Author Archives: VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

DD5LP/P – May 3rd 2023 – GMA DA/AV-340 Schönbühl.

Posted on by

Preparation:

As I wanted to test out my new “simple 40m Dipole” and I wanted to incorporate a bike ride, the 9 km away Schönbühl which I activated some years ago, seemed like a good option. We have had some fairly constant rainy and cold days but this day was supposed to stay dry  – radio conditions on the other hand didn’t look good and indeed turned out to be less than stunning!

For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 9 kilometres (a 20-minute cycle ride) from my home. This is going to be my third “Go-Green XOTA” summit where the summit is accessed without any motorised transport.

Mike 2E0YYY agreed to head out to his local summit to give me a contact while he is using his special 2R0YYY/P callsign to celebrate the coronation of King Charles.

Apart from the 40m dipole, the equipment would be – my “light-weight-pack”  (Xiegu G106, throw-bag with cord, 40m Dipole and J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m, plus my external RF speech clipper). 

The Activation

GMA DA/AV-340

The cycle ride along farm roads and forest tracks (which were more stony than I remember them) there followed a walk along the edge of one field pushing the bike and then a last rise up to the plateau summit. I could find no marking such as a summit cross however this is the highest point in the area and close to the lat/long coordinates given on the GMA site.

I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of a tree at the side of the field. The branches were quite numerous and I only managed to get the cord over one of the lower, thinner branches, but that would have to do as Mike would be ready in 15 minutes in the UK and rain was forecast for him.

Once the cord was up, the 40m dipole went up easily and I was able to tie off the end cords of the elements onto other trees in the row. After unpacking the radio, log etc onto a new compact mat that I received as a birthday present (this was the first time of use) I powered up and plugged in the antenna and tuned 40m – it was busy – I found a very strong portable French station, Jean-Marie F5NLX/P who I called, he came back to me straight away and we exchanged 58/56 reports – so for the first QSO on the new antenna with just 5w from the g106, that was a good start.

I now tried for my sked with Mike. When I could hear him, he was very weak and within seconds some other station would start calling either directly on our frequency or 1 or 2 k/cs off. This was not boding well. Via the Signal messaging app, Mike suggested we try 20 metres with the hope that that would be better. I agreed and then took down the 40m Dipole and put up the 20m J-Antenna. here is where it would have been better to have the support cord over a higher branch as hauling the 20m J-antenna up, the bottom half was still on the ground and I ended up draping it over branches on other trees and bushes to keep it off the ground. Not an ideal setup.

It was sufficient to get a contact with Mike though. Interestingly he was 1 S-point weaker on 20m than on 40m but we managed a 53/32 contact and he was in the log.

The next 45 minutes I spent trying to get two more contacts so that I could claim the points for a qualified summit.

The loud stations either could not hear me of ignored my weak signal to them.

One rather special contact was with Dave M0DAD/PM – while he was walking along Blackpool seafront in northeast England using a handheld Xiegu X5105 with a loaded whip and a trailing counterpoise wire. We were both running just 5 watts with Xiegu radios and this was a 54/45 contact. A proper QSO as we talked for about 10 minutes.

the rest of my time on this summit was spent calling stations and calling CQ, trying to get the needed fourth contact. The GMAWatch site does not seem to generate any chasers on a weekday, where the SOTA system would bring in a pile-up of callers for a SOTA summit.

Eventually, I managed a contact with Tommy, EI2KP, a booming signal from a coastal town on the north coast of Ireland (but still within the Republic of Ireland). we exchanged 59/53 signal reports, so the radio/antenna was putting out a signal, it was just that conditions were very variable – at one point Tommy dropped from 59+ to 53 and then came back up.

So an interesting activation with a relatively hard cycle ride to and from the summit but the equipment all tested out well but I will need to practice the sling-bag throwing to get it over higher branches in future.

 Contacts map:

 Photos:

GMA DA/AV-340:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Raddy small rucksack.
  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • Throw-bag and cord
  • Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
  • Homemade 40m Dipole antenna.
  • 2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
  • Pack-small ground mat.
  • Lightweight JVC headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA/AV-340 Schönbühl

 

Conclusions:

  • A mid-week activation of a GMA summit, when band conditions are nothing special is hard work to get the needed four contacts.
  • The new 40m lightweight dipole works fine with the G106 radio. 

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

DD5LP/P – April 22nd 2023 – DL/AL-179 Weichberg for S2S Transatlantic contacts event.

Posted on by

Preparation:

Twice a year an attempt to make SOTA Summit-to-Summit contacts between Europe and North America is made during a specified day. This year the days are in April and November and this was my participation in the April one.

My originally chosen summit was Eisenberg but as that is a real tourist trap, this event is on a Saturday and this was the first dry and sunny day in three weeks, I decided that the number of people there would make it impossible for me to set up my antenna system without inconveniencing someone, so at the 11th hour I changed to Weichberg. that being said, this turned out not a “deserted location” with about 15-20 mountain E-Bike riders coming through in the 2.5 hours that I was there, but it was the right decision as I would have been overrun at Eisenberg and that SOTA/HEMA/GMA/COTA/WCA location can wait for a mid-week activation when there are fewer tourists.

I decided not to test any of my new antennas on this activation and the equipment list is fairly standard. As the grassy area at Weichberg is actually “fake” in that it is a thin layer of grass on top of rubble and stones, the screw-in mast support does not work well here, so I decided I would take my large Surveyor’s tripod and with it my 10-metre mast for this activation. As I had both the linked dipole and the 404-UL OCF dipole from Aerial-59 already in the large rucksack, they would be my choices of an antenna and indeed I went with the Aerial-59 one as I don’t need to lower it to change bands.

