feverishly slaving away over a very hot word processor, with the temperature still above 20C at 21:00 hrs local and it is very humid. I’d rather be on a summit. I find that it is more of the same this month, with the regular activators making the bulk of the contacts on the band. Slovenia now has 41 activators, 2 more than the combined UK total. These two countries remain the hot-bed of 70cms activity, but this month there has been a significant increase in activity in Germany and for that reason I start this month’s report with their activations.

Slovenia

As time is short to get this report out, I am having to use tables to report on the high level of activity from Slovenia. All activations have used FM and I have shown S2S contacts where they have been indicated in the logs. Of course not every activator records S2S contacts on the database, so a number may be missing. I have cross-checked logs where it has been possible to do so, but again not everyone is up to date with their logs. The table is in the order shown in the database and shows those activators that have recorded 70cms contacts during June.

S56SFZ Danilo
01-Jun Košutica S5/KA-008 / Loibler Baba OE/KT-097 5 + 3
01-Jun Šentanski vrh S5/KA-029 4 including S52Q/P on S5/CP-006
05-Jun Trupejevo Poldne S5/KA-010 / Techantinger Mit­tagskogel OE/KT-104 5 + 2 incl S56LXN/P on S5/KS-022
06-Jun Begunjšcica (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-007 7
12-Jun Storžic S5/KA-005 5
25-Jun Stol S5/KA-001/ Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 5 + 5
25-Jun Vrtaca S5/KA-002 / Wertatscha OE/KT-070 4 + 4

S56LXN Bojan
05-Jun Veliki Travnik S5/KS-022 4 including S56SFZ/P, S55SZ/P and S56IAA/P all on OE/KT-104
05-Jun Komen S5/KS-019 2 including S57MS/P on S5/KS-033
06-Jun Jasovnik S5/KS-050 4
08-Jun Miklavška gora S5/CP-018 1
11-Jun Goli vrh S5/TK-023 1
11-Jun Sveti Trije Kralji S5/TK-025 1
12-Jun Jance S5/BI-029 3 including S57X/P on S5/CP-001
12-Jun Obolno S5/BI-031 3 including S56SFZ/P and S56IAA/P
13-Jun Mesnovec S5/JA-039 3
13-Jun Straža S5/CP-029 2

S56IAA Marijan
01-Jun Šentanski vrh S5/KA-029 4 including S52Q/P on S5/CP-006
05-Jun Trupejevo Poldne S5/KA-010 / Techantinger Mit­tagskogel OE/KT-104 5 + 2 including S56LXN/P on S5/KS-022
12-Jun Storžic S5/KA-005 5
27-Jun Velika Golica S5/KA-013 / Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 5 + 5
29-Jun Mali Draški vrh S5/JA-061 3

S57AX Darko
02-Jun ((s5br005|Veliki Javornik) S5/BR-005 2
02-Jun Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 2
06-Jun Velika Vremšcica S5/BR-013 2 including S52Q on S5/KA-001
09-Jun Jerebikovec S5/JA-036 5 including S57MS/P on S5/JA-026
10-Jun Velika Osojnica S5/JA-052 2
26-Jun Košenjak S5/PK-004 1
26-Jun Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 4
28-Jun Slatnik S5/JA-035 2
28-Jun Crni vrh S5/CP-036 2
28-Jun Kravja Crna gora S5/JA-067 5

S57MS Marko
05-Jun Ludranski vrh S5/KS-033 S56LXN/P on S5/KS-019
06-Jun Mirna gora S5/RG-017 2
09-Jun Zadnjiški Ozebnik S5/JA-026 2 with S57AX/P and S57AJJ/P on S5/JA-036
24-Jun Velika Baba S5/JA-028 2
25-Jun Veliki Lemež S5/JA-027 2 including S53XX/P on S5/JA-057

S52Q Franc
01-Jun Koprivnik S5/CP-005 7 including S56SFZ/P and S56IAA/P
01-Jun Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 7 including S56SFZ/P and S56IAA/P on S5/KA-029
06-Jun Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 4 including S57AX/P on S5/BR-013 / 3
10-Jun Vrtaca S5/KA-002 / Wertatscha OE/KT-070 4 + 4
30-Jun Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 / Koschutnikturm OE/KT-079 4 + 3

