This was to be another test of the beam antenna to take advantage of good propagation and terrestrial weather conditions and while I wanted to try to get some contacts into North America, this would be an afternoon activation rather than my usual early morning ones.
The equipment would be the same as the last time (no tripod) but this time also no antenna analyser, I am confident enough now that, as long as I connect everything up correctly, the antenna will be resonant on 20m and 10m.
As I wasn’t sure of the 10m performance of the trapped antenna variant the last time that I was out, I also packed the non-trapped 10m elements for the antenna. As I have not got a small plastic case where I can pack the beam, both the manually switched and the non-switched feed plates would be taken along.
The Activation
DL/AM-178 Ammerleite
An afternoon activation means that I have time to pack equipment in the car, have my lunch and then travel down to the summit (about a 45-minute drive). I was expecting a muddy track to the summit, but it wasn’t too bad. The main thing was that it was not raining or windy and in fact the sun had actually come out!
As I arrived two walkers were just leaving, so I had the whole area around the cross to decide where I would set the antenna up and which of the two seat benches, I would activate from.
Setting up the antenna has now become routine and the biggest issue is trying the get the screw-in base support fairly near to vertical (I still need more practice at this, as you will see from the photos).
The fact that the antenna has 4 support cords (the antenna elements plus their extender cords) makes the mast/antenna more stable than when just using a dipole.
Once the antenna was set up, I ran the coax back to the bench and set up the radio. I decided to start on 10 metres, as I could see some other activators were already on the band.
The first contact in the log was Rob DM1CM out on Auerberg, so a local Summit-2-Summit contact. He had been on two summits and had started in the morning. The second contact was a call from Holger operating as DL/OE7HPI from another local summit – Rentschen, so there was another S2S contact. This was a good start to the activation but contacts quickly dried up and I found that 10 metres sounded rather quiet when there was no signal present. This started me wondering whether this was a problem with the new antenna or perhaps the radio.
In any case, I decided to switch to 20 metres to see what was happening there and I got a stream of thirteen contacts from around Europe until that seemed to dry up. So I used this time to test the antenna while pointing west initially on some relatively strong signals that I found on the band, I turned the antenna from West to South, to North and back to West – each time needing me to lower the mast, turn the switch and raise the mast again and then wait for the monitored station to come on again. the results I got were the same as at Rösenau Kreuz. Turning the antenna away from the direction of a signal, dropped the signal 1 S-point when side on and 2 S-points when back-on to the station. This (rough) measurement tallies what the antenna models say.
I then switched the radio back to 10 metres again (this is the advantage of having a trapped antenna, that I don’t need to do anything at the antenna when I change between the supported bands). Just tuning around, I found another SOTA activator who was very weak but was being worked by Sid ZS5AYC out of South Africa. This was the other activator’s frequency so I could not call in, so instead, I switched the antenna to radiate to the South, found a free frequency about 5 kHz higher, spotted myself and started calling CQ. After a couple of minutes – Sid called me, so that contact with Sid and his wife Adele ZS5APT were to be my longest contacts for the day. It was interesting to hear a warbling sound on the signals – which I put down to the Trans Equatorial Propagation.
After getting those two DX contacts in the log, I tried calling CQ on 10 metres for a while but got no takers. I even tried calling a loud US station, who was calling specifically for low power stations but unfortunately, all the callers I heard, I know have high power stations and hence I and probably most other low power stations could not get through.
I decided to move back onto 20m to at least “reserve” my frequency for a sked I had set up with Caryn KD2GUT who was out in a POTA park on Long Island New York. I got another 10 contacts on 20m into the log but unfortunately, none of those were Caryn – I “think” I heard her voice once, deep in the noise but I’m not sure and it wasn’t long before some QRO station decided to sit 2 kHz off the frequency and splatter all of the frequency making any further attempts at the POTA to SOTA contact futile.
The afternoon was getting closer to dusk and the sun had gone, so I decided to “call it a day” and pack up. I was just finished packing up when a local, walking his dog arrived, so I left him the area – I suspect he might have been there to await the sunset.
Photos:
DL/AM-178 Ammerleite:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Screw-in sun umbrella base.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10-metre band 2-element wire beam (manual switch version).
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
SOTABeams Linked Dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
Electrical hand warmer(not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/AM-178 Ammerleite
Contacts map
Conclusions:
The wire beam antenna worked well with between 1 & 2 S-points difference on weak signals depending upon the direction it was switched.
Once I got home, I tried the G90 radio on the main antenna and while it was a lot more “active” than when out on the summit another point I had seen while out – that turning off AGC completely, had no effect on signals -was still there. So it looks like the “quiet 10 metres” is down to the radio more than the antenna. I then went into the settings and changed the RF gain from 50% to 72% and it made all the difference on 10 metres, the band sounded better and turning off the AGC had the expected effect of “boosting” weak signals. So I’ll be leaving the RF gain at 72% now. Unfortunately RF gain is one control which applies to all bands, there is not a separate setting for each band, which would be nice.
With band conditions good as we are very close to the top of Solar Cycle 25 and the weather seeming more like spring than winter and importantly with only light winds, I decided another activation with the wire beam was in order.
This time, however, I wanted to use my screw-in-the-ground sun umbrella post base rather than the large surveyor’s tripod. I had also received my awaited rotary switch and so had built the feed-point board with switchable directions. In this case, the mast has to be lowered before the direction the beam is “pointing” can be changed, but this is less work than re-arranging the element/guy cords and less weight to carry that the remote controllable, Bluetooth controlled, relay board.
I had initially planned to activate on Thursday morning, however as Mike in the UK (2E0YYY) was also planning to go out and rain was expected for him on Thursday, we agreed on a Friday morning activation, with Ernie VK3DET also listening to help with tests (we do call ourselves the “Comms-Testers” so this all makes sense). My weather forecast for both Thursday and Friday were good and for one (thankfully) that turned out to be the case.
As usual, all equipment was packed in the back of the car, the day before to allow for an early start. This time in addition to the radio gear I also packed an electric hand warmer “stone” that had been recommended to me after my problems with cold hands on the last few activations.
The Activation
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
This is one of my closest summits about 30 minutes drive away so the trip down on Friday was uneventful. On arriving at my car parking spot in the forest at the first of a series of pilgrims’ holy crosses that lead up the hill into the forest, I finished packing the rucksack. I estimate it weighed somewhere between 16 and 17 kilograms but once on my back, I just had to bear it. The road itself goes further up the hill however it is restricted to non-powered vehicles apart from those with the right of access.
