This activation on Höhen Peißenberg was in preparation for a similar action on October 17th, when a Summit-to-Summit event is scheduled between UK/EU and VK/ZL. As three POTA trails also pass over Höhen Peißenberg, these are also included here, however the primary activation was for SOTA.
The equipment used for both this test and the actual event in October was the same equipment tested out on the previous Thursday in my POTA 4-fer activation and it was loaded in the car on Friday so as to reduce noise during my early 7 am start on Saturday morning.
The Activation
This test was suggested by Andrew VK1AD and several other activators agreed to come out and see what would be possible. Unfortunately the weather in the UK turned out to be less than friendly with high winds and in some areas, storms, so only a few UK SOTA portable stations were on
On the other hand, I was greeted with sunny if cold (7°C) weather on the summit. I was set up and operational by 8 am local (0600 UTC) rather than my planned 0630 UTC, despite having to divert around two road closures en-route. As as soon as I had set up, I was called by Ernie VK3DET, who had also agreed to be on, so that I would at least get one VK call in my log. As time went on however, the number of DX stations were quite respectable, despite very deep QSB and lots of QRM (it was Saturday after all and the 20m band was full).
In an hour of operating I managed 11 contacts in all, 7 into VK, 1 into ZL, two into Russia and one into Sweden. The one S2S contact that I managed was with Andrew VK1AD, who had arranged this “test”. Several VK SOTA stations seemed to have decided only to operate on CW – possibly thinking there was no chance of SSB getting through. Once again SSB, even just 20w and a relatively simple antenna, will get through, at least for an exchange of reports but in some cases, a short conversation was also possible.
I did listen for the few stations who were out in the UK, on their spotted frequencies, I could hear “something” in the noise and the stations calling them however the skip was too long today for contacts into the UK.
Photos:
Antenna
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
Station
SOTA DL/AM-001 POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
“Red Slug” ground mounted quarter-wave vertical.
5.6m reflector element to make up a two element parasitic array.
8Ah LifePO4 battery.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Contacts Map (not contacts were all made by long path, not short path as shown)
LOG:
Conclusions:
The fact that the field had just been mown, was a nice surprise, however there was always the risk that the farmer may appaer at any point to collect the cut grass to use as winter fodder for his anilamls, as has happened to me before on this summit.
Overall, all equipment worked, although the radial wires on the driven element got tangled up and cost me extra time(I am going to see if I have enough of the silicon rubber covered wire to update this set of radials, as the other set does not get the same issue.
At one point, I lost about half of my RF output, this seems to have been caused by a bad microphone connection. I do have a spare cable but until the problem becomes permanent, I will continue to monitor.
This blog is about a series of activations during my holiday on Cyprus in August 2026. The preparation through antenna builds and operational tests took place during June and July and is covered in other blog pots. In short, the principal was to take as little radio equipment as possible, so as to reduce both the weight and volume of what would have to be transported.
The configuration decided upon was the QRP Xiegu G106 radio, which while specified as producing 5 watts output, is actually nearer to 8 or 10w on several bands – in any case, still, as per the definition “QRP” as I would be using this on SSB. Given that operation from the beach was planned, even though the Beaches on the air is somewhat strange and incorrect with beach names in Cyprus, The main antenna would be the two element parasitic array or two Chinese telescopic whips, that I have been working on over the last few weeks. For non-beach operations, just the driven element (a quarter wave ground mounted vertical) would be used. This antenna covers the 5 bands from 20m to 10m. As a backup, I packed the RHM8B loaded telescopic whip from Diamond and a mini-tripod and radial wires as well as a single magnet, car rooftop mount.
Given the G106 uses very little power, I took just a 2 Ah 12.6V LifePO4 battery which I was able to charge in a couple of hours from my smart LifePO4 charger. In fact the battery was only one one occasion less than 3/4 full after an activation, and then it was only half empty. The 4 Ah LifePO4 battery which I took as a back up never got used.
The Activations
BOTA 37762 CTO Beach, Pyla20-08-2026
The first activation after arriving was an early morning one from the local beach across the road from our apartment. I was not sure how this was going to work out as there are only a few “chasers” for the Beaches on the Air Scheme and no specific spotting site. I had however posted alerts for 4 beaches, two of which it turned our were not possible, one because access was problematic and the other as it was over the border in the “UK Sovereign Base Area” where the Cypriot licence does not apply and only servicemen or ex-servicemen can apply for the needed ZC4 callsign.
Luckily some of my UK and VK friends were willing to try for a contact. After setting up the quarter wave vertical, I was hearing them but not as well as I might, I set-up the parasitic reflector and things improved however conditions were not great. In the log for this first attempt, I got EA7BZ M9MMM/P VK3DET VK5PAS VK7DZ VK4ARZ and G1IZO – seven contacts in the log. Which was not a bad effort, for a first attempt.
When I was considering packing up, I was invited into the ANZ Net which runs each day out of VK and worked a couple of people there – Thanks Paul. Then a little later I was approached by a runner on the beach to ask what I was doing. I explained and he said he was a local policeman out for his morning run and had never seen amateur radio before. I offered to show him my licences but he wasn’t bothered and wished me an enjoyable day.
This second activation, a day later needed a 10 minute drive and had planned to be in the children’s Park itself as BOTA allows operation not actually on the beach as long as no main road is in between. In the end, I activated from the beach, as the ground in the children’s park was rock hard or filled with play equipment (how this is a POTA/PARC park, I’m not sure!). PARC is a new scheme started, it seems in response to the US POTA management cutting 75% of all French POTA parks out of the POTA system. It appears to cover all POTA regions however.
