Preparation:

This activation was scheduled to get the 3 winter bonus points before the end of March. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so good over the last couple of weeks but it looked like Thursday the 28th before lunch should be a pleasant sunny time to enjoy an easy morning activation on this simple summit, and soak up some sunshine. The Wednesday was indeed a sunny morning with showers in the afternoon, so all looked good for Thursday being the same. Rather than testing new versions of antennas as I have been doing on recent activations. This time I would just take the 40m dipole and small (6 metre) mast. I chose to take the Spiderbeam 404-UL rather than the linked dipole as, as well as 20m, I hoped to try for some contacts on 10 metres as part of the current 10 metre challenge. The previous weekend however there had been some really hefty solar activity meaning that 10 metres was unlikely to open but by taking the OCF, I could easily switch bands from the radio without needing to change anything on the antenna.

The Activation

DL/AM-177 Kirnberg

As normal I woke 30 minutes before my alarm went off and was all packed and out of the door at 7:30 am as planned for a 9 am (0800 UTC) start on Kirnberg. I had not realised but the Thursday before Easter is one of, if not the, busiest days on the roads in Germany. A combination of normal traffic, plus people going early on their Easter holidays, people stocking up with food and drink for the long weekend and trucks trying to get their runs completed before being banned from the roads for four days starting on Good Friday. On my route home after the activation, a government road works department had decided this busiest day on the roads, day, was the ideal day to close half of a major road so they could replace some barriers at the side of the busy two-lane “A” road that have needed to be replaced for over a year! The workers put traffic lights in, making it a single-track road and immediately caused a long, long backup of traffic (luckily more in the southern direction as I was heading north). This caused twenty minutes or more delay for travellers within 30 minutes of them starting their work.

On arriving at the normal parking spot for Kirnberg (actually at a Gigersau farm) I was surprised to find a well-prepared parking area for about three cars and a new stoned path up to the summit cross from the parking area. Previously both of these had been a muddy mess, indeed some years ago, I got completely bogged in the parking spot and had to ask the farmer to tow me out with his tractor. These improvements have been paid for by the farmer, not the community and as the cross now forms part of a walking route will get used often.

The set-up for this summit was very simple, the Xiegu G90 radio and the Aerial-51 / Spidebeam 404-UL OCF dipole at 5 metres AGL.

Initially, I started on 20m and contacts from Spain, Finland and the UK before managing a more difficult contact with Ernie VK3DET in Australia. We agreed to try 10m but although I could recognise Ernie’s voice right down in the noise, apart from call signs, I could not understand what he was saying and he could hear nothing from me. this was not a surprise as 10m with the CME hit a few days earlier was opening later than it did the previous week and we were simply too early. Soon after this attempt some of the local feathered community came by as the hens from the farm did what seemed to be their daily round seeking out food in the ground. I had hoped to stay longer and enjoy the sunshine while working more stations today but it was getting colder and while, when I set up there was no wind, there was now an icy cold one and blue skies were starting to fill with clouds.

Back on 20m, I worked another Spanish station and another UK station and then decided to call it a day. I had got enough contacts to qualify the summit and get the winter bonus points but my hope for easy contacts on 10m in the sunshine never happened. 

There’s always another time.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

• Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
• Xiegu G90 radio.
• Screw-in sun umbrella base.
• 6 Metre Lambdahalbe mast.
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
• Aerial-51 404-UL 40 metre Off Centre Fed dipole.
• 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
• Gardener’s kneeling pad.
• Electrical hand warmer.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AM-177 Kirnberg

 

Contacts map

Conclusions:

• You can’t trust weather forecasts. I’d have loved for this to be a longer activation on more bands however it was not to be.

• The OCF and 6m mast along with the Xiegu G90 are still adequate to the task of bagging DX contacts although 10 metres didn’t play ball this time.

73 ’til the next summit.