Given the wish to contact North America (most likely on 20m), this would be an afternoon activation and my plan was to set off at 12 noon local and be set up and operational by 2 pm local (1200 UTC). In fact, as I know this summit and the route to it so well, I was operational soon after 11 am local time (1300 UTC).

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

As I was approaching the car park, I could see up on the hill that the wooden table that I normally sit at was in use by several people, so I might need to sit on the ground or use the bench under the trees.

On getting to the car park, some people had just come down and were about to head off on their bikes – luckily, it seems, these were the people who had been at the table and I found it clear when I got to the top of the track, so I dropped my rucksack on the table, marking at least a little spec for my use during the next few hours. In fact, the table and benches alongside it seem to get used more as a mountain bike stand than for sitting down at!. In any case, no one complained about what I was doing and only a couple asked more out of politeness than having any interest I suspect.

As I said earlier set-up went quickly with only one small problem – I set up the tripod and 10m mast a little too far away from the table for the coax to reach comfortably and had to lower the mast and move it and the tripod closer. Once in position and with the mast raised again, I tied off the ends of the dipole to a fence post at one end and to a peg at the other. Luckily (the wire being black) everyone riding around on their bikes saw the wire and avoided it.

I started in “search and pounce” mode and checked SOTA Spotter to see where other SOTA activators were on 20m and my first 4 contacts in the log were S2S contacts (but only within Europe). It seems that a lot of the activators who had alerted for 1200 UTC were, like me, already set up and operational by 1100 UTC. I then found a free frequency, spotted myself and started calling CQ. It was long before I got a steady run of calls including GB2GM – the Marconi station at Poldhu in Cornwall. It turned out that this was Marconi Day as well and I actually had three of the Marconi Special Event stations call me during the time I was active.

 Having put up the OCF antenna rather than the linked dipole had been a good idea as it meant that I could switch to 40m and 15m as I saw other activators spotted there.

Band conditions were not good with the Kp Index over 4 which also meant that the critical frequency was above 7 MHz and hence, when I moved to call CQ on 40m, it was Bedlam as so many stations were trying to fit into the band. We also had the “QRP to the Field” QRPTTF event going on and a YOTA contest, so things were busy. I worked several other activators in Germany via NVIS on 40m and a couple by groundwave on 20m. Rob DM1CM was out as well running a Delta loop antenna on 20m and using the same radio as I do – a Xiegu G90 was putting out a very strong signal with the antenna.

Unfortunately, there were to be no S2S contacts across the “pond” this time – the conditions were not good enough. I did hear one fixed US station early on but that was all. In fact, there were very few North American SOTA activators spotted until early evening European time by which point 20m has normally closed. 

Was the activation worth the effort? Yes even though there were no US or Canadian contacts there were plenty of others from around Europe. I did learn something new from this activation and that is a LifePO4 battery with a built-in BMS (Battery Management System) is not always your friend as when the battery’s charge is going down and before the radio can warn you of it – as is the case with LIPO batteries, the BMS inside the LifePO4 package simply cuts power without warning – mid-QSO! When this happened to me, I scrambled to connect my LiHV (LIPO-high voltage) battery up to get back on the air. This was a surprise I could have done without!

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna with a modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials. (not used)
  • 2 x Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast. (not used)
  • DX-Wire 10m mast and Surveyors tripod.
  • Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole.
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery.
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

Contacts map:

Conclusions:

  • This wasn’t the worst weekend activation that I have had – it actually went rather well. My call NOT to go to Eisenberg was the correct one.
  • I need to keep a closer eye on the battery voltage when using the LifePO battery to avoid the sudden cut-off problem that I had here.
  • The 10-metre mast and indeed the rest of the set-up worked well. It was probably worth having to carry the extra weight of the tripod and mast up through the fiorest track to the summit as with a lower mast, the antenna wires would have been more of a danger for the cyclists. 

73 ’til the next summit(s).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 9th 2023 – GMA DA/AV-071 Gagelberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

As I wanted to test out my new “Resonant Feeder Antenna” for 40m, I had planned an activation of a local GMA summit for Easter Monday when the weather forecast said, it should be warm and sunny. However as the Sunday, unexpectedly turned out to be dry and not as overcast as the last week, I decided to move the activation forward a day.

This activation would also serve as a signal that I have at long last kicked the influenza that had been troubling me for the last three weeks. While not a serious infection, this particular virus had gained a reputation for being difficult to throw off and 3 – 4 weeks has been normal for many people. After three years of “isolation” to protect ourselves from Covid-19 our immune systems have not been “exercised” by minor colds and flu and hence when this new strain appeared, it has has a high infection rate and the long duration.

For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 4 kilometres (a 30-minute walk) from my home. This is the second time in a month that I have tried to activate Gagelberg (DA/AV-071) that time I managed no contacts as 20m was closed and I had no 40m antenna with me.

Apart from the 40m RFA the equipment would be the same – my “light-weight-pack”  (Xiegu G106, 40m RFA and J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m, external RF speech clipper). 

Under the rules in GMA, a summit has to be at least 150m above sea level and be listed in online documentation (on an online map, in WikiPedia etc.). Gagelberg meets these requirements and while it is an open walk (on which I got lost the last time), there is also no rain cover should the showers return. 

The Activation

GMA DA/AV-071

After the walk across the fields and up to the summit cross, I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of the tree above the seating bank. This was higher than I managed the last time and needed to get the co-ax antenna up sufficiently to be usable. Originally not planned, but Mike 2E0YYY had gone out to his local summit and park to see if he could work me, as well as other stations but despite several tries with the new antenna, I could not hear him and he could not hear me. In fact, the whole 40m band seemed very “quiet” to me and this on a Sunday afternoon? Mike was reporting a band full of signals where I could probably hear only 5-6 stations. The RFA antenna had broken when I was putting it up but I had made, what, as far as I could see, was a good temporary repair. Despite the fact that when tested on my Rig Expert Antenna Analyser, the antenna looked resonant – it appears this antenna design (see article here) is more of a dummy load than an antenna!

