Author Archives: VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

DD5LP/P – August 6th 5th 2024 SOTA DL/AM-176 / HEMA DL/HBY-052 Rentschen.

Posted on by

Preparation:

With progress made on the 2-element wire beam by adding a trap for 15m operation and reconfiguration of the speech processor that I use with my G106 radio, I needed to test both out on a summit. The results of these tests would also help me define what equipment I would take to Lindau, two weeks later for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.

Unfortunately, the sun is not on my side again, with a very active sun sending flares and CMEs which suppress the maximum usable frequency (MUF) since the weekend. I was hoping that things would be relatively back to normal on Tuesday (the activation had initially been planned for Monday).

As Rentschen is a drive-on one-pointer summit, I packed the “G106 Pack” and the normal G90 radio and accessories into the car the day before. Looking at the previous week, 21 MHz was unlikely to open before 0700 UTC (9 am local time), so it would be a 7:45 am departure from home to allow for the 45-minute drive and set-up time on the summit. The alarm was set …

The Activation

The morning of the activation arrived and the terrestrial weather looked nice. The trip down took a little longer than expected as I hit some of the morning commuter traffic but I arrived at around 8:30 am as planned and found a spot right next to the trig-point stone – the marker of the absolute summit point and set-up. I had a sked with Ernie VK3DET and we would try 20m and then move to 15m.

The antenna was installed using the screw-in base with the four wires going out at 90° to each other, the combined length of the element and its cord extender (also acting as the guy cords for the mast), form a 56° angle with the vertical mast (the mast is a 7-metre mast but with the top section removed so that the feed point board sits at 6 metres above ground level). 

I had two aims with this activation – one was to check that the speech compressor which I use with the G106 and amplifier, now sounds better. I know the built-in one in the g90 is fine. The second aim was to make a contact on 15m with the wire beam, now that I had added the 15m traps to it.

I hadn’t expected problems with the “G106 Stack” ( G106 radio – CB amplifier – LPF filter box – ATU-100 ) as it had worked fine the last time that I used it, but OF COURSE – something went wrong there and instead of over 100w PEP that I got last time (70w RMS) – I got 20w RMS at best. I could hear the VOX relay in the amplifier chattering, suggesting it was not getting enough drive. This is at least something that I can test at home without needing to go /P again. Depending upon what I find, I could match the amplifier+LPF+Tuner up with the g90 on low power for ILLW. We’ll see.

As for the antenna test on 15m, my test with Ernie VK3DET was too early and we gave up because the band was empty of DX. I said 73 to Ernie, switched to the G90 20w radio and went back to bag some contacts on 20m to get the necessary 4 contacts to “qualify” the summit (which, as I have already activated this summit this year for both SOTA and HEMA brought me no points). Rather than the usual quick signal report exchange, I managed a few chats with hams who were interesting and a couple were interested in the wire beam I was using, so we exchanged website URLs and agreed to check out each other’s work. That was a nice interlude in the warm weather on the summit but I still wanted to know whether the beam would actually work on 15m so when I got no further replies to my CQs I went back to 15m

To my surprise there were stations now on the band and from 08:15 – 08:25 I happily listened in to a 15m net on 21.270 with Dave VK6IE, Steve E51CZZ on Aitutaki Isl (South Cook), Paul EA5JZ and a VK3 – It could have been VK3MH Brendan but I think I heard the others call him Andrew, so I may have that call wrong – he was the weakest of them all. The South Cook station was easier to listen to and that was SHORT PATH! I did “turn” the beam (via relays) and there was a difference, this was definitely short path VK-EU from 0800 UTC onwards. After trying to call into the net unsuccessfully – although Dave said he heard “someone” after I called – I gave up on the effort as one of those things, found another frequency, spotted myself on SOTA and called CQ for 5 minutes with no replies.
One thing is clear – the beam receives on 15 metres OK, whether it works also on transmit will have to wait until another day.

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Raddy rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Xiegu G106 radio plus RMItaly amplifier, LPF box and ATU-100.
  • Screw-in mast base.
  • 7 metre fibreglass mast.
  • 10/15/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • 2 x 6m mini-mast (not used).
  • SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 8 Ah LiFePO4 battery.
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • 2 x Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA/HEMA spotting.

Log:

HEMA

SOTA

CONTACTS MAP

Conclusions:

  • The antenna worked well on 20 metres and received fine on 15 metres (with directivity). I hope transmit on 15m will work fine as well but the conditions on 15m were so variable with the MUF bouncing below and above 21 MHz, it wasn’t a good day for the test.

  • The problem with the “G106 Stack” will need to be investigated – the fact that I could hear the input VOX relays “chattering” in the amplifier suggests to me that it wasn’t getting enough drive.

  • I will need to consider what I take for ILLW (International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend) on two counts – firstly the antenna – the beam needs more space than a simple dipole and it doesn’t cover 40m, which could end up being the band of choice depending upon radio conditions. As for which transmitter, I would like to have more than 20w to “fend off” those stations who simply sit on my frequency and start calling CQ because they are either deaf or rude B’s. I could use the G90 with the amplifier rather than the G106 with the knowledge that if there is a problem, I can fall back to using the G90 “barefoot”.