S57AJJ Jurij
02-Jun Veliki Javornik S5/BR-005 2
02-Jun Velika Slivnica S5/RG-009 2
09-Jun Jerebikovec S5/JA-036 5 including S57MS on S5/JA-026
22-Jun Šentanski vrh S5/KA-029 4
26-Jun Košenjak S5/PK-004 / Hühnerkogel OE/KT-148 1 contact from Košenjak
26-Jun Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 4 including S55KM/P
28-Jun Slatnik S5/JA-035 1
28-Jun Crni vrh S5/CP-036 2
28-Jun Kravja Crna gora S5/JA-067 5

S53XX Slavko
24-Jun Crni vrh S5/CP-036 3
25-Jun Travnik S5/JA-057 S57MS/P on S5/JA-027

S55SZ
05-Jun no log yet for Trupejevo Poldne S5/KA-010 / Techantinger Mit­tagskogel OE/KT-104

S57PZ Zvone
06-Jun Koprivnik S5/CP-005 6
06-Jun Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 3

S57MB Boris
27-Jun Crni vrh S5/PK-001 2

S57TI Ivan
08-Jun Brezovec S5/KS-061 3
11-Jun Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 3

S51JS Jaka
09-Jun Vrh Staneta Kosca (Rašica) S5/CP-031 1
13-Jun Govca (Govešca) S5/KS-015 4
28-Jun Grintavec S5/KS-001 2

S57XX Jure
12-Jun Altemaver S5/CP-001 S57JJ/P on S5/KA-020

S55KM Stephanie
12-Jun Komen S5/KS-019 3

S55TR Rozalija
08-Jun Brezovec S5/KS-061 3

S58MU Milan
29-Jun Goli vrh S5/TK-023 2

S52TC Marijan
25-Jun (Travnik) S5/JA-057 1
26-Jun Jerebikovec S5/JA-036 4
30-Jun Debela pec S5/JA-029 4

S50MP
04-Jun Stol S5/KA-001 / Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 2 + 2

S51TS Toni
13-Jun Govca (Govešca) S5/KS-015 4

S57X Jurij
12-Jun Altemaver S5/CP-001 8

S57JJ Janez
12-Jun Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 4 including S57X/P and S57XX/P on S5/CP-001

S52ANG
11-Jun Uršlja gora S5/KS-018 5 - first SOTA activation! Excellent!

S50NV Anton
11-Jun Sivka S5/TK-022 1

A number of joint activations have taken place, with up to three people activating one summit simultaneously. Danilo S56SFZ and Marijan S56IAA are regular activation partners, as are Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ. Joint activations have the added bonus of security while activators are up in the mountains.

Signing off

Well, first I must apologise for the tabulation of the report for Slovenia. Activity in that country has reached such a level that it is hard to report everything that has been going on and I am finding myself more and more time-limited month by month. I am somewhat reluctant to reduce the Slovenian section to a “highlights” report as I would be sure to miss what was important to someone. However, assuming that the level of activity is set to increase, then something will have to be done. I have received no suggestions or comments on the report so far, so maybe now is the time make another request for ideas.

So once again I extend my best wishes to all activators for safe activations, ascents, descents and travel to and from the summits. Particular thanks to everyone who has made the effort to support the activators that use the band.

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz julijskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Intro
A couple of weeks ago I exchanged emails with Mike G4BLH and the subject of how best to report on 70cms activity was briefly discussed. Mike suggested that I write up only what contributions I receive, but that would leave me with nothing to do – it is a long time since anyone sent me any information regarding their activations or their equipment. In the face of a lack of information, the report has generally been based on what I have been able to extract from the SOTA database. Regular readers will realise that this task has now become unwieldy, particularly in respect of reporting on the activity from Slovenia where every activator seems to have “70cms” written in biro on the back of their hand to remind them to use the band. Elsewhere activity is rather sporadic and I am keen to report more fully where this is the case in order to encourage the hardy few.

Slovenia

This month I have decided to feature some of the leading activators and also the new activators on the band. Apologies to other activators that have been out on the summits making 70cms contacts. I will endeavour to report on your activities another month – if you send me a photo of your activation, then that will guarantee that you get a feature spot in the next report and I will be happy to have a photograph to include in my write up. Failing this, I will choose a few callsigns at random each month.