My usual spot is close to the cross outside of the forest where it is, but I wanted to see if I could set up closer to the escarpment which may give a better operation of the antenna. This meant heading in the direction of Schwalbenstein (a lower summit on this ridge). Upon inspection however the flat ground where I would have liked to set up is fastened off with barbed wire, so it is obvious the owner doesn’t want people going there. The activation zone for this summit spreads a little way up and down the ridge, so the next time, I may plan to explore some other areas to see if I can get nearer to the escarpment (and the wonderful views of the River Lech over 100 metres below – as you will see from the pictures). For now, though, I would have to return to my usual activation point as Ernie and Mike would be waiting for me.
Setting up the antenna and radio was problem-free and the screw-in post certainly provided enough support for the 7-metre mast and antenna, so that was one test completed successfully.
Having quickly checked the antenna on the antenna analyser I turned the radio on and tuning around on 20m, I found Mike and Ernie chatting and broke in at the point that they were saying they needed to send me the free frequency they had found. Both stations were strong and we exchanged 5-9+10dB reports between Germany and the UK and 5-7 reports between Germany and Australia. This was on 20m and while Ernie and Mike wanted to go off and try the higher bands, I asked them to give me 5 minutes of conversation, so that I could test switch the antenna direction. Well, of course, it turned out to be ten minutes but the results were worth it! With the antenna electrically pointing West (UK and long path to VK) I took reference signal values from the S-meter and then switched to the other three directions, checking back at the radio each time and on both signals (at different signal levels), I got the following results;
antenna 90° off – i.e. pointing North or South, signals 1-S-point down.
antenna 180° off – i.e. pointing East, signals 2-S-points down.
So another test was completed successfully, both on the switching mechanism and the antenna in general.
While Ernie and Mike went off to try and get successful contacts on 17, 15 & 12m, I spotted myself and worked half a dozen stations on 20m. When the callers dried up, I decided to switch to 10m and just as I was ready, I saw that Ernie and Mike had moved there, so I tried to get in contact with them again on 10m. 10m at this time was not very good and while I could hear both Mike in the UK and Ernie in Australia, I was only able to make a minimal contact with Ernie. One problem now was that I needed the beam pointing East to get the Short path to Ernie but West still for Mike. Despite this, the tests showed that again the antenna was directional but the signals were simply not strong enough to make easy contacts.
Once Ernie and Mike had finished their QSO, I asked Ernie to stick around while I changed the elements on the antenna. I suspected that the single band (10m only) elements might work better than the trapped elements, for some reason. Although Ernie was stronger after I changed the elements, 10m it appears had also improved, so this was not a valid test and is one that I will need to repeat this comparison on my next activation, where I intend to head to a summit in the early afternoon when more US stations could be on an. An early morning activation is OK for Australia but it corresponds to the middle of the night in the US and hence there are fewer people on the air.
All in all, this was a good activation and some good tests were completed. It was cold to start with and the electric hand warmer “stone” was used successfully a few times, so that was another successful test and will remain part of my activation “kit” at least in the winter months.
The return down the hill was uneventful, as was the drive home in time for lunch!
Photos:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Sun umbrella Screw-in base support.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10/20 metre 2-element wire beam (with switchable and simple feed-point boards).
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
SOTABeams end-fed random wire antenna (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
Activation Zone:
Map:
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well on 20m with between 1 & 2 S-points difference in signals depending upon the direction was switched to.
The need to lower the mast to switch the direction is inconvenient however the solution is lighter and stronger than the fully remotely switchable option that I tried on the last activation.
The 10m section of the antenna still needs to be tested as this time, the band was changing too much to make any conclusions as to whether the elements without traps work better than the trapped section on the 20m elements.
This was a re-try of the attempted activation from the previous Wednesday when high winds made me call off the activation from the car park before I climbed to the summit. This day was supposed to be a fine, warm, sunny day but as usual, two days before the activation, the forecasts changed to overcast, cold and possible winds.
Despite that, I was determined to be ready for an activation and as long as there were no high winds or torrential rain, I would activate. All the gear was packed in the back of the car on Sunday evening ready for an early start at 7:30 am the next day.
“All” this time was to include the surveyor’s tripod and the large feed-point board for the 20/10m wire beam – this would be the first real test on a summit of the ability to switch the antenna direction from my smartphone, something that had been giving me problems for the last six months. Of course, the usual backpack with radio, battery, masts, backup antennas, food and drink, would also be included along with the RigExpert Antenna Analyser.
The Activation
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
On arriving at the car park for the summit, after an easy (and wind-free) trip down, the winds started to howl between the trees and some threatening-looking clouds were approaching. Despite this, I was determined not to call the activation off again as Ernie in VK3 was going to be available and Mike 2E0YYY/P was heading up to Mow Cop (HEMA G/HSP-020) so that we might make this a three-way contact today (at least on 20m, if not on 10).
After a hard trek up the forest path to the summit, with a loaded rucksack, the tripod over one shoulder and carrying a bag of documents, the antenna plate and antenna analyser in a shopping bag in the other hand, the top was reached and I put most of the gear down at the wooden table.
I unpacked the antenna, mast and Tripod and went straight to the complex installation including the relay board with Bluetooth switching and the trapped antenna elements. If this did not work, I could go back to the simpler setup as I had brought everything with me. Using my Rig Expert antenna analyser I could see that the antenna (initially set in the Long Path Direction (West)) was looking fine, so then I sent a message via the Signal app to the other two, who were both almost ready.
First in the log was Ernie VK3DET followed by Mike 2E0YYY/P a minute later. Both 5-8 to 9 signals on 20 metres. For once, it seemed the system was working well, the first time. My biggest problem was using the messaging app with frozen fingers. There was a light wind which grew over time but was always icy cold. The measured temperature would have been around 3°C but with windchill nearer to -3°C!
We actually managed an easy “net” between the three of us on 20m until Mike said 10m was open and he wanted to try there, so we moved up two bands and I switched the antenna to Short Path for Australia (East from my location). After trying several frequencies, we eventually found a free one and although Ernie was getting to me at around S2, he could not hear me. When Mike tried, I had to switch the beam around to West before I could hear him (again at about S2) again, he could not hear me. So the added problem I had was this need to switch directions to hear the two guys but as they could not hear me at all on 10m, nothing was really lost. they managed to make contact and I told them I’d head off spot myself and try to get some contacts in the log. To me 10 metres sounded rather quiet compared to other days when I have use the simplified version of this antenna but this could also be propagation. in any case I was glad of a ground-wave call from Mario DJ2MX in Munich, so that I had at least one contact on 10m from the summit.
As I was still short of the needed 4th contact, I switched back to 20m, found a frequency, spotted myself and another 15 contacts came in, in quick succession. I was certainly getting out on 20m!
All of this time, I was fighting to have gloves on to try to stop losing all feeling in my fingers and taking them off when I needed to do something on the phone. Time was also passing, so when there seemed to be no more chasers, I called it a day, packed up, returned down the steep forest path and when I got to the car, it started to rain. That was lucky timing!
