DD5LP/P – April 8th. 2017 – DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet.

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Preparation:

This activation would not earn me any new activator points as I have already activated this summit in 2017. It is however the closest to me at about 35 minutes drive from home. The day before after discussions with Karl M3FEH, who was planning to go out, I decided to go out early this Saturday morning as well. The main aim was to see if indeed a long path contact into VK or ZL was possible on 40 metres as 20 metres has not been performing so well in the last weeks. Also with an SFI of about 118 and K index of 1 – conditions should be good, right? No – in fact from Friday to Saturday the SFI dropped to 66 – the lowest it had been for several years and the K Index rose to 3, sometimes 4. I didn’t know this was going to happen of course and only found out after returning home, making what was achieved even more interesting.

No experiments with equipment – the FT-817ND plus amplifier and the 6m portable mast to support the Aerial-51 OCF dipole were prepared for the early start. The OCF having the advantage of covering both 20 & 40m. My sun umbrella support was also put with the two equipment bags and all was set.

The Location:

As mentioned above Berndorfer Buchet is the closest SOTA summit to my home QTH. It is on a hill above the village of Pähl south of the Ammersee lake in southern Bavaria. As you will see from the photos, the summit is completely wooded, which is not the best situation as they de-tune antennas (especially vertical), but I have made contacts into VK from here before, albeit when radio conditions were somewhat better than they are at present.

The Activation:

An early start – away before 7am local time (now 0500 UTC) and a clear run down the country roads across country to the summit. I was half expecting to see snow as I approach the summit however there was (thankfully) none to be seen. What I did see however was the sun rising through the early morning mist – it looked like a large orange ball. If I hadn’t been driving at the time I would have taken a photo of it – it was impressive.

The weather wasn’t bad but the temperature was down at 0.5°C and stayed that way for a couple of hours until the sun burnt through all of the mist.

The set-up of the mast, as you’ll see from one of the pictures ended up as a combination of a “natural” support and the sun umbrella base. The antenna went up without any major problems and the station got set up on the painters sheet on the ground. I started by tuning around 40 metres and indeed I coul hear some VK fixed stations in conversation as well as some US stations. But in the couple of opportunities I took to call them, I got no response, being flattened by far more powerful stations with larger antenna systems I expect.

After self-spotting, I got some european chasers but they were not as strong as normal. I suspect the skip distance on 40m was long at this time (just after 0600 UTC). I gave 20m a try and was rewarded with a call from John, ZL1BYZ but this was a difficult contact – especially from John’s end. Without John great antenna systems, I don’t think this would have been possible. Certainly an S2S with VK/ZL on 20m would not have been possible today. Later when I found out that the SFI had dropped so far, it was no surprise that contacts were difficult on 20m. The purpose of the activation was to check out 40m for DX so I switched back to that band and did some “search and pounce” operations, getting a few more contacts including the TM100VIMY special event station. Following that there was a run of the usual chasers and the conditions on 40m continued to improve on 40 metres for inter-Europe contacts (so the skip was getting shorter I think), these stations were still not as strong as usual, but better than earlier. One more trip to 20 metres was rewarded with VK1MD calling me along with a few European chasers. At this point I replaced the battery on the amplifier which had drained without the monitoring device saying anything – it showed down to about 90% and then simply stopped working (all 4 cells were actually at 0% as I found out when I got home). One final run on 40m, which was now back to european stations only, no NA or VK DX and then it was time to pack up and head back to the car.

All in all a good test. I could hear the VK stations on 40 metres at between 5-5 and 5-8. One was actually working portable with a dipole but admittedly running 300 watts, while another home station, again with a wire antenna was running just 95 watts. I think given possibly 50-100W and ideally a better antenna than a dipole, arranged S2S contacts between EU – VK and EU-NA early morning (EU time) would be possible. So as we continue down to Solar minimum perhaps we need to look to larger stations with more power on 40 metres for long path contacts to VK/ZL?

Unfortunately, although I saw Karl M3FEH spotted on SOTAWatch, I didn’t manage to hear him from this activation.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF horizontal wire dipole UL-04.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (25W on 20m, 35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

umbrella screw-in base.

Log:

Conclusions:

I have replaced the LIPO monitor unit with a second one that I have – unfortunately, this one doesn’t have such a big display but perhaps it will be more accurate! I think 40m EU-VK S2S contacts will be possible if both ends can run more power. As this will involve heavier gear and batteries, this would perhaps need to be an activation with more than one person and larger flatter summits would probably make things easier to install that small high peaks.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 31st. 2017 – DL/AL-171 Eisenberg.

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Preparation:

As the winter bonus period comes to an end in the DL association on March 31st. and as the weather has stayed beautiful, in fact through this week has slowly got better and better I decided I should fit in one last bonus activation before the season starts again at the end of the year. I considered an 8 pointer (DL/AM-031 Branderschoffen) where I found the Tegelbergbahn lift required to get within 180 vertical metres and 45 minutes walk of the summit is still running (most are closed for maintenance at this time of year) but rather than risk that summit which I have not activated before, I decided to play it safe and have a nice easy activation of Eisenberg – a 1055 metre high “2 pointer” hill with some castle ruins on the top of it and just as important a wonderfully friendly restaurant (Schlossbergalm Zell) about 60 vertical metres below the summit, where I can park my car.