I actually made a note regarding the spots that I saw for Marko S57ORG. His first activation on 10th July was carried out on an interesting mix of bands starting with the 4m band. This was from Tolsti vrh (Kriška Gora), S5/KA-017 with 3 contacts made on 70cms including S2S contacts with Milos S57D/P and Sabina S57BNX/P on Kum S5/BI-001. On 11th July, Marko activated Rzenik S5/KS-016 and made 5 contacts on 70cms including S2S contacts with Stephanie S55KM/P and Monika S55NM/P on Crni vrh S5/PK-001 and Jurij S57X/P on Mrzlica S5/BI-004. Two days later, 4 more contacts were made from Gradice (Njivica) S5/KS-020 and on 15th July another 3 from Planjava S5/KS-004 when carrying out a joint activation with with Miha S54KM. A week later on 22nd July, Marko activated Blegos S5/CP-003 and made 3 contacts on the band. So 5 summits activated and contacts made on 70cms from each of them. An excellent start by any account.

Another new activator is Andrej S57NAD who was on Gradišce (Njivica) S5/KS-020 on 3rd July and made 4 contacts. Also relatively new to SOTA is Tomaz S58TSC who started activating back in May. On 28th June he activated Grintavec S5/KS-001 and worked 2 stations and a further 70cms contact was made from Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 on 7th July.

So to a few of the leading activators. Bojan S56LXN has featured in this report over many months. During July he carried out 12 activations and made 70cms contacts on most of them. On 10th July, Struška Kocna (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-009 was activated from which 6 contacts were made on 70cms, including S2s contacts with S57D/P. S57BNX/P and S55DD/P all on Kum S5/BI-001. Moving over the border to activate Bärentaler Kotschna, OE/KT-103 Bojan started his activation with 3 contacts on 70cms, but only worked the trio on S5/BI-001 using 2m. On 17th July Bojan activated Klek (Petelinjek) S5/KA-015 and made 4 contacts including an S2S with Boris S57MB/P on Veliki Travnik S5/KS-022. The following day an early activation netted a single contact with S57ILF from Veliki Javornik S5/KA-018 and later 3 contacts were made from Javorce (Konjšcica) S5/KA-021. On 23rd July, Bojan was on the summit of Šentanski vrh S5/KA-029 and made 4 contacts. Two days later the double summit of Velika Golica S5/KA-013 / Kahlkogel OE/KT-117 was activated with 3 contacts made from the Slovenian side and 6 from Austria. Srednji vrh S5/KA-012 was activated on 28th July with an excellent 12 contacts made on 70cms including S2S with Franc S52Q/P on Begunjšcica (Veliki vrh) S5/KA-007, Joze S56VJM/P on Kukova pica S5/JA-013 Lukas S57LU/P on Kalški greben S5/KS-007 and Matija S50MP/P on Storžic S5/KA-005.

The other featured activators this month are the team of Darko S57AX and Jurij S57AJJ. Darko activated several summits early in the month with Vivodnik S5/KS-028 providing 5 contacts on 70cms on 4th July. Other summits were activated using 2m FM. Then on 13th July, Jurij joined Darko to activate the dual summit of Trupejevo Poldne S5/KA-010 / Techantinger Mit­tagskogel OE/KT-104 and a little later in the day Dreiländereck OE/KT-149. Contacts with S56IAA and S57ILF were made from all 3 summits. Two days later the team activated Debela pec S5/JA-029 and both of them made 3 contacts on 70cms.

All of the contacts reported in respect of Slovenian activity are for FM operation as usual.

Signing off
Again I would apologise for a shortened report on the activity from Slovenia – the level of activity is such that I had to limit the report to a reasonable level. If you specifically wish your activations to be included (and that applies to everyone), then please drop me an email – my address is at QRZ.com.

So another month past. The days are now getting shorter, so it is a good time to take stock and consider all aspects of activating so that we continue to have safe activations, ascents, descents and travel to and from the summits. May all those out on the summits have an enjoyable time.

73 to all,

Gerald, G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz septemberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

I am back this month with some interesting developments to report on. Whether they have any real meaning in the long term, only time will tell, but at least they are of interest here and now.

Slovenia

70cm activity in Slovenia continues at a frenetic pace. Having 2 months to consider makes my job of reporting that much harder, but I will try to set out the highlights. There have been many S2S contacts and also several joint activations over the past two months. I will therefore concentrate on those aspects this month and then put individual activators in the spotlight over the coming months. So, in date order and ignoring Austrian prefixes –

1st August – Milos S57D, Sabina S57BNX, Jurij S57AJJ and Zvone S57PZ all activated Kladivo S5/KA-006, From this summit they had S2S contacts with Marijan S56IAA on Uršlja gora S5/KS-028 and Marjan S56IHX and Stanislav S52STM who were on Storžic S5/KA-005.