I took down the RFA and put up my 20-metre LambdaHalde J-antenna and pulled it up, over the same branch and then tried and got a contact with Mike on 20m with no problems. So that was definitely the end for the RFA.

The J-antennas are single-band antennas, despite that, when I saw there was a lot of activity on 17m, I switched bands and tuned around and found Jack MM0PLX/P on the Isle of Arran, I gave him a call while I was still on the 20m J-antenna. We made the contact and I would have liked to switch over to the 17m J-antenna and call him again but that would have meant taking one antenna down and putting the other up, which would take a few minutes and while the sky was turning dark grey and the temperatures had dropped, I decided against it and simply headed back onto 20m using the 20m J-antenna.

All in all, I only logged 6 contacts – all were around the UK and all but one were portable stations. So the 5 watts from the G106 with the external speech processor seems to work well when attached to a working antenna! One GMA, One IOTA and One POTA is the six is also not a bad collection. In all but one case, I got the station on the first call.

While using the G90 and a mast-supported antenna would certainly get better reports and more contacts, it would also have been twice the weight to carry and need twice the time to put up and take down.

All-in-All the lightweight pack is performing well, I just need to find a solution for a lightweight 40m antenna that I can support using the “throw bag and cord tree mounting system”.   

 Contacts map:

 

 Photos:

GMA DA/AV-071:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Raddy small rucksack.
  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • Throw-bag and cord
  • Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
  • Homemade 40m resonant feeder antenna.
  • 2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Lightweight JVC headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA/AV-071 Gagelberg

 

Conclusions:

  • I qualified this simple summit, only on my third attempt but at least my bag-throwing skills have improved!
  • The combination of the G106 and the J-antennas is a good combination but the “Resonant Feeder Antenna” is a complete failure and I will need to find an alternative antenna, that while small and light still performs.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – March 16th 2023 – GMA DA/AV-393 Kappelenberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 2 kilometres from my home and I would walk there. A few weeks previously, I had tried to activate another local GMA summit Gagelberg (DA/AV-071) but I managed no contacts and hence I wanted to check that my light-weight-pack equipment (Xiegu G106, J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m). I had repaired two broken wires in my external RF speech clipper and hence hoped that this would give the 5 watts from the G106 a little more “punch”. I had been heard well on an SDR in England from the other summit but was just unable to raise any contacts.

Under the rules in GMA, a summit has to be at least 150m above sea level and be listed in online documentation (on an online map, in WikiPedia etc.). Kappelenberg meets these requirements and often forms part of my morning dog walk. So while not being a real challenge in terms of ascent, it is a valid summit and a good spot to test out equipment and antennas from. I wondered whether the nearby water pumping station and houses that are not far away, might be generating some RFI however that was not the case, thankfully.

The Activation

GMA DA/AV-393

After the walk across the fields and up to the summit cross, I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of the tree above the seating bank. To me, this looked quite high but when I attached my 20-metre LambdaHalde J-antenna and pulled it up, there was still some on the antenna on the ground so I took this and laid it over a lower branch on another tree, so this was then a “sloper” antenna rather than a vertical as it should be. The J-antenna (sometimes known as the “Zepp” antenna, as it was initially designed for use from the Zeppelin airships), has its own counterpoise built in, in the form of a quarter-wave stub – so there are (thankfully) no radials to lay out on the ground. The antenna is a resonant antenna on the band it is cut for. As the G106 has no built-in ATU, this is an important point.

Once I had the antenna in the trees, I set up my station on the bench – this entailed plugging the antenna into a fly lead from the G106’s pouch and plugging the radio into the battery and turning it on.

Just at this point, Mike 2E0YYY sent me a message that he was already set up on a GMA summit in England (M/SP-001 Cobridge Hill) and that at his end, 14.250 MHz was free. I tuned there and called Mike and he came straight back to me. The station was working.

Following my contact with Mike, I spotted myself on the GMA system and he spotted me in the DX Cluster. Four contacts followed breaking the 4-contact requirement to be able to declare the summit activated. As the first contact was with Mike when he was on another GMA summit, this counts as a Summit-to-Summit contact as well as being the first contact from this new summit.

I only operated on 20m as the radio conditions were not the best and I had no antenna for lower bands with me. A 40m j-antenna would need a very high tree to put it in and whether, with my current “bag throwing” skills, I would be able to do that, I’m not sure!

The map below shows that I was getting out well but of course, the first skip distance on 20m ruled out many possible contacts – which may also be why I had an issue at the previous local GMA summit.

The aim of this pack is to have a very lightweight, small and simple solution, that I can take with me when travelling by air, train or bus. I think I will need to find a small antenna for 40m to fit these requirements to add that band to the pack.       

 Contacts map:

 Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

GMA DA/AV-393:

Equipment taken:

  • Raddy small rucksack.
  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • Throw-bag and cord
  • Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
  • 2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Lightweight headphones (not used).
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA/AV-393 Kappelemberg

Conclusions:

  • I need to improve my bag-throwing skills! I should be able to get the antenna over a much higher branch (and get the cord down again without it “snagging”.
  • The combination of the G106 and the J-antennas is a good combination and gets the signal out well, although an antenna for 40m would enable many more, “closer-in” contacts.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – February 22nd 2023 – HEMA DL/HAM-014 & SOTA DL/AM-176 Rentschen.

Posted on by

Preparation:

After several cancelled (because of weather and unplanned commitments) tries, I was determined to get out to “a” summit again. Originally I wanted to test out the “wavelength-plus” on-the-ground antenna however following some positive comments from John VA3KOT on the VP2E antenna after I pointed him at it as an interesting antenna, I decided I probably should give it another try after building it nearly two years ago and only using it once or twice!