This was not to be as productive an activation as the previous day with several more stations on 20m causing QRM and forcing me to QSY on a regular basis. In one case, a VK4 station who was trying to work me, told off in no uncertain terms, a VK2 station, who had simply come up and started calling CQ on top of me during an over. I could hear both sides of the (heated) conversation perfectly. I had the antenna set up for Long Path, it would have been interesting to switch the reflector to the other side and try short path, as from Cyprus, at this time of day (0600 UTC) short Path may have been a better option (short path is rarely an option in the more northern latitude of Germany) but I didn’t get chance to try it. Given that the long path needs to go over the mountains on the island of Cyprus where short path would be a take off over the Mediterranean sea.
Photos:
View around beach
View around beach
View around beach
View around beach
Radio
Antenna
Log:
SOTA 5B/CY-047 Neon Appidhaki25-08-2026
The first activation away from the beach, was planned to be the first of three in the day and turned out to be a “challenge” to get to. Although the review I read, said a 4WD car was not needed, only one with good ground clearance, I should have seen from the photo in that review, that a 4WD was actually being used. Even with a fairly high rental car (a Toyota Corolla), it was a very difficult drive to get up the summit. I eventually got to the point where SOTA mapping shows the summit to be (not at the small church as stated in the other report, however that would still be in the activation zone). This was not going to be a location where I could put both sections from the array up and indeed, being later that the previous activations, I needed a 360° antenna pattern and so simply put up the quarter waave vertical. It was a VERY hot day and on top of the hill, there was no shade, so I was happy when I eventualöly got some contacts in the log. These were mainly search and pounce or trying to call other SOTA activators, although I did get a few responses to mx “CQ SOTA” calls.
Photos:
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
View around site.
Station
Station
Antenna
View around site.
View around site.
Log:
HEMA 5B/HCY-050 Orokini Hilltop and POTA CY-0063 Orokini Lake park25-08-2026
Both of these activation attempts were “fails”. The first, Orokini Hilltop was equally difficult to drive to as the previous SOTA site. The views were nice and the equipment seemed to be working fine, but I was getting no response to my CQs and calling stations, I was not being heard. I believe this was simply a bad time of day for 20m (around lunch time) and too early to get contacts on 40m. With the heat from the pounding down sunshine, once I realised I would not be getting any contacts, I decided to pack up and head down to the (hopefully) cooler POTA location for the next activation.
On arriving at the parking spot, this was always planned to be a “PLOTA” as there is very little room to set up the quarter wave vertical, even though the lake (or salt fields as it was on this day) may have helped the vertical, had there been any space to set it up.
Tuning around 20 metres there was NOTHING – so I thought, this is likely, again the wrong time of day so I re-adjusted the RHM-8B on the mag mount, to its 40m setting and tuned around again – northing!
I was suspicious – so I pulled the coax lead and the background noise level from the radio did not change! I checked the coax cable and the Diamond antenna as best I could and could not locate where the fault was. With time lost on Orokini Hilltop and the problems now at this site, I decided it was time to call it a day and go and pick up my wife from the beach.
Photos:
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop
Orokini Hilltop – Radio
Orokini Hilltop – antenna
POTA CY-0066 Orokini Lake
POTA CY-0066 Orokini Lake
POTA CY-0099 & PARC CY-LA-0099 Lefkara Area Natura 200027-08-2026
This was an extra activation, fitted in after the previous two fails, to make sure the equipment was still working. Unfortunately, as this was to coincide with my wife visiting the crafts village Pano Lefkara, the time of day would again not be great. This time however, I did make enough contacts. This park is in two pieces, one half has no roads running through it and no where easy to walk to to activate within that half. The other half however overlapped part of a road near to where a convent is located and their large car park is nicely in the park. Better still, as I found out, just off the end of the car park and further into the park, there is an orchard area, which was ideal to set up the radio and antenna in. So that is what I did and while there was no real DX contacts, I did manged to get the needed 10 contacts to qualify this POTA/PARC park and head back into the village to collect my wife before I totally roasted away in the hot sun!
Photos:
Car Park & convent.
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
Radio
Antenna
Log:
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-106 HF 5W radio.
Diamond RHM-8B loaded HF antenna and tripod and mag mount (failed).
2 element parasitic phased vertical array antenna for 20-10m
2 Ah LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LifePO4 battery (not used)
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Conclusions:
Although, the configuration that I took worked (at least when something didn’t fail and there were better than average conditions), I feel that despite the extra weight, I would have been better taking the 20w Xiegu G90, two 4 Ah batteries and the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2 antenna, in place of the G106 and Diamond RHB-8B antenna. The two element parasitic phased array however would still be taken as it did appear to perform well.
As part of a trip to Saxony Anhalt and Saxony, I planned a radio activation of Petersberg for one of the days and had some other possible “PLOTA” locations listed, if the time and weather allowed. This was to be a breakaway for my wife and me, and if the opportunity came up where she wanted to spend time in an art gallery or museum, and I could do a quick (car-based) POTA activation at the same time, that would be good.
For equipment, the G90 and HF-PRO would be the PLOTA configuration and for the summit activation, again the G90, but this time with the linked dipole and 6-meter mast (trying out my new auger solution to cut a hole in the ground to support the mast base.
Backup equipment would be the G106 QRP radio with a tripod-mounted RHB-8B 40-10m antenna and radials.