Photos:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Surveyor’s tripod.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10-metre band 2-element wire beam (full version).
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
Aerial-51 UL-404 OCF dipole (not used).
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:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
Contacts map
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well with between 1 & 2 S-points difference on weak signals depending upon the direction was switched to.
It would be nice to have a method to have a one-button direction setting action rather than the 4 actions needed at the moment. Perhaps I will need to try to get another model of relay board to which I could script commands.
The 10m section of the antenna did not perform very well. Whether that was because of propagation or whether the capacitor does need to be a different value can only be tested by switching between models of the antenna (i.e. with and without the traps).
With progress made on the 2-element wire beam and success at Peissenberg a week previously in the 10m only form, it was time to test the antenna this time with the trapped elements which should make the antenna a dual band antenna able to operate on the 10-metre and the 20-metre bands. This was not to be a test of the Bluetooth relay switching board but rather purely to test out the dual-band nature of the elements. Testing the full system with remote switchable direction will need to wait until another day.
After some days of rain showers, Monday had a good forecast with winds supposed to cease by 9 am and then the day to be sunny if not warm.
After a couple of tests in the muddy local field, the simple feed-point plate with the trapped elements had been trimmed to length, so everything was set for a test from a summit and so the surveyor’s tripod, the 7-metre mast, the antenna analyser and the antenna components were all loaded in the car on Sunday evening along with my 40-litre rucksack containing radio, battery and several antennas and masts, ready for an early start on Monday morning.
The chosen summit “Rentschen” is a plateau and as such a good summit for antenna testing with lots of space and few obstructions. This is a summit that is both in the HEMA and SOTA schemes and so is a “twofer” as POTA activators would say.
The Activation
The trip down was uneventful and I arrived at my usual car parking spot at around 8:15 am local time with my plan to be on the air before 9 am to catch the 20m long path into VK (I had set up a sked with Ernie VK3DET) and then to try the antenna also on 10 metres.
I chose a spot not far from the trig-point stone and I unpacked the mast, tripod and antenna first. These went up well, in the same way as I had installed them on the local field for the earlier tests and trimming. The four wires go out at 90° to each other and because of 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 feedpoint board sits at 5 metres above ground level).
Before unpacking the radio, I attached the antenna analyser to make sure that all still seemed OK with the antenna – it did. Then the Xiegu G90, headphones, battery and log book were unpacked and laid on my painter’s thick plastic sheet on the ground.
After sending a short Internet message to Ernie and agreeing on a 20m frequency that was free at both ends, I called Ernie and there he was – armchair copy, solid signal! I had the antenna “aimed” long-path (West from me) for this contact. When I needed to move to 10m, it would need to point short-path (East from me) so, rather than going straight on to 10m (a bad decision as it turned out), I decided to work more chasers (HEMA & SOTA) on 20m first.
In the middle of the SOTA callers on 20m, Matt ZL4NVW from Otago on the South Island of New Zealand called in. This suggests that 20m would have still been good for contacts into VK for another hour or so at least.
Another surprise contact was Alan G7KMW actually mobile while heading into work in the midlands of the UK. An easy copy so I think the antenna is definitely working.
When I decided to switch to 10m it was getting close to 0900 UTC and after dropping the antenna, turning the feed-point board 180° so that the beam would be pointing short-path to VK and raising it again, Ernie VK2DET and I tried for a 10m contact but if I hadn’t known he was calling I would have mistaken it for just part of the noise. The signal was so weak that there was no chance of Ernie hearing me (but I did try). What was strange was that two VK2 stations VK2CPC and VK2GM were both booming great 59 signals on 10m. Initially, I had thought my antenna wasn’t working on 10m but later I found it was most likely a propagation problem with an X-ray flare hitting the Ionosphere over Australia and pushing the MUF down over VKs 3,5,6 & 8 but not affecting VK2.
I only got one contact on 10 metres and that was off the side of the beam with Mario in Munich.
The next test will be to fit the Bluetooth-switched top board, to see if I can hear any difference in signal strengths as I “rotate” the static antenna electrically. I also want to see if I can support the mast with just a ground peg rather than using the surveyor’s tripod. On Rentschen at the start of the activation, there were only very light winds but when I went QRT, they had increased to a level where I may have had issues putting the antenna up so I had timed it right in that respect.
Photos:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Surveyor’s tripod.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 5m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
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/HEMA spotting.
Log:
HEMA
SOTA
CONTACTS MAP
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well on 20 metres. The problem with getting through on 10 metres to VK3 was later found to be an X-ray flare hitting the atmosphere over part of Australia, explaining why VK2 and JAs were getting through but not VK3. Others in Europe experienced similar problems.
Once the band is open and DX stations are coming in, the “search & pounce” approach can be forgotten as there are too many high-powered stations with large beam antennas that believe it is their right to get in contact with the DX station and if they hear someone else calling ahead of them, they repeat their call after the portable station finishes to make sure that if the DX station goes back to the portable station, he/she can no longer hear the DX station because of the DQRM they are causing. Hardly in the spirit of ham radio!
The saga of the 2 element wire beam has continued for some time (months in fact). First with physical feed point board mounting problems, then apparent electronic problems with the Bluetooth relay switching board, then I managed to blow that board by connecting the supply in reverse and when I got what I thought was an exact replacement it wasn’t, meaning that my direction switching scripts on my smartphone no longer worked and had to be replaced by single button switches in the app.
Then along came gale force winds, 30cm of snow and heavy rains in several different sequences delaying testing of the “fixed” electronics on the local field. While stuck inside not able to test the complete solution, I built up an elementary (no electronics) feed-point board, so that I could test out the straight elements and the elements with HF-Kits traps in them (making them suitable for 10 & 20m usage), without having to worry about electronics, Bluetooth or Smartphone issues. In this configuration, it is not possible to switch the direction of the beam, it points in the direction that it is erected for
After a couple of tests in the local field (still rather muddy, but with only three days of dry weather forecast I had to put up with that) the simple antenna was ready for use from a summit for which Peissenberg was chosen, being one of the closest that had room for my surveyor’s tripod, 7m mast and the wire beam. After a further test before lunch, where the trapped elements proved to still need some trimming but the simple 10 metre elements were spot-on, I decided to make this a 10-metre-only activation (even though a CME had just hit the Ionosphere, the MUF was still up above 30MHz) in the late afternoon when 10 metres had been opening up to North America.
The Activation
DL/AM-001 Peissenberg
On arriving at the car park for the summit, it was obvious that others were there, waiting (I believe) to watch the sunset while having a light meal.
