As I was travelling to the “Ham Radio” in Friedrichshafen, I looked around for a POTA park in the area to activate and found the ONLY one anywhere in the area was Riedlepark, right in the centre of the town. I was amazed that there are not any other POTA-certified parks in the area. Perhaps more will be added soon?
I would have very limited time available, so I Alerted about a week before to activate on Friday lunchtime as I had other commitments at the Ham radio show during the day I would have to go without lunch to be able to activate.
Looking at the official Baden Wurttemburg government mapping system, I could find the limits of the park and the car park by the children’s home is fully within the park boundaries, so I decided, given the limited time, that is where I would activate from. To avoid carrying a lot of equipment, I decided to just take the small QRP Xiegu G106 radio and my Komunica Power HF-PRO2 loaded vertical antenna.
For a SOTA activation with the number of chasers around Europe, this would be more than sufficient and even with a weak signal, I would be almost guaranteed the needed 4 SOTA contacts for any summit as long as I could put out a spot. For POTA, at least in Germany, the story is different. There are far fewer chasers and added to that 10 contacts are needed. I would need to work hard to get the points but I had hoped that with the density of radio amateurs around Friedrichshafen for the largest meeting of radio hams in Europe – I would be fine on ground wave. this was not the case and as you will read below, it was a hard battle to get the 10 contacts in the time I had available.
In any case, the small radio pack and antenna and mag mount were packed into the car along with the needed computer/recording set up and clothes needed for my short two-day trip and I left on Friday morning at 06:30 am local time.
The Activation
POTA DA-0156
After having a busy morning at the Hamfest, I broke away at around 12:15, headed back to the car and drove to the park. Well, at least that was the plan. It seems that the GPS didn’t know that some of the roads in the area are now one way and the result was another 15 minutes added to what should have been a 7-8 minute drive from the Messe where Ham Radio is held.
At least when I got to the site there was plenty of space, so I went and bought a parking permit from the machine which would allow me to stay until 13:33 at the very latest. That should be more than enough time – right? …
I thought my best chance would be on 40 metres but despite hearing and calling a few stations and spotting myself in the POTA app – I got no contacts. I was starting to think that perhaps 4-5 watts was simply not going to “cut it” with the vertical antenna.
Luckily I decided to switch to 20m and there I was able to call other stations and get contacts into the log. I did spot and call CQ for some time and I guess of the 10 needed contacts that I managed to squeeze in my available time, I think 3, perhaps 4 were actual POTO “chasers” two were SOTA activators and the remainder were all simply stations calling CQ on the 20m band.
I had to fight for most of the contacts and there was a big gap after the fifth contact when I thought I would not get any more contacts. As I hoped this would be another “First activation” of a park, I really need to get the full 10 contacts. Thankfully with about 4 minutes to go before my parking permit ran out, I closed off the tenth contact.
Then it was time to quickly pack up and head back to the show, where my teammates were just about start another round of interviews with dealers and associations.
Another FIRST POTA activation (despite some competition).
Photos:
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POTA DA-0156:
Equipment taken:
Xiegu G-106 radio.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
2.5 Ah 3S LiPO battery.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DA-0156 RiedlePark, Friedrichshafen
Conclusions:
I have been spoilt with years of SOTA activations. The infrastructure in place for SOTA to have chasers call you is simply not there or does not work as well for the newer schemes like HEMA and POTA.
If the reports I got back were true (which I believe they were), the little G106 and the HF-PRO2 are a combination that works well on 20m, but not so well on 40m. Despite that at the show I bought a Komunica Power HF-Explorer-Mini as a smaller loaded vertical to use with the G106 radio. We’ll see how well (or not) that smaller and lighter combination works over the summer.
Fresh back from my trip to Austria, it looked like John VK6NU was going out while on holiday in Ireland to an EI SOTA summit. Mike (2E0YYY) would also head out to give John a call and to round it off if we both could get to our summits early enough Ernie VK3DET had offered to try for a contact. So a contact with either John or Mike would be both an H2S and S2S contact as my chosen summit is in both schemes.
The set-up would be the tried and tested G90 plus Linked dipole and the 6m mast, all of which pack into, or onto my medium-sized rucksack. However, after struggling with carrying the rucksack over the last few days, I decided to try something different and bought a shopping trolley with fairly large wheels from the local Aldi store for €30. when the shopping bag is removed my 40-litre rucksack sits perfectly on the frame and is held there using the existing straps and clips on the rucksack.
As the Long path window to VK had been opening earlier over the last few days, this was going to be an early start to be on air by 0630 UTC – meaning I needed to set the alarm for 0630 local time (0430 UTC) to get up, drive to the parking area, walk with the (as yet untested) trolley to the summit and set-up the gear ready for operation.
The Activation
Berndorfer Buchet – HEMA DL/HBY-064 and SOTA DL/AM-180.
This is my closest summit and it took just over 30 minutes to get to the car parking area early in the morning.
Once parked, it was a single action to take the rucksack on the trolley out of the rear of the car, so that saved a couple of minutes. I set off, half expecting to have a problem with the trolley before I got to the summit and then I would need to stop and “de-strap” the rucksack from the trolley and carry it for the rest of the distance. Luckily this did not happen and the trolley served me well, even when “bush-bashing” up the last (steepest) part of the access, where no clear path is available, there is high grass with nettles and thistles in it and the ground is covered with dead twigs and leaves.
When reaching the summit, I was able to leave the masts in the side of the rucksack, strapped to the trolley, get the linked dipole out of the top of the rucksack, unpack it and thread it onto the top of the mast, run the wires out to roughly where I thought I would be tieing them off on trees and then raise the mast to its full height. This is an improvement on the usual process of screwing the sun umbrella base into the ground, adding the mast and so on.
After also taking my thick painter’s sheet out of the top of the rucksack, I opened up the front of the pack to take out the radio and battery. This whole process worked very well and overall saved me at least 5 minutes, possibly 10.