After dropping my wife off at the museum in Halle, this location of a car park, mainly used by people walking their dogs, was about a 20-minute drive away over some horrible city street with potholes and cobbled stones.
After setting up the antenna on the car roof, getting the radio, battery, etc. from the car boot, I started on 20 metres, where I heard special event station EG1912T from Spain commemorating the sinking of the Titanic and praising the many heroes, without whom there would have been no survivors. As he was not getting any calls, I called, and we had a quick QSO. He gave me 59, but I doubt that was a true report. In any case, however, it proved I was getting out. After finding a clear frequency and spotting myself on POTA, I faced a similar situation to the special event station, calling CQ and getting no callers.
I then saw that Mike M9MMM/P was out, I messaged him, and as we could not make contact on 20m, we moved to 40m, where we managed it, but still with some difficulty. The bands were difficult, and while I was “time restricted” I wondered whether I would get the needed 10 contacts to qualify this park.
In the next ten minutes, I only managed 4 more contacts and decided to go back to 20 metres, which, thankfully, by this time had improved, and I got a flow of contacts. As I was considering packing up, I saw another park activator out on 40m, so I switched back, and my last contact in the log was a park-to-park with G6CKK/P in GB-6225.
15/4/2026 HEMA DL/HSA-003 Petersberg & SOTA DM/SA-033 Petersberg
This summit has 145m prominence and hence qualifies in the HEMA scheme (which is for summits with 100-150m prominence). For some reason, it is also in the SOTA scheme, which usually requires a minimum of 150m prominence – whatever – the one summit is in both schemes.
This was the planned radio day trip out, to be preceded by a visit to the “Berg Zoo” in Halle and to be followed by a trip to an art gallery (which was closed for restoration when we arrived, even though it was advertised everywhere as being open).
The visit to the Zoo was well worth it. It is amazing how this Zoo sits within the city of Halle, and it even has a hill in the middle of it providing great views across the city. Well worth a visit for anyone visiting Halle. Also worth getting is the 1-day or 2-day “Halle Card” which includes entrance to all the major museums and galleries, the Zoo, a guided on-foot tour of the centre and use of all buses and trams in the city.
The trip from the Zoo out to Petersberg was over the badly damaged city roads out into the country. On arriving in the village of Petersberg, there is a proper road up to the church and castle ruins; however, Google maps insisted that we take a mud track up to the summit, ot at least as far as we met the real road again.
There are only a couple of small parking spots that might accommodate around 8 cars. Despite the nice sunny day (Wednesday), there were only a couple of other visitors. While my wife sat and took in the views, I set up behind the castle ruins on the summit. My planned action of using the small auger to cut a hole in the ground for the 6 metre mast to sit it failed as the soil was too loose, so the fallback was to the Komunica Power HF-PRO2 antenna again, this time on my SLIK tripod with radials rather than on the car roof. Turning the G90 on, I could tell radio conditions were not good, but I also had the annoying “beep-beep” on receive. This is an internal noise that is audible even with the antenna disconnected. A couple of months ago, a new firmware came out for the Xiegu G90, which I had applied in the hope that the beep-beep would have been fixed, and I never returned the radio to the far earlier firmware version where this did not occur. (This appears to be a problem only on the very early models, as I have – the current G90 with the latest firmware does not have the issue). – After returning home, the firmware has been back-levelled, and the problem has been removed, as have been the data modes, but as I don’t use the radio for data modes, this is not a problem for me. I can now also adjust the receive filters at will, a feature that was removed when the data modes were added.
With the bands in a less-than-encouraging state, I operated on 40 metres and after fighting to get 6 contacts in the log in 25 minutes, I called it a day (HEMA/SOTA only need 4 contacts to qualify a summit). During this activation, my chosen frequency of 7180 kHz got stomped on by two old German boys discussing their illnesses. They even acknowledged that they had been told both by me and my chasers that the frequency was in use and then kept on talking on the frequency – they didn’t care that they were causing QRM. A sad example of bad radio operators. Luckily, the chasers who wanted a contact from me found me later on the next frequency that I spotted myself on.
After packing up and eating our pack-up lunch, we set off back down into Halle to find the Gallery closed!
This “PLOTA” activation took place during our day trip out to Leipzig (about a 50-minute drive from Halle). While my wife was at a light show presentation of a South American artist’s work, I fought my way through the Leipzig city streets, which are in an even worse condition than those in Halle, with the additional “fun” that roads were simply closed with no signposted diversion!
The location is indeed a park within the city and is well used. I has wondered if I would get a spot in the car park, but all was OK, and no one came up to ask what I was doing (which I don’t mind, but in this case, I had limited time). The bands had not improved a lot since the previous two days, but the G90 and HF-PRO2 managed 14 contacts in the time I had in a combination of 40 metres and 20 metres. The “star” of the activation was the last contact in the log with K2UPD, who was a true 5-9 into the park.
After going back to pick up my wife, we drove into the centre to take a river boat cruise from the “Stadthafen”, which is actually a building site. The planned marina is over 2 years behind schedule and has at least another year to go before it will be completed. Despite parking issues and then finding where the boat was going to be, the trip along the canals and rivers of Leipzig was probably the star event of our whole trip. These canals and rivers were cleared of all the junk dropped into them starting about 10 years ago, and now are clean enough to swim in, but they are mostly used by the Leipzig residents to canoe around the city. Those visiting Leipzig, I definitely recommend the (cheap) canal boat tours.