I unpacked the antenna, mast and Tripod first before returning to the car for the radio later. I luckily had also brought my antenna analyser along that I had used during my tests in the morning, as after setting the antenna up, the 10 metre band sounded rather quiet and the ATU in the radio took some time to match it to the radio – a sign that something was wrong. I could have then tried the SWR scan feature in the G90 but while I had the Rigexpert AA-30 with me, I put that on and it was obvious that the antenna was not connected. I checked the PL-259 plug at ground level but it quickly became obvious that the problem lay on the feed point board up at 6 metres in the air, so down it had to come down.
The connection problem was traced to the BNC end of the RG-213 coax cable where it plugged into the BNC socket on the simplified feed point board. Once I detached and reattached the BNC plug to the socket on the feed-point board all worked OK for the whole of the activation. I need to find a better solution and indeed after returning home I have been able to make this connection a far more solid “match”. Should the problem re-occur I will solder the co-ax straight to the antenna element connectors.
Once I had sorted out the connection, 10m sounded a lot more like it should on receive, but despite that and having spotted myself several times on the SOTA cluster, I was not getting calls that I had hoped for, that was until I heard ZS5APT calling me! This was Adele and after exchanging reports she said -please wait I have another South African ham that wants to call you – who was ZS5AYC – Sid (her husband). So my first two contacts on the new antenna were in South Africa! I should be happy at that except … the wire beam was pointing at the US (which is West of me), not South Africa (which is South of me). This simple (one direction) antenna would be receiving Adele and Sid off the side of the beam, they were both 5-6 and gave me 5-8/5-9 – not bad for 20w and a wire antenna.
But it left me thinking – would the signal have been better with a simple dipole? I obviously need to do some more testing to prove the directional properties of this antenna.
The next three-quarters of an hour were difficult, I was not getting calls and when I tried to call other stations which I could hear well from the US and Canada, I’d get hammered in their pile-ups.
Two semi-local German stations (DA20XOTA and DJ0AL/P) did persevere through the QRM and QSB, but after that, I could not seem to get any more contacts. Other SOTA activators who were out in the area were too close for me to get S2S contacts, I could hear people chasing them but not the activators themselves.
I had just about decided to pack up as it was getting towards sunset and more campers were turning up so I used the magic words “LAST CALLS” – and who comes back to me? Gary K3TCU, from Pennsylvania. He was 5-8 and gave me 4-4 which sounds like an honest report. He kindly ventured from his normal CW to SSB to give me a call.
Photos:
DL/AM-001 Peissenberg:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Surveyor’s tripod.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
!0-metre band 2-element wire beam.
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 5m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/AM-001 Peissenberg
Conclusions:
The antenna definitely works. It can be set up on a summit without too many problems but this time I used the surveyor’s tripod for support, next time I’ll try just the ground peg and the 6m mast rather than the 7m one.
If the feed cable issue re-occurs I have enough RG-316 coax (that’s the thin, lightweight stuff), so I will simply solder a length onto the feed plate element connectors and put a PL259 plug on the other end.
A short 3-night break with the family to Füssen near the Austrian/German border brought the chance of some portable radio activations. The problem of planning ahead with this trip was the uncertainty of the weather and indeed two of the days were ruled out due to high winds or constant rain but a POTA activation and a combined HEMA/SOTA activation could take place. See previous reports to explain how a summit can be in both HEMA and SOTA. As my new wire beam has, because of long-term sub-zero temperatures and snow cover, not been able to be tuned as yet (and its supporting surveyor’s tripod could not be taken along due to lack of space in the car), the good old 6m telescopic fishing pole with a linked dipole would be the antenna of choice on any summits and the Komunica HF-Pro2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof for the POTA activation which would be again a PLOTA (Parking Lot on the air) from a car park, just within the boundaries of the park.
The Activations
Monday 22nd January – POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alps NP.
This POTA park is quite large and the last time I activated this, it was a joint activation with the SOTA “Laber” summit which is in the East of the park. This time I would be activating from the western edge of the park.
After checking into our hotel and dropping off my wife at the Spa, our dog Bonnie and I drove to the parking area that I had found on the map to be within the park’s boundaries. Of course, before starting operating, a higher priority was to take the dog for a walk up into the forest on the side of the hill. Once this was taken care of I could set up the station in the car. The G90 radio and its battery were put on the front passenger seat and the antenna was located on the magnetic mount on the roof.
I had decided to start on 40 metres as normally this is a sure way to get a few contacts in the log and with POTA 10 contacts are needed to qualify the park. This was more difficult than expected with the spot on the POTA site not bringing the expected flood of calls. I tried a different frequency in case there was someone, that I could not hear on my chosen frequency and after a little while longer I managed four contacts but then the calls dried up. It was about noon and perhaps this is not a good time for 40 metres?
So after a switch to 20m and re-adjusting the antenna, we had a totally different story with lots of calls getting into the log. Indeed the final count was 23 contacts in 45 minutes, with a few of those being a little longer than the usual report exchange.
Tuesday 23rd January – HEMA/SOTA DL/HBY-036 Eisenberg / DL/AL-171 Eisenberg.
I had considered activating some summits closer to Füssen, that I had not activated before, however as most tracks were still snow-blocked and some others simply dangerous at this time of year, I decided to drive a little further and activate a summit that I know well and have activated several times over the last few years. Eisenberg has a publicly accessible castle ruins on its summit with a wooden platform added to one end, where I normally set up.
En route the rain that had started soon after I left the hotel stopped just as I was arriving at the starting point for the climb. The walk up from the (unfortunately closed) Schlossalm Zell restaurant needed me to fit my shoe spikes as the path was thick ice and as I got closer to the summit, the winds were increasing.
I was not worried as I knew I had a good strong point to strap the mast to and could shelter alongside the wall on the platform. On arriving at the platform, I was surprised to see a new fence across it as it seems half of the platform has rotted away and is awaiting repair. This messed up the idea of setting up on the platform so I searched around in the ruins in the hope of finding a large enough area to string out the antenna and at the same time have some shelter from the winds.
No such spot was to be found but I did find a sheltered spot with enough room to put up my backup antenna, the Komunica HF-PRO2-Plus-T on its tripod with radial wires. This was going to have to be the option and as I could see further clouds heading towards me, I wanted to make a fairly quick activation (for both HEMA and SOTA only 4 contacts are needed to qualify the summit)
Learning from the previous day’s experience I decided to start on 20 metres rather than 40 metres and given the incoming weather, this was going to be a single-band activation.
This activation racked up 17 contacts in 14 minutes (several of these regular chasers who I had not yet talked to in 2024) before I packed up and headed back to the car at which point the incoming rain started – I had been lucky with the weather.
At this point, an activation of Falkenstein (another summit with castle ruins on it), had been planned for either Wednesday or Thursday but very strong winds on Wednesday and constant rain on Thursday, meant that activation never took place.
Photos:
POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alps National Park
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HEMA DL/HBY-036 / SOTA DL/AL-171 Eisenberg
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Equipment taken:
MountainTop 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with magnetic mount for the first activation and on a tripod with radials for the second activation).