John VA3KOT, by the way, has a nice and friendly website that he calls Ham radio Outside the box, where he likes to look at unusual solutions used by hams to solve portable operations issues. The site is well worth a read and is where I found out about the wire-on-the-ground antenna while I was looking for a small lightweight antenna to use with my G106 radio while travelling.

I have built two VP2E antennas (actually three, but the third one was an attempt to make the antenna multi-band through the use of links – it failed).  So I have a 40m and a 20m version at the moment. Both are twice the size of a normal dipole on the band and hence need space for any tests. For antenna testing, Rentschen is ideal as it is a drive-on summit with a plateau top. So I have lots of space to set up the antenna. I decided I would only test the 20m version as that is the band where some directional gain might prove the difference between making a DX contact and not doing so. It has to be said that, the possible 2 dBD gain in some directions compared to a dipole, is not a lot – but as we know, every little bit counts and the 20 watts of SSB from the G90 radio is hardly a “QRO” set-up, so “all help is gratefully received”.

To find out all about the “Vertically Polarised Two Element” VP2E antenna, a little of its history, how I built mine and my calculator for you to get the needed lengths for whichever band you choose, click here.

  Ernie VK3DET had kindly said he would listen for me and Wx dependant, Mike 2E0YYY might get out to his local hill in the UK to give me an S2S contact.

As usual, all gear was packed in the car, the night before the activation, so that I could make an early start. That being said, this would not need to be a really early start as the 20m long path had been opening only from 0830 UTC (09:30 am local time) recently, so leaving home at 8:15 – 8:30 am would be fine.

The weather forecast was for a cool overcast day but, most importantly, no rain.

The Activation

Rentschen – HEMA DL/HAM-014 and SOTA DL/AM-176.

The good drive down in just over 40 minutes and I was parked on the summit by 9 am local time (0800 UTC). 25 minutes later I was all set up, with the VP2E “pointing” due West – my long path direction for contacts into VK. First in the log after a CQ call – Ernie VK3DET 5-4 in both directions.

Mike 2E0YYY had been unable to get out as they had constant rain all morning, so he kindly acted as my spotter and starting with the HEMA designation, I quickly put 18 contacts in the log. Many from the UK and many commenting on how loud and consistent a signal I had, while there was QSB on the band. In fact, surveying the contacts later I can tell that skip was short, which also explained why the band seemed full almost from end-to-end and this on a weekday! Ernie heard a couple of other European stations but none from Germany – perhaps we hit the best time with our contact or perhaps this antenna was achieving a good low-angle radiation pattern as the models show it should do. Some callers were weaker than I normally hear them, especially to the north and southeast – this could be the antenna’s directivity or simple conditions.

Once the callers dried up, I asked Mike to spot me again but this time on the SOTA cluster and the DX cluster and again I had a pile-up – another 18 contacts in the log. Of all the 36 contacts, Bernie was the only one from outside of Continental Europe. the majority of callers were from the UK, including one G0POQ from my town of birth – Hull in East Yorkshire. several of the contacts were conversations rather than only a report exchange, so the band conditions and the antenna were holding up well. After the second pile-up finished, I decided to pack up as it was only 3°C and the primary 4AH LifePO would have been somewhat drained after about a full hour of constant usage at 20 watts output. I did have a second battery with me (a LiHV 4 AH one) but I had achieved what I had come to do in testing the 20m VP2E and I am glad to say all worked well. None of the equipment had any issues on this outing.

Below as an extra in this report, I have the SOTAMapping map of all of my contacts.

 Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment used:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
  • Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella support (not used).
  • Converted Surveyors tripod.
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole antenna (not used).
  • 20 & 40m VP2E antennas (20m one used).
  • 4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms. 

Logs:

Rentschen

HEMA DL/HAM-014

 

SOTA DL/AM-176

Conclusions:

  • Band conditions at the time of this activation were short skip not as good as they have been, which makes the contact into Australia (albeit an arranged, scheduled one) all the more of a success.
  • The equipment all worked as it should. The combination of the Xiegu G90 with its 20 watts of SSB and the VP2E (Vertically polarised 2-element) antenna on the 6m-high mast supported by the surveyor’s tripod worked very well from the first moment it was plugged into the radio. I now believe the antenna has “some” directivity however I suspect its greatest asset is the low-angle radiation and the amount of wire in the air, being twice as large as the dipoles that I normally use. The fact that it is purely a single-band antenna is a drawback as is the need to use the large tripod to support the mast.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – January 8 2023 – HEMA DL/HCN-004 & SOTA DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet.

Posted on by

Preparation:

As Andrew VK1AD was going out using the VI10SOTA special event call sign to celebrate 10 years of SOTA in the ACT, I decided to go out at the same time and try for an S2S and an H2S. If the long path band conditions were as they have been, it should be possible with a little luck.

Mike 2E0YYY/P and Ernie VK3DET would get on as well.

The set-up would be the tried and tested G90 plus OCF dipole from Aerial-51 and the 6m mast, all of which packs into, or onto my medium sized rucksack.

All was prepared and put in the back of the car for a 7:30 am start on Sunday morning.

I decided that I would go to my closest summit, Berndorfer Buchet, which is a HEMA summit as well as a SOTA summit and so I alerted in both award systems of my intention of activating it. 

The Activation

Berndorfer Buchet – HEMA DL/HCN-004 and SOTA DL/AM-180.

The good drive down in just over 30 minutes and I was parked at my usual spot by 8:05 am. The walk from the parking spot to the summit takes 15 minutes and with another 15 minutes to set up the station, I was on the air by 07:40 UTC. I messaged Mike 2E0YYY who had just arrived in his local park and Ernie who was heading to his radio shack.