9th August – Bojan S57LXN on Visok Kurji vrh S5/KA-014 worked Franc S52Q, Marjan S56IHX and Stanislav S52STM on Planjava S5/KS-004.

11th August – S57AJJ on Mesnovec S5/JA-039 worked S53XX on (s5cp019|Mohor) S5/CP-019 and Dejan S56WDN on Porezen S5/CP-002.

12th August – Marijan S52TC activated Dovška Baba S5/KA-011 and worked Dejan S56WDN on Koprivnik S5/CP-005

23rd August – Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX on Mangart S5/JA-003 worked (oekt074|Mittagskogel) S52TC on OE/KT-074

27th August – Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX on Hochstuhl OE/KT-063 worked Marko S57ORG and Miha S54KM who activated Kalški greben S5/KS-007.

12th September - Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX activated Kranjska Reber S5/KS-029 and worked S56JAZ on Rzenik S5/KS-016 and S53MN on Prisojnik S5/JA-008.

15th September - Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX on Kalški greben S5/KA-007 worked Andrej S57NAD on Feistritzer Spitze = Hochpetzen OE/KT-081.

As for other joint activations, Ivan S57TI and Rozalija S55TR were active on 23rd September from Kum S5/BI-001 and on 24th September from Reška planina S5/BI-013, each making 4 QSOs on 70cm each day.

Since my last report, a number of activators have made a large number of activations during which they have made contacts on 70cm. Marijan S52TC and Marko S57ORG both made 15 activations. As can be seen from the above entries, Milos S57D and Sabina S57BNX have been very active as well, with Milos making 10 activations and Sabina 7. Zvone S57PZ activated 6 summits and Bojan S56LXN, Franc S52Q, Stanislav S52STM and Andrej S53MN all activated 5.

In terms of the number of QSOs being made, looking through the logs I get the feeling that the QSO rate is on the increase, with many logs having 4 or more contacts on 70cm. In fact I noted that Andrej S53MN carried out a 70cm only activation on 26th August from Skuta S5/KS-003 and made 9 contacts which was an excellent achievement.

As for new-comers to 70cms activity, besides Stanislav S52STM, there is an entry from Dusan S51WX who made a single contact with S57ILF from Ferdrenška gora S5/RG-033 on 11th September.

As usual apologies to anyone who was active, but has not been mentioned and for any errors that have crept into my report – easy when there is so much information to digest.

73 to all,

Gerald G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz oktoberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

Slovenia

Some activity took place over the contest weekend at the beginning of the month. On 3rd October Lovro S50LD and Maja S52MBL activated Smledniški hrib S5/CP-035 and worked S55O/P. Marko S57MS worked S55O/P (noted as being on Veliki Snežnik S5/BR-001) and Sergej S51ZJ on Mladi vrh S5/CP-006 from the summit of Rzenik S5/KS-016 when a total of 6 contacts were made on FM. Sergej also logged 6 contacts.

Marko S57ORG activated Debela pec S5/JA-029 on 3rd October and made 7 contacts on FM including an S2S with Milos S57D on Sveti Trije Kralji S5/TK-025. Milos logged 6 contacts on 70cms from his summit.

On 9th October, Janez S57JJ activated Vivodnik S5/KS-028 and made 2 contacts on FM. The same day Bojan S56LXN activated Veliki Rogatec S5/KS-027 and made 3 contact. The following day Zvone S57PZ activated Slatnik S5/JA-035 and made 4 contacts on the mode.

Also on 10th October a number of other activations took place, several of which included S2S contacts. Toni S51TS activated Vivodnik S5/KS-028 and made 2 contacts on the band, one of which was with Sergej S51ZJ on Partizanski vrh (Kotlic) S5/CP-004. Sergey managed 3 contacts which included another S2S, this being with Marko S57ORG on Velika Zelenica S5/KS-010. Marko also made a total of 3 QSOs during his activation. Marjan S56JAZ activated Kalški greben S5/KS-007 and worked 4 stations on the band. Marko S57MS activated Briceljk S5/JA-018 making a single contact and his next activation was on 15th October from Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 / Koschutnikturm OE/KT-079 with a total of 3 contacts made.