Once I was set up, I sent Mike 2E0YYY/P a message via the “signal” messaging app (this summit has a good cellphone and hence Internet coverage) to find his frequency. A couple of minutes later we had a contact, weaker than usual but good. At this point Ernie, VK3DET tried to listen for me and gave me a call. Although I could just hear Ernie, it was difficult and again a lot weaker signal than expected. It was no surprise (given the power difference) that he could not hear me. That’s the way the bands are sometimes – however, looking into this later I think I know the reason why;
MUF during the activation – this explains some of the QSB and other problems on 20m (remember as a general rule, you will get the best DX conditions on the highest band under the MUF line). In short, 17m and even 15m might have been a better choice rather than 20m:
Being a weekend, there was of course the hassle of wide splattering contest stations (and wanna-bees) so finding a free frequency was especially hard on 40 metres but in the end, I got a few contacts in the log from around Europe as you will see from the logs below.
After packing up, thankfully, the route back to the car with the trolley was no more difficult than on the way up.
Photos:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack mounted on a shopping trolley.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
Screw-in sun umbrella support (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole.
Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole antenna (not used).
4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
Berndorfer Buchet
HEMA DL/HBY-064
SOTA DL/AM-180
Contacts Map:
Conclusions:
Weather conditions in Ireland meant that John VK6NU never got properly on the air before having to head back down ahead of the storm front.
Band conditions were variable on 20m and 40m was almost unusable because of contests that were going on, leaving hardly any free frequencies to operate on.
The equipment all worked as it should. The trolley helped with getting the heavy rucksack along the tracks however did have some problems as I went “Bush-hacking” up the final 25 vertical metres of ascent through grass, thistles and fallen twigs on a layer of old leaves. It performed wonderfully, however, as the base support for the antenna once I got to the summit. So “the jury is out” as to whether using the trolley is better than carrying the rucksack on my back. It may be better for some summits than others. It would be easier to pull if the handle was a little higher, so maybe some modifications will happen to the trolley over the next few activations.
For my holiday trip with my wife and dog, I chose the Salzburgerland region of Salzkammergut which is new to the Austrian HEMA scheme. At the same time, I would activate POTA and SOTA as well, if all went well. The trip was to be just 4 days long with half a day needed on Monday and Thursday purely from travelling to and from the village of Faistenau where we were to stay.
There still needed to be a balance between activations and time with the family and the weather needed to also be good for everything to work out.
This is an area where I have not been before, so I didn’t know what to expect except from the travel websites. I am glad to report that from a region to visit, the area fulfilled all expectations and the “Pension” that I chose turned out to be a great choice and I’d like to get this “plug” in for Pension Bayrhammer (Hinterseestrasse 55, 5324 Faistenau ). The host was fantastic and having our dog, he gave us a studio apartment at the back of the building that directly opened onto the rear garden and was separate from the rest of the hotel with its own parking spot. The price (including breakfast) was very reasonable and I would recommend this “Pension” (Bed & Breakfast in English) to anyone looking to spend a holiday in the “Salzkammergut” region.
Before leaving on the trip, I had done a couple of activations to make sure all of the radio equipment was fine and as well as the two rucksacks (one with the Xiegu G90 and antennas, masts and screw-in base), the small rucksack (with the Xiegu G106 and “throw in the trees antennas”) I also packed my three-magnet car roof antenna base to use with the HF-PRO2 loaded vertical which I have in the large rucksack as my back-up antenna. This was because, for the two planned POTA activations, I intended to work from the car.
Hopefully from all the equipment taken, I should be able to get on the air somehow!
Now all we needed was some dry sunny weather …
The Activations
Monday 12th June.
Firstly a SOTA summit on the way down – OE/SB-268 Gaisberg.
This summit is on the outskirts of Salzburg and looks down over the city. There is a good reason why this summit is the most activated SOTA summit in Austria. It is the definition of a drive-up summit with a car park and two restaurants on the top and large areas of open ground to set up on.
I took my large rucksack and headed up to the top where I found a convenient information stand to strap one of my 6-metre fibreglass telescopic poles onto and a bench seat to sit on. It only took a few minutes to get the Linked Dipole antenna up and after spotting, the first call in the log was Phil G4OBK from North Yorkshire followed by EA4BOC in Spain. Then followed some more UK and Spanish stations totalling 8 contacts in the log. 20 metres was starting to be difficult with deep QSB, so, as I didn’t want to keep the other members of the party waiting, I called it a day and packed up to head to the restaurant which was open for our lunch before continuing the journey.
The weather was not too hot but sunny and a very nice start to our holiday.
After unpacking at the digs and doing some supermarket shopping we looked to see where we would eat in the evening. In this area, when not in high season, it is often the case that restaurants are only open for the weekend plus Friday, so being closed Monday, and Tuesday is normal with some restaurants also closed on Wednesdays! We found one restaurant in the area overlooking a lake to the west of the village open and getting there was the start of our experience with roads in the Salzkammergut region. It seems that single-track roads with pull-off points are almost normal here and to have a road where you can pass oncoming traffic without having to drive off the road is a luxury. At least we didn’t meet any buses or large trucks on our several journeys down these small roads! The restaurant “Seewirt Strubklamm” was wonderful.
Tuesday 13th. June
This was planned as a POTA day with the ability to also see some of the beautiful countryside and lakes. These POTA parks were both first-time activations and were OE-0082 Fuschlsee Nature Reserve and OE-0055 Schafberg-Salzkammergetseen Nature Reserve.
POTA OE-0082 is a small park on the western shore of Lake Fuschl but the car park is within the park boundaries and there are tracks leading off from it. So while my wife and our dog could go for a casual walk in the park, I set up the radio gear on the front passenger seat and the loaded whip on the 3 x mag-mount on the roof, spotted myself on POTA and hoped for some calls. This was too late for any DX but 20m was quite busy and as well as POTA chasers I also had some others simply calling for a chat which is nice but as in POTA you need a minimum of 10 contacts and the family would return at some point, I pushed on and finished with 17 contacts in the log.
The location I had picked for the next park POTAOE-0055 was near a lay-by where there is an actual “Fish & Chips” stall (actually that lay-by is already in the boundaries of the park). We needed to go past it on the way to a larger parking area that I had picked for the next POTA activation spot. As we came up to it, it was obviously closed. We hoped it was simply too early and it would open after I had finished the next POTA activation, so we went onwards to the large parking area, this time we left our dog in the back of the car and my wife went and sat on a nearby bank to read in the sunshine and I set up the radio again (this time on the back seat so that I could calm the dog if needed (it wasn’t she happily snoozed in her area at the back of the car)).
