Preparation:

This activation was scheduled as I would be in Friedrichshafen for the annual “HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen” event. There are two SOTA summits close to “FN” Höchsten” and “Gehrenberg” the latter being the closer but the former being a “drive-up” summit.

As I wanted to plan this as an early morning activation with the chance of some contacts into VK, Gehrenberg is closer to where I would be staying so it was chosen over Höchsten.

I had my standard rucksack packed with the G90, squid poles, screw-in base etc. in the back of the car, so the plan was for this to be a relatively quick activation on Saturday morning before heading into “HAM RADIO” which opened at 9 am.

The evening before however, I met Glenn VK3YY and Andrew VK3JBL who were over from Australia and said that they had tried to get to Gehrenberg and failed because of road closures due to recent flooding. When they described their route, I was of the opinion that they had used a different approach to the one that I have settled upon over the last few years and to be sure, after the SOTA dinner, I drove my route up to the place I normally park for the summit and the route was open however there were some confusing signs related to the route to a different town and these were not relevant but for non-German readers such as Glenn and Andrew, these might seem like road closed warnings.

That evening I documented the route with pictures and sent this all Glenn and he said that they might try to get to the summit the next morning and we could activate together. There was another reason that Andrew VK3JBL wanted to qualify the 8 point summit and that was because his current SOTA activator points total was at 997 and this would take him over the 1000 points making him a “Mountain Goat”.

The Activation

DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg

On Saturday morning I was awake early and decided to head straight up to Gehrenberg to get set up and if Glenn and Andrew came along, I would have made my 4 contacts and be out of their way. The run-up was the same as the previous evening so I sent a short email to Glenn confirming the road was still open.

Luckily the tracks were not as muddy as I had feared they might be and I was set up and running by a quarter to 7 am using the usual Xiegu G90 and the linked dipole with the 20m link open supported by a 6m telescopic pole in the screw-in sun umbrella base with the ends tied off to some tree trunks.  

The first contact in the log was a sked with Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia, after that it was signals from the north – Poland and Finland before another Australian Peter VK3ZPF, who I haven’t talked with for several years and another Polish station and an Italian one finished up the contacts for a valid activation. As I was taking the mast down and packing the radio away, I heard voices and it was Glenn and Andrew coming up the hill, to start their activation and soon after another ham came from another direction to the summit, so this can be a busy summit during the HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen event.

I stayed long enough to see that Andrew qualified the summit and hence earned his Mountain Goat, before heading back into Friedrichshafen to the show.  

Photos:

 

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)
• Modified SOTABeams band-hopper, linked dipole covering 80m-15m.
• 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
• Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg

 

Contacts map:

 

Conclusions:

• Something seemed wrong with the 20m section of the linked dipole. It could be that I had it too close to the trees and they were de-tuning it but it will need to be tested before the next usage.

• It’s a nice feeling to be there when someone achieves Mountain Goat status (I took videos).

73 ’til the next summit.