After this, we went further into the centre and viewed the two main churches and marketplaces before calling it a day.
Photos:
POTA DE-0725/DE-0066
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
Park entry sign
Park map
Park info board
Antenna
Station
HEMA DL/HSA-003 & SOTA DM/SA-033
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
View around summit
Station
POTA DE-0712/DE-1183
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
View around site
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
Xiegu G106 radio (not used)
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
SLIK tripod with radials
3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
6 metre mast, auger and linked-dipole (build fail).
8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Logs:
POTA DE-0725/DE-0066
HEMA DL/HSA-003 & SOTA DM/SA-033
POTA DE-0712/DE-1183
Conclusions:
The auger to cut a hole for the mast to sit in is not a viable solution; the (large) screw-in sun umbrella base will still be needed to support the 6m mast.
The Komunica Power HF-PRO2 performed well on a tripod or the car roof.
The G90 radio is far better with the firmware back-levelled.
After several “PLOTA” activations (operating from within the car), I wanted to get out and do a “proper” activation with my 6m mast, linked dipole, and Xiegu G90 set up. Rather than the “usual” 20m long path to contact Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia, the VOACAP HF page predicted that the Gray Line should be over Europe and at least New Zealand and possibly the east coast of Australia at 0700 UTC (8 am local since we have changed back from summer time in October). The Gray Line (the terminator between night and day – at dawn and dusk) throws a “channel” over different points on the Earth at different times of the year, this is because the Earth’s axis is not straight up and down relative to its orbit around the Sun, but rather at a bit of an angle, so different points on the earth are under the line at different times on different days of the year. November is the month for dawn in Europe to be on the same line with dusk in New Zealand and Australia. I compare the use of the Gray Line terminator to transfer radio signals as being somewhat similar to ducting on VHF in that the signals are carried along the line and, as a result, are generally stronger than if transferred by F-layer skywave propagation bouncing off the Earth and ionosphere. The result is, when it works, it produces stronger signals with lower power. It is very, very rare that Grayline works on bands above 10 MHz, and so it is normally used on 40 and 80m (60m should be fine as well; however, Australia does not have a 60m amateur radio band at the moment).
Everything was packed in the car on Monday evening, so that I could leave early on Tuesday morning without waking anyone.
The Activation
POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797SOTA DL/AM-001
I could probably drive the route to this summit with my eyes closed, and on some previous winter mornings in thick freezing fog, I had in fact effectively done that. This time, however, the weather was kind and the trip took around 45 minutes, with some delays caused by school buses as 7 am is the time the children are bused to their schools in Germany, and lots of tradesmen are on their way to their first jobs of the day.
After buying a 3-hour ticket (€2) for the car park (using all of my small change as the card reading device in the parking ticket meter was not working). I headed up to my favourite seat alongside the church, looking out over the valley. I had a bad feeling at this point as it was 0645 UTC and VOACAP had told me that Dawn would be at 0700, but the sun was already over the horizon, meaning I should have been setting up at least 30 minutes earlier. The window of use of Grayline is often an hour at best, and I confirmed after getting on to 40m that I had missed it.
After spotting myself on SOTA and POTA sites, I also sent Ernie VK3DET a message, but he could hear nothing from me. I suspect that even if I had been on time for the Gray Line he may have been too far away from the line at his end and another possibility was that other stronger home stations were blocking my signal as the 40 metre band was packed with SSB stations, A little surprising for so early on a work day, but perhaps they were also looking for Grayline propagation? In any case, after spotting myself, I had to fight to keep my frequency after other QSOs (in at least one case, two other QSOs) started up on the frequency that I was using without checking first that it was free (as I had done). Luckily, many of the calling SOTA Chasers and POTA hunters had strong S9+ signals and crushed the other QSOs. I was amazed how my 20w and low linked-dipole was receiving (true) 59 reports for the majority of my contacts. This certainly proved that the 40m portable set-up still works very well! The pile-up only paused a couple of times, and I got 41 contacts in the log in just over 45 minutes. Once the contacts finally dried up, I considered trying 20m despite the threat of incoming CMEs but decided, rather, to call it a day and head home to the warm, happy that even if I was too late for the Grayline propagation, the equipment is still working very well.
Photos:
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
View around the site.
The Church.
The Church.
The Church.
Station.
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
Linked Dipole antenna.
6m lambdahalbe mast.
8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (backup not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797
SOTA DL/AM-001
Conclusions:
The activation was a failure as regards Grayline; however, I know that at the right time on the right day, this can bring good results, so hopefully, I will get out again this month to prove that contacts via Grayline are still very possible. The equipment is certainly still working very well.
As part of a holiday trip to the Freiburg area of Germany, on the French border, I planned an activation of Schauinsland, which is in both the SOTA and HEMA award schemes as a valid summit and also in the Parks on the Air POTA scheme as the summit sits within the Southern Black Forest National Park.
For equipment, I decided upon the usual G90 plus 6m mast and linked dipole antenna with tripod and HF-PRO2 as backup, all in my 40L rucksack.
The ActivationTuesday, 19th August 2025
This summit is relatively easy to access with a road up to the restaurant and then a short climb up to the actual summit, which has an observation platform on top of it. Access is via a well-marked walking track, and while not wheelchair-friendly, there were some mothers pushing baby seats up the track.
Upon arrival, the area directly around the observation tower was unsuitable due to the large number of tourists arriving and departing. Luckily, the adjacent field was relatively easy to access and gave enough space while keeping the public behind a wire fence.