Three-magnet car roof antenna mount.
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
4.5 Ah LiHV battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alpen NP
POTA Contacts Map
HEMA DL/HBY-036 Eisenberg
SOTA DL/AL-171 Eisenberg
SOTA Contacts map:
Conclusions:
The weather was a problem mainly on the second two days, stopping the hoped-for third activation.
The Xiegu G90 continues to work reliably.
Again the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T – again saved the day on the summit activation.
As part of a family day out I wanted to do some radio and I have had this park on my list of “close-by” locations for some time and as my wife wished to visit a Museum just 20 minutes away, this all got planned together with two dog walks for our dog, Bonnie.
Checking the maps, I found that the “Wanderparkplatz” was in the park boundaries and while the other two parking areas in the park shown are off the road next to private businesses, this patch of muddy ground would have to do.
I would operate from the car, as I have done for all of my POTA activations so far and that means the G90 radio on the passenger seat and the Komunica HF-PRO-2 on the three-magnet roof mount.
The plan was to operate for between an hour and 90 minutes while fitting in the drive to and from the spot from the Museum and two dog walks.
This would be the very first activation of this park within the POTA award scheme although it is also in the WWFF scheme, where it has been activated before.
The Activation
POTA DA-0458 (WWFF DLFF-0441)
The walker’s parking spot is just a few hundred metres outside of the small town of Seeshaupt on the Southern end of Lake Starnberg. When I arrived there was no one there so I parked up next to the map of the area and took Boonie for her first walk, down into the forest, across the railway line and then over towards the lake. On our return, another car had joined us in the parking area and the couple with the car were getting ready to start the walk around the lake. It was dry and sunny but still cold, so everyone was wrapped up well.
Now it was time for some radio!
Bonnie was put back in her area at the back of the car and she settled down. The antenna was adjusted for 20 metres and then put on the roof and the radio was set up on the passenger’s seat. To start with there was very little on the band except for two very strong Spanish stations who I heard were returning calls from European stations even though they were calling CQ DX, so the band was obviously not open. I called the stations and with my little 20 watts and loaded whip antenna got them with no problem at all (obviously their antennas were pointed in my direction). Both were running 1 kW output.
I then chose a frequency, checked it was free and then spotted myself on the POTA website and it wasn’t long before I got a stream of calls coming in. There seems to be a lot of people in Europe willing to chase POTA stations but far, far fewer activators active than in the SOTA system for example. I know this is not the situation in the US, so it seems the POTA scheme is still finding its feet in Europe.
With 19 contacts in 29 minutes on 20m, I was happy but also surprised that despite this number of contacts, the majority were more than just signal report exchanges and all exchanged greetings for Christmas and New Year. Contacts were from all around Western Europe, from Italy and Spain in the south to Sweden and the Shetland Islands in the north.
When I decided to move over to forty meters, I only managed three contacts before giving up with all of the QRM but one of those was with a French amateur activating a 10-point SOTA summit in Germany. I think I was his last contact before he packed up to head back down the mountain.
Before heading back to pick my wife up from the museum Bonnie got her second dog walk of the day.
All in all, this was a nice use of a couple of hours, in the fresh air and it turned out to be another FIRST-TIME POTA activation for the park.
Photos:
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POTA DA-0458:
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
2.5 Ah 3S LiPO battery.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DA-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve
Conclusions:
Once I finally got some POTA hunters calling me, it was fine although to start with I thought I would be hunting down the needed 10 contacts simply from stations on the 20m band.
Forty metres was an uneven battle – so many stations on and not enough space. I’m glad that I got so many contacts on 20m and didn’t need to rely on 40m.
Interestingly the majority of the contacts that I had were longer than the usual callsign and signal report exchanges and several stations waited until I had finished before trying to get through to me again. This was like the bands 10 years ago – a big improvement on more recent experiences. Perhaps there was still a little “Christmas Spirit” around?
After being unable to activate for some time due to a long bout of Influenza followed by Covid (thanks to the thoughlesss person who decided it was more important to go and buy their coco pops or whatever from the supermarket rather than to self-isolate and in the supermarket, not even wearing a mask to protect others!), followed by a week where we had one metre of snow to block everyone in, I was ready to get out and do a simple activation.
I chose Weichberg as it is one of the closest SOTA summits at about 30 30-minute drive away from home. It also turns out that the last time that I activated it was April this year, it was after the Winter Bonus had finished, so while I wouldn’t get the 1 normal activation point for the summit, this time I would get the 3 Winter bonus points.
As often is the case, I decided to try some new equipment. Not the 20 & 10m wire beam that I have been working on but simply a new mast base spike after my previous two from DECATHLON failed on me. The last one on my Cyprus “mini.DXpedition”. I have bought two meal peg bases but as they are meant for the thinner carbon-fibre masts, I also made an adapter arrangement consisting of half a broom handle that pushes up inside my small 5-metre fibreglass mast.
Apart from the new base (I also packed the old sun umbrella screw-in base as well) the rest of the equipment would be the tried and tested Xiegu G90 radio and the SOTABeams linked dipole (with a couple of backup antennas as well of course).
I spotted for a 0830 UTC ():30 am local) start in the hope of catching the Long Path on 20 metres down into VK. This meant I would need to get up at about 6:30 am local to be on the summit on time.
The previous 4 days, the bands had been terrible due to one of the largest CMEs of the last 20 years hitting the Ionosphere but I was hoping it would have cleared by Monday morning.
I alerted on SOTAWatch and checked with Mike (2E0YYY) and Ernie (VK3DET) to see if they would be around and indeed Mike agreed to go up to his local HEMA Summit – G/HSP-020 Old Man of Mow.
The Activation
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
Well, I was up long before the alarm went off and rose at 5:30 am rather than 6:30 am, despite taking my time, this still meant that after an uneventful drive down, I was set up and calling CQ by 07:48 UTC. I started on 40 metres hoping that I might catch some DX via the Greyline but I think I was probably about 30 minutes too late.
I did however get a good pile-up of European chasers and despite the mast on the new peg almost falling over at one point (ground problem not a peg problem – once I moved it, it was fine), I managed twelve contacts in fourteen minutes.
At this point, Ernie and Mike sent me messages to say they were almost ready so I lowered the mast, unlinked the 20m links in the antenna and put it back up. Initially, the 20m band was empty but despite that, Ernie put out a call and I could hear him at around 5-3 to 5-4 level – unfortunately, he could not hear me strong enough to work. The difference between an S0-S1 noise level at my end and an S4-5 level at Ernie’s end along with the fact that Ernie was running 400w and I was only running 20w added up to a believable reason but what was to turn out to be the biggest problem was that the propagation skip distance was short (probably as the Ionosphere hadn’t yet recovered from its battering over the last four days). Signals from the UK and even local signals within Germany were 5-9+. Normally on 20m, I struggle to hear stations in the UK, but when I called John M0JWK, we exchanged 59+ reports despite his beam pointing Stateside!