Miha S54KM was active on 16th October and made 4 contacts from the summit of Velika Raduha S5/KS-012. Milos S57D was on Osolnik S5/CP-022 and made 5 contacts.

A week later on 23rd October, Boris S57MB activated Stenica S5/PK-009 and made a total of 4 contacts including S2S QSOs with Jaka S51JS and Toni S51TS who were on Komen S5/KS-019 and Marko S57MS on Veliki špicek S5/BI-043. Milos S57D was on Slatnik S5/JA-035 and made 4 contacts.

The total of activators using 70cms in Slovenia this month remained at 49.

73 to all,

Gerald G4OIG

V poročilu niso zajete aktivacije v zadnjem tednu oktobra.

73, Miloš S57D

[S57D]

Odlomek o slovenskih aktivnostih na 433MHz iz novemberskih SOTA novic:

70cms News

There isn’t that much news this month to report on and even in the hot-bed of 70cms SOTA activity, Slovenia, the number of activations is well down on normal. In the UK, just 2 activators made contacts on the band. Perhaps this is not surprising since November always seems to be the worst month for activity, possibly as people prepare and wait for the winter bonus period. It will be interesting to see whether activity picks up in December, especially as winter arrived early for much of Europe this year.

Slovenia

The total of activators using 70cms in Slovenia this month increased from 49 to 51. Perhaps it is fitting that the first activity for me to report this month was undertaken by Ales S59RA from Prednja gora S5/BI-081 on 29th October when Milos S57D and Sabina S56BNX on Lisca S5/BI-065 were worked. The other new entry into the 70cms table was Matej S56LCH who activated Trebni vrh S5/RG-058 on 1st November and made 2 contacts on 70cms. Milos and Sabina made a total of 7 contacts from S5/BI-065 which included another S2S, this being with Marjan S56JAZ/P on Storžic S5/KA-005. On 30th October they activated Ulovka S5/TK-028 from where 6 contacts were made on 70cms.

Bojan S56LXN carried out several activations during November. On 4th he was on Slivna S5/BI-018 and made 2 contacts. The following day 3 summits were activated. From Skorno S5/KS-062 2 contacts were made, from Bezgovica S5/KS-054 another 2 and then from Sevcnik S5/KS-058 a contact was made with Jure S57XX on BI-080. On 6th November, the summit of Kožljek S5/CP-027 was activated with another 2 contacts made, one of which was again with Jure S57XX, who this time was on Sveti Trije Kralji S5/TK-025 from where he made 4 contacts. Bojan’s other activations were undertaken later in the month. On 20th Lucenec (Lucevec) S5/KS-049 was activated with a single contact made and the same day from Smodivnik S5/KS-045, a further 4 contacts were made. On 24th Jazbina S5/CP-033 was activated with 2 contacts in the log and another contact was made the following day from Vrh (Debeli hrib) S5/CP-034.

Boris S57MB was on the band from Lisca S5/BI-065 on 6th November working Jurij S57X on Sveti Trije Kralji. S5/TK-025. On 13th Boris activated Kremžarjev vrh S5/PK-008 making a single QSO on 70cms.

Marijan S52TC was also active early in the month. On 5th November the double summit of Koschutnikturm OE/KT-079 / Košutnikov turn S5/KA-004 was activated with 3 contacts made on 70cms from the Austrian side and a further 2 from the Slovenian side. Later the same day, Plešivec S5/KA-028 was activated with a single contact made on the band. On 14th November, Marijan activated Visok Kurji vrh S5/KA-014 made 2 contacts including an S2S with Zvone S57PZ who was on the summit of Jošt nad Kranjem S5/CP-023. Zvone made an excellent total of 7 contacts from that summit to add to the 4 made from Sveti Trije Kralji S5/TK-025 the previous day.

There was quite a bit of activity on 13th November. Besides the activations already recorded, Marjan S56IHX activated Kum S5/BI-001 and made 2 contacts on 70cms. Marko S57MS was on the summit of Pecka S5/RG-025 with 2 contacts made on the band and later in the day he was on Sedlata gorica S5/RG-032, with another 3 contacts made. On 20th November, Marko made 4 contacts from the summit of Crni vrh S5/RG-023.

Stephanie S55KM activated Gora S5/PK-043 on 25th November and made a single contact on 70cms.

Best wishes to you all. Have a great Christmas and New Year. Keep safe if you intend going out up the hills and mountains.

Vy 73 es CUL,

Gerald G4OIG

73, Miloš S57D