73 ’til the next summit.

DD5LP/P – July 24th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg & SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

This is the second preservation/nature trail I have submitted for inclusion in the POTA award system and it was also accepted.  This trail is very interesting, starting as it does at the spot where King Ludwig was found drowned on Lake Starnberg and finishing near his world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle (think of the well-known Disneyland castle – that was a copy of this real-life one). Along its route, it entails a ferry trip across Ammersee a visit to the UNESCO-listed Weichkirche church and at least one SOTA summit. The route runs right past the seat that I use to activate the DL/AM-001 SOTA summit.   

One reason for this activation was to be the first to activate from the trail and to do that one does not have to walk the 6-day long trail but rather just set up somewhere along its route. Although I have already activated the SOTA Peißenberg summit this year and hence won’t get any points for it, I chose to do the combined activation as then I could call on two groups of chasers for contacts and my second reason for the activation would benefit from having as many contacts as possible. The second reason was to test out equipment prior to its use during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August. I had found on previous ILLW activations, that the signal from my 20w radio was getting stomped on by other stations, so (as well as using the two-element wire beam this time), this year would have some more power on board, specifically 50-70w RMS (over 100w PEP) depending upon the band in use. I have worked at trying to get a Chinese amplifier to work reliably for a couple of months but with the MOSFETs blowing regularly it did not look promising and I decided to buy a commercial HF amplifier. Now those designed for ham bands are expensive, however, those designed for the CB bands are a lot cheaper and can be modified to work across the complete HF spectrum (3-30 MHz).  I bought an RM-Italy KL-203P unit. The missing component in a 27MHz amplifier is protection against harmonic emissions. In an amplifier designed for amateur radio use, switched low-pass filters are used to block any harmonic signals. As I had, from my work with the Chinese amplifier a switchable LPF board I cased this up and cabled it to follow the amplifier and precede the ATU-100 tuner. While the LPF box uses Butterworth filters, it can operate on transmit and receive.  So, as you can see, the station for the ILLW event is made of several, cabled together units and this combination needed to be tested in a portable operation before relying upon them for my ILLW station. This activation would be that equipment test.

Map where POTA nature trail and SOTA summit meet.

The Activation

POTA DE-0797 / SOTA DL/AM-001

Originally planned for Tuesday but rescheduled to Wednesday as some strapping components were delivered later than promised by Amazon and so I would have had no chance to do a dry run from the home station – that test took place on Tuesday with a contact with Leif LA9BM in Norway. He commented that the G106 with my RF Clipper speech processor and the amplifier and other components after if, while OK, the audio sounded a little deep and muffled. This report was also received later during the activation and the adjustment to the speech processor is an outstanding action to be completed.

As regards the activation itself, I had the alarm set for 6 am, was on the road by 7 am and set up and running at 8 am (all local times – UTC+2).

A quick tune of 20m showed a couple of US stations booming in. First in the log was Ernie VK3DET and we exchanged the same report on signal strength with Ernie running 100w, that seems a good start. It took a while to get the needed 4 contacts to qualify the summit. I put this down to the crowded part of the 20m band where I was operating. I could have moved to another frequency on 20 metres but rather I decided to change to 40 metres, as another test of the equipment. On 40 metres I had no problems finding the extra 6 contacts needed to qualify a POTA trail, indeed I had 18 contacts in 35 minutes and then, as the skies were darkening again, I decided to call it a day with the new combination of units working well together. Three further callers commented on the audio being a little difficult to read, so this confirmed what I already thought to be the case and that will get looked at while at home.

When I got home, I calculated that I had drained 2 Ah from the 8 Ah battery in just over 35 minutes so I will need to take a spare battery (or two) along for the (longer) ILLW activation next month.

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • DF4ZS Mini-RF-Clipper speech processor.
  • RM-Italy KL-203 P amplifier.
  • Switch LPF filters box.
  • ATU-100 tuner.
  • Aerial-59 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna.
  • Six metre mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (not used).
  • 5-band linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 8Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah 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:

POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg.

SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg

Contacts Map

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well, I was the first activator of this POTA trail, and the radio equipment performed well. The battery drain level will need to be watched at the higher power levels and the speech processor needs to be adjusted.

73 until the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – July 10th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0791 Lech Erlebenis Weg Plus DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica & HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz.

Posted on by

Preparation:

I had submitted a preservation trail for POTA consideration while others exist in the system.  This one runs along the banks of the River Lech from Landsberg am Lech down to Fussen on the Austrian border. There are lots of beautiful spots along its length and the initial section from Landsberg runs through the POTA DE-0663 Possinger Au nature reserve further along its length, close to Schwangau, it goes over the HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz summit making it a location where points can be earned for both systems. In addition, another longer trail “Via Romea Germanica” also passes through this point and is in the POTA system as Trail DE-0641. Today I decided to combine both trails’ activation with a HEMA activation close to the Rosenau Cross summit on both trails.