I had left the mag-mount on the car roof, so the set-up did not take long. Getting contacts however was more difficult but eventually, I managed to get 13 contacts in the log. This was 13 contacts from around Europe on the 13th of June and our room number back at the hotel was 13 – so it’s a good job I am not superstitious!
Both of these parks had not been activated before.They were first time activations.
So having finished the Schafberg-Salzkammergutseen POTA activation, it was time to head back to the Fish & Chips stall near Winkl with the hope that it might have opened. It hadn’t and when we parked and went to see why not (nothing is indicated on the web) it turns out that it only opens on the weekend and on public holidays. A real disappointment, which in the hope to save others the disappointment, I have now added the opening times on Google Maps. As we were then stuck trying to find somewhere for lunch, I turned to Google Maps and found a restaurant not too far away on Mondsee Lake that was open. We had luck again, the “Gasthof See” just over the border in Upper Austria turned out to be a wonderful location with good food and very attentive service – another recommendation if you are in the area.
On returning to our hotel, I decided to take a look at access to the local HEMA summit OE/HSB-152 Kugelberg and also check out a restaurant for Wednesday evening (which was also closed Monday and Tuesday). The result of this was that the quick access route to Kugelberg that I thought I had found on the map turned out to be a private road and parking on the (single track) “main” road to walk to the “TrimPfad” (exercise area) on Kugelberg would not be possible as the car would block the road. On taking a look at the restaurant (the “Bramsaubraü”) however, it had a path to Kugelberg from its Biergarten. Looking at this on the map it would take longer than the earlier planned route but should be possible with the added advantage that my wife and dog could join me for part of the way, which they wanted to do. So a change to the plans was made and ….
Wednesday 14th June
Wednesday saw a mid-morning start to try to ascend Kugelberg (HEMA OE/HSP-152). I had set my plan to get to a point on the map where the track was inside the activation zone.
Once out of the gardens of the restaurant, there was a short climb but then a nice flat track, which, in the morning sunshine was a pleasant walk. We had agreed that my wife and our dog would only go as far as when the steeper track went off up the mountain about 50 metres after the “Trim-pfad” which is what we did. I bid them goodbye and they returned to the car, parked in the restaurant car park and I started off up the steep track tracing on my map as I went. When I got to the point where the map showed the track as finishing, it didn’t as a narrower track continued on as did I. Choosing narrow tracks as long as they went higher eventually I reached the summit where I found a marker stone. I presume this is the equivalent of the German trig-stone or UK trig-point indication used for mapping.
Space was very limited and this was close to a lot of trees. My usual choice would have been the Linked-Dipole antenna however there was no way that I could have fit it in, so my only choice was my backup – the Kommunica Power HF-PRO2 on my small tripod with 8 x 3 metre long radial wires. I was not hopeful of many contacts as using a vertical in among close trees is a bad idea as the trees absorb the radiated RF and to add to my problems I had no Internet coverage on the summit but luckily Mike 2E0YYY in England, who was out on a SOTA summit had sent me his frequency while I was still getting cell tower signals, so I set up and tuned to his frequency and there he was with Dom 2E0KIO (both were operating as 2R0 as they had special callsigns celebrating King Charles’ coronation). I called and there were my first two contacts in the log. For HEMA and SOTA 4 contacts are needed to “qualify” a summit. After moving off to a free frequency, it then took me another 15 minutes to attract another call on 40m and this was a hard contact to make into Switzerland with my report being 3-4. I decided to move up to 20m and I was very glad to find things a lot easier there where I managed 4 contacts in 12 minutes, a lot better than I had been doing on 40m. The key point was I had 7 contacts in the log.
This activation was difficult without reliable Internet coverage but there was also another problem the power lead broke as I was setting up, luckily this is one thing that I carry a spare for and I was glad I did in this case.
I had given my wife an approximate time when I would head back down the mountain and I was already 10 minutes late on this plan so I closed down and packed everything back into the rucksack and headed back down the steep tracks. As I turned onto the flat section, there was my wife and dog coming to greet me and escort me back to the car.
My wife had been very supportive during this holiday but I wanted her to do something she wanted to do in the area while we were in it, so that afternoon we headed to Lake Mond for lunch and for her to take a boat tour of the lake while I looked after our dog by walking her in the parks in Mondsee town.
Wednesday evening we went back to the Bramsaubraü restaurant where we had parked the car in the morning and the views, meal and service were “top-notch”.
This was our last night in Faistenau. the next morning we would be checking out and heading home, but not without another summit activation on the way.
Thursday 15th June
The trip home…
After packing our trip took us to another new HEMA Summit OE/HSB-156 Plainberg (Pronounced “Plenberg”) which is another summit above Salzberg looking down onto the city. This one although mostly a “Drive-Up” with the beautiful Maria Plain church and an up-market restaurant near the car park, there is a bit of a walk to get to the summit.
After we went to see the church and its grounds, bought and sent a postcard (have you realised how difficult it is to find postcards these days?), we went back to the car park where at one end the track to the summit starts. Again my wife and the dog chose to accompany me and this time we all got to the summit – at least I believe it was the summit as the ground dropped off around it in all directions but I could not find any marker stone this time. It would certainly be in the activation zone where I set up in any case and this time, there was enough room to put up the Linked Dipole antenna but again, despite being close to a large city, the cellphone coverage was patchy.
I decided to start on 20m as Mike (2R0YYY) was again out, this time on a HEMA Summit – G/HSP-020 Mow Cop, so we completed the first-ever HEMA-to-HEMA summit contact from England to Austria. The following nine contacts were with stations from the UK, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Ukraine.
So that was the conclusion to the radio activation week and how better to finish it off than with lunch at the restaurant on Palinberg, before tackling the drive home. We were very lucky with the traffic both when travelling to and returning from Austria – more that can be said for drivers going in the opposite direction where we saw various “Stau”s, “Traffic Jam”s or “Gridlock”s however you want to call them. Indeed on our return journey, we got a message over the SatNav that the autobahn we were travelling on had had to be totally closed in the other direction.
