Tag Archives: DL/AL-167 Falkenstein

DD5LP/P – September 13-14 2022 – HEMA DL/HAL-033 & SOTA DL/AL-181 Burgkranzegger Horn and SOTA DL/AL-167 Falkenstein.

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Preparation:

As part of my short holiday away from home, I had hoped to activate some higher HEMA and SOTA summits that I had not activated before however as it turned out with uncertain weather and the fact that my wife and the dog wanted to come along, I decided on some simpler summits mixed with some sightseeing around the southern part of Allgau, Bavaria.

As it was to turn out, this was a good decision and we had two enjoyable days and one where it rained all day and we came home early. At this time of year that was probably the best, we could have hoped for. 

Preparation for the trip was limited by the space available as the rear area where I would normally load all of my radio gear was taken up by our dog “Bonnie” meaning all luggage had to fit in our small car on the rear seat.

So the activation equipment was limited to what could go into or be attached to the side of, my 40-litre rucksack. I even chose not to take the lithium battery charges to recharge batteries overnight and rather took three battery packs of different sizes with the expectation that I would not drain them all. This of course added to the weight of the rucksack, as did the screw-in mast base attached to its side.

No experiments with antennas, I would take the linked dipole and the 6m mast with the HF-PRO2 loaded HF whip and its small tripod inside the rucksack as the backup option (which I needed on the second summit).

The Activations

As the weather looked fine, it was decided to fit in one activation en-route to our hotel.

Burgkranzegger Horn – HEMA DL/HAL-033 and SOTA DL/AL-181.

This is a summit with not too difficult access – especially in late summer (the last time that I activated it was in winter and a big problem was fighting through the deep snow as no track was obvious). The summit itself has an open area where the dog could entertain itself. The reason that this summit is in both the HEMA and SOTA schemes is historical and while its prominence is just 125m it fits nicely into the HEMA range of 100-150m while being well under the SOTA 150m minimum.

On arriving at the parking spot at the clinic on the outskirts of Mittleberg village, the weather was fine and we all three set off up the track. Unfortunately, my wife was unable to complete the last part of the climb (she got over 85% of the way there) but rather than risk anything, she said after sitting and taking in the views for a while, she would start off slowly back down, with the dog and wait for me at the car. I continued on to the large telegraph pole sized holy cross on the summit and started to set up on the bench below it. Before I could get set up 5 cyclists arrived, they were doing a tour around the whole of Allgau and were interested in knowing what I was doing. I gave them one of my leaflets in german about “what is amateur radio” and realised that I had forgotten to re-stock my supply so I would not have any more brochures should other visitors happen by – which they did. A younger couple arrived about 20 minutes later and showed interest and so I broke off operations to explain to them what our wonderful hobby is all about.

At some point between the visitors, I managed to get enough contacts to activate the summit. It was very clear however that there is a far smaller following for HEMA than for SOTA. Indeed I think all of my HEMA contacts were people who just happened to find me on 40 metres, not people who had seen my spot on the HEMA website.

SOTA was the usual pile-up following just one spot and a couple of CQ calls.

One thing is for sure, the radio and linked-dipole did their usual sterling service with lots of good reports and in SOTA we do tend to give real reports.

After 45 minutes on the summit, it was time to pack up and head back down to the car park where my wife and dog would be waiting. As I had however texted to say that I was packing up, by the time I was halfway down the steepest part, I could hear the barks of a dog that I recognised and when I finally got down onto the level track, it wasn’t long before I found my wife and dog waiting for me on a sheltered bank under a tree. They had set off to meet me halfway. 

 That was the end of activations on Tuesday, it was now time to head to the apartment hotel in Pfronten and en route buy some supplies at a supermarket. Once we got settled in and went out for an evening meal, the discussion was about what I would do on  Wednesday. Whether I would go off alone to a higher summit or do something easy again.

The weather was looking like it would “hold out” until at least Wednesday afternoon and after some thought, we agreed that we would visit the local farmers market first thing, then head on up to Falkenstein followed by a tourists visit to Fussen about 30 minutes away.

SOTA DL/AL-167 Falkenstein.

This is a summit that I have activated several times (but not this year as yet). It has a quirky one-way private road that opens one-way at times related to minutes past and before the hour. (to be safe there are also traffic lights) so a bit of bad timing on arrival and you might have to wait 20 minutes before you can drive up the road, once you have bought your €4 ticket for use of the road.

We started Wednesday with a rather disappointing weekly market in Pfronten with just two stalls there, so we grabbed breakfast at a cafe and then headed off to the start of the private rod up to Falkenstein, arriving at the start of the road as it closed to allow those at the castle to drive down. No problems we had enough time.

Falkenstein is the highest castle ruins in Germany and was the last of the famous King Ludwig II’s castles and was going to be his base for hunting in the surrounding mountains however he drowned under suspicious circumstances in Starnberg Lake before it could be finished. 

The walk from the car park takes you past a 4-star hotel with expensive luxury cars parked outside, belonging to the hotel’s guests. After what was already a steep walk up the road, the last section is a series of natural and manmade steps up to the ruins themselves. I was glad to see the message that the ruins are open at the bottom of this last climb. Both my wife and dog were determined to get to the ruins to be with me this time while I was operating. It was a fairly hard climb but the views from the top reward you and my wife was very impressed. There was a hefty wind coming up, so I would need to get set up and complete the activation before any bad weather arrived. So I went to the gate to the inside of the ruins, which has a sturdy platform with solid steps up its two levels and even has a round wooden table on the top level – ideal to set the radio up on. The gate was padlocked shut. Whoever put the sign to the ruins being open at the start of the last climb was having a laugh at our expense now!