Equipment to be used would be the FT-817ND plus amplifier and the 6m portable mast along with the Aerial-51 OCF HF dipole.

The Location:

Eisenberg is about a 50 minutes drive from my home QTH near the village of Eisenberg and not far from the town of Pfronten in the Southern Bavaria region of Allgau.

The Activation:

I had decided to take this activation slowly as I was not aiming for any DX long path contacts, so after taking our dog “Bonnie” out for her morning walk, I set off from home at 09:30 local time (07:30 UTC). Set the “navi” to guide me, although I know the route well, to find that the unit was determined to take me a different route via the Autobahns – which while possibly quicker is far more stressful than the cross country route that I normally take. It took the Navi at least 15 minutes before it finally accepted the route I was taking (which according to Google maps was the quickest route). Normally the navi is very good. I have downloaded the two German SOTA regions and loaded them onto the programs SD card. It is very useful to be able to simply select the SOTA reference of the summit and let the Navi guide you there.

The drive down was uneventful, until I arrived at the restaurant car park to see the restaurant tables full of children, it appears there had been some “clean-up” event as there were also a pile of buckets and gloves near the building, so the snack and lemonade at the restaurant was probably the reward for that. I had the fear that the Castle would soon be overrun by these children, so I set off straight away on the climb to the summit. as it turned out, the group did not come up to the castle ruins and I had the lookout platform all to myself.

Once set-up, I self spotted and called CQ. It was great that a foundation licence (QRP) station out of Cornwall in the UK, Karl M3FEH was first in the log today as he often gets drowned by the other chasers. I was half expecting a pile-up and while I got 25 contacts on 40 metres in 18 minutes, this was not nearly as hectic as the activation of Ammerleite ha been two days earlier, so conditions were not quite as good as then however, again, better that predicted. Having run out of chasers on 40 metres I took a couple of minutes to take a few photos and then switched to 20 metres where conditions were awful. I did manage 4 contacts there but after there were no more calls, I decided to pack-up and head down to the restaurant for a Weissbier and some käsespätzle, exactly at noon. A nice end to a successful short activation. The drive home was uneventful and I was back in time for our dog’s afternoon walk at 14:30.

There was one strange occurrence during the activation – my mobile phone gave an error saying the battery was getting too hot. I rebooted it and it still gave the error, so I pressed ignore and carried on. There doesn’t seem to have been any permanent damage however I will need to look at keeping the phone out of the sun on any future activations when the weather is so nice.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF antenna (40-10m).

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (20W on 20m, 35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Log:

Conclusions:

A nice morning out in the hills topped off by a nice meal at the restaurant sat outside in the sunshine, looking over the valley – what is better?

On the technical side, I need to consider the heat problem on the equipment when sat in the sun. I had this issue in Australia and actually added white “Fablon” (in German D-C-Fix) sticky backed white plastic on the top of the FT-817 case to reflect the heat. It looks like I will need to do that again for both the FT-817 and my homemade amplifier case. How I can avoid the phone complaining that it is getting too hot is another problem – perhaps I can make a foldable box for it to sit in, that not only protects it from the heat but also keeps it visible is high sunlight?

It also appears that my adjustment of the compressor in the microphone since the last activation has worked fine as I had no complaints on audio quality this time.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 29th. 2017 – DL/AM-177 Kirnberg & DL/AM-178 Ammerleite.

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Preparation:

With the winter bonus period coming to an end and some easy summits not yet activated this year, along with the weather being dry and sunny, I decided to grab the opportunity and head out and activate two summits I know from previous activations. I posted no alert on SOTAWatch. I decided rather to just self spot (in fact this worked on the first summit but with no cell coverage at Ammerleite I was happy to be spotted by a chaser on the second summit). No special equipment on these activations, rather the kit I know works reliably – the 817, Amp and Aerial-51 OCF on the LambdaHalbe 6m pole. All of which was ready to go following the previous activations. I always charge the batteries before putting the bags in the cupboard, so that I can simply “grab and go”.

The Locations:

Kirnberg is next to a farm called Gigersau towards the end of a fairly long single track road. Be careful where you park – one time here, I had to go and ask for help from the farmer to tow my car out of some boggy ground! No worries with that on this activation, but I still parked on the side of the road, rather than on the grassy patch in front of the notice board!

Ammerleite is above Böbing and on my first two activations, I could drive up to the same level as the summit and then walk about 50 metres across to the cross at the summit itself. That access road is now classified as farm and forestry use only and while in some areas the locals don’t mind, in this case, they can get quite annoyed, so the alternate parking spot (as described in detail in last years blog on the activation of Ammerleite (aka Schmalz)) is located just to the north of Böbing at a small hut. From here it’s about a 3 kilometer walk with a rise of about 1200 metres, so allow 20-25 minutes for this (each way).

The Activation:

My plan was to activate both Kirnberg (DL/AM-177) and Ammerleite (DL/AM-178) in one outing. Logically it made sense to do Kirnberg first and then Ammerleite.