The trip had been a great success and there are lots and lots more HEMA summits in Austria’s Salzbergland just waiting to be explored!
When the weather plays along, it is possible to combine radio activations with a holiday in a new area with the family.
All the radio equipment worked well, the only problems (especially on the less well-known schemes like POTA and HEMA) came when my phone had no, or patchy Internet connectivity.
The main radio rucksack can become a heavy load, especially on the steeper tracks. I will look into some kind of trolley for summits where such an option is usable.
In preparation for my trip to the new Salzburgerland region in Austrian HEMA, I wanted to check that all the equipment that I would be taking (space limited by other people and a dog in the car) were working so I decided on an activation of a combined HEMA and SOTA summit (this is actually also a World castles award and COTA location as the summit has some castle ruins on the top of it).
Recently the long path to VK has been opening around 0630 – 0700 UTC so I would need to start early to drive down into Southern Allgau and to the parking spot at the restaurant before the steep walk up to the summit and then set up and try for a contact with Ernie VK3DET who had kindly offered to listen out for me. Mike 2E0YYY (or 2R0YYY for May and June) was also heading out to a SOTA summit to be there from 0630 UTC. So my alarm was set for 05:30 am local time to make this all happen and I put the fully packed rucksack ready to be picked up after having my breakfast on the following day (Wednesday).
For a change, the weather forecast was for a warm sunny day.
The Activation
Eisenberg – HEMA DL/HBY-036 and SOTA DL/AL-171.
The drive down I know very well but there have been some changes in the last year with one village having been bypassed completely using a tunnel and some very recently opened road sections. There were also diversions for some other closed roads in the area but nothing that affected my route luckily.
I arrived at the car park and was the second car in the (small) car park, so someone was up and about earlier than me! Most likely a local who was taking in the morning air. Also active when I arrived were about 20 cows, who came right up to the fence to the car park to see what was happening.
After “donning” the rucksack and rather than putting my waterproof jacket on, I strapped it to the outside of the rucksack as it was already turning into a warm day, I started the walk up the gravel track and it wasn’t long before I was stopping to catch my breath. I think “Rucksack bloat” has occurred with more things being added to it “just in case”. The result is a 12-kilogram rucksack which should really be about three kilos lighter!
Once I got to the castle ruins, I headed out to my usual spot on the wooden platform at the far end of the ruins, which is closest to the actual summit. It has not weathered the storms this last winter very well and several of the boards had broken or come loose from the metal frame below it. This will need to be repaired soon if someone is not going to break their ankle in a hole or worse still, fall right through as the wood gives up completely.
For my usage on this day, it would suffice in any case. I spread my painter’s sheet on the ground, strapped the 6m mast to a post on the side of the platform and put up the linked dipole with the link disconnected to enable 20-metre usage.
I was expecting some visiting members of the public as the weather was so nice, so I also got out some brochures on amateur radio to give them but the few people who did come by simply ignored me and carried on, on their way.
I spotted myself first on HEMA and called CQ a few times and first in the log was Don G0RQL from Devon in England. Soon after that, I saw that Mike 2R0YYY was spotted as out with another amateur – Dom 2E0KIO so I worked both of them on the “Gun” SOTA summit and then tried for my planned sked with Ernie VK3DET. Sure enough, there he was but only at a strength S4 signal where he will often be S8 or S9 when I am out portable. In any case with 54/44 reports in the log, it’s a contact that would not have happened from home as, even though I am in the countryside at home, the local noise level is often up to S4 or 5. Looking at all the other contacts that I got, it’s fairly clear that the skip was running short and while this is good for inter-Europe contacts, it’s not good for DX. In fact, I did not hear any other VKs on the band at all.
When I finished up with Ernie I put out several more CQ calls and spotted myself again and got a call from a station who was actually mobile in his car running just 40 watts to a mobile whip. Dave G0ODH/M was driving in North Staffordshire (UK) and putting a good S8 signal down to where I was close to the German / Austrian border.
That was 5 contacts in the log and enough to Qualify the HEMA summit DL/HBY-036, so now I spotted myself on SOTA and started calling CQ SOTA. As always there are a lot more SOTA than HEMA chasers and I soon got to better than one contact per minute, even with my “chatty style”. After “draining” the 20-metre callers, I switched the antenna and radio to 40-metres for a lot more chasers. When this flood calmed down, I looked at my watch to see it was just coming up to 10 am local time and the restaurant where I had parked my car would just be opening up, so it was time to pack up, head back down and then pop into the restaurant garden for a leisurely Weissbier before setting off home. The ideal way to end a successful activation.
Below is a map of all of my contacts.
Photos:
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Equipment used:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole antenna (not used).
4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
Eisenberg
HEMA DL/HBY-036
SOTA DL/AL-171
Conclusions:
Band conditions at the time of this activation were short skip not as good as they have been.
Most importantly however, the radio / mast / antenna combination worked without any problems and hence is ready for the run of activations in Austria next week – the question is, dare I remove the backup antennas from the rucksack to reduce the weight?
As the weather here, at last, has changed from being cold and wet, to being sunny and dry and “not cold”, I decided to test the radio pack out before my planned trip to Austria in a few weeks’ time.
Rösenau Kreuz is my closest “HEMA only” summit. The high point on the small plateau does not have its own summit name (Schwalbenstein is not far away but is lower than this actual summit), so it is named after the very small metal cross on a concrete base by the track in the forest on the actual summit.
As I wanted to try for a contact with Ernie VK3DET in Australia and the Long path window appears to be getting earlier, this would be an early start so the alarm was set for 6 am and the larger rucksack put ready with the ground stake on Monday.
Rösenau Kreuz, there is a short but steep walk up a forest track to get to the summit plateau, so the weight – probably about 16 kilos of larger rucksack should be OK. In the rucksack are two 6m masts, the G90 radio, its LifePO4 and LiHV batteries, the linked-dipole, the off-centre-fed dipole and “just in case” the Komunica Power HF-Pro antenna and its tripod and radial wires. Oh and of course also, my pack-up and water bottle.