Tuning around 20m was already active with me but dead with Mike in the UK but as time went on this changed. I heard a JI1 (Japan) station but could not get a reply from him to me calls. I also heard and worked very easily EA5S/M in Spain, so I knew I was getting out. VI10SOTA was spotted on several different frequencies, Andrew was obviously having to move to get away from the normal weekend QRM. On some of his spotted frequencies I could hear the chasers calling him but not Andrew himself and that was to be the story of the activation. Although I eventually got an easy contact with Mike in The UK, I couldn’t manage one with Ernie. On a couple of occasions I could hear someone in the noise but I couldn’t say if it was Ernie or not. He of course could not hear anything from me.

As well as 20m, I also got lots of contacts around Europe on 40m. I tried 10 metres as well but it was the DARC 10m contest and so the band was full of loud, wide stations. Even if the band had opened for DX I would not have been able to get through the QRM from the contest stations.

One positive point from the outing, was that the new power lead which I made after the problems I had on the last activation, worked perfectly. Overall this activation in the cold (maximum +5°C) was a bit of a let down compared to “what could have been” but propagation is like that. I would have like to have worked Andrew on his summit in Australia and although some home stations in Europe managed it, it was not to be from where I was.

At least this time, i did not come home with a list of problems to fix, the equipment worked correctly for the whole 2 hours that I was on the summit.

 Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment used:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
  • Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella support.
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole antenna
  • 4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
  • Painters thick plastic sheet and gardeners kneeling pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms. 

Logs:

Berndorfer Buchet

HEMA DL/HCN-004

SOTA DL/AM-180

Conclusions:

  • Band conditions at the time of this activation were not as good as I had hoped they would be and 10m was totally unusable with the local contest being in full swing.
  • The equipment all worked as it should. The combination of the Xiegu G90 with it’s 20 watts and the Aerial-51 OCF dipole even with the small (effectively 5m high) pole continues to work very well. This is definitely a good combination for single backpack portable operation.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – January 2nd 2023 – DL/AM-001 Peißenberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

The new year is here which means that all of my local summits are available to get points again (not that the points are important these days – I have achieved SOTA Mountain Goat status, so the pure points-hunt part of the scheme is finished for me).

Ernie VK3DET said he would be available to listen for me and Mike 2E0YYY may even go out portable to work me, depending upon the weather.

In any case I wanted to get out portable as 10m and 20m have been good lately. Peißenberg is perhaps my second closest summit after Berndorfer Buchet but has the advantage of more flat area to set-up antennas on and of course three winter bonus points. 

My idea was to put up my 10m mast supported by my large surveyors tripod and then have the Aerial-51 OCF antenna at a higher height than normal. As the weather reports are good, I could try out my VP2E antenna on 20m as I haven’t really given it a good trial comparison against any other antenna yet. It is supposed to have some directional gain over a dipole. For the comparison, I would need to have both antennas up at the same time as the band conditions could (and often do) change in the time I need to lower one antenna and raise the other.

This all adds up to more than the usual load but as Peißenberg is a drive-on summit, I wont have to carry everything very far, but to save time, I loaded the car up on Sunday night for this Monday morning activation.

The Activation

DL/AM-001 Peißenberg

The drive down is a route I have taken many times before. On the way, I was deciding whether to perform all the tests in the field or just to keep things simple and operate from the upper operating position by the church. As I approached the lower car park, the decision was made for me – there was some kind of gathering of people with camper vans taking up the lower car park, so if I could get a place in the car park, it would not be that close to the field and who knows what interference would be coming out of all of these “mobile homes” (see later comment about S7 QRM on 40m).

So it would be the reduced set-up, with the OCF antenna and the small 6 metre pole from my old location by the church, in the nice seated area with a wooden fence that the mast straps to and the antenna wires run out to a couple of convenient posts.

First of all though, I had to go and buy a parking ticket. What has been a free public car park for the last 20 years has been changed during the Covid pandemic to a private carpark where they charge €2 for 3 hours parking and €4 for six hours.

 OK, with that small detail taken care of, I took just the equipment that I needed to go up to my usual operating spot – at the side of the church looking straight into the valley.

As I approached the spot, I realised someone was already sat in “my” spot. To make things worse, he had just started eating his breakfast and was obviously enjoying the view and relaxing in the early morning sun. GREAT! I wondered if I might be able to set up at the back of the church but as I went there, I found other people there – what’s going on? This place is never this busy on a Monday:  Oh well, I thought, I’ll just have to go back to the original plan and squeeze in between the camper vans in the lower car park. then the guy behind the church started making small talk about how the view was lovely and the clean clear air is good for you. He was right of course and so I agreed with him and he turned out to be one of those people, who when you start talking to them, you can’t get away. I didn’t want to be rude but time (and the long path to Australia) was slipping away. I eventually got free after about 20 minutes and the man in “my seat” was still there. I asked if he’d mind if I sat on the next bench to him and explained that I would be setting up to do my amateur radio. He said he was about to leave but he had no issues with me setting up there, so I did so and explained a little about out hobby and gave him a brochure as he really seemed to show a little interest. When he finally did leave to walk back down the hill, I moved everything up onto my normal seat, and then it happened – the radio went off. A bad connection in the power lead. It worked a couple of times but a problem with the G90 is that if power drops unexpectedly all settings are returned to defaults! I have seen this problem before. It is something in the power lead. I thought I had fixed it last time – obviously not. To circumvent the problem, I switched from my LifePO4 battery to my LiHV one (which has its own power cable).