Arriving at Kirnberg all went to plan – I set everything up, took some photos, spotted myself and then called CQ. The following 25 contacts on Kirnberg took just 13 minutes !  As I was packing up a walker appeared and asked what I was doing. He was from the north of Germany and staying at a “farm-stay” down the hill (I think he had just popped out, to get a break from the family) in any case we had a nice conversation and then as he left I kept packing up. I then realised my “short chat” had been nearly 20 minutes, meaning my hope of getting to the next summit an hour after I had gone QRT on this one was not to be. But the weather was nice and I had time, so I headed back down to the car – only a few minutes walk down the slope from the summit, packed everything in and set-off for Ammerleite.

As I was driving along I was thinking about the number and strength of contacts made and would have been happy with that success. Little did I know that this first contacts total would pale into insignificance when I had finished on the next Summit. On both summits I have to say I was bowled over by the number of chasers and their patience and persistence.

Upon arriving at the last spot the road at Böbing that is open to the public and parking up. I picked up my gear and set off up the track. This time the track seemed longer and steeper than I remembered and it wasn’t long before I started panting for air, so I slowed down a little. Around the next corner the track was blocked. A farmer had his tractor and trailer across the track, cutting and loading firewood. After a short conversation with him, confirming I was on the “approved” route up to the cross, I set off again. I was probably only about a quarter of the way up at this point. Suffice to say that when I got to the summit, the wooden benches there were put to good use while I took a drink of water and rested a while.

While setting up I got another farmer visiting me, he was collecting wood which had already been trimmed from the trees. I explained to him what I was doing and again he expressed interest and warned me that f I needed to use my cell phone, coverage was very patchy in this area. He was 100% correct and despite having two SIMs on the two main networks in Germany in my smartphone, I was unable to spot myself. After putting out a CQ however I had a couple of contacts and I asked Pietro I2CZQ if he wouldn’t mind spotting me – this he did and then there was just a wall of stations!

The pile-up was very impressive, I managed to work 52 chasers in 30 minutes and I know I missed a few – it really was a wall of noise – as witnessed by a passing local bicyclist who turned out to be a HAM – he had heard of SOTA but was blown away by the pile-up! I noted his call down but I must have got it wrong unfortunately. Perhaps I’ll meet him again on another summit?
So much for “bad” conditions HI.

While operating a couple of stations said my (compressed) audio didn’t sound right, so I turned the RF-Clipper off and noted that I needed to look into that when I got home. Following the battery problems with the amplifier on the last couple of activations, I had a monitor attached the whole time and at the end of the activation the four cells in the LIPO battery were all showing around 55-60% charge left. Interestingly this translated to 25-30% charge indicated on the battery charger at home. I wonder which indicator is showing the correct value? (The battery was disconnected before I packed the gear up, so it did not discharge the extra amount between the summit and home).

All in all, although about an hour behind schedule at the end of the day, it turned out to be two very successful activations for which I got one activator point and three winter bonus points for each summit.

Now I wonder if I can fit in another activation before the end of the month ….

Photos – Kirnberg:

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Photos – Ammerleite:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF wire dipole antenna.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (35W on 40m).

Screw-in sun umbrela base

Log Kirnberg:

Log Ammerleite:

Conclusions:

Don’t trust band condition predictions. Things can turn out a lot better than you expect! Always be prepared to take some time to explain Amateur Radio to strangers who show an interest.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 24th. 2017 – DL/AL-169 Auerberg & DL/AL-179 Weichberg.

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Preparation:

After failing on these two summits over the previous week, I was determined to bag them, before the winter bonus ran out. This was to be two “normal” activations, not trying for long path into VK and not trying out new equipment. So the standard FT-817 + home made amplifier + Aerial-51 OCF antenna (I used this antenna rather than the trapped dipole as that one still has the 60 metre extensions on it and hence needs more space for installation) were packed ready.

The Locations:

Please refer to the previous two blog entries.

The Activation:

These turned out to be two of the quickest activations that I have ever made, not because of the weather, although that wasn’t very pleasant with a constant wet mist hanging around, not because of a tight timescale, rather because after working about 8 chasers in 8 minutes on both summits, there were no more chasers!

The drive to Auerberg, the first summit of the day went well, although the last kilometre or so was at a snails pace due to the fog on what is a narrow road. When I arrived in the car park, I was able to calmly collect together the two bags of equipment and stroll up the hill and around to the back of the church where I had set up many times before. One bench had gone but the one still there made a satisfactory spot for the station. The fence posts gave their usual service as mast support and ties off points for the ends of the antenna.

Once up and running after a spot there was a pile-up of many of the usual chasers, whom I worked through and then after one last call, just caught Holger OE7HPI in the noise (too close for HF) but after that no more chasers, so I packed everything up and headed back down to the car.

Once back in the car, I decided to let the Navi tell me the route over to Weichberg – I would have normally simply headed back into the village and then taken the normal road between the two villages Bernbeuren and Rettenbach but the Navi decided to take me cross-country along narrow one-lane roads, past farm yards and other businesses, but it got me there. Next time I’ll take the simpler route which I suspect although longer, would have been quicker.