The band conditions on 20m haven’t been great for a while, so I planned to operate on 20m and 40m to make sure I get the minimum 4 contacts to qualify the summit.
Röseau Kreuz – HEMA DL/HBY-040.
Tuesday morning was dry and the sun was out but it was still quite cold at 7 am when I left home.
The drive down was uneventful and I was parked at my usual spot by the cross for St Ursula facing the walk up the track to the summit. Once unpacked I started on the trail, which passes two further religious wooden crosses.
On arrival at the spot which I found the last time I was up here (basically, turn sharp right at the Rösenau Kreuz and head through the forest and out onto the grassed area), I was surprised to find I was waist-high in the grass, given that most farmers in the area have already cut all their fodder and stored it away, this farmer seems to be a bit behind schedule, so I was hoping he didn’t decide this morning would be a good opportunity to mow the top paddock!
At least it was not waterlogged as it has been in the past.
Setting up the mast (N-S to give the best E-W radiation for long- or short-path to Australia) and the radio gear on my painter’s plastic sheet went without a problem and I sent Ernie a message via Signal. A few minutes later I could hear Ernie’s voice. Not as strong as usual but workable and he managed to pull me out of the noise at his end as well, so that was the first contact in the log. Later when Ernie was working Dave G4AKB/PM in Blackpool, he was 1 or 2 S-points stronger, so I think I may have been out a little too early.
Despite spotting myself on the HEMA cluster and Ernie and Mike spotting me on the DX Cluster and on the HEMA Facebook group, It took ages to get any callers. There was of course the usual spaltter from stations 1,2 or 3 kHz off frequency who simply ignore any low-power stations calling nearby. I think I may have someone deliberately jamming me, based on my spots on the HEMA website as a repeated on-off carrier appeared each time on my frequency as soon as I spotted on HEMA.
As well as the nice contact with Ernie, I also was called by Don G0RQL on 20m and worked one Czech Republic station and two Austrian stations on 40m. Interestingly the two Austrian stations were not far away from where I am going on holiday.
In all a good activation but a little disappointing with the number of chasers but HEMA is not nearly as large as SOTA is and I suspect most were still in bed! We’ll see if an afternoon activation is more to their liking on Thursday.
Photos:
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Equipment used:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
Diamond RHM8B loaded vertical and tripod (not used)
Aerial-59 404-UL 40m OCF dipole. (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (x2 – one spare).
Screw-in sun umbrella support.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Log:
Rösenau Kreuz
HEMA DL/HBY-040
Conclusions:
Band conditions at the time of this activation were not brilliant and I was a little early for the Long path to Australia but it’s always good to get through to Ernie in Victoria. Attracting chasers for a HEMA summit is a difficult task.
The combination of the Xiegu G90 with its 20 watts and the linked dipole even with the small (effectively 5m high) pole continues to work very well. The radio did sound a little quiet when I first turned it on, so I may need to do a factory reset of its settings before the next activation.
As I wanted to test out my new “simple 40m Dipole” and I wanted to incorporate a bike ride, the 9 km away Schönbühl which I activated some years ago, seemed like a good option. We have had some fairly constant rainy and cold days but this day was supposed to stay dry – radio conditions on the other hand didn’t look good and indeed turned out to be less than stunning!
For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 9 kilometres (a 20-minute cycle ride) from my home. This is going to be my third “Go-Green XOTA” summit where the summit is accessed without any motorised transport.
Mike 2E0YYY agreed to head out to his local summit to give me a contact while he is using his special 2R0YYY/P callsign to celebrate the coronation of King Charles.
Apart from the 40m dipole, the equipment would be – my “light-weight-pack” (Xiegu G106, throw-bag with cord, 40m Dipole and J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m, plus my external RF speech clipper).
The Activation
GMA DA/AV-340
The cycle ride along farm roads and forest tracks (which were more stony than I remember them) there followed a walk along the edge of one field pushing the bike and then a last rise up to the plateau summit. I could find no marking such as a summit cross however this is the highest point in the area and close to the lat/long coordinates given on the GMA site.
I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of a tree at the side of the field. The branches were quite numerous and I only managed to get the cord over one of the lower, thinner branches, but that would have to do as Mike would be ready in 15 minutes in the UK and rain was forecast for him.
Once the cord was up, the 40m dipole went up easily and I was able to tie off the end cords of the elements onto other trees in the row. After unpacking the radio, log etc onto a new compact mat that I received as a birthday present (this was the first time of use) I powered up and plugged in the antenna and tuned 40m – it was busy – I found a very strong portable French station, Jean-Marie F5NLX/P who I called, he came back to me straight away and we exchanged 58/56 reports – so for the first QSO on the new antenna with just 5w from the g106, that was a good start.
I now tried for my sked with Mike. When I could hear him, he was very weak and within seconds some other station would start calling either directly on our frequency or 1 or 2 k/cs off. This was not boding well. Via the Signal messaging app, Mike suggested we try 20 metres with the hope that that would be better. I agreed and then took down the 40m Dipole and put up the 20m J-Antenna. here is where it would have been better to have the support cord over a higher branch as hauling the 20m J-antenna up, the bottom half was still on the ground and I ended up draping it over branches on other trees and bushes to keep it off the ground. Not an ideal setup.
It was sufficient to get a contact with Mike though. Interestingly he was 1 S-point weaker on 20m than on 40m but we managed a 53/32 contact and he was in the log.
The next 45 minutes I spent trying to get two more contacts so that I could claim the points for a qualified summit.
The loud stations either could not hear me of ignored my weak signal to them.
One rather special contact was with Dave M0DAD/PM – while he was walking along Blackpool seafront in northeast England using a handheld Xiegu X5105 with a loaded whip and a trailing counterpoise wire. We were both running just 5 watts with Xiegu radios and this was a 54/45 contact. A proper QSO as we talked for about 10 minutes.
the rest of my time on this summit was spent calling stations and calling CQ, trying to get the needed fourth contact. The GMAWatch site does not seem to generate any chasers on a weekday, where the SOTA system would bring in a pile-up of callers for a SOTA summit.