Apart from a worrying warning about ticks, the location seemed perfect and I was set up in about 20 minutes, while the temperatures were not too bad (I applied sunscreen, however, as this location was in direct sunlight and the temperatures rose quickly as it was already nearly noon. I was glad, later that I had).
The bands were still a little noisy from a recent CME, and at this time of day, 20m is already dead, so I decided to stick to 40 metres to get enough contacts to qualify the park (10). I ended up with 16 contacts over 20 minutes, most of which, I believe, were SOTA chasers. There were summit-to-summit contacts. I had intended to stay longer, but after that 16th contact with Bernd, DL2DXA, the antenna’s VSWR shot up to an extent that the radio reduced output power. At that time, I suspected a bad connection on one of the links, but I could not see anything obvious and would not be able to fault-find to any level on the simmit. In these 20 minutes, the temperatures had shot up and even the radio was too hot to touch, so it was time to close down, pack up and head back down to the restaurant where my wife was waiting.
I was also unable to look at the antenna in our accommodation, so the Komunica Power HF-PRO2 loaded vertical would be the antenna in use for any further activations. Once home after our vacation, I tested the antenna for any DC breaks, and while I found nothing, I set the antenna up in the garden and put my antenna analyser on it – it showed an SWR between 8 and 10 to 1 across the whole HF spectrum. Something was definitely wrong. My presumption at this point was that with the excessive heat, the QRP balun may have failed, and so I took this out of circuit (it’s not essential when running low power to a centre-fed dipole). After doing this, I once again did a DC check on the antenna, and while I had connectivity to all the links, I also had a short between the outer and inner of the coax cable! It may be that the Balun was OK after all, but it’ll stay out of circuit for now. I then inspected the inside of the PL259 plug, and while there was nothing obvious, resetting the cable and re-testing removed the fault, and I could not make it recur. So now, I took the antenna back outside for testing on the analyser and now that 8 or 10:1 VSWR was 1.0:1 at 7.1MHz with the antenna set to 40m. Fault found and resolved.
Photos:
Route up to summit.
Route up to summit.
The observation Tower on the summit.
View around the summit.
View around the summit.
View around the summit.
View around the summit.
View around the summit.
Antenna.
Station.
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna (not used).
Tripod with radials (not used).
2 x 4Ah LifePO4 batteries.
40L Rucksack
Inverted-V linked dipole
6 metre fibreglass mast
Screw-in sun umbrella base
Small headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
HEMA DL/HBW-042 and SOTA DMBW-008 Schauinslandplus POTA DE-0004 Südschwarzwald
Conclusions:
It was good to get an activation in, with bad weather threatening the following days. The sudden antenna failure was possibly heat-related or possibly just through constant use and packing, and unpacking. Now that I’m home, I will see on the next activation whether the fault is solved or whether it is time to replace the complete feedline to the antenna.
After several “PLOTA” activations (operating from within the car), I wanted to get out and do a “proper” activation with my 6m mast, linked dipole, and Xiegu G90 set up. As Ernie VK3DET, Mike 2E0YYY/P, Jon VK7JON/M, Helen VK7XYL/M and John VK7MD/M were planning to be on the band, this seemed to be an ideal opportunity to get back “into the field”.
As the Long Path on 20 metres has been opening around 7:30-8:00 am local time recently, this would be an early start with the alarm set for 6:15 am. The location needed to be a simple one to get to one and while I considered a HEMA/POTA location, when I realised that these three POTA trails go over the top of the SOTA DL/AM-001 summit, and this one-pointer is a drive-up, it won the choice.
Everything was packed in the car on Tuesday evening, so that I could leave early on Wednesday without waking anyone.
The Activation
POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797SOTA DL/AM-001
I could probably drive the route to this summit with my eyes closed, and on some previous winter mornings in thick freezing fog, I had in fact effectively done that. This time, however, the weather was kind (if still cold) and the trip took around 45 minutes. After buying a 3-hour ticket (€2) for the car park (it used to be free, but like many well-visited locations, someone decided they could make more money out of tourists). I headed up to my favourite seat alongside the church, looking out over the valley, on a very misty morning.
I had arranged a sked with Ernie VK3DET and Mike, and contacted them just as Ernie was finishing with Mike and packing up. I was told that Jon VK7JON/M/M, Helen VK7XYL/M and John VK7MD/M had all cancelled because of bad weather in Tasmania.
Never mind, for once, the terrestrial weather with me was good, indeed, even warm!
I set up the linked dipole set to 20 metres in my usual position and took a listen around the band. I could hear Mike 2E0YYY/P and Dave G4AKC/BM, but very little else on the band. Conditions were going to be a challenge. Ernie had just finished working Mike; however, I could hear nothing of Ernie. There was, however, another station, VK3USA, who joined Dave’s groups, and after Mike, I tried, but although we got reports across, I would not call it a real contact. The additional 10 dB loss from the UK to Southern Bavaria of the last hop, combined with my reduced power compared to Mike’s, was simply too much for a true contact to be possible.
I spotted myself separately for SOTA and POTA and had two different sessions for each award scheme, but at the end of the day, contacts were hard to get in the log with the radio conditions, the way they were.
Overall, the activation (my first SOTA of the year and first outside POTA (i.e. not PLOTA) was a success, as all the equipment worked as it should, and I got to sit out in the sunshine for 90 minutes before it started to get more crowded, and I decided to call it a day.
Photos:
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View around Summit
View arView around Summitound Summit
View around Summit
Antenna
Station
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio.