The weather didn’t improve by the time I got to the car park for Weichberg and the mud on the walking track up through the trees was worse than the day before, but still passable. On arriving, a group of what looked like builders were just leaving, having been into the small chapel on the summit. Some trees have been cleared over the last year from Weichberg, so it was good that I had brought my screw-in base to support the mast and again the Aerial-51 antenna was quickly up and the station laid out on the convenient picnic table and I was on the air. By this time 40 metres was a little busier and signals in general 1 or 2 S-points stronger than at Auerberg. After again eight contacts (some of them followed me from the earlier summit) the flow of chasers ran out and I decided as the weather was still cold and wet, to pack up and head back home arriving a good 1.5 hours earlier than originally planned.

I monitored the internal LIPO in the amplifier on both activations and all 4 cells appeared to discharge at about the same rate, so I’m not sure whether the problem that I had about a week ago was just a fluke or the alarm board that I had connected may have caused the problem?

Photos – Auerberg:

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Photos – Weichberg:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF wire dipole antenna.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Log Auerberg:

Log Weichberg:

Conclusions:

Going back to a reliable band and using known equipment can ensure a quick and problem free activation. This is nice for a change but I’d still like to try the J-Pole antennas out again once the weather and radio conditions get a little better.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 23rd. 2017 – DL/AL-179 Weichberg.

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Preparation:

As Andrew VK1AD planned to go out, I decided to make an activation in Germany to coincide with his activation in Australia as well as Mike  2E0YYY’s in the UK. Mike had also tipped off a chaser on Adelaide Island in the Antarctic, so this could be a good variety of contacts. I had planned to perform the activation of Auerberg that had failed because of weather the previous Saturday, it wasn’t to be. The plan was to activate Weichberg for the Long Path contacts and then head on to Auerberg (about 10 minutes drive away) for a second activation.

Equipment to be used would be the FT-817ND plus amplifier and the 6m portable mast along with the J-Pole antennas for 20, 17 & 15m.

The Location:

Weichberg is just about 35 minutes drive from my home QTH – so a local “one pointer” it does have a nice take-off being the site of the regions radio broadcast transmitter tower (which causes no QRM – at least not on HF).

The Activation:

Well that was fun – NOT.

The weather wasn’t bad but the morning mist soaked everything (including me). Set-up was fairly quick with the J-Pole strapped to the holy cross and the table and bench seats at Weichberg are always better than sitting on the floor. At this point I received an email from Andrew saying the weather in Australia was terrible and he would not be heading out. I decided to stay in any case as I had already set everything up.

Band conditions started off very strange, the 20m band was so quiet that I thought the receiver (or the new antenna) wasn’t working – I had to do a full reset on the 817 after wide-banding the 817 for 60 metres, so I wondered if that has affected receiver sensitivity. With a K Index of 4, I was expecting a high noise level, which I wasn’t getting. After tuning around though, I found a station in Africa talking back to his old mate in Germany, so the receiver certainly WAS working. I then heard VK4YS and various VK stations on some kind of evening meet-up on 14.210. There was a net in Scandinavia (I think Finland) that was ridiculously strong but not moving the S-meter as far as I expected.

I called several stations with no response, I put out several CQs and spotted myself on various frequencies on 20m to avoid any chance that QRM from a station I couldn’t hear. NOTHING! I was about to rip down the antenna and put up the old Inverted-V when I heard and called Z35A and got a 5-9+ report from him. So I WAS getting out but just couldn’t pick up any contacts. Very disheartening. I switched the base connections on the antenna and tried 15m – although the noise level was higher, there was absolutely no one on the band!

In desperation I tried 40m using the 15m antenna and although Terry G0VWP called me, he got stomped on by some Italian stations who simply came up without checking (as usual). So nothing on 40m either. By this time I was getting very cold so decided to throw in the towel and also cancel my planned 2nd. activation – Auerberg as with either propagation conditions or my equipment, like this – I wasn’t going to get anywhere from Auerberg either.

After the LIPO alarm going off and not being able to easily stop it on the last activation, I have now run the leads from the internal LIPO in the amplifier outside and attached a LCD display which shows overall and individual cell voltages and percentages. I monitored this during the activation and all cells were discharging at about the same rate (last time cell 1 & 2 appeared to empty when 3 & 4 still had 30% charge). Only when I was shutting down did the display make a noise (which I guess was low battery) and when I got home all 4 cells were down to 0% charge – so it looks like this battery runs fine to a point and the “falls off a cliff”. Thankfully the battery was fully recharged without any problems when I got home, so it still is strange how it appears to discharge so quickly after being fine for so long.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

J-Pole antenna (20/17/15m).

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (25W on 20m, 15W on 15m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Log:

Conclusions:

Lots to learn from this activation, but I don’t know if the J-Pole is working reasonably or not and the LIPO in the amplifier appears to be acting strangely. I missed out on activating two summits with winter bonuses, so I might get out to them again before the end of the month. This time probably later in the day when it is warmer and not with the J-pole, rather the old reliable Inverted-V.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 15th. 2017 – DM/BW-484 Bussen.

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Preparation:

Bussen is the summit that I had originally planned for the VK-EU SOTA S2S event the previous Saturday but as I wasn’t feeling 100% the early rise and long drive was not attractive. As the weather improved (spring has arrived – maybe…) I decided I should try to activate Bussen BM/BW-484 with its 8 activation points before the end of the winter period to grab was I thought were it’s 3 winter bonus points. But on the 15th. March, when I got up, I checked and realised that since 2009 Bussen no longer gets any winter bonus points but as all was prepared I decided to make this a 60 metre and 40m activation as I had completed the needed mods to my FT-817ND to enable it to operate on the new WRC15 60m band.