Eventually, I managed a contact with Tommy, EI2KP, a booming signal from a coastal town on the north coast of Ireland (but still within the Republic of Ireland). we exchanged 59/53 signal reports, so the radio/antenna was putting out a signal, it was just that conditions were very variable – at one point Tommy dropped from 59+ to 53 and then came back up.
So an interesting activation with a relatively hard cycle ride to and from the summit but the equipment all tested out well but I will need to practice the sling-bag throwing to get it over higher branches in future.
Contacts map:
Photos:
GMA DA/AV-340:
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Equipment taken:
Raddy small rucksack.
Xiegu G-106 radio.
Throw-bag and cord
Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
Homemade 40m Dipole antenna.
2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
Pack-small ground mat.
Lightweight JVC headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DA/AV-340 Schönbühl
Conclusions:
A mid-week activation of a GMA summit, when band conditions are nothing special is hard work to get the needed four contacts.
The new 40m lightweight dipole works fine with the G106 radio.
Twice a year an attempt to make SOTA Summit-to-Summit contacts between Europe and North America is made during a specified day. This year the days are in April and November and this was my participation in the April one.
My originally chosen summit was Eisenberg but as that is a real tourist trap, this event is on a Saturday and this was the first dry and sunny day in three weeks, I decided that the number of people there would make it impossible for me to set up my antenna system without inconveniencing someone, so at the 11th hour I changed to Weichberg. that being said, this turned out not a “deserted location” with about 15-20 mountain E-Bike riders coming through in the 2.5 hours that I was there, but it was the right decision as I would have been overrun at Eisenberg and that SOTA/HEMA/GMA/COTA/WCA location can wait for a mid-week activation when there are fewer tourists.
I decided not to test any of my new antennas on this activation and the equipment list is fairly standard. As the grassy area at Weichberg is actually “fake” in that it is a thin layer of grass on top of rubble and stones, the screw-in mast support does not work well here, so I decided I would take my large Surveyor’s tripod and with it my 10-metre mast for this activation. As I had both the linked dipole and the 404-UL OCF dipole from Aerial-59 already in the large rucksack, they would be my choices of an antenna and indeed I went with the Aerial-59 one as I don’t need to lower it to change bands.
Given the wish to contact North America (most likely on 20m), this would be an afternoon activation and my plan was to set off at 12 noon local and be set up and operational by 2 pm local (1200 UTC). In fact, as I know this summit and the route to it so well, I was operational soon after 11 am local time (1300 UTC).
The Activation
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
As I was approaching the car park, I could see up on the hill that the wooden table that I normally sit at was in use by several people, so I might need to sit on the ground or use the bench under the trees.
On getting to the car park, some people had just come down and were about to head off on their bikes – luckily, it seems, these were the people who had been at the table and I found it clear when I got to the top of the track, so I dropped my rucksack on the table, marking at least a little spec for my use during the next few hours. In fact, the table and benches alongside it seem to get used more as a mountain bike stand than for sitting down at!. In any case, no one complained about what I was doing and only a couple asked more out of politeness than having any interest I suspect.
As I said earlier set-up went quickly with only one small problem – I set up the tripod and 10m mast a little too far away from the table for the coax to reach comfortably and had to lower the mast and move it and the tripod closer. Once in position and with the mast raised again, I tied off the ends of the dipole to a fence post at one end and to a peg at the other. Luckily (the wire being black) everyone riding around on their bikes saw the wire and avoided it.
I started in “search and pounce” mode and checked SOTA Spotter to see where other SOTA activators were on 20m and my first 4 contacts in the log were S2S contacts (but only within Europe). It seems that a lot of the activators who had alerted for 1200 UTC were, like me, already set up and operational by 1100 UTC. I then found a free frequency, spotted myself and started calling CQ. It was long before I got a steady run of calls including GB2GM – the Marconi station at Poldhu in Cornwall. It turned out that this was Marconi Day as well and I actually had three of the Marconi Special Event stations call me during the time I was active.
Having put up the OCF antenna rather than the linked dipole had been a good idea as it meant that I could switch to 40m and 15m as I saw other activators spotted there.
Band conditions were not good with the Kp Index over 4 which also meant that the critical frequency was above 7 MHz and hence, when I moved to call CQ on 40m, it was Bedlam as so many stations were trying to fit into the band. We also had the “QRP to the Field” QRPTTF event going on and a YOTA contest, so things were busy. I worked several other activators in Germany via NVIS on 40m and a couple by groundwave on 20m. Rob DM1CM was out as well running a Delta loop antenna on 20m and using the same radio as I do – a Xiegu G90 was putting out a very strong signal with the antenna.
Unfortunately, there were to be no S2S contacts across the “pond” this time – the conditions were not good enough. I did hear one fixed US station early on but that was all. In fact, there were very few North American SOTA activators spotted until early evening European time by which point 20m has normally closed.
Was the activation worth the effort? Yes even though there were no US or Canadian contacts there were plenty of others from around Europe. I did learn something new from this activation and that is a LifePO4 battery with a built-in BMS (Battery Management System) is not always your friend as when the battery’s charge is going down and before the radio can warn you of it – as is the case with LIPO batteries, the BMS inside the LifePO4 package simply cuts power without warning – mid-QSO! When this happened to me, I scrambled to connect my LiHV (LIPO-high voltage) battery up to get back on the air. This was a surprise I could have done without!
Photos:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg:
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Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna with a modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials. (not used)
2 x Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast. (not used)
DX-Wire 10m mast and Surveyors tripod.
Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole.
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/AL-179 Weichberg
Contacts map:
Conclusions:
This wasn’t the worst weekend activation that I have had – it actually went rather well. My call NOT to go to Eisenberg was the correct one.
I need to keep a closer eye on the battery voltage when using the LifePO battery to avoid the sudden cut-off problem that I had here.
The 10-metre mast and indeed the rest of the set-up worked well. It was probably worth having to carry the extra weight of the tripod and mast up through the fiorest track to the summit as with a lower mast, the antenna wires would have been more of a danger for the cyclists.