Linked Dipole antenna.
6m lambdahalbe mast.
8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (backup not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797 SOTA DL/AM-001
Contacts Map Activation Log
Conclusions:
The activation was worthwhile to test out the equipment, even if the radio contacts were not all that they could have been. I hope the fine weather continues, and I’ll be heading to some more HEMA or SOTA summits in the next few weeks.
These two summits are included in the around 45 summits that will disappear from the SOTA award Scheme on January 1st 2025. These two summits are the start of my “OLH” (One Last Hurrah) action. I hope to activate 2 or 3 more before the end of the year.
It just so happens that Schwarzer Berg DL/MF-082 is Taubengerg and Taubenberg has its own POTA park definition – so this location at least will not be lost for portable operators. Several other summits which are being removed from SOTA are already in the HEMA system and hence will “live on” within that scheme.
The weather and my health stopped my first two attempts to do these activations so I was determined to complete these activations once and for all. The weather looked good (as much as we can trust weather forecasts) until midday when rain was forecast. Checking the Activation Zone for DL/MF-082 the spot where I normally park my car near the St Benno chapel, is well within limits and as this will no doubt become the POTA-preferred location, I decided I could save myself the extra walk up to the observation tower where I normally set up. This also meant that I could use my 10-metre mast and surveyor’s tripod to maximise my chance of a contact with Ernie VK3DET via 20-metre long-path propagation when I arrived. (Band conditions had not been good for the last few days following CMEs and a minor G1 storm hitting the earth’s atmosphere).
To get to Schwarzer Berg as early as possible, the car was packed the night before with the usual G90 backpack, now with the 12Ah LifePO4 battery plus the Aerial-51 OCF dipole, 10m mast and surveyor’s tripod.
The Activations
POTA DE-0456 / SOTA DL/MF-082
After rising at 06:30 am, I left home at the planned 07:30 CET, taking the cross-country route rather than the autobahn over Munich as the pre-Christmas traffic was already affecting that route. Unfortunately, only about 30 minutes away from home, the country road was closed by the Police and Fire Brigade following a road accident. Often in the country, parallel to the road there is a tarmac route used by farmers, cyclists and pedestrians and this was the case here and traffic was diverted around the completely blocked 2-lane road, first in one direction and then the other. This cost me about 20 minutes extra on top of the planned time but could not be helped and thankfully it looked like there was no one injured, just broken parts of the two cars all over the road.
I had heard in advance that, for the first time in over 20 years, the Taubenberg Park had been logged and to expect a messy (officially auto-useable) track up to the parking spot. This report was not wrong, however apart from all the logs pilled up at the side of the road awaiting collection, the road surface was not a lot worse than usual with potholes remaining the main danger although oncoming traffic was also a worry. On the way up I was lucky, on the way down later however, I had to clear the single-track road twice to allow cars coming up the track to get through.
I wish I had thought of setting up near the chapel on my earlier activations as it has a nice (fairly fat) area of grass which is unrestricted and larger than by the observation tower. Setting up the antenna took longer than hoped as it collapsed on itself twice before I finally got it erected. This has always been a problem with the DX-Wire/SotaBeams 10m travel mast. The whole set-up was, however, in place and operational almost at my planned time. I messaged Ernie VK3DET and he was ready and suggested a frequency which was clear with him but not with me, so we found another and tried again. I called Ernie and he could not hear anything – he then fired up his station with an amplifier and 3-element beam and I could hear him – probably about S2 but with zero noise level, S2 is fine but of course, it was clear, for once we were not going to make it, as I would be emitting a signal many, many, dBs less from my 20w and a dipole. We tried another time before calling it a day. 20m was short with inter-Europe contacts being easy but DX unobtainium.
Skip was definitely short as after I finished with Ernie and spotted myself on SOTA, I got a big pile-up from stations all around Europe, Scandinavia and the UK. 28 contacts in as many minutes including one S2S and the RSGB National Radio Centre GB3RS. Then I switched to POTA and in 23 minutes, made 22 contacts – one being Don G0RQL, so he got added to the end of the SOTA log as well.
SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg
I had taken the shortest (small roads) route from Bad Tölz to Schwarzer Berg, but I decided to take the main roads to get back to Bad Tölz (where Buchberg is located) expecting it to take less time but the same road is used to come down from the Autobahn to the Tegensee tourist area which meant it was busy and this route took longer than planned. On arrival at my usual parking spot, I found trees stacked awaiting collection, so I had to find another sport further along the road before walking back and then up to the Holy Cross on Buchberg. This time, as it is quite a steep climb, I decided just to take the G90’s 40L rucksack and operate using the loaded vertical on its photo tripod.
Once I had all the equipment set up I was surprised to find that received signals on 20m were now stronger from this, lower summit with a smaller, less efficient antenna. One spot and a couple of CQ calls brought in 12 contacts (including one S2S contact) in 12 minutes. By noon the temperature had dropped somewhat so I decided to call it a day and just as I finished packing up, the first raindrops started. So, good timing.
The journey home was thankfully, uneventful.
Photos:
Taubenberg/Schwarzer Berg
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Buchberg
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Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-90 radio & 12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
Aerial-51 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna (used only at first activation).
Ten-metre mast (used only at first activation).
Surveyor’s tripod (used only at first activation).
Six-metre mast (not used).
Screw-in Sun umbrella foot (not used).
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (used only at second activation).
Photo tripod with radials (used only at second activation).