Now I tried for a QSO with Mike 2E0YYY/P and to my surprise he was only about a 53 signal but gave me a 59 report. We wondered how that was possible. Due to high winds, his antenna was lower than usual but that should not make a great difference (if at all, as we both have height through being on top of hills). Mike runs 50w portable to my 20w so if anything Mike should be putting a stronger signal into me than I do into him – and usually he does.
Only later did Mike realise that he was not putting out the normal power level – indeed he could see almost nothing on the output meter. After getting home, Mike investigated further and it turned out to be a faulty cable between the microphone and the radio (we were both running SSB) – so very little audio equates to very little power output.
Overall, for my first activation after Covid, I was happy with the results but I could have done without the icy winds that gave a chill factor taking temps down to -2 or -3°C.
Photos:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 5m mini-mast and new metal base peg.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones (x2).
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
Conclusions:
The radio conditions on 20m were short skip due to recent disturbences so although I could hear Ernie, VK3DET, a two-way contact was not possible.
All equipment (including the new mast spike) worked well.
I’m glad I went out despite the cold weather – after all, “Wintertime is SOTA activation time” Right?
To be clear, this was not to be my 100th activation of this summit, but rather the activation by many different SOTA activators to get to the “Magic 100”. This would be my 30th activation of the summit, which is the second closest to where I live.
The activation was also to serve as a comparison of radio gear. As I would be travelling to the UK, the following week, I needed to see how effective a 5w radio and simple loaded vertical antenna would be compared to the 20 watts from the G90 into the linked-dipole on a 6-metre mast.
Preparation was easy, in that I had both sets of equipment already in separate bags, ready to go. I only added the Surveyor’s tripod to the equipment to make it simple to put up the dipole.
Ernie VK3DET had said he would be available to listen for me from Australia, so this would be an early action in order to be on this (Drive-up) summit before the long path closes to Australia.
The Activation
DL/AM-001 Peißenberg
The drive down is a route I have taken many times before. On arriving, I went to the large car park, where I could back up the car to the edge of the field and next to the seat. (they don’t get more “drive-up” than this summit). This car park is within the 25m vertical activation zone and provides space for larger antennas than would be possible on the very summit which has a large church sitting on it.
I first set up the large tripod and mast, followed by the linked dipole and then laid out the new development, an “EMF Screen” or “Faraday Screen” copper and nickel coated material and sat my HF-PRO2 loaded whip on a magnetic base on top of it. I had tested this configuration on the antenna analyser at home with good results so I was now hoping to try it out on-air.
For transmitters, I unpacked both the G90 (20w) and G106 (5w) radios and attached each to their antennas -the QRP radio with the simple loaded whip and the G90 with the linked dipole.
A short message to Ernie and he was on frequency and we exchanged 54 7 53 reports on the “large station”. This was not going to be strong enough to be able to switch to the other system although it was receiving fairly well the same stations as the large antenna was.
We decided to give propagation 30 minutes to improve and in the meantime I spotted myself and got calls from ZL4NVW from New Zealand and 4Z4DX from Israel but no other calls from around Europe so the skip was long but signals were low – not the best environment to be comparing antennas and radios under.
After 30 minutes, I called Ernie VK3DET again and the signals in both directions were the same as earlier, so the band was not improving and with time marching on, the QRM from stations close to the frequency was getting worse.
So I decided to call it a day on the testing and said 73 to Ernie and then moved over to 40m to get the needed 4th contact to qualify the summit for its 100th time.
Once people found me of course there were lots more than the one needed contact and after half an hour, there were 22 contacts in the log.
All of this time, the temperatures were below 10°C and so as testing on 40m would also not be practical with the overloaded nature of the band, I decided to call it a day and plan to go out just with the simple system and the QRP radio on one of the following days before making my mind up as to what equipment I will need to take on the plane.
Photos:
DL/AM-001 Peißenberg:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Xiegu G106 radio (only used on Rx).
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna with a Faraday screen as the ground plane under a mag mount. (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast and Surveyors tripod.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
4 Ah & 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones (x2).
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/AM-001 Peißenberg
100th activation !!!
Conclusion:
The radio conditions although good on 20m, were not good enough to be able to do radio and antenna tests between DL and VK and trying to test on 40m with so many stations on was also not practical.
I accepted an invitation to the wedding of a radio amateur I have known since my time in Australia and as he was marrying his English lady on the Island of Cyprus. I, of course, could not miss this opportunity to operate a portable radio station from the island in the Mediterranean Sea where I had never been before. I decided this would be a series of activations in HEMA, POTA and SOTA (I suppose I could also have classified this as an IOTA expedition as well as the Island has its own IOTA number (AS-004)). Interestingly in contests, it counts as being part of Asia, a point that makes it attractive to European contest stations who often operate from Cyprus to get continental multipliers for the easy European contacts.
I would be on Cyprus for exactly a week, so I planned 2 activations every couple of days around some other holiday activities and of course the wedding!
I arrived and left on Sunday, so those days were out but Monday was planned for POTA, Wednesday for HEMA and Friday for SOTA with Saturday left initially free for a possible POTA “2-Fer” activation in the town of Paphos where I was staying.
The Activations
Monday 11th September – POTA.
Firstly a POTA park to the northwest of Paphos – 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings.
This park was literally 15 minutes drive from where I was staying and as the car park is officially within the park grounds, this was a simple, from-the-car, activation using the HF-PRO2 loaded whip on a small magnetic mount on top of the hire car.
Upon unpacking the equipment from my small rucksack to set up in the car I found that one side of my small transportable JVC headphones had come apart with the foam rubber pushing through the fake leather-looking plastic on the headphones. So the first repair was made using electrician’s tape even before the first contact on the holiday was made.
That first contact though was a good one – Ernie VK3DET was there for me again as he had promised to try to be and a contact with 20W of SSB on 20 metres using a multiband loaded whip on a magnetic mount received a 3-3 report from the land down-under. Ernie was about a 5-4 signal. Surprisingly this was not to be the only contact from VK3 – 25 minutes later David VK3BY from Melbourne replied to my CQ calls and we exchanged 5-3 signal reports. Other countries making up the rest of the twelve contacts (10 contacts are needed to qualify a POTA park) were made up of Italy, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Romania and France.