The Activation

POTA DE-0791&0641 (2-FER) / HEMA DL/HBY-040

With the threat of bad weather later in the week (indeed it actually arrived later in the day), I decided to perform this first activation of the new POTA entity early in the morning, hoping to make some long-path contacts into Australia. So an early start was planned and I arrived on the summit/trail around 0600 UTC. I sent a quick message to Ernie VK3DET in Australia and he was the first into the log. After Ernie however, contacts were more difficult to find despite being spotted on both the HEMA and POTA systems.

The contacts eventually came however with five stations from Spain, one from Portugal. One from Serbia, a second from Australia (VK2) (a missed contact into VK4 would have made 3 contacts into VK however the VK4 station was battling local S8 noise so my 20 watts was not enough for him to hear me. He could tell I was there but not strong enough to work). An Italian and a French station rounded out the 11 contacts.

I would have stayed longer but as I could see black clouds approaching and more and more flying bugs had found me in their field, I decided to pack up and head home.

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Seven metre mast.
  • Screw-in-ground mast base.
  • 2-element switchable direction, wire beam.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (not used).
  • 5-band linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA DE-0791 Lech Erlebinis weg & DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica.

HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz

Conclusions:

  • The activation went fairly well although conditions were variable. It was good to be the first activator for another POTA entity (and a POTA 2-Fer as well!). I was hoping to take my 70-watt portable HF amplifier along to give a little more “UMPH” but it wasn’t ready – maybe next time.

73 until the next activation!

DD5LP/P – June 29th 2024 DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg.

Posted on by

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – June 28th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0766 Seewald Landscape Reserve.

Posted on by

Preparation:

While preparing my trip to Ham Radio Friedrichshafen this year I saw a second POTA park defined in Friedrichshafen, other than the one I activated in 2023. As I normally activate both SOTA summits near “FN” when I am there, I decided instead to activate this new POTA and the closest SOTA location over the weekend. The weather forecast was for mixed sunny and rainy weather, so I could fit these activations in around the weather and the actions that I had planned at the HAM RADIO event. I added the location of one of the park’s car parking areas into my GPS in the car to simplify finding the location.

The Activation

POTA DE-0766

After arriving at Ham Radio and completing my first trip around the halls, I decided on a morning activation before lunch. The radio gear was already in the back of the car so it was a short 10 minute drive from HAM RADIO at the Neue Messe to this new park.  

I was hoping for a quick activation and operation from the car using a loaded vertical on a magnetic mount on the roof. The band of choice was 20m as higher bands had not been working well. Mode would be SSB as usual and with 20w from the G90 radio, I found a frequency and started calling and then spotted myself on the POTA spots list. The band was a little noisy atmospherically and as time went on, noisy from other stations. Add into this QSB and this was not the simplest of activations especially when in a rush. The chasers thankfully were there and after 11 contacts and when the QRM from a station that had fired up 1 KHz away from where I was got unbearable, I closed down, packed up and headed back to the show.

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Three magnet car roof mount.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painters sheet and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0766 Seewald Landscape Reserve

 

 

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well for a rushed activation of a park. Initially, I was not sure if indeed I was the first to activate as one of the other 13,000 hams at the show could have activated first however as it turned out I was.
  • I would have preferred to have done a “proper” portable activation well inside the park however a PLOTA was all that was possible in the available time.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – May 16th 2024 HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz.

Posted on by

Preparation:

With HF band conditions being the worst in over 20 years the previous weekend, this activation was never going to fill several pages of the log book or deliver any “Special DX”.

Despite that, there was a break in the Terrestrial weather before the returning storms, so I decided I would activate “somewhere” on the 16th of May. As Mike 2E0YYY announced he planned to head out to Mow Cop (HEMA summit G/HSP-020) I decided to head also to a local HEMA summit with enough room for the wire beam, which I am still “fine-tuning”.

Despite the fact that I have already activated Rösenau Kreuz in February, I chose that summit as I know it, it’s about a 40-minute drive from home and normally I am not disturbed while operating there.

So the plan was to take the HF wire beam, but this time with its linked elements rather than the trapped ones, as Mike wanted to try out some of the higher HF bands and 10m was unlikely to be open (which turned out to be true).

Along with the wire beam antenna, I would also take the antenna analyser (with its new set of batteries) so that I could check each of the bands on it, before attaching it to the radio, which, as usual, would be the Xiegu G90.

Ernie (VK3DET) had said that long path propagation had been happening at around 0630 UTC – so planning for that I set my alarm for 6 am local time expecting to leave at 7 am at the latest. All radio gear was stood read in the hallway.

The Activation

DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz

I awoke before the alarm and was able to leave home at 6:30 am local time. The extra 30 minutes were useful as I had to get petrol at the local garage.