As I wanted to test out my new “Resonant Feeder Antenna” for 40m, I had planned an activation of a local GMA summit for Easter Monday when the weather forecast said, it should be warm and sunny. However as the Sunday, unexpectedly turned out to be dry and not as overcast as the last week, I decided to move the activation forward a day.
This activation would also serve as a signal that I have at long last kicked the influenza that had been troubling me for the last three weeks. While not a serious infection, this particular virus had gained a reputation for being difficult to throw off and 3 – 4 weeks has been normal for many people. After three years of “isolation” to protect ourselves from Covid-19 our immune systems have not been “exercised” by minor colds and flu and hence when this new strain appeared, it has has a high infection rate and the long duration.
For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 4 kilometres (a 30-minute walk) from my home. This is the second time in a month that I have tried to activate Gagelberg (DA/AV-071) that time I managed no contacts as 20m was closed and I had no 40m antenna with me.
Apart from the 40m RFA the equipment would be the same – my “light-weight-pack” (Xiegu G106, 40m RFA and J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m, external RF speech clipper).
Under the rules in GMA, a summit has to be at least 150m above sea level and be listed in online documentation (on an online map, in WikiPedia etc.). Gagelberg meets these requirements and while it is an open walk (on which I got lost the last time), there is also no rain cover should the showers return.
The Activation
GMA DA/AV-071
After the walk across the fields and up to the summit cross, I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of the tree above the seating bank. This was higher than I managed the last time and needed to get the co-ax antenna up sufficiently to be usable. Originally not planned, but Mike 2E0YYY had gone out to his local summit and park to see if he could work me, as well as other stations but despite several tries with the new antenna, I could not hear him and he could not hear me. In fact, the whole 40m band seemed very “quiet” to me and this on a Sunday afternoon? Mike was reporting a band full of signals where I could probably hear only 5-6 stations. The RFA antenna had broken when I was putting it up but I had made, what, as far as I could see, was a good temporary repair. Despite the fact that when tested on my Rig Expert Antenna Analyser, the antenna looked resonant – it appears this antenna design (see article here) is more of a dummy load than an antenna!
I took down the RFA and put up my 20-metre LambdaHalde J-antenna and pulled it up, over the same branch and then tried and got a contact with Mike on 20m with no problems. So that was definitely the end for the RFA.
The J-antennas are single-band antennas, despite that, when I saw there was a lot of activity on 17m, I switched bands and tuned around and found Jack MM0PLX/P on the Isle of Arran, I gave him a call while I was still on the 20m J-antenna. We made the contact and I would have liked to switch over to the 17m J-antenna and call him again but that would have meant taking one antenna down and putting the other up, which would take a few minutes and while the sky was turning dark grey and the temperatures had dropped, I decided against it and simply headed back onto 20m using the 20m J-antenna.
All in all, I only logged 6 contacts – all were around the UK and all but one were portable stations. So the 5 watts from the G106 with the external speech processor seems to work well when attached to a working antenna! One GMA, One IOTA and One POTA is the six is also not a bad collection. In all but one case, I got the station on the first call.
While using the G90 and a mast-supported antenna would certainly get better reports and more contacts, it would also have been twice the weight to carry and need twice the time to put up and take down.
All-in-All the lightweight pack is performing well, I just need to find a solution for a lightweight 40m antenna that I can support using the “throw bag and cord tree mounting system”.
Contacts map:
Photos:
GMA DA/AV-071:
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Equipment taken:
Raddy small rucksack.
Xiegu G-106 radio.
Throw-bag and cord
Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
Homemade 40m resonant feeder antenna.
2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
Lightweight JVC headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DA/AV-071 Gagelberg
Conclusions:
I qualified this simple summit, only on my third attempt but at least my bag-throwing skills have improved!
The combination of the G106 and the J-antennas is a good combination but the “Resonant Feeder Antenna” is a complete failure and I will need to find an alternative antenna, that while small and light still performs.
For this GMA (Global Mountain Activity) activation, no car drive would be needed as the summit is only 2 kilometres from my home and I would walk there. A few weeks previously, I had tried to activate another local GMA summit Gagelberg (DA/AV-071) but I managed no contacts and hence I wanted to check that my light-weight-pack equipment (Xiegu G106, J_antennas for 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m). I had repaired two broken wires in my external RF speech clipper and hence hoped that this would give the 5 watts from the G106 a little more “punch”. I had been heard well on an SDR in England from the other summit but was just unable to raise any contacts.
Under the rules in GMA, a summit has to be at least 150m above sea level and be listed in online documentation (on an online map, in WikiPedia etc.). Kappelenberg meets these requirements and often forms part of my morning dog walk. So while not being a real challenge in terms of ascent, it is a valid summit and a good spot to test out equipment and antennas from. I wondered whether the nearby water pumping station and houses that are not far away, might be generating some RFI however that was not the case, thankfully.
The Activation
GMA DA/AV-393
After the walk across the fields and up to the summit cross, I unpacked my throw bag and cord and threw it over a branch of the tree above the seating bank. To me, this looked quite high but when I attached my 20-metre LambdaHalde J-antenna and pulled it up, there was still some on the antenna on the ground so I took this and laid it over a lower branch on another tree, so this was then a “sloper” antenna rather than a vertical as it should be. The J-antenna (sometimes known as the “Zepp” antenna, as it was initially designed for use from the Zeppelin airships), has its own counterpoise built in, in the form of a quarter-wave stub – so there are (thankfully) no radials to lay out on the ground. The antenna is a resonant antenna on the band it is cut for. As the G106 has no built-in ATU, this is an important point.
Once I had the antenna in the trees, I set up my station on the bench – this entailed plugging the antenna into a fly lead from the G106’s pouch and plugging the radio into the battery and turning it on.
Just at this point, Mike 2E0YYY sent me a message that he was already set up on a GMA summit in England (M/SP-001 Cobridge Hill) and that at his end, 14.250 MHz was free. I tuned there and called Mike and he came straight back to me. The station was working.
Following my contact with Mike, I spotted myself on the GMA system and he spotted me in the DX Cluster. Four contacts followed breaking the 4-contact requirement to be able to declare the summit activated. As the first contact was with Mike when he was on another GMA summit, this counts as a Summit-to-Summit contact as well as being the first contact from this new summit.
