Preparation:

With a holiday trip planned for the coming week and that to include some new (to me) summit & park activations, I needed to test out my gear as I have not been out for some time due to a combination of bad terrestrial and atmospheric weather. Coincidentally, Colin M1BUU was planning new HEMA summit activations in the Scottish islands on this Wednesday and Thursday, so HEMA-to-HEMA contacts may be a possibility.

On Wednesday, I was hopeful of a contact into VK however Colin’s travel to the new summit involved a ferry ride, which meant it would be approaching lunchtime when he got on-air, so I chose as late a time as I thought long path might be open, and planned (for me) an extended activation, hoping to fit in the contact with Colin as well.

On Thursday, the trip would be later as it was planned that I would take my wife to the swimming baths, which are on the route to the second HEMA summit, collecting her on my way home. On the day this plan changed as my wife decided she wished to stay at home, but by then the schedule was set, so this activation would have the main purpose, again, of testing equipment and a contact with Colin.

For equipment, I decided upon the usual G90 plus 6m mast and linked dipole antenna with tripod and HF-PRO2 as backup all in my 40L rucksack. As there is more space at rösenau Kreuz, I would take the wire beam antenna in its own camera bag and use it with the 6m mast, rather than the usual 7 metre and surveyors tripod.

The Activations

Wednesday 13th. HEMA DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet

This summit is one of my local summits and, up until 3 months ago, was in the SOTA award scheme as well as the HEMA one; however, it has never had the needed 150m prominence, so it was always a matter of time before it would be removed from SOTA.

On arriving at my (usually deserted) parking area, there was someone organising parking, so there was some country event about to take place, it seems. No problems, I explained I was heading into the forest and nothing to do with his event and parked up as normal.

As I walked along the forest trail, it was obvious that the forestry commission had been harvesting trees, and indeed, about 60% of the trees on the summit have gone. This kind of action takes place every 10 years or so, to let the smaller trees have space to grow. The final climb to the summit was made more difficult due to lots of small wood branches all over the ground left by the log cutting crews, but with care, the way to the summit was possible.

On reaching the summit, I was surprised by how cool it was under the remaining trees and was glad of that fact as noon approached (however, at the moment, the high 30s temperatures are hitting us at around 4pm local time).

As is often the case, my friend Mike 2E0YYY was also out portable and we corresponded by WhatsCrapp, where our friends in VK also monitor. So the log started well with contacts with Ernie VK3DET, Jonathon VK7JON/M and Mike VK7MD/M being the first three in the log. Mike 2E0YYY/P came in as number four with the skip on 20m being long; it was easier to work those in Australia rather than Mike in the UK. This is normal at the time of day (0830 UTC).

After the initial contacts on 20m, the linked dipole was lowered, and the 20m link at each side was replaced to make this into a 40m antenna, as I wanted to give some of the closer HEMA chasers a chance to get some contacts. In effect, I can’t say when someone calls whether they are calling for the point for the HEMA summit or just as they have taken pity on my constant CQ calling. Either way, it’s always nice to see some calls in the log that I recognised.

Mike was keeping in contact with Colin as best he could as Colin climbed to his summit and relaying status to me, and when it seemed Colin should be on the air in the next 30 minutes, I changed back to 20 metres as a 40m contact over the distance at that time of day would be unlikely.

Before Colin came on as MM1BUU/P, I also managed to pick up a SOTA contact with M0JSB/P and a POTA one with M7EFA, so it was clear that my signal was making it into the UK.

At 0910 UTC, contact was made with Colin on G/HSI-030 at 57 both ways, followed by a final call with Mike on 20m.

After 3 hours of operation, I packed up and headed home.

Thursday 14th. HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz (with POTA DE-0968 & 0791).

As mentioned in the introduction, this was originally planned to be combined with the wife going to the swimming baths. With her last-minute cancellation, the schedule did not change, and my arrival at Rösenau Kreuz was around 0805 UTC, and I was set up and running by 0830 UTC. Well, that’s not entirely true …

When I arrived at this summit and set up, I again made contact with Mike 2E0YYY/P, but when I pressed the PTT to talk to him, the radio indicated I was only transmitting with 0.2W (200mW). As I have in the past had issues with a bad connection on the microphone lead, I had a spare packed with the station. After switching that out and even reversing the ends of the cable, the problem was still there. At this point, Mike messaged me to say he could hear me testing, and while I was weak, I was workable. So I went on air and explained the problem to him and said I would investigate further.

Switching from 20 metres to 40 metres, I suddenly had the full 20 watts output again. Should I suspect the antenna in some way – I don’t think so, as the ATU in the Xiegu G90 would match the coax run to the antenna and pump the full 20 watts into that had for some reason the 20m section not be attached but on a linked dipole the 20m section has to work for the 40m one to work as the RF currents pass through it as well. I stopped for a second and thought, what else have I changed? To switch from 20m to 40m, I had used the dual VFO feature as I normally leave VFO-A on 20m and VFO-B on 40m. So… what if I change the band on VFO-B to 20m? Well, it worked – I again had 20w on 20m. The way that the G90 radio works, it keeps all settings separate by band and VFO selected, so something in the settings for VFO_A has been corrupted (more than likely on the previous day when I ran one of my two 4Ah LifePO4 batteries down to a voltage when the G90 simply turned itself off). This can cause issues, and afterwards, things like output power ha.ve to be reset, but it looks like that is not the case here, as on VFO-A and VFO-B, 20W is indicated in the settings.

The best solution at this point is to do a factory reset (which I should have performed after the sudden power loss on Wednesday), but I had a problem. I could not remember which key combination is used to perform the reset, and before I did more harm, I decided to continue by just using VFO-B for this activation. Later, when I got home, I did that reset, and all was fine with the radio again – I have now added a note in with the radio pack, defining how to do a factory reset in case I make the mistake with the battery again.

In this activation, I stayed on 20 metres the whole time with the band being a “challenge”, the QSB taking S9 stations down to nothing in a matter of seconds. Again, I got plenty of contacts from around Europe, finishing up with a far more difficult one than on the previous day with Colin, who was now on GM/HSI-042 on 20m.

Before packing up I switched back to 40m to see how Colin was doing, and he had a big pile-up going as he had HEMA, WAB and Trig Point chasers all trying for a contact, as this area has not been activated before. I could hear all of the chasers but not Colin, so I was grateful for the 20 metre contact.

This activation achieved what it was done for – to test the equipment before the following week and to get another HEMA-HEMA contact with Colin. I did not put the 20/15/10m wire beam up, as with the QSB on the band comparisons between signals would have been meaningless.

Photos:

DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet

DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna (not used).
• Tripod with radials (not used).
• 2 x 4Ah LifePO4 batteries (not used).
• 40L Rucksack
• Inverted-V linked dipole
• 6 metre fibreglass mast
• Screw-in sun umbrella base
• Small headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

HEMA DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet

HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz plus POTA DE-0968 & DE-0791

Conclusions:

It was great to bag the two rare summits that Colin was on, and indeed the tests of the equipment were worthwhile. All I need now is the terrestrial weather to behave itself next week, and I might get two good activations in, in an area I have never been to before.

73 ’til the next activation!