2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Logs:
SOTA DL/MF-082 Schwarzer Berg
POTA DE-0456 Taubenberg
SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg
Conclusions:
The activations both went well, considering the limited time available.
The annual North America to Europe S2S event day had arrived again and (as usual), the weather forecast looked good until the day before when it changed from foggy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon (when the event is), to being cold, damp and foggy all day. Despite that, I decided to go ahead with the activation with the hope of getting some easy S2S contacts from this 1-pointer plateau summit.
Rentschen is the summit I choose for testing new antennas on as it is a flat plateau and so provides plenty of space.
I decided to play it safe for this afternoon’s activation. I packed not only the electrically switchable trapped tri-bander beam but also the manually switched 5-bander and my linked dipole, each with its own masts and supports. To be safe I also packed the antenna analyser, a complete spare radio station (G106 plus 100w amp tower) and 4, 8 & 12 Ah batteries. (I was hoping that the weather may improve so I would have the opportunity to compare various combinations). The weather didn’t change and most of the equipment stayed in the car as it turned out. This is thankfully a drive-on summit.
The Activation
It is rare that I only head out in the afternoon for a SOTA activation – usually, I am eager to get to the summit just after daybreak to work VK via the long path but in this case, where North America was the target the clock difference made a morning activation the wrong options and all of the many SOTA activators who would be out had alerted to be on from around 1300 UTC (or 2 pm local time here) – so that was my target to get on site and set-up.
The run down to Rentschen, I know very well and it was good that I did as the fog came in reducing visibility along the roads for a fair distance. On arrival at the summit, visibility was around 30 metres and it was a very damp fog. As Rob DM1CM was also going to join me I got started straight away with setting up the antenna and station.
As usual, the 2 element wire beam 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), formed a 60° angle with the vertical mast, this after looking at a model of the antenna appears to be a better value than the normally stated 56° (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).
As I was finishing up the set-up, Rob arrived and we took a listen around 10 metres (which I had expected to be the “money band” for this event going by recent radio conditions. Initially, the band was empty but then about 15 minutes later it filled up with stations from Russia and the US. It seems skip was not going to allow me to get any contacts inside Europe but the first in the log was Jörg signing as DL/HB9BIN/P from Laber DL/AM-060 – which, if there wasn’t a forest in the way, would have been line-of-sight from where we were. Watching the SOTA spots on my smartphone, I saw more & more European and UK stations spotting that they were out however when I tuned to their frequencies I could not hear them. I suspect the skip distance on the 10m band at the time was too long. This was in some ways confirmed by the strength of the US home stations. Unfortunately, the US SOTA activating stations all seem to have been using either CW or data so were not an option for me. I put out several CQ calls and was eventually rewarded by calls from three US SOTA chasers calling me.
The cold damp temperatures and the lack of contacts eventually decided me to cut the activation short and head home to the warmth. As I approached home, it was obvious that the weather at home had not been nearly as bad as where Rob and I were located.
There are positive points out of this action. The wire beam works well (even though I set it up 45° off the intended direction). It would have been nice to compare the linked-elements version against the trapped elements but the work involved in the wet and cold was not justified. The G90 radio with its 20 watts output on SSB, continues to “do the job” and the new 12 Ah LifePO4 battery also got another test.
Photos:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Raddy rucksack. (not used)
Xiegu G90 radio.
Xiegu G106 radio plus RMItaly amplifier, LPF box and ATU-100. (not used)
Screw-in mast base.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
Surveyors tripod and 10m mast. (not used)
10/15/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
10/12/15/17/20-metre band 2-element linked elements wire beam.
SOTA/HEMA logbook & pens.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
6m mini-mast (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
8 Ah LiFePO4 battery (not used).
12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
2 x Lightweight headphones (one pair not used).
Smartphone for SOTA/HEMA spotting.
Log:
Conclusions:
The NA-EU SOTA S2S event is “jinxed” every year it is accompanied by bad terrestrial weather (at least here in Southern Germany).
The equipment used worked well and it was a nice “social” meet-up with Rob.
Linked with my visit to the UK to visit my brother & sister and to attend the national Hamfest in Newark, I wanted to do some radio activations using my new Xiegu X6200 transceiver. As I left Germany, it was not clear which SOTA, HEMA, POTA, COTA or UKBOTA sites I might get to activate. I had planned to activate Bardon Hill – a SOTA summit (G/CE-004) on the way from the airport to where I would be staying but the weather was terrible with many roads in the UK closed because of flooding and as the access to Bardon Hill starts with a trek over a field, on the way driving there, I decided to cancel and concentrate on getting safely to my destination.
I had the opportunity on Tuesday to combine the activation of a POTA park near Nottingham, which for some reason, no one had yet activated, with taking my sister to visit a friend. Cotgrove Park has a housing estate in the middle of it but also some tributaries of the River Trent, near to one of those I found an area of grass large enough to set up the linked dipole and operated on 20 & 40m from a bench. There was some interest from passersby – mainly from their dogs – this seems to be a favourite dog walking park. Initially, I was only able to get contacts by search and pounce of strong stations but then after calling CQ for some time, I managed to get a flow of contacts ending up with 11 (one more than needed for a POTA activation). I then had to curtail operations as I needed to pick up my sister from a friend’s house where I had dropped her off earlier. The drive back to the other side of Nottingham was horrible. flowing traffic had changed into crawling traffic around the Nottingham ring road but at least I could chalk up an activation. I had started to think that my bringing the radio gear had been a waste of time.