Radio operation started at 08:45 local time (05:45 UTC) and ran for an hour. By the end of the hour – even with the shade within the car I was feeling the heat, so I packed up and went to walk around the park. For just €2.50 it’s a vast area to look into the various excavated tombs but also as this is on a promontory, to look out to sea with the clear blue waters. I know I only saw possibly half of the park but after about an hour of walking in the heat (wearing my wide-brimmed “Tilley” hat), it was enough, so I headed back to the car and then to the large supermarket for supplies as I was staying in a self-catering apartment,
After the mid-day heat, the afternoon brought another planned POTA park activation. This one needed a 20 km drive to the southeast of Paphos to the Aprrodites Rocks where the forest is a national park and number 5B-0005 Aprodites Rock Forest. The car park for the beach by the rocks is within the forest park area, so this again would be a car-based activation using the same loaded whip on the car roof and 20 watts on 20 metres.
The difference with this activation was that the car was already hot even though it was 3 pm local time, the heat sat in the air and getting the needed number of contacts was more difficult. Add to that an extra complication that the 4AH LifePo battery’s built-in management system decided to cut the power to my radio about halfway through the activation resetting all defaults in the Xiegu G90 radio (which doesn’t like power to be cut without warning).
The black case on the radio is not an advantage in mid-30s (Centigrade) temperatures even though I have covered the top side of the radio with white sticky-backed plastic after a POTA activation in 5B – the case is too hot to touch!
The battery problem was easily resolved in that I have a backup 2AH LifePO battery and once that was connected, I was back on the air to collect more needed contacts.
This time there were no VKs in the log (it would be the middle of the night with them and the long path had long ago closed). Calls came in however from Sweden, Spain, Greece, Italy, France and North Macedonia.
Again this was an hour-long activation from 12:00 – 13:00 UTC and after completing the last call, I packed away the radio gear and headed down to the beach to see what all the fuss about the rocks was – as you will see from the pictures – they are impressive!
It was about a 40-minute drive back to my apartment and time to meet up with the other wedding guests for a meal. After that, I was able to enter my logs into POTA, so that those chasers would already see the contacts logged (in POTA only the activator does the logging work, unlike HEMA and SOTA where both the activator and the chaser have to log the contact).
Wednesday 13th. September – HEMA.
After Tuesday was taken up with a tourist bus tour, Wednesday was planned as a HEMA day with two first activations of summits. Indeed this expedition was the first time ANY HEMA summits have been activated on Cyprus!
The first summit was 5B/HCY-011 Axylon near the village of Aksylou about 20 km northeast of Paphos.
The drive was fairly straightforward however the access track towards the summit quickly gets difficult for a small rental car and with only limited parking possibilities, I decided to park by the village water tower which is within the 25-metre activation zone and with some space to put up the mast and linked dipole antenna this time.
It was 9:15 am local time (06:15 UTC) by the time I had got set up and there he was again – Ernie VK3DET, first into this log as well – making also the first VK – 5B HEMA contact as well as the first contact to an, up to this point, never-activated HEMA summit. From here, with the better antenna, Ernie was 5-8 with me and he gave me a 5-6 report. It’s still quite amazing what can be done with low power and a simple antenna when you are on the air at the right time and propagation is on your side!
The following contact was also a surprise, Andy M7FTM was on his way to work in Dorset, mobile from his car running 10 watts to a whip antenna and coming in at about 5-4 with some QSB.
The following calls were from all over Europe – France, Macedonia, Georgia (country not US state), Russia, Slovenia, Italy and Poland.
I had planned to activate my second HEMA late in the afternoon but as the bridegroom’s stag night was planned for the evening, I decided to head to the 2nd summit from the first hoping that Google Maps on my phone would find the way for me.
It did and by 11:00 am local time (0800 UTC), I arrived at 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas (to find this summit look for Villa Breeze on the map and follow the track past the water tower behind it). The views from this summit are fantastic – the blue Mediterranean Sea and the rolling hills down to it as well as the countryside around are truly beautiful. One thing to beware of however is the undergrowth which consists of mostly prickly weeds. The ground is also very hard and I had to search around to find a spot to put the mast base spike in the ground. Once I had done this I ran out the linked dipole wires across the ground, trying not to tangle them in the spikey plants. I raised the 6m mast up and went back to peg out the antenna elements which also act as guy ropes. In the meantime what had been a nice cooling breeze in the hot sunshine turned into a light wind but even that light wind was enough to blow the mast over. As I went back to the mast, I could see that the mast was fine but the Decathalon peg-based (or De_crap-a-lot as I am now calling equipment from this company) had broken the base support in that the nut, which is only set in plastic with no strengthening, had bent over and could not be simply pushed back as the plastic had broken. This is a horrible design. This same problem has happened to me before but on the advice from several SOTA activators, they said I must have simply got “a bad one” last time, I bought a new one and this is what happened. The design is simply not thought through. De_crap-a-lot, I will not buy from you again!
Of course, I have a backup for such let-downs. I packed the mast and Linked Dipole away and took out the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T loaded whip and my converted photo tripod and radials. Once that was all set up, I could hear a VK6 station still on 20m but with the now limited antenna and late time for the propagation, he could not hear me.
I spotted myself on the HEMA site and the DX-Cluster in the hope of making 4 contacts to make the journey out to this summit worthwhile. After a lot of effort, I managed one WWFF contact and two HEMA-to-SOTA contacts in Greece, Italy (x2), and Austria.
At 12:15 local time, I decided to pack up and head back to the apartment to get something to eat, rest and then prepare for the evening.
Friday 15th September – SOTA
With the wedding now having taken place (a great success, where everything went very well and all were happy if a little drunk later on), Friday would be a SOTA day. I knew that getting contacts would be easier due to the number of chasers that monitor SOTAWatch compared to HEMA and POTA however I would have to rely upon the HF-PRO-2 loaded whip as the antenna. As it was to turn out, it did a great job!
The first SOTA summit of this “Mini-DXpedition” was one with no name 5B/CY-042, which I chose to call Chapel of Agiou Mama as that is a little further down the track, so following signs to the chapel take you to this No-Name summit just south of the village of Koili which is about a 20-minute drive north of Paphos.
It seems that in Cyprus, every summit near a village has a water tower on it as several have and this one also had one. Similar to the ground covering that I found on Wednesday this location also had a lot of prickly plants and the ground was again rock-hard so there was no way that the now fragile, damaged Decathlon mast spike would work here, so I set up the HF-Pro and tripod next to what I think is the pump building, which provided me with a little shade from the sun.
So how well, did this “compromise” antenna work from this small summit? How about a call from Paul VK5PAS in South Australia as the second contact? That, with true 59 / 55 signal reports!
I even managed an S2S contact with Andrew VK1AD/P on his SOTA summit VK1/AC-043 in the Australian Capital Territory.
For all of those who say Life’s too short for QRP – look how just 20 watts of SSB to a loaded vertical whip has performed this week from Cyprus. OK, these were not 59+20 dB reports each way but those reports indicate the stations are breaking their licence rules which clearly state “only use sufficient power to make the contact”. Here 20 watts is getting 55->59 reports from around Europe and 52->55 reports from the other side of the globe!