Equipment to be used would be the FT-817ND plus amplifier for 40m and the SOTABeams linked dipole that I modified a few weeks ago for 60m. I also packed the screw-in base, that had worked so well at Berndorfer Buchet, and Rentschen (although I found a great “natural” mast support as it turned out). I would not bother with the unreliable DX-Wire 10m mini-mast on this activation rather, stay with my old, trusted LambdaHalbe 6m one.

The Location:

Bussen is an 8 point summit roughly half way on a line between Lindau and Stuttgart. According to Google it’s between a 1hr. 40 min and 2hr. drive from my home location, depending upon traffic. Bussen, with its church and castle ruins can be seen from all around the areas on its 767m high hill in what otherwise is a relatively flat area.  The views from the summit are awesome when the weather is clear, which it was for the first time for me on this activation, my previous two activations were either in fog & rain or snow. access to the summit is restricted for vehicles and so one needs to park in the car park below the hill and walk up what is a very steep hill to the church and then across to the grassy area between the church and the castle ruins, where the trig point stone is also located.

The Activation:

I had decided to set off a little later so that I had time to take the dog for her walk before I left  and as I was not trying to meet the long path propagation window, I was more flexible with the times. So at about 9:30am local time I set off, expecting to miss the heavy traffic as well. While this was mostly true on the Autobahn, I was surprised to see so many large trucks on the small country roads that would make up 3/4 of my drive. Being stuck behind a line of trucks, without any safe chance of overtaking them can be annoying however most of these truckers were driving at 60 Km/h or even 80 Km/h when they could, so the difference in time taken compared to running at the 100Km/h speed limit of these small roads was not that great. The journey to Bussen took almost 2 hours however the return journey was completed in just 90 minutes as there was far less traffic in the afternoon.

On arriving at the car park, I packed just what I thought I would need  and left the screw-in base and the 10m mast (taken as a spare) in the car as previously I had managed to fasten the mast to the concrete and wood benches and tables and hoped to do the same again.

After slogging up the hill to the summit I arrived at the benches only to realise that the trees above them have grown more lower branches and these would be an obstacle to the mast and antenna. I decided to take a look at the other side of the park area away from the benches to see if I could find anything there as a mast support and was amazed to find a couple of concrete round hollow pipes in the ground, that while a little large, using the loose wood that was laid around as packing could indeed support the mast very nicely. This side of the park, being near the cliff edge, has less trees and I was able to find a good location for the antenna.

One “Ooopsie” as I was putting the mast up one section came out of the lower section and I was left with holding the mast and antenna with one hand and the mast’s bottom sections still sat in the ground! I knew I shouldn’t have cleaned the mast!! In any case – no biggie lowered the top sections with the antenna over to the ground, removed the antenna and then unscrewed the bottom cap off the bottom of the mast and slipped all the sections back into place. Re-attached the antenna and (carefully) up went the mast again, with no problems this time.

I was really happy with 60m. First of all I thought I would not have a chance to use one of the just two frequencies that overlap between the UK “bandlets” and the IARU WRC15 band. One of the frequencies had some kind of radar interference on it, the other had a CW operator. Oh well I thought – if the CW Op doesn’t get a response – which he didn’t, I’ll take that frequency, spot and call CQ – the result was 8 contacts. One into Slovenia, two Switzerland, two England, one Germany, one Ireland and finally one Belgian station! After switching to 40m, it was crazy! 37 contacts in 37 minutes, including 2 S2S and 2 Special Event stations! It looks like conditions are particularly good around lunchtime on 60 metres as all the stations were booming in and I was getting loud reports as well (remember 60m is a maximum of 5 watts rig output for 15w EIRP at the antenna for WRC15 countries).

Photos:

 

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

SOTABeams linked dipole modified for 60 metres.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet.

Log:

Conclusions:

A nice activation where 60 metres performed very well around lunch time.

When considering winter bonus points, make sure I read “the small print”!

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 11th. 2017 – DL/AM-176 Rentschen (VK-EU S2S Event).

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Preparation:

I had planned to activate Bussen BM/BW-484 with it’s 8 activation points plus 3 winter bonus points up until the 15th. March, however as I was suffering a little from the flu, the thought of a 4 hour round-trip drive was not so inviting. With propagation being variable at best and horrible at worst, there was a chance that 17m may be needed rather than 20m. Rentschen has a major advantage that being a drive-up summit, it would be possible to go back to the car and fetch and replace the OCF antenna with the 17m J-Pole antenna if needed (at Bussen, this would have been a major operation). Also Martin DF3MC ccontacted me and said he’d like to come along. I always enjoy operating wth Martin, so the fact that Rentschen ia about the same distance from him as from me, made it a good choice.

Equipment to be used would be the FT-817ND plus amplifier and the Aerial-51 OCF dipole with a 6m pole. The screw-in base, that had worked so well at Berndorfer Buchet, would also be taken along as there are no easy mast support structures at Rentschen. In the car would stay the 10m portbale mast along with the J-Pole antennas for 20, 17 & 15m.