The run down was uneventful and I was on the summit with a heavily loaded rucksack by 7:30 am. I had everything set up for 20 metres by 7:50 but Ernie and Mike had already moved to the higher bands, so I spotted myself and called CQ HEMA on and off for over 10 minutes with absolutely no callers, I decided to try to catch the other two, who were now on 15m. I could not hear Mike in the UK but I managed a 3-3 contact with Ernie  VK3DET.

Following 15m, 17m was tried and with Mike’s help, I managed contacts with two more Australian stations on 17m. We then went and tried 10 & 12m – both were completely dead. Mike and I eventually managed a 3-3 both-ways contact on 20m – a “HEMA-to-HEMA” contact as Mike was on the HEMA G/HSP-020 summit.

The thought was it would be a while before 10 metres opened up, so I suggested I would go to 40 metres after taking down the beam and putting up the linked dipole.

This brought its own problem, in that the T-Piece on my linked dipole normally slots over a much thinner fibreglass mast and the top section of this mast, which I have removed. So as always, we found a way and the T-piece got taped onto the mast using electrician’s tape.

Once the 40m antenna was up, I was able to make a far easier contact with Mike 2E0YYY and went on to get three more contacts on 40 metres but then again, the band started to get noisy and I was not getting any more calls.

As it was still cold, rather than continuing on, I decided to pack up and head home, which as it turned out was a good idea, as, just as I was leaving, the farmer arrived to cut the grass for hay.

The walk down the hill was uneventful, as was the drive home in time for lunch!

Photos:

DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Sun umbrella screw-in base support.
  • 7 metre fibreglass mast.
  • HF 2-element wire beam (with linked elements covering 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m and remote (ISM) switching box).
  • RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • 40 metre linked 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 spotting.

Log:

DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz

 

Conclusions:

  • The bands were still in a mess. There was no longer a complete HF blackout but the bands were not as good as they were 2 weeks earlier.

  • The need to lower the mast to switch bands (by closing or opening links) is inconvenient however it does work when care is taken to have all four wires set the same.

  • Some of the elements probably need a little adjustment for best performance but checking with the analyser all were “near enough” for any mismatch to be compensated for by the ATU in the radio.

  • The control (direction switching system) box works reliably when a direction change is requested using the 4-button key fob, the switching is taking place correctly and can be heard on the radio.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 30th 2024 HEMA DL/HBY-064 & SOTA DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet.

Posted on by

Preparation:

My closest summit is Berndorfer Buchet and as I needed a summit I know to test my latest build of the 2-element HF wire beam, this one pointer was ideal as I had not yet activated it in 2024.

This was the first dry day in about a week and as more rain was expected later in the week, this was to be a quick activation. Just enough time to set up the beam, test it on the analyser and bag a few contacts ideally on 20 and 10 metres.

A relatively late activation was planned, to arrive at the summit by 9 am local (0700 UTC) but despite this the complete station fitted into/onto my 40L backpack would be loaded into the car, Monday evening, the night before to allow an easy departure the next morning.

The Activation

DL/HBY-064 / DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet

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 (0700 UTC) start. I had hoped to fill the car at a garage on the way but there were so many queued that I decided to leave it for the return journey.

Although sunny, it was still cool. Walking from the parking spot to the open area 15m below the summit, the track was muddy and I hoped that the small area where I intended to set up was not as much of a bog as it was the last time I used it.

Although soft underfoot, the ground had dried enough from the last few days of rain to be usable. After putting down my painter’s sheet, I proceeded to unpack everything from the rucksack. A more complex operation than normal with the HF beam antenna rather than just a dipole or loaded vertical.  Once the mast and antenna were up and the elements/guy ropes positioned, my first task was to run my RigExpert antenna analyser on the beam with it switched to each of its four directions, as while, I had only moved the complete feedpoint electronics from a flat board into a box, there are several things that could have gone wrong. I had done DC connectivity checking but this was the first chance to test the antenna completely.

The first trace (see photos) for the beam on 20 metres (it covers 20 & 10m) with it pointed West, was a little strange with two dips shown. These were OK if a little strange. I then pressed the key fob to turn the antenna to the North and ran another scan – see next photo – this was all over the place. It was worse still when I wanted to clear the trace and try again, the RigExpert analyser would not let me. I tried turning it off – nothing! the trace stayed. Unplugged the coax, no change, so there was nothing for it, but to take the back off and remove the batteries, which I did and I was able to turn the unit on again, but as soon as I tried to take a trace again (this time with the antenna switched back to the known good West direction) the same mess on the screen and the unit had hung up. Luckily I have seen this before – these units don’t like low battery voltage and after once again removing and replacing the batteries, I could see on the startup display that the batteries were low. So, as I had no spare batteries with me I put the analyser away and continued to set up the radio, hoping that the antenna was OK.

