Preparation:

These two summits are included in the around 45 summits that will disappear from the SOTA award Scheme on January 1st 2025. These two summits are the start of my “OLH” (One Last Hurrah) action. I hope to activate 2 or 3 more before the end of the year.

It just so happens that Schwarzer Berg DL/MF-082 is Taubengerg and Taubenberg has its own POTA park definition – so this location at least will not be lost for portable operators. Several other summits which are being removed from SOTA are already in the HEMA system and hence will “live on” within that scheme.

The weather and my health stopped my first two attempts to do these activations so I was determined to complete these activations once and for all. The weather looked good (as much as we can trust weather forecasts) until midday when rain was forecast. Checking the Activation Zone for DL/MF-082 the spot where I normally park my car near the St Benno chapel, is well within limits and as this will no doubt become the POTA-preferred location, I decided I could save myself the extra walk up to the observation tower where I normally set up. This also meant that I could use my 10-metre mast and surveyor’s tripod to maximise my chance of a contact with Ernie VK3DET via 20-metre long-path propagation when I arrived. (Band conditions had not been good for the last few days following CMEs and a minor G1 storm hitting the earth’s atmosphere). 

To get to Schwarzer Berg as early as possible, the car was packed the night before with the usual G90 backpack, now with the 12Ah LifePO4 battery plus the Aerial-51 OCF dipole, 10m mast and surveyor’s tripod.

The Activations

POTA DE-0456 / SOTA DL/MF-082

After rising at 06:30 am, I left home at the planned 07:30 CET, taking the cross-country route rather than the autobahn over Munich as the pre-Christmas traffic was already affecting that route. Unfortunately, only about 30 minutes away from home, the country road was closed by the Police and Fire Brigade following a road accident. Often in the country, parallel to the road there is a tarmac route used by farmers, cyclists and pedestrians and this was the case here and traffic was diverted around the completely blocked 2-lane road, first in one direction and then the other. This cost me about 20 minutes extra on top of the planned time but could not be helped and thankfully it looked like there was no one injured, just broken parts of the two cars all over the road.

I had heard in advance that, for the first time in over 20 years, the Taubenberg Park had been logged and to expect a messy (officially auto-useable) track up to the parking spot. This report was not wrong, however apart from all the logs pilled up at the side of the road awaiting collection, the road surface was not a lot worse than usual with potholes remaining the main danger although oncoming traffic was also a worry. On the way up I was lucky, on the way down later however, I had to clear the single-track road twice to allow cars coming up the track to get through.

I wish I had thought of setting up near the chapel on my earlier activations as it has a nice (fairly fat) area of grass which is unrestricted and larger than by the observation tower. Setting up the antenna took longer than hoped as it collapsed on itself twice before I finally got it erected. This has always been a problem with the DX-Wire/SotaBeams 10m travel mast. The whole set-up was, however, in place and operational almost at my planned time. I messaged Ernie VK3DET and he was ready and suggested a frequency which was clear with him but not with me, so we found another and tried again. I called Ernie and he could not hear anything – he then fired up his station with an amplifier and 3-element beam and I could hear him – probably about S2 but with zero noise level, S2 is fine but of course, it was clear, for once we were not going to make it, as I would be emitting a signal many, many, dBs less from my 20w and a dipole. We tried another time before calling it a day. 20m was short with inter-Europe contacts being easy but DX unobtainium.

Skip was definitely short as after I finished with Ernie and spotted myself on SOTA, I got a big pile-up from stations all around Europe, Scandinavia and the UK. 28 contacts in as many minutes including one S2S and the RSGB National Radio Centre GB3RS. Then I switched to POTA and in 23 minutes, made 22 contacts – one being Don G0RQL, so he got added to the end of the SOTA log as well.

SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg

I had taken the shortest (small roads) route from Bad Tölz to Schwarzer Berg, but I decided to take the main roads to get back to Bad Tölz (where Buchberg is located) expecting it to take less time but the same road is used to come down from the Autobahn to the Tegensee tourist area which meant it was busy and this route took longer than planned. On arrival at my usual parking spot, I found trees stacked awaiting collection, so I had to find another sport further along the road before walking back and then up to the Holy Cross on Buchberg. This time, as it is quite a steep climb, I decided just to take the G90’s 40L rucksack and operate using the loaded vertical on its photo tripod. 

Once I had all the equipment set up I was surprised to find that received signals on 20m were now stronger from this, lower summit with a smaller, less efficient antenna. One spot and a couple of CQ calls brought in 12 contacts (including one S2S contact) in 12 minutes. By noon the temperature had dropped somewhat so I decided to call it a day and just as I finished packing up, the first raindrops started. So, good timing.

The journey home was thankfully, uneventful.  

Photos:

Taubenberg/Schwarzer Berg

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Buchberg

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Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio & 12 Ah  LifePO4 battery.
• Aerial-51 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna (used only at first activation).
• Ten-metre mast (used only at first activation).
• Surveyor’s tripod (used only at first activation).
• Six-metre mast (not used).
• Screw-in Sun umbrella foot (not used).
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (used only at second activation).
• Photo tripod with radials (used only at second activation).
• 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
• 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
• Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

SOTA DL/MF-082 Schwarzer Berg

POTA DE-0456 Taubenberg

SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg

Conclusions:

• The activations both went well, considering the limited time available.

73 until the next activation (s)!