On Thursday I went to a point within a kilometre of a UKBunkers site about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. My originally planned set-up point was in a car park shown on Google Maps, which turned out to be a private one with locked gates at a (closed) sports centre, so I went further down the riverside and found a parking spot just before the Ferry Boat Inn at Stoke Bardolph. During my visit to the UK a year ago, I tried to get to one of two bunkers near where we were staying in the Lake District. The first was inaccessible as the fields were both overgrown and flooded, the second I managed to get to and operated from the top of the entrance but conditions were not kind to me and I got no contacts from there. This year, I checked the rules more carefully to find that I only needed to be within one kilometre of the bunker and could therefore activate from the road, from inside the car. The result however was not a lot better than the year before, with only two completed contacts.
Photos:
POTA GB-2021 – Cotgrave Country Park
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UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC
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Equipment taken:
Xiegu X-6200 radio.
Linked Dipole (used for POTA activation)
Six-metre mast (used for POTA activation).
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical, tripod and radials (Used for UKBOTA activation).
4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Logs:
POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Country Park.
UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC
Conclusions:
The activations could have gone better – whether that was conditions, lack of chasers or just not a big enough signal from the 8w X6200 (my normal G90 is a 20w radio) I am not sure. I question whether the extra effort of taking the radio gear was worthwhile (especially with the recent cases in the Middle East of exploding amateur radio transceivers making airport security more careful). I was the first activator of the POTA park, just beating another ham who activated the following day.
This was a test of equipment to be used the following weekend for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, where I planned to head down to my only lighthouses within driving range in Lindau on Lake Constance.
The area available at Lindau to set up in a public park in sight of both lighthouses is fairly small and with very little topsoil, the same in many ways as Kappelhohe at Weichberg.
My experience in previous years has been that just running the 20 watts from the G90 with a dipole was not a strong enough signal to avoid being “stomped on” by other home station “crocodiles” (big mouth, little ears) so I will be using my “G106 Stack” with around 70-80w PEP output. I had considered also taking the wire beam however the space needed would block too much of the park area in Lindau, so I chose a dipole for simplicity (as I will be operating alone), the aerial-51 404-UL off-centre-fed dipole gives me multiple HF bands.
This activation was to check the planned set-up for use in Lindau. I would also have a backup station with me at Weichberg in case there was a single item that needed attention and could be worked around to complete the main tests.
The most critical test was the use of a small shopping trolley, not only to transport the equipment (radio and shade tent) but also to act as the base support for the 6-metre mast.
As usual, the car had the equipment packed into it the day before the activation to allow for an early start as Ernie VK3DET had once again offered to listen out for me from Victoria in Australia.
The Activation
The drive down was uneventful and the weather was perfect – clear and warm however there was a “dangerous heat” warning out from 11 am local time, so I would need to be home and inside before that. The space weather was not so nice … a pair of CMEs hit the Ionosphere and shot the Kp Index up to 5 (a G1 storm), the disturbance storm index was into the moderate storm level, heading towards the major storm level and the maximum usable frequency was struggling to get up to 14MHz. If I had been heading to this summit just to accrue points I may have called off the activation, however as this action was more to test the mechanical status of my solution for the ILLW, I chose to go ahead with it. As I had already activated this summit in February, I would get no activator points for activating it in any case.
I had already strapped the 6-metre mast to the side of my little shopping trolley before putting it into the car, so once I arrived at the summit, I simply chose a point away from the trees in the middle of the lawn on the summit by the chapel, took out the radio gear from the trolley added the antenna Balun to the mast, raised it and ran out the two elements (which also act as the guy ropes). The “G106-Stack” comes out of the small rucksack (which sits inside the trolley bag) and once the groundsheet was down on the ground it went onto it and the antenna coax connected to it.
As I was ready 10 minutes earlier than expected, I sent Ernie a quick message via my phone and a few minutes later the 20m SSB DL – VK3 contact was in the log. Although Ernie was about 5-8 peaking 5-9, even my 70w PEP could only get a 4-4 signal into Victoria. I am not complaining – with all the “action” going on in the Ionosphere, I was happy to have got the contact at all. indeed tuning around, spotting and calling on 20m after the contact with Ernie got zero responses. All I could hear on 20m were some of the usual Russian super-stations. Not even any Italian stations – that showed me how terrible the radio conditions were.
Another component of the set-up for ILLW is an angler’s shade tent, which also packs nicely into the trolley, so I took that out and assembled it – all went well. Rather than finishing with just one contact in the log, I decided to try 40 metres which of course with higher bands being dead was full of stations but I found a spot put out a “CQ SOTA” and bagged 4 contacts in a few minutes. Even those (European) contacts were not as clear as they would normally be as the noise level was 2-Spoints higher than normal on 40m due to the increased atmospheric activity.
So all in all a successful test of the equipment – I now need both good terrestrial and radio weather for the Lighthouse weekend.
The antenna support worked well and indeed apart from one sudden loss of power to the G106 (cabling) everything worked, even the shade tent went up without problems.
Band conditions were not good but as the target of this activation was primarily to test out the physical assembly of all equipment that was less of a problem.
I did have one ham come on the frequency and say that my (processed) audio sounded bad but never gave his call sign and did not come back to my request for help in trying different settings. all the stations I worked did not comment on the audio except that when I switched off the speech processor Ernie could no longer hear me. So I will leave that set as is for the ILLW event.
I did hear some RF-VOX relay chatter a couple of times, so I will increase the value of the capacitor in the amplifier to hopefully reduce this.
DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog 
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