Well, the first station in the log was Ernie VK3DET with a 5-5 in both directions, so I guess the antenna was working. Band conditions were all over the place though. Some DX stations (VK4 and Jamaica were booming in while others from Finland were not as strong as usual – with the beam switched north). Ernie reported having just worked some portable stations in the UK with S9+ signals and had expected me to be stronger but 20 metres was in such a mess that in the 10 minutes in between signals had dramatically changed.

After spotting myself on the SOTA cluster I tried calling CQ for 10 minutes on 10 metres with no responders. All I could hear was the local 10m beacon about 25 km to my south – I used this to check the antennas directivity and as before I got 2 S-points less signal off the back and 1 S-point less off the sides. That said, this was not a complete test for the antenna and I will need to plan to go out again and check it with the analyser again, now that it is working fine with some new batteries.

20m had really deep QSB but at least the weather stayed fine long enough for me to complete the activation.  

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella base.
  • 7 Metre Zita Fibreglass mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • Remote switched 2-element wire HF trapped elements beam for 20 & 10m.
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Electrical hand warmer.
  • Suncream.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
  • RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser. 

Log:

HEMA DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet

 

SOTA DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet

 

Contacts map

Conclusions:

  • You can never predict what will happen. Thankfully the crazy readings from the RigExpert were caused indeed only because of flat batteries.

  • The band conditions were disappointing overall compared to activations a couple of weeks earlier.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 16-19 2024 – Short Break to the Oberpfälz with POTA/HEMA/SOTA activations.

Posted on by

Preparation:

A short 3-night break with the family to the Oberpfälz region (in English Upper Plantine) of Bavaria near the Czech/German border brought the chance of some portable radio activations. The problem of planning ahead with this trip was the uncertainty of the weather with high winds rain and even snow forecast as possibilities, this was going to have to be, grab the activation when you can. Our base for the short stay was the medieval town of Nabburg between Regensburg and Weiden. The Oberpfälzerwald nature park covers a large area of land around our base and hence the likelihood would be that POTA DE-0017 would be activated at the same time as a HEMA or SOTA summit. Very near to the town was an unactivated HEMA summit Darlesberg and this would most likely be the summit in the park, dual activation. The only reasonable summit to take the family to was Fahrenberg (DM/BM-321) and this 8-point, drive-up summit is in the next POTA park northwards, DE-0024 Nordlicheroberpfälzerwald NP so this could be a combined SOTA/POTA activation. On the way to our holiday flat, my wife wanted to see an art exhibition in Regensburg, so this was planned to coincide with me activating the Donaupark which is within Regensburg city.

The equipment would be the 6m telescopic fishing pole, umbrella base and the 404-UL OCF dipole from Aerial-59. The reason not to use the usual linked dipole was the probably need for band changing given the variable radio conditions present. This set-up would be used for the summit activations and the Komunica HF-Pro2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof for the POTA activation from the Regensburg park (or any others that might be needed/possible). 

The Activations

Tuesday 16th April – POTA DE-0376 DonauPark.

Apart from a delay finding my way to the parking area in this city park, the planned combination of dropping the wife off at the gallery, driving to the park, taking our dog for a walk, setting up the radio in the car, activating the park (10 contacts needed), closing down and packing away, taking the dog for her second walk and then going back to pick up my wife, went to plan and we were able to continue our journey on to our flat in Nabburg.

The activation itself brought in strong signals from around Europe on 20m but contacts number nine and ten took a little longer to get than the first eight which started me worrying a little that I would not manage the needed number of contacts in the time I had available. I tried 40 metres but with so many stations on that band, it was impossible to find a free frequency to call CQ on and when I did eventually find one, after calling CQ another station starting calling CQ without even asking if the frequency was free. It was a jungle of animals on 40 metres. Luckily I did manage to get the needed ten contacts on 20 metres. 10 metres was totally closed at the time.

Wednesday 17th April – POTA/SOTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberpfälzerWald NP / DM-BM-321 Fahrenberg.

As the first day proper of our holiday we had planned to split this between radio and visiting the town of Weiden about 5 km north of Nabburg and that’s what we did, We spent the showery morning in Weiden (well worth a look, especially in the large church there) and by midday, we were heading up to the Fahrenberg. Unfortunately, the restaurant was not open on Wednesdays but again, it has a nice baroque-style church that is worth a visit. Behind the church, there is a perfect grassed area to put the mast and dipole up on and while it was sunny when we got there we did not know how long that would last, so I quickly set up and got calling. An impressive 25 callers got into the log in 16 minutes when the calls dried up on 20 metres I considered switching to 40 metres but as I could see black clouds approaching, I thought better of it and packed up the equipment. Just as I lifted my rucksack to my shoulder the first few flakes of snow started to fall, so timing could not have been better.

As we drove off the snow stopped but it was clear rain at least was on the way.

A good day’s radio operating and sightseeing.

Thursday 18th April – HEMA DL/HBY-226 Darlesberg

This should have been the easiest of the activations. The parking spot I had found on the map was less than 10 minutes drive away from our flat and then it was about a 1.25 km walk up a forest track to a picnic area followed by a smaller walking track of about one kilometre to the summit.