This set-up provided 17 contacts in 20 minutes from this summit. see the log below for the full details.
Rather than heading back to Paphos and going to my second SOTA summit in the cooler, late afternoon, I decided to head straight on to the SOTA Summit 5B/CY-035 Mazi relying again on the Google Maps app playing through Android Auto in the rental car to get me there.
This time, things did NOT go to plan … The directions were fine until it told me to turn off the main road onto a stone track which was a little wider than the car itself. I did not turn that way thinking that it was wrong and that even if I should have done it, I would be brought back via another route. I carried on and the app kept giving me directions, in this case, it took me onto smaller and smaller roads and eventually after it took obvious “short-cuts” between the more “normal” roads, I knew this was really taking too long for the relatively short distance between the summits. There was no way to turn around, so I decided to follow the first sign that directed me back to Paphos and my apartment and then to “re-group” after something to eat. The route back to Paphos was also “interesting” with the road full of goats with no shepherd to be seen and another place where there were tens of quad bikes heading to some waterfalls. Eventually, I reached Coral Bay, which I knew was up the coast from Paphos. So I eventually found my way back onto known roads after a nearly 2-hour detour.
What had happened was that the phone had lost cell coverage (and hence access to the Internet) just after the track where it wanted me to turn off and although I had downloaded the local region map to the phone, something was not working correctly with that map it seems.
After some food and rest, I decided to try again and this time when I reached the small track (which actually had a sign pointing down it with a road number on it!) – I took it and this was a road NOT to take a hire car down (even the cross-over model – that the rental companies call a mini-SUV, which I had). Part of the route is concreted, part of it is pure stones and part is a mixture of surfaces with potholes everywhere. Steep climbs and drops and bushes sticking out to scratch the car along the route test the driver. Google Maps likes to take short-cuts it seems, which means that you use even smaller roads – at Mazi, it is best to head towards the couple of houses there and then head back along and up to the summit (as I found on the return route back to the main road). In any case, upon arriving, I realised there was NO space to park off the road in what looked like olive plant fields. I did find a road junction and was able to position the car in the corner so that anyone coming along with a smaller vehicle would be able to get past. I hoped that no tractors or larger trucks would arrive while I was operating – luckily no one came by.
I clambered up the soil wall at the side of the road and found a spot where I could put down my painter’s sheet to sit on and again set up the tripod and HF-PRO-2. Even with a working mast peg, this would not have been the place to put up the linked dipole antenna because of lack of space.
Once set up and self-spotted on SOTAWatch, I had a constant flow of calls (24 in 14 minutes) – no Intercontinental DX this time but calls from all around Europe and two SOTA S2S contacts – see the log below for details.
Getting to this summit took some doing. Going there again, if I ever get a chance to return to Cyprus, would of course be easier – for those reading this report while planning your activation of Mazi, I hope these tips will help.
At the end of the day, this activation again amazed me as to what is possible with low power and a simple antenna system. I was glad to get back to the apartment that evening for a rest.
That was supposed to be the last activation of the holiday but as the bridegroom wanted to work some HF and I had a “backup” POTA “2-fer” ready to cover if the others had not worked out, we decided to play some radio on Saturday…
Saturday 16th September – POTA 2-Fer?
After a late breakfast, Adrian M0GLJ and I headed over to the Paphos Archaeological Reserve POTA 5B-0113 and after paying the €4.50 entrance fee headed through the park towards the Paphos Liighthouse POTA 5B-0067 and found a shaded area in the lighthouse area.
This was to be the same set-up as on the previous activation, the HF-PRO2 antenna on the tripod with the radial wires laid out roughly around the base. I set the slider on the antenna to the position for 20 metres, connected everything up and tuned the band. It was very quiet. I checked all connections and even ran the ATU in the radio, no difference. I did find one Italian station and called him but while he could hear me, we could not make a full contact. This was a Saturday morning, the band would normally be full of stations. Tuning up and down the band, I could hear blips at irregular intervals but no more stations.
I decided to switch to 40 metres reset the antenna and tuned around there – nothing, not one station!
I wondered whether the radio was faulty in some way but all seemed fine – I changed AGC settings pre-amp settings and all made no difference. This demonstration activation of HF radio was certainly not going the way I had hoped. Adrian had his Yaesu HT along and had found the local FM repeater. He put a call through there but no one came back.
Then I thought I might know what had happened. On Cyprus there is a UK Royal Airforce base which has a Megawatt over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) station – if that was operating, it could flatten all receivers in a several hundred kilometres radius and we were probably 45 km away, from where we were.
I decided if that was the case, we had no chance and we both decided to call it a day with the radio, take a look at some of the excurvations on the way out and then head for Coral Bay for lunch.
As it turned out, checking the propagation reports that evening, there had been a series of HF radio blackouts at around the time we were trying to operate. While conditions during the week had been so good up to that point, it hadn’t crossed my mind that what we had was, in fact, a radio blackout, which it seems was in fact the case. Just unlucky timing on our part!
It would have been nice to have activated the “two parks in one” 2-Fer POTA location but I can only say that the rest of the activations went off very well despite a couple of problems and Saturday was just “one of those things”.
Sunday, I flew back home to Germany.
Photos:
POTA 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings
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POTA 5B-0005 Aphrodites Rock forest
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HEMA 5B/HCY-011 Axylon
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HEMA 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas
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SOTA 5B/CY-042 NoName (in Koili village)
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SOTA 5B/CY-035 Mazi
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POTA 5B-0067 and 0113 Lighthouse in Archaeological Reserve
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Equipment taken:
Raddy 20-litre mini-rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with mag mount for the first two activations or on a tripod with radials for the later activations).
Single-magnet car roof antenna mount (used for both POTA activations).
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
De_crap-a-lot mast base peg (until it broke).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
2 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
POTA 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings
POTA 5B-0005 Aphrodites Rock forest
HEMA 5B/HCY-011 Axylon
HEMA 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas
SOTA 5B/CY-042 NoName (in Koili village)
SOTA 5B/CY-035 Mazi
Conclusions:
The weather was never a problem on any of these activations but a wide-brimmed “Tilley” hat and lots of sunscreen definitely helped.
The Xiegu G90 worked reliably although it got a little too hot on some of the activations.
The surprise top performer turned out to be the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T – that loaded antenna works better than it should. The linked dipole when I had it up worked well as well but of course, the failure of the Decathalon mast mount meant I could not use that on the summits that I had planned to.
It is very hard at times to get the needed contacts in the POTA and HEMA schemes but you are fighting off the callers when operating SOTA.
When you think all is going fantastically, the Sun can hiccup and spoil what should have been a simple activation on the Saturday, by causing a total radio blackout!
DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog 
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