The Location:

Rentschen is a one point, low summit that still has a 3 point winter bonus. It si about 50 minutes drive from my home and therefore one of my “local” summits. The actual summit is marked by a trig-point stone which is about 100m away from the road, where I would park my car as usual. The summit is between Rottenbuch and Steingaden villages.

The Activation:

Considering the propagation conditions, I think things went quite well. 2 x VK S2S contacts (I think my first DL-VK6 – thanks John VK6NU). I heard my first Japanese summit but got no response when I called several times. I thought I would have to re-cone the speaker after VK3MO called me, he was so strong! I also heard Matt VK1MA call me but he couldn’t hear me I think.

After about 0800 UTC, the usual QRO stations appeared on band and simply called CQ over the top of activators.
Conditions seemed to go up and down somewhat and at one point we had at least three summits on the same frequency!
A surprise on 14.280 was Elvira XT2SE from Burkina Faso, West Africa, (non SOTA) who I tried calling but of course with the pile-up I didn’t get through.
It was nice to operate with Martin DF3MC – he on CW and I on SSB, about 20m apart from each other – there was some interference but it didn’t stop us making contacts.
I thought I’d “pick up a few contacts” on 40m before packing up. Thirteen contacts in seven minutes was the result and then even managed an S2S into the UK (thanks for your perseverence Tom M1EYP). All in all a good activation.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF inverted-V dipole.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (25W on 20m, 35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Screw-in mast base

Mini Seat.

Log:

Conclusions:

Never base a decision on whether to activate on propagation predictions or even the conditions the previous day – Band conditions can improve (or get worse) without warning and the only way to know iff you are going to be able to make contacts is to activate and hope!

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – March 4th. 2017 – DL/AM-180 Burndorfer Buchet.

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Preparation:

The purpose of this activation was to find out what the current time for the Long Path propagation opening was so that it would help my planning for the VK-EU S2S event on March 11th. Propagation conditions of late had been horrible and the chance of a contact into VK/ZL/JA on this activation would be rare but I might hear some of the QRO stations from VK or ZL and that would tell me what time I “might” get a contact the following weekend.Based on that information, I could calculate what time I would need to leave home to get to my chosen summit DM/BW-484 Bussen which is just less than 2 hours drive away.

In principle I would take exactly the same equipment that has got me contacts into VK from AM-180 previously, with one addition… Normally I strap the fibreglass mast to the side of a tree as there are no other supports available at Berndrfer Buchet however this means the antenna wires are close to the tree branches and probably de-tune because of this. Some years ago I bought a plastic, screw in the ground sun umbrella base. This I used with my aluminium mast when operating in VHF/UHF contests in Australia. I had never tried to use it as a base for the SOTA mast. If it worked, it would enable me to install the antenna away from direct contact with the trees. So another 2 kilograms was added to the equipment to be carried.

The Location:

Berndorfer Buchet is a one point, low summit but it is the closest to my home location, needing 30 to 45 minutes to get to the parking spot and about 15 minutes walk along a forest track and then up the reasonably steep final ascent to the summit. The summit overlooks Pähl and the Ammersee valley.

The Activation:

I had a good run down arriving at the car park about 35 minutes after leaving home. For the first hour there was nothing but I mean NOTHING on 20m – just noise. 40m was packed full with contest stations but I popped down there and grabbed 4 contacts that I need to have to get points for the activation – interestingly two of the four contacts on 40m were not SOTA chasers, just people who were tuning around and gave me a call. Thumping great signals out of (and into) the UK from here on 40m this morning – almost all 5-9 or 5-9+ both way contacts! As well as 20m & 40m I tried 15m – NOTHING – a waste of time … up to 0800 UTC at least…

Although conditions were not good enough to get a response from them, VK3YFD came out of the noise to a good signal from 08:10UTC and VK3MO was 5-9+ at about 08:35 – both were still there at 0900 UTC – so from that rough estimate, I would say the Long Path window here is only opening at about 0800 UTC at the moment – which is good for me for next Saturday’s activation as I’ll have time for the long drive to the summit I want to use. The two VK3 stations are “super stations” with enormous antennas and lots of power, so they get through on marginal conditions, but are still using the long path propagation.

As I transmitted for so long (calling CQ to no response on 20m mostly) I also had to test both of my back-up LIPO batteries for the FT-817 (internal 2500maH) and the amplifier (1700 mAH internal and 5000mAH external). All worked fine, however I managed to run down the Internal 1.6Ah LIPO in the amplifier too far (see conclusions section below).

The screw-in the ground plastic mast base worked perfectly. I’ve had it for some time (bought in Australia) but never tried it on a SOTA activation before – it’s going to get some kind of bag – as it gets dirty – and then will be a standard part of future activations. It’s really meant to hold up a sun umbrella but works fine as a mast base and avoids having to look for some other support on the summit.

I think I got the best of the weather, there was actually some SUNSHINE! On returning home the temperature has dropped and there are grey clouds around.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Aerial-51 OCF inverted-V dipole.

LambdaHalbe 6m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (25W on 20m, 35W on 40m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Screw-in mast base

Log:

activator-log

Conclusions:

One should watch the voltage on LIPO batteries. The internal amplifier battery could not be recharged after returning home, however a replacement was only €18, so it’s not the end of the world.