So, now that I was operational again, I decided to message Ernie VK3DET to see if he was still around. No response from Ernie or Mike – that’s odd. I then tried to check my emails – no Internet connectivity – great! Another problem. One that if you have a dual SIM phone on two different networks as I do is not difficult to fix – I switched over from Deutsche Telekom to Vodaphone and got my Internet connectivity back again. OK, messaged Ernie again and – luckily – he was still around and after finding a free frequency on 20m, we managed a short contact – only exchanging signal reports but it was a contact. I wonder what it would have been like had I got on 30 minutes earlier as I had planned?

The rest of the activation was more “normal”. I had hoped to get some contacts on 10m but it was dead, even after spotting myself I could not get any callers. So the contacts were roughly half on 20m and half on 40m as you will see from the log below. There were two S2S contacts, one into the UK and one into Ireland, which were nice. On 40m I had nearly S7 noise level, which is very strange for this summit – the weather station next door is always RF quiet and I suspect more that the noise was coming from one or more of the camper vans in the lower car park, so had I set up there I would have been even more restricted in what I could do.

So now that I am home, I have a G90 power cable to investigate – in fact I think I will simply build a new one. This was not the best activation with equipment problems and delays because of the tourists and again, I did not get a chance to try out the VP2E antenna. Perhaps on Rentschen, which is a plateau SOTA/HEMA summit with lots of space for antenna experiments as long as I get there before the snow comes again. One year i was there the snow was 2 metres tall against the side of the road!

Photos:

DL/AM-001 Peißenberg:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna with a modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials. (not used)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
  • DX-Wire 10m mast and Surveyors tripod (not used).
  • Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole.
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery.
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AM-001 Peißenberg

 

Conclusions:

  • I hate operating weekend days from a summit due to tourists. This was a Monday but being just after new year, i suppose I should have expected more people than usual to be around.
  • Despite arriving earlier than expected, by the time I got on air on 20 metres I was lucky to get the contact into Australia as the band was starting to close.
  • The 10 metre band is a fickle band. The MUF seems to just creep over from time to time at the moment and if its below 28MHz the band is closed.
  • I need to make a new power cable for the G90, the standard one has some problem (perhaps in the strange connector on the rear of the radio or in the car type fuse holder). I have tried to resolve the problem by rechecking all the connections but the problem re-occurred so no it is time for a complete replacement. 

73 ’til the next summit(s).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – December 30th 2022 – DL/AL-179 Weichberg & DL/AL-169 Auerberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

With the year coming to a close and the weather being dry, if not warm and radio conditions being generally good, I decided I would activate a SOTA summit. Looking around I realised that the easy summit Weichberg, although I had activated it, I hadn’t activated it in the winter bonus period in 2022, so that was the summit I chose. Given that Auerberg is also an easy summit and only 20 minutes drive away from Weichberg, I usually combine the two summits and that is what I did on this occasion as well. While I had activated both of these summits already in 2022 I would not get their basic points but I would pick-up 3 winter bonus points for both summits. In fact I don’t care so much about the points anymore, having passed the 1000 points mark some time ago and what I was hoping for was some DX contacts from these two summits.

At least from Weichberg, I should be on the summit around the time that 20m has been opening up via long path into VK/ZL recently and even 10 metres has also been opening up.

I put up SOTA alerts for both summits and decided to stay with my standard equipment apart from one change. As I wanted to try out 10 metres and my usual linked dipole does not have a link for 10m, I decided to take along the Aerial-51 404-UL OCF inverted-V dipole which covers the main bands between 40m and 10m. It also covers the WARC bands (30, 17 & 12m) but only using an ATU to match to the antenna on these bands. While my Xiegu G90 has a very good built-in ATU, I could use this however I was not planning activation on any of the WARC bands, and putting an ATU in circuit to match the impedance of a non-resonant antenna to 50 ohms to protect the radio means that the full radio power is not being transmitted from the antenna, so this is only a “last resort” option for me.

My plan was to operate primarily on 10m with 20m as a fall-back if needed. Unfortunately my mates in VK and UK were not going to be on the air to listen for me but Markus HB9DIZ sent me a message asking that I squeeze some time in on 40m as well – as he wanted “completes” of the two summits I was activating as he has activated them himself while on holiday in Germany. With the 40m OCF, and the G90, this request is not a problem. My only concern is not to get “stuck” on 40m and lose out on the opening of 20 and possibly 10 metres for DX contacts.

As these summits are relatively close (about 45 minutes drive from home to the first one), this would be a leisurely start leaving home around 8 am. I put all my gear ready in the hall on Thursday so I could pick it up and head straight off on Friday. 

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

On reaching the summit, setting up and switching on the radio, I was surprised to hear as the first station, a VK2 working a pile-up on the frequency that I had last had the radio on – on 40 metres! I was not expecting that and of course I tried calling him when he finished with other stations, but he was only working stations that were 59+ with him it seems. This would have been greyline propagation.

I then tuned around 40 metres, found F8VOF calling CQ and gave him a call – 59 both ways, so I’m getting out OK. After that I searched for a free frequency, spotted myself, hoping some chasers in VK or ZL might see my spot. No such look, however, I made 36 contacts on 40 metres in the following 22 minutes at which point I decided I’d better try 10 metres and 20m before they closed.

Ten metres was totally dead, and was going to stay so for the rest of the day. Tuning around on 20m however, I came across several VK stations and one particularly strong one – Grant VK3OZY, I gave a call and thanks to his perseverance we managed to make a contact. By the time I got home later in the day, Grant had already sent me an email with a QSL card using an interesting new system, which I can see replacing QSL Bureau’s and direct via post, cards in the future.

