Christmas day VHF SOTA Activation of Kojsovska hola OM/KE-004

This was almost 3-hour VHF QRO portable from SOTA summit OM/KE-004 on December 24, 2022.

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-2980, power 75W (measured on the external SWR/W meter), 20m Ultraflex 7 coax cable, Diamond NR22L omni antenna on 4m fiberglass mast.

It was difficult to understand weaker signals because of the constant S2 noise on the summit from other electronic devices. Even S4 signals were still effected by that. I heard weaker S2-S3 signals several times but it was not possible to make contact with them. Yagi antenna would possibly solve this.

38 contacts in the log from 08:14 to 10:59  UTC. ODX SP7JS KO00IL 188 km

approaching the mountaintop in the morning..

my base location (Kosice) is 20 km in this direaction but in the fog..

Thank you all for contacts and have a nice Christmas !

QRV on 4m band

In addition to 6m magic band, I am now able to work also on higher one - 4m in all modes including digital modes but I prefer FM. I will be definitely trying to make contacts in digital modes during tropospheric conditions in the summer months but now the FM mode is the priority for local communication and coverage tests. I use Icom 7300 and Anytone 5189 transceivers for this band and dipole antenna from Sirio. I will be ready to go /M very soon, I'm just waiting for the antenna, even though I don't plan to install the Anytone radio permanently in the car yet. I will do maybe sometime later for example in the summer.

Nowadays, I am able to use 4m from my base location through HF antenna switch only because I do not have an extra unused coaxial cable to connect to the antenna. Luckily I had one free antenna output on the antenna switch. That's why I am not permanently monitoring the band yet but I make a CQ  call occasionally. I assume I will install another coaxial cable in May 2023 when temperatures will be acceptable for handling with coax cable so I will be permanently monitoring this higher magic band sice then. My standby and call frequency is 70,450 MHz FM and maximum power 45-50W.

FM mode in Slovakia is allowed from 70,250 to 70,500 MHz in 12,5 kHz steps.