The screw-in base was a success and I will take it to Bussen next week.

Although (as expected) I made no contacts into VK/ZL/JA, it was obvious (almost like a light switch) that 0800 UTC is the current time that Long Path propagation becomes available and it is lasting about an hour. This was the purpose of the activation, to find this out, so with the (one) activation point, this was a successful activation!

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – February 20th. 2017 – DL/AM-001 Peißenberg.

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Preparation:

The purpose of this activation was to test out the extension I had made to my linked dipole to cover the Sixty Metre Band (5.3MHz) that Germany gained in late december as a result of the World Radio Conference in 2015 (WRC15). This band is only 1KHz wide (5.3515MHz – 5.3665MHz. At the moment some countries have this new band while others (such as the UK) have other odd blocks of frequencies or channels. In the hope of a contact into the UK and to simplify things (and make sure I don’t operate out of band) I chose a few “channels” within the band and programmed these into my FT-817.

With everything ready antenna, rig and food, I decided it was tie to do an activation and while this was an experiment, I decided on DL/AM-001 Peissenberg, being a summit I know and only 45 minutes drive away from home. The weather forecast for Monday the 20th. was good, so I decided with an early start I should be on the summit at about the right time for propagation on 5MHz into the UK and with a little luck I might catch the tail end of the Long Path window down into Australia and New Zealand.

The Location:

Peißenberg, or Hohe Peißsenberg to give it, its full name, sits above the village of Höhen Peißsenberg about half way between Weilheim and Schongau in upper Bavaria.

The Activation:

I had arrived and set up all of my gear by 0830 UTC. The drizzle had stopped but it was still quite cold with snow still in places on the ground (not what the forecast has said). In any case after manoeuvering the 10 metre mast around a little I managed to tie off both ends of the linked Inverted-V dipole to some handy points. Previously I would use the lower 6 metre mast but with the extra length, I need to get the centre up higher so that I could get the two ends of the dipole out in the restricted space that I had. I had had problems with the 10m mast collapsing into itself without warning on other occasions, so I was a little concerned that this might happen again, but I had to try. It was cold and the winds were getting stronger, so I needed to get a move on. I decided to start on 20 metres and had luck, my first contact was John ZL1BYZ in New Zealand. I was hoping for some more contacts from down under but as it turned out John was the only one. after another couple of CQs, with no successful responses I decided it was time to try out 60 metres. To do this I had to lower the mast and connect together again the 20m links so that the complete length of the wires were now in place as a 60 metre dipole. I switch to memory mode and quickly went through the channels I had programmed. Only hearing a couple of locals chatting on one frequency I went to one of my “international” frequencies of 5363.5 checked that no one was using the frequency by putting out a call asking if the frequency was in use – twice – no reply, so I spotted myself and called CQ. My first ever portable 60m contact was with Ingolf DG4FCN. Although he was about 5-4 the contact was difficult as there was QRM from another station just off my frequency. Later this station came and complained that he couldn’t hear his mate as I was “off-frequency” (i.e. not on a round number of KHz I guess and my little 5w from the FT-817 was flattening them). This will I’m sure remain a problem on this very narrow band as it appears some “channels” have been adopted for local natters in Germany. In my case, I realised that I could not simply tune the band while in memory mode and so I will need to look at somehow actually defining the 60m band in the FT-817. I moved to my other “International” frequency of 5.362MHz and put out another spot and call, this time I was called by Boyan S57AC and in this case band conditions did not make the contact very easy with his signal dropping into the noise, but we managed the contact and after getting no more calls I decided my experiment on this band was completed for the day but I’d try to grab a few more contacts on 20m before packing up. after seven more contacts on 20m, it also dried up and the winds by this time were whipping the antenna mast around somewhat, so I decided to pack up and head home. While pacing up the equipment and talking to a local walker explaining what I was doing, the mast self lowered (i.e. dropped into itself). This DX-Wire 10m mini-mast is not anywhere near the quality of the far cheaper Lambda Halbe 6 metre masts. I was lucky this time that the mast stayed up as long as it did. I may need to find a different location the next time I want to run 60m from Peissenberg, so that I can use the 6 metre mast instead.

Photos:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

SOTABeams bandhopper linked dipole modified for 60 metres.

DX-Wire 10m Mini-mast.

Modified QAMP amplifier (20W on 20m).

Thick plastic painters sheet

Log:

activator-logConclusions:

I am going to have to rethink operating frequencies on 60 metres to avoid QRM to and from other stations, while still being on a frequency that non WRC15 allocated countries can come onto.

The 60 metre modifications to the SOTABeams Band Hopper have worked VERY well and it seems just 5W from a good location puts out a strong signal on 60 metres.

73 ’til the next Summit!

DD5LP/P – December 18th. 2016 – DM/BM-135 Hesselberg & DM/BM-226 Dürrenberg.