Admittedly with this activation, I carry my rucksack laden with gear for the longest distance but despite that, I did not expect any problems. I arrived at the parking spot around 9 am local time, loaded up and started up the forestry vehicles-only track, the start was a little steeper than I had expected but then it got better. I kept following the main track until after about 45 minutes, it started to go downhill, which made no sense. Rather than take my rucksack off to check my printed-out paper map, I decided to use my smartphone to check how much further it would be to the picnic area. What I saw was that I was on the wrong track. I used Google Maps to start with but then switched to the Mapy.cz app for confirmation which, unfortunately, it gave. about 10 minutes earlier I should have taken another much smaller muddy track (which on the maps is shown as being of the same type as the one I was on – it isn’t). In fact, I was now level with the summit but about 60 metres below it. There was a track to go up through the bush to the summit from this point, but it was a boggy mess and with the steep climb that would have been needed, I decided it was not a good option to try in the drizzle in a remote location. If I slipped there would be no one coming by to help.

I then had to face the decision, of whether to go back and go up the correct track and then join the official walking track to the summit, as originally planned or to abort the attempt. By the time I got back to the junction, I would have walked as far as I would have needed for the complete walk to the summit and then would have to face probably another 30-minute walk. I decided to cancel. Had I been carrying less weight or if the ground had not been so soaked I may have made a different decision. I know now not to rely on my memory of a paper map in my rucksack and either to have it out to check junction by junction or as I did on the return walk to the car, follow my position on an online map.    

Friday 20th April – POTA DE-0017 OberpfälzerWald NP

As the previous day’s activation (which would have been a HEMA/POTA one) had to be aborted, I was still left with the POTA activation available to coincide with a break to our return journey home to allow the dog to have a walk and so it was decided that another car based POTA activation would be made near Steinberger See about 30 minutes drive away from the flat, So after packing all our luggage into the car again (which of course got in the way later when I wanted to get to the radio gear) we set off but unfortunately in this area of Germany, the GPS (navi) doesn’t always see enough satellites to navigate accurately. There is also a US forces training base nearby, so what signals they may be putting out could also be part of the problem for car-based Euro-GPS systems. In any case, we ended up near Wackersdorf (famous for anti-nuclear-power rallies in the 70s) and found a parking spot near some woodland which would serve the purpose needed. So with my wife taking the dog for a walk, I set to, finding the radio equipment mounting the antenna and calling for POTA hunters. The contacts took longer than I am used to with SOTA and again there was time pressure to get the needed ten contacts but as this was around 0715 UTC, long-path on 20m was open into VK and I managed a Park-to-Park contact with VK2USH, which while difficult, especially as it suffered heavy QRM from another station was completed.   

Photos:

POTA DE-0376 Donau Park

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

SOTA DM/BM-321 Fahrenberg / POTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberpfälzerWald NP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

HEMA DL/HBY-226 Darlesberg (failed attempt)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

POTA DE-0017 Oberpfälzerwald NP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • MountainTop 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with magnetic mount for the first and last activations).
  • Three-magnet car roof antenna mount.
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (used on 2nd activation).
  • Aerial-59 404-UL OCF dipole (used on 2nd activation).
  • 4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
  • 4.5 Ah LiHV battery (not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms. 

Logs:

POTA DE-0376 Donau Park

POTA Contacts Map

POTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberPfälzerWald NP

POTA Contacts Map

SOTA DM/BM-321 Fahrenberg

SOTA Contacts map

POTA DE-0017 OberpfälzerWald NP

POTA Contacts Map

Conclusions:

  • The weather was a problem mainly on the third day, combined with the mis-navigation that was a “bad” day – lesson learned to use the Smartphone map/tracking app when attempting to activate a new summit.
  • The Xiegu G90 continues to work surprisingly well even when only using the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof. That park-to-park contact with Australia was a highlight of the trip.

73 ’til the next summit/park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 11th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0663 Pössinger Au NP.

Posted on by

Preparation:

This was originally planned as a HEMA/SOTA activation to Berndorfer Buchet to try out the latest version of my 2 element portable wire beam however when the news came through that my application to have the local nature park added to the POTA system had been approved, there was a quick change of location, so that I could get to activate the new park first.

The purpose remained the same – to test the latest revision of the portable beam, for which I needed contacts from different directions so that I could see the effect of electrically switching the antenna between North, East, South and West. Rather than SOTA and HEMA chasers, I would rely upon POTA chasers. 

Pössinger Au runs south of the centre of the Medieval town of Landsberg am Lech down to the village of Pitzling along the eastern side of the River Lech. It contains an animal park with wild boar and deer, small lakes, lots of woodland walks and even an outdoor water playground. There are several car parks in the “Au” but this was not going to be a PLOTA (Parking Lots on the Air) activation, rather one a little way away from the car, so all equipment would need to be carried. For stability, I would take the surveyor’s tripod that I have which is very good to keep a mast stable and vertical but is an awkward and quite heavy thing to carry.