Having worked Grant, I took another look around 10m and put out a call – no contacts – the band was dead. So back on 20m I found a clear frequency, spotted myself and worked another five European SOTA chasers. Then I saw that Leszek SQ9MDF and his wife Violetta SQ9NOT were out on an OK summit, operating on 40 metres, so I switched the radio back there and made easy 54/55 contacts with both of them for a summit-to-summit contact. Before closing down, I bagged one more SOTA chaser on 40 metres. 

As I was taking the equipment down, I realised two things, firstly that I could slowly feel my fingers again as it had been a cold morning and my new silk inner liner gloves hadn’t done their job very well but they were now warming up as temperatures rose and secondly how much more convenient using the OCF type antenna is compared to a linked dipole. The LD might have a little more gain as it is truly resonant on each band that it covers but the fact that I could simply switch bands on the radio without having to worry about changing anything on the antenna is a real plus point.

DL/AL-169 Auerberg

I know I have the address for Auerberg programmed into my Navi (GPS) in the car but I could not find it, so I just set-off and went from my memory for the route. No Problems 20 minutes later, I was in the combined restaurant and church car park at Auerberg.

When I finished setting up the station, I tuned a little around 20m and was surprised to find that at 1030 UTC (11:30 local), there were STILL VK stations coming through at good strengths. Of course getting a contact from them would only be possible if they wanted to call me, so again, I found a free frequency, spotted myself and hoped for a SOTA chaser from VK  to call, however, by now it would be approaching midnight in the “land down under” and indeed there were no DX calls answering my CQ SOTA call from Auerberg but I did work 23 stations from all around Europe including two S2S contacts in the next 25 minutes. I also checked 10 metres which was still closed and I almost forgot but Markus HB9DIZ texted me while I was packing up and I got back on 40m to give him his second complete of the day. 

The weather was kind to me (apart from the cold in the early morning), that there was no rain, indeed around lunchtime it was almost like a spring day and this at the very end of the year, almost .

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

DL/AL-169 Auerberg:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Silk inner gloves.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna with a modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials. (not used)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
  • Sun Umbrella screw-in base (used at Weichberg).
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • SotaBeams end-fed (not used).
  • Aerial-51 404-UL 40m OCF Inverted-V dipole.
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery (not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

DL/AL-169 Auerberg

Conclusions:

  • A surprising change in the propagation conditions from the previous day. 20m was open and 10m completely closed. The reverse of what happened the previous day. Hearing VK on 40m via Greyline was a surprise.
  • The number of chasers is becoming too much for a comfortable activation. While it is an indication of how popular SOTA is, sometimes one likes more casual contacts. After all you need is four contacts to qualify the summit. I hate to let anyone down though.
  • Having not used the Aerial-51 antenna for a couple of years, it worked flawlessly and the convenience of being able to switch bands without having to change settings on the antenna cannot be understated.
  • I was lucky with the weather however I have made some more log sheets from glossy photo paper, and used these with my write-in-the-wet pens that I have. All OK but normal paper would also have been OK on this activation. 

73 ’til the next summit(s).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – November 23rd 2022 – POTA DA-0277 Karwendel und Karwendelvorgebirge National Park.

Posted on by

Preparation:

For this POTA (Parks on the air) activation, coordination was needed with an already planned trip that my wife was making to the area. It was agreed that I would drop her off and then drive another 45 minutes to arrive at this park, this time with our dog, Bonnie along for the ride and walks. (at the end in total, it was 5 separate walks that the dog got during the whole trip and loved the opportunity of being in so many different places).

There are no rules forbidding motorised transport or operating from a parked car, so for this activation, like the last one, I decided to do just that. I wouldn’t even put up the mast and linked dipole, rather I would use the Komunica HF-PRO2 on a three-magnet mount on the car roof and operate from within the car. The temperatures were expected to be just above freezing and indeed the first of this year’s snow arrived at the location the night before the activation.

This would be an early start and so all radio gear was loaded into the car, the Tuesday afternoon before the Wednesday activation.

The Activation

POTA DA-0277

After dropping my wife off, the road south was VERY curvey and took the best part of the 45 minutes that Google maps told me it would. Part of the way, I stopped and gave the dog another walk as she wasn’t so happy with the road conditions. Upon arriving at the location, the first task was again to take the dog on a 15-minute walk so that she could “take care of business” before I could start to set up the radio. After being put back into the back of the car she settled down and just listened to my attempts of making radio contacts.

Little did I know that this was not to be as easy an activation as I had expected!

I set up the Komunica HF-Pro antenna on the roof of the car using my 3-Magnet base as I had done on the previous activation, running the coax in through the rubber at the top of the rear door. The radio (the Xiegu G90) was set up on the passenger’s seat, propped up a little to make viewing the display easier but sun reflection was not going to be an issue this time.

After tuning around on 20m, I spotted myself and called CQ. After a while Ron, G0RQL came back to me and we had a short QSO. The whole radio seemed a little quiet though. To start with I put this down to the location being very quiet. In fact, soon after that, I lost power to the radio while moving it around on the seat. Previously this had been a bad connection in the inline fuse holder but as I was pressed for time – I only had a maximum of 90 minutes of operation time before I would have to return to collect my wife, I decided to change from the LifePO4 4AH battery using the Xiegu supplied power lead to my LiHV 4Ah battery which uses a lead that I made up. That worked and I was off again trying to find stations but I was getting no calls. At this point, I saw the SWR which was high. I had not seen it earlier as before losing power, the automatic tuner had been enabled and that ATU will literally match a wet piece of spaghetti to the radio!  So I got out and checked that I had the coil set correctly on the antenna – it was correct according to my list. I checked the connectors but all looked OK and the SWR stayed high. I changed the antenna setting and the radio to 40 metres hoping that would bring me more contacts (in POTA ten contacts are needed and my time was running out quickly). Still no luck as the SWR was high on 40m as well. 