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Preparation:

After a while not activating and with no snow to speak of on the ground I decided to make another activation. While the lifts to the DL summits are all stopped for maintenance before the start of the Skiing season at Christmas, I looked to the DM region, with their easier to access summits with higher point values. The problem for me is the distance, especially after the last purge of nonconforming summits in the DM region, the closest for me are around 2 hours drive away. Looking through some of the closer summits, I had activated Dürrenberg before but as that was back in 2014, I would get 6 points for an activation in 2016. This would still be a 2 hour plus drive, so I looked to see if I could possibly include another summit en-route to make the trip worth-while and found Hesselberg. A summit that appeared to have really easy access and again would give me 6 points. Neither of these summits have winter bonus points.

For these activations I would not be testing out any new antennas, rather relying on the old faithful SOTABeams linked dipole and the Lambdahalbe 6 metre squid pole. As I now always re-charge and re-pack all equipment when I get back from an activation, I only needed to check my two bags to see what was in them and remove what was not needed. I would add my pack-up the following day and then set off at about 10am hoping to be back by 4pm.

The Locations:

Both Summits lie north of Augsburg in the direction of Ulm and are around a 2hr. drive north from my home QTH. I decided to go to Hesselberg first as I had not yet activated that summit and it “seemed” to be easy to get to. Using the NAVI to find the shortest route about 40% of the route was on Autobahn or large roads and 60% on small country back-roads. Since I have loaded in all SOTA summits in Germany into my car navigator I planned to simply follow its directions. I did, however also print out the Google Maps routes to and between each summit, in case I lost GPS coverage as happened on the last outing.

The Activation:

DM/BM-135 Hesselberg

The weather over the previous week had been cold but sunny with morning fog clearing around 9am. This day was no different and I set off at the planned 10am. The further north I drove however, the darker the skies got and once past Augsburg, it was obvious that the weather was not going to be sunny. In fact quite the opposite, I had rain, mist and generally grey weather all the way to the first summit, Hesselberg, which after about 2.5 hours driving was sat in low clouds as you will see from the slide show below. There was actually snow on the ground in the car park. However this IS an easy access summit, also suitable for people with disabilities. The track up to the summit from the car park is about 60 metres (although the sign says 100m). On the summit there is a solid wooden picnic table with benches and the information panels make good supports for the squid pole mast. There is also a TV transmitter tower on this summit but although it couldn’t be more than 50 metres away, I could only see parts of it through the clouds. I am sure the views from this summit are normally fantastic but on this day it was simply a wall of white in all directions!

I had planned to activate on both 40 metres and 20 metres however 40 metres was the best band for propagation. It was impossible to find a completely free frequency and I ended up on a frequency where two russian speaking stations were having a local chat. Despite that (and I’m sure I didn’t disturb them with my lowly 30 watts and a dipole) I managed a good run of 16 contacts around Europe and then finished off with an S2S with John EI2KA/P and two other UK contacts on 20 metres before deciding to pack up. When I took the antenna down ice had formed all the way along the thin wire. No wonder I was also feeling cold and welcomed the fact that it was less than 5 minutes to get back to the car in the car park.

DM/BM-226 Dürrenberg

The journey from Hesselberg to Dürrenberg took longer than expected, partly due to the weather (which hadn’t improved) and partially due to road works requiring a slight change of route. I did however eventually get to the same place that I parked the last time that I had activated the summit, unpacked my gear from the park and started the 15 minute slog up the road (which is closed off with a locked barrier as this used to be a military installation). It was good that I knew the route as that low cloud / fog was still there and I could not see the summit from the bottom of the road. Visibility was probably down to 3 metres in some parts of the walk up the hill.

Dürrenberg is a wooden summit, which is generally bad from a radio point of view and also finding support for the mast to carry the Inverted-V dipole, however I already knew what I was going to do. The underground parts of this installation had air vent pipes coming out of the ground in the woods and these are perfect for attaching the 6m squiddy to with my rubber straps.

At this time, I started to think it was not as cold on Dürrenberg as on Hesselberg however I was wrong and by the time I finished the activation, I could feel the effects of Hypothermia, having difficulty concentrating and being slow at doing things.

On checking spots I could see the majority of activity was on 40 metres rather than 20 metres so I started there with two S2S contacts right away – one with Mike 2E0YYY on Gun and another with Esther GIOAZA over in Northern Ireland. The band was not nearly as busy as it had been on Hesselberg so it was easy to find a free frequency and I put out a CQ to receive a flow of 12 chasers from all around Europe in the next 15 minutes. There was no sign of the VK6 S2S that Mike and I had hoped to catch via short path unfortunately and 10 minutes of calling CQ on 20 metres brought no responses at all – that band had completely closed. By this time I was behind schedule for my return journey it was dark and I was feeling the cold now, so I packed up and returned to the car. the route home was quite different to the one I had used to drive to the area but after 2.5 hours driving (which seemed a lot longer), I arrived home at 5:30pm, glad to be safely home.

Photos:

Hesselberg:

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Dürrenberg:

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Equipment:

Yaesu FT817ND.

Highly modified Ramsey amplifier

SOTABeams linked dipole.

6 metre portable squid pole.

“Spy Glasses” for video recording (not used in the cold).

Logs:

DM/BM-135 Hesselberg:

activator-logDM/BM-226 Dürrenberg:

activator-logConclusions:

I need to consider the dangers of activating in the cold and wet. Hypothermia is a real danger as it driving a long distance when tired.

73 ’til the next Summit!