I only operated on 20m as the radio conditions were not the best and I had no antenna for lower bands with me. A 40m j-antenna would need a very high tree to put it in and whether, with my current “bag throwing” skills, I would be able to do that, I’m not sure!
The map below shows that I was getting out well but of course, the first skip distance on 20m ruled out many possible contacts – which may also be why I had an issue at the previous local GMA summit.
The aim of this pack is to have a very lightweight, small and simple solution, that I can take with me when travelling by air, train or bus. I think I will need to find a small antenna for 40m to fit these requirements to add that band to the pack.
Contacts map:
Photos:
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GMA DA/AV-393:
Equipment taken:
Raddy small rucksack.
Xiegu G-106 radio.
Throw-bag and cord
Lambdahalbe.de lightweight wire antennas (J-antennas) for 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m (only used the 20m one).
2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
2 Ah 3S LiPO battery (not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Lightweight headphones (not used).
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DA/AV-393 Kappelemberg
Conclusions:
I need to improve my bag-throwing skills! I should be able to get the antenna over a much higher branch (and get the cord down again without it “snagging”.
The combination of the G106 and the J-antennas is a good combination and gets the signal out well, although an antenna for 40m would enable many more, “closer-in” contacts.
After several cancelled (because of weather and unplanned commitments) tries, I was determined to get out to “a” summit again. Originally I wanted to test out the “wavelength-plus” on-the-ground antenna however following some positive comments from John VA3KOT on the VP2E antenna after I pointed him at it as an interesting antenna, I decided I probably should give it another try after building it nearly two years ago and only using it once or twice!
John VA3KOT, by the way, has a nice and friendly website that he calls Ham radio Outside the box, where he likes to look at unusual solutions used by hams to solve portable operations issues. The site is well worth a read and is where I found out about the wire-on-the-ground antenna while I was looking for a small lightweight antenna to use with my G106 radio while travelling.
I have built two VP2E antennas (actually three, but the third one was an attempt to make the antenna multi-band through the use of links – it failed). So I have a 40m and a 20m version at the moment. Both are twice the size of a normal dipole on the band and hence need space for any tests. For antenna testing, Rentschen is ideal as it is a drive-on summit with a plateau top. So I have lots of space to set up the antenna. I decided I would only test the 20m version as that is the band where some directional gain might prove the difference between making a DX contact and not doing so. It has to be said that, the possible 2 dBD gain in some directions compared to a dipole, is not a lot – but as we know, every little bit counts and the 20 watts of SSB from the G90 radio is hardly a “QRO” set-up, so “all help is gratefully received”.
To find out all about the “Vertically Polarised Two Element” VP2E antenna, a little of its history, how I built mine and my calculator for you to get the needed lengths for whichever band you choose, click here.
Ernie VK3DET had kindly said he would listen for me and Wx dependant, Mike 2E0YYY might get out to his local hill in the UK to give me an S2S contact.
As usual, all gear was packed in the car, the night before the activation, so that I could make an early start. That being said, this would not need to be a really early start as the 20m long path had been opening only from 0830 UTC (09:30 am local time) recently, so leaving home at 8:15 – 8:30 am would be fine.
The weather forecast was for a cool overcast day but, most importantly, no rain.
The Activation
Rentschen – HEMA DL/HAM-014 and SOTA DL/AM-176.
The good drive down in just over 40 minutes and I was parked on the summit by 9 am local time (0800 UTC). 25 minutes later I was all set up, with the VP2E “pointing” due West – my long path direction for contacts into VK. First in the log after a CQ call – Ernie VK3DET 5-4 in both directions.
Mike 2E0YYY had been unable to get out as they had constant rain all morning, so he kindly acted as my spotter and starting with the HEMA designation, I quickly put 18 contacts in the log. Many from the UK and many commenting on how loud and consistent a signal I had, while there was QSB on the band. In fact, surveying the contacts later I can tell that skip was short, which also explained why the band seemed full almost from end-to-end and this on a weekday! Ernie heard a couple of other European stations but none from Germany – perhaps we hit the best time with our contact or perhaps this antenna was achieving a good low-angle radiation pattern as the models show it should do. Some callers were weaker than I normally hear them, especially to the north and southeast – this could be the antenna’s directivity or simple conditions.
Once the callers dried up, I asked Mike to spot me again but this time on the SOTA cluster and the DX cluster and again I had a pile-up – another 18 contacts in the log. Of all the 36 contacts, Bernie was the only one from outside of Continental Europe. the majority of callers were from the UK, including one G0POQ from my town of birth – Hull in East Yorkshire. several of the contacts were conversations rather than only a report exchange, so the band conditions and the antenna were holding up well. After the second pile-up finished, I decided to pack up as it was only 3°C and the primary 4AH LifePO would have been somewhat drained after about a full hour of constant usage at 20 watts output. I did have a second battery with me (a LiHV 4 AH one) but I had achieved what I had come to do in testing the 20m VP2E and I am glad to say all worked well. None of the equipment had any issues on this outing.
Below as an extra in this report, I have the SOTAMapping map of all of my contacts.
Photos:
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Equipment used:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (not used)
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (not used)
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
Screw-in sun umbrella support (not used).
Converted Surveyors tripod.
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
Aerial-51 404-UL OCF dipole antenna (not used).
20 & 40m VP2E antennas (20m one used).
4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
Rentschen
HEMA DL/HAM-014
SOTA DL/AM-176
Conclusions:
Band conditions at the time of this activation were short skip not as good as they have been, which makes the contact into Australia (albeit an arranged, scheduled one) all the more of a success.
The equipment all worked as it should. The combination of the Xiegu G90 with its 20 watts of SSB and the VP2E (Vertically polarised 2-element) antenna on the 6m-high mast supported by the surveyor’s tripod worked very well from the first moment it was plugged into the radio. I now believe the antenna has “some” directivity however I suspect its greatest asset is the low-angle radiation and the amount of wire in the air, being twice as large as the dipoles that I normally use. The fact that it is purely a single-band antenna is a drawback as is the need to use the large tripod to support the mast.
DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog 
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