The Activation

POTA DE-0663

Being so close an early start was not needed as the drive was less than 10 minutes. Once parked, I unloaded and went to a spot where I could set up without blocking any of the trails. Unfortunately, this was a little down in a dip so some directions may well be impacted, however as this was to be an HF activation, the impact (I hoped) would be minimal.

As usual, I had arranged that Ernie VK3DET would be kindly listening for me and Mike 2E0YYY had also decided to head out to a local GMA summit, however as my main band was planned to be 20 metres the chances would be slim that I would hear Mike in the UK. 10 metres is no longer open from Central Europe as it has been for a few weeks.

The setup of the new board with its double cable (combined coax and DC power) on the top of my 7-metre mast, supported by the surveyor’s tripod went OK although I had to adjust the 4 elements (which also act as guy ropes) a few times to get the antenna right as the ground was not totally level.

First in the log, was, as usual, Ernie VK3DET and I could tell a slight difference in “electrically pointing” the beam due west for the long path compared to other directions. Mike had several other local UK hams lined up to talk to Ernie and as I could not hear Mike, I gave my apologies and went off to collect some more contacts to qualify the park.

This turned out to be a difficult task, despite spotting myself on the POTA cluster, I got very few calls. 20 metres was very busy and I suspect some other station was on the same frequency, that I had checked was free before spotting it, so I changed my frequency and re-spotted. Still nothing. I even tried 10 metres but it was dead and looking at PROPQUEST the MUF in Central Europe never got high enough for 10 metres to open. While on 10m however I tuned to the local beacon and tested antenna direction against it and it was very clear that all was working as it should with clearly the strongest signal when the antenna was pointing South – the direction where the beacon is. I even made a video of this test and will try to attach it here. After more calls on 20m I eventually got a call from IW9FFI which I was very grateful for. My signals were getting to Australia but it seems there were only a few European POTA chasers up so early in the day.

The beam was configured for 10 & 20m and I did not really want to take it down to put up a different antenna for 40m. So I decided to use the range of the internal ATU within the Xiegu G90 radio to match the 10/20m antenna. It would not be radiating a lot but after seeing S55G/P spotted in a Slovenian park (actually in three overlapping ones, SI-0073/72/93) I called him on 40m using the 20/10 beam and we managed a contact. This was still only my third contact of the day, so I still needed another 7 contacts to qualify the park. I persevered and even had a small run of contacts on 40m but then the last one took another 10 minutes that seemed like an eternity but with F8FSC in the log, that was the needed 10 contacts. After announcing “last call” and expecting the usual 2 or 3 late callers, there were none, so I started to pack up all the gear.

Once I had packed up and got back to the car I had a chance to look around at how beautiful this part of Bavaria is and ended up chatting to a local man for about 20 minutes before I could head home.

All in all, with a very cold 2°C start but later a little warmer with some sunny weather this was a successful test of the portable HF beam although, I now need to be able to deploy it without the tripod and indeed a smaller version of the feed point board is already being planned.

Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Video of tests receiving local 10m beacon.

Video

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Portable HF 2 element, trapped wire beam for 20m & 10m) electrically switchable from ground between N, E, S and W.
  • Special coax and DC supply cable (10 metres long).
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painters sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0663 Pössinger Au

POTA Contacts Map

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well for a rushed “First activation” of a park. I was however surprised at the lack of callers on 20 metres while the band was busy with lots of QRM, the number of POTA callers was disappointing.
  • 10 metres sounds “wrong” on receive – it’s almost being pushed down by interference (perhaps from outside of the band). I have seen a similar situation on both the G106 and from home on the IC-7300, so I don’t think the G90 is faulty, just that 10m with no signals is a very quiet band.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 8th 2024 – POTA DE-0006 Augsburg Westlicher Wälder NP & HEMA DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg.

Posted on by

Preparation:

This was to be an activation to test out my “Ultra-light” kit. My Xiegu G106 radio and the SOTABeams Bandspringer long wire antenna as I have now added an external “Z-Match” manual ATU to the configuration. The antenna gets launched into a tree using a weighted bag and cord, so the complete station packs into a very small bag (about the size of a lady’s large handbag).

Radio conditions were all over the place so I wasn’t planning for any DX and while this was going to be a “family outing” with my wife and dog, I knew I would be restricted, however, I still packed the usual 40L rucksack with the G90 configuration in it, into the car as well, just in case the new configuration did not go as well as hoped. I could then hopefully qualify the park/summit having driven there.

The location chosen I had visited and activated before as a HEMA summit – DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg about 10 km west of Augsburg which itself is about 45 minutes to an hour’s drive away from our home. The summit overlooks the village of Bonstetten which has a wonderful, old restaurant in it, which is open on a Monday (many restaurants close on Monday & Tuesday here) and as the weather forecast was that Monday was likely to be the only dry day of the week, this fitted well. Since activating the (drive-up) summit last Autumn, I have started activating POTA parks and this summit was in the Park I could activate both schemes at the same time. POTA has almost as big a following as SOTA these days, so spotting on the POTA cluster pretty well guarantees enough contacts to qualify the Park (and Summit). Unlike the WWFF Park award scheme which requires 44 contacts, POTA only needs 10 (and HEMA only 4 of course).