It was time to change the antenna. Rather than put up the fibreglass mast and linked dipole, I decided to switch to my other HF-PRO2 antenna which I mount on a small tripod with radial wires. My streak of bad luck was still with me as the connecting wire on the tripod, where I normally clip the radials onto had gone AWOL. I managed to clip to bare metal which worked. This took more valuable time however it got the needed result. Once I was using that antenna, the SWR was normal and I started making contacts and attracting some deliberate QRM from some idiot dumping a carrier on the frequency I was on for minutes at a time. Time was running short and moving frequency and re-spotting as well as calling another POTA operator for a “Park-to-Park” contact got me to 11 contacts in the log and I was only 10 minutes over my planned departure time.  

Of course, before setting off down that winding road again, it was best to take Bonnie, the dog, for a quick walk which I did after literally throwing the antennas, tripod, magnetic mount and cables onto the back seat of the car. I texted my wife to say I would be 15 minutes late but in fact, it was only 5 minutes as I was able to reduce that Google travel time by 10 minutes by applying a little heavier right foot on the way back.  

 Photos:

POTA DA-0277:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio & Xiegu G-106 radio (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-Plus-T loaded vertical antenna with a tripod and radial wires.
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah and (not used) 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery.
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones (not used).
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA-0277 Karwendel und Karwendelvorgebirge National Park

Conclusions:

  • Never expect an activation to go without problems. This time I was particularly unlucky with 3 different faults but taking alternatives along when you are car-based, only costs time rather than adding carry weight.
  • After checking both the magnetic mount and cable and power lead, I was unable to find any faults. In the case of the bad SWR, it is possible that the data, that I have from the non-telescopic HF-PRO2 is from when I calibrated it on the top of my previous car and hence I will need to recalibrate it. The power lead problem, I can only think is caused by the strange power connector that Xiegu use on the G90.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – November 11th 2022 – POTA DA-0006 Augsburg Westlische Wälde naturpark.

Posted on by

Preparation:

This was to be my first POTA (Parks on the air) activation. POTA is like WWFF (an award scheme in which I haven’t taken part) but was formed in the US as a follow-on from the ARRL National Parks on-the-air celebration. It has taken off in the US and now is spreading internationally. They have a good spotting and logging web infrastructure, which is essential nowadays. The award definitions are very varied and nothing like the other schemes that I take part in. A minimum of 10 contacts are required to qualify a park activation and the activation itself can take place anywhere within the park’s boundaries. For some POTA awards, the park can be activated more than once a year.   

What attracts me is that this park is only a 30-40 minute drive away from my home (in fact it’s even closer but I picked a nice spot by a large lake to go to). There are no rules forbidding motorised transport or operating from a parked car, so for this first one, I decided to do just that. I wouldn’t even put up the mast and linked dipole, rather I would use the Komunica HF-PRO2 on a three-magnet mount on the car roof and operate from within the car. as it turned out with temps between 4 and 8 degrees centigrade, this was a wise plan!

I installed the appropriate POTA spotting App on my phone and checked it was working. 

This activation would take place late morning, so that I could take the dog for her morning walk before leaving and get back just after lunchtime having spent about 90 minutes operating. Nothing needed to be loaded in the car until the morning of the trip with this later-than-usual start.

This was going to be a trial of this “luxury” set-up and my, chosen from maps, location to see if it was indeed accessible.

The Activation

POTA DA-0006

I decided to take the country road route rather than the autobahn as according to Google it would only take about 5 minutes longer. This was true however the number of small villages this took me through was a pain, so the return route would be via the Autobahn.

On arriving at my site, I took a walk around and made some photos before returning to the car, setup up the radio and antenna and tuning around to see what I could hear. I started on the 40-metre band which was full of stations from end to end (and this was a Friday, not a weekend). I found one portable station calling CQ, so I decided to give him a call to make sure I was getting out. No Issues – a short, 59 each-way contact with Luc, who was actually activating a WWFF park location.

I then saw another POTA activator on the spotting page and called Stuart M0OVG for my first “park-to-park” contact with 55 reports each way.

Now that I was happy that everything was working, I found a free frequency and spotted myself on the POTA website and got a couple of calls from Poland. At this point, I managed to contact Mike 2E0YYY who was still out in his local park (not POTA), so I moved to 20m to work him and to test out the new QRP radio – a Xiegu G-106 which I had along as well as the Xiegu G90. Tests were performed and while the little G106 with my external RF-Clipper speech processor was workable it was down a couple of S-Points on the more powerful G90 radio, which was running 20 watts of the speech-compressed signal.   I still have the feeling that the G-106 is not as loud as it should be however in these tests the 20m band was up and down with QSB and so a really accurate test was not possible.

When I finished with Mike, I re-spotted myself on the POTA website on 20m and the calls started. I ended up with 20 contacts in 45 minutes. A lower rate than when I do a SOTA activation but not bad for a scheme that is still new in Europe. I finished off back on 40m to get another Park-to-Park contact with Dave G8XDD/P who was in two different parks at the same time, in the UK.

All in all, I think this went very well for my first POTA activation. Although the site was fine, I may try a different location the next time that I activate this park, given that there are locations all over the 1100 square kilometre park to choose from!

 Photos:

POTA DA-0006:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio & Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah and 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery (not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones (not used).
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA-0006 Augsburg Westlische Wälde Naturpark

Conclusions:

  • For a first activation, this went well but I think (unless the weather stops it), I’d prefer to operate away from the car in the future.
  • I’m still not convinced that the G-106 radio is performing as I expect it to. It’s good that the added speech processor is making it easier to hear but I’m not sure that I could rely on its signal if I used this radio on holiday. Receive is fine but there’s something “lacking” on transmit, even for a 5w QRP radio.

73 ’til the next summit(s).