The hope was to have the Ultra-portable configuration work “well enough” to use on the family short holiday in the Oberpfälz (Upper Platine in English) near the Bavaria/Czech border, the following week.

The Activation

POTA DE-0006 7 HEMA DL/HBY-038

The expected 45-50 minute drive was extended by the police stopping all traffic on the highway to pull out foreign trucks and check their loads and that the truck conforms to the regulations. This was STILL going on when we returned on the other side of the highway about 4 hours later, so this would have caused even bigger delays as the day went on. Of course, there was no warning of this happening in any of the radio road reports as the Police don’t want to tip off the truck drivers but I’m sure the word would have got out very quickly via their CB radio network or simply via some online social media platform.

As we had set off a little earlier than planned, this meant that I still got to the summit in the park at my alerted time of 0900 UTC (11 am local).

This summit is interesting in that as well as a small chapel, it also has the old American Forces Network (AFN) MW relay station for Augsburg on top of it. I’m not sure what it is now used for however the mast is still there and someone was working in the compound while we were there. Perhaps just keeping the grass under control?

From this summit, there are a few tracks off, that served well for my wife to take our dog on her morning walk, while I set up the antenna and radio. As I mentioned, I had brought along the SOTABeams Bandspringer end-fed antenna and a throw bag to get the antenna up into a tree. In fact, the design is for perhaps a quarter of the wire to head off from the location in the branches in an inverted L kind of configuration. The other half of the antenna, the counterpoise wire,  simply runs out over the ground. It was interesting that this wire was noticeably longer than the driven element.

Both wires have banana plugs on them which plug into a BNC adapter, which then goes directly into the ATU. In my case, this is a manually tuned Z-Match. I first tried to get a dip in the indicating LED in the ATU on 40 metres, both using the narrow and wide impedance settings of the ATU no dip could be found. I put out some CQs and spotted myself anyway and while I was receiving fine, I got no calls. I switched then to 20 metres where I could get a very slight dip in the LED light at the very end of the Tune and Load controls. I again spotted and called – no callers. I found another POTA activator who had a strong signal and tried calling him three times – nothing – and it was not a case of another station getting in first as he simply kept calling CQ. This antenna was simply not working. Which for SOTABeams is a surprise however I was surprised that it is supplied without the normal 9:1 UNUN for end-fed random wires.

Time was passing, so I decided to switch radios, leaving the same antenna up (as it had taken some time to get it up in the tree). I went back to the car and brought my Xiegu G90 and its battery, microphone, etc.  Connecting that up to the antenna and tuning, it took a lot longer than normal to find a match, but it did manage it (the G90 is known to have an in-built ATU with amazing capabilities). I found a free frequency on 20m and spotted and called again – now I had chasers calling me back and I received the needed 10 contacts to qualify the park (and the summit). No DX just calls from around Europe.

At this point, my wife and dog had been back for some time and were waiting for us to go for lunch in the village “Bonstetten” that this summit is above. So I packed everything up (the antenna, thankfully came down without any problems – often there can be problems with wire antennas jamming in trees) and we went for lunch to a lovely restaurant the “BräuStübel” in Bonstetten and then drove home at the end of what was a nice trip out and we may repeat later in the year.

 Photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Xiegu G106 radio with Z-Match ATU
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with tripod (not used)
  • SOTABeams 60-10m Bandspringer long-wire antenna.
  • Linked dipole antenna and 6m Lambdahalbe mast (not used)
  • 4Ah & 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery and 3S 2.5Ah LiPO battery (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0006 Augsburg Westlicher Wälder NP

POTA Contacts Map

HEMA DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg

Conclusions:

  • The SOTABeams antenna needs the G90 ATU to work and the external manual Z-Match that I have added to the G106 is not as broad as the built-in one in the G90. I have bought a 9:1 UNU(N to add to the end-fed random wire from SOTABeams to see if that brings it into range for the Z-Match ATU.
  • It is always good to have backup options available and I will be taking the tried and tested G90 + dipole set-up on our holiday, even if I manage to get the BandSpringer to work with the G106 using a 9:1 UNUN.
  • Having the option to spot to a larger group of chasers, whether POTA or SOTA is very useful when the number of HEMA chasers available during a weekday is limited.

73 ’til the next activation!

UPDATE:

After writing the report above, I have indeed bought a cheap 9:1 UNUN from Amazon and by having this inline between the z-match manual ATU and the antenna, I can match the antenna to the radio on 60,40,20,15 &10m (I have not tried the WARC bands).

The UNUN was this one from Amazon:  ” https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C3ZRXD2J “

73 Ed.