The problem now is that although there is room inside the ruins to set up the 6-metre mast and linked dipole, outside there is not. So after carrying the bigger antenna and mast and support up all those steps, I had to revert to my backup antenna – the Komunica HF-PRO2 loaded vertical whip on my small photo tripod and with my homemade radial wires. Thankfully once I got set up, this antenna performed like a champion on both 40 & 20m (it actually covers from 80m through to 70cm).  Despite being close to the ruin’s walls contacts were made from around Europe with good signal reports.

 Just as importantly, the dog had settled herself down and my wife was able to sit on a stone seat (of sorts) and enjoy the views and fresh air.

Once the callers dried up, I was able to pack up and we headed back to the car park to wait for the traffic light system to tell us that we could go back down the single-lane road. we then had a nice afternoon looking through the old town of Fussen before returning back to the hotel and heading out to a closer (and better) restaurant than the night before, just as the heavy rain started.

Thursday was literally a wash-out but we had had two great days and activated a couple of nice summits – a low-stress holiday.

 Photos:

Burgkranzegger Horn

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Falkenstein

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Equipment used:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used on Falkenstein)
  • Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials (used of Falkenstein)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (used on Bergkranzegger Horn).
  • Screw-in sun umbrella support(used on Bergkranzegger Horn).
  • SotaBeams linked dipole(used on Bergkranzegger Horn).
  • Battery box (2 x 5000maH hard-case 4S LIPOs) .
  • 4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
  • Painters thick plastic sheet.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms. 

Logs:

Burgkranzegger Horn

HEMA DL/HAL-033 

SOTA DL/AL-181

Falkenstein  SOTA DL/AL-167

Conclusions:

  • Despite the uncertain weather it was possible to have a low-stress and an enjoyable couple of days including some summit activations.
  • The HF-PRO2 on its small tripod worked very well and I wonder if I would have made any more contacts with the linked dipole on its 6-metre mast had I been able to put it up at Falkenstein.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DD5LP/P – August 19th 2021 – DL/AL-171 Eisenberg & DL/AL-167 Falkenstein.

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Preparation:

With Christos SV2OXS still in Munich and the trains running again after a strike we decided to include another SOTA activation trip. Initially, we had hoped that Michalos would join us as well however with the delay because of the train strikes, his return flight to Greece was on the same day as this new SOTA schedule.

As Michalos is not a ham, I had deliberately chosen two summits that are interesting for other reasons in that they have castle ruins on top of them and have some great views.

This trip would also act as a test for equipment that I will be using the following week on multiple summits in the Bavarian Forest area of Germany.

Before the day started I had also considered squeezing in a third summit – Zwolferkopf DL/AL-166 which is not far from Falkenstein but with train schedules combined with the one-way, traffic lights controlled road, logistically it wasn’t going to work.

Another attraction of the first summit is a nice country restaurant whose car park I always use when going to Eisenberg. That was also added to the plans.

I was surprised to find a railway station quite close to Eisenberg with a direct train from Munich, so Christos agreed that he would take that 2-hour train journey each way to save me having to drive into Munich to collect him. In any case, either arrangement meant that we would be starting the activations around midday local time and so only have the afternoon for the activations.

I have activated both summits previously and so know what antennas can be accommodated there.  Eisenberg would get the 6-metre mast and linked dipole and the limited space Falkenstein just the photo tripod and the Komunica HF-Pro2 vertical.

The Activation – Eisenberg

Having collected Christos from the railway station where the train arrived right on time, we were on the road up to the restaurant under the summit within 15 minutes but there were crowds of people, mainly walking and lots of cars parked at the bottom of the road – this was the busiest I have seen this summit EVER! It is school holiday time in Bavaria and this was the first nice day for about a week and it was approaching noon, so I suppose I could have predicted this but it was a surprise anyway. Luckily one car had just left and I managed to grab what was probably the last parking spot at the restaurant. After a quick check with the owner (as we were intending to go to the castle ruins on the summit before eating and he said it’d be OK but we couldn’t reserve a table for later). So off we went up a track I know in all kinds of weather still with lots of people doing the same thing – I’m used to being totally alone on this summit, so it was a little strange to have it so busy.

On arriving at the platform, I wanted to set up the mast and linked dipole but with several members of the public around I thought I may not be able to but with my guest along as well, I decided to just go and do it and EVERYONE moved when I needed them to and a few were even interested in what we were doing. It still amazes me that Ham Radio is recognised still by lots of people in Germany in England or Australia I’m sure the reaction would have been “What’s that?” but not here. The German public either know what it is or ask more to learn what it is. It’s a nice feeling almost respect, that you get.

In any case on this summit, I just set up the radio and antenna on 40 metres and got busy getting a few contacts in the log. Meantime Christos with his little QCX and telescopic whip antenna was logging good CW contacts using CW on 20 metres. Once I finished, we switched the linked dipole to 20 metres and connected it to the QCX to get a few more contacts in Christos’s log. It was at about this point that he said beware – the gaps in the planks in the platform are a danger as small components could easily drop through. 

Once the calls on 20 metres dried up, we decided it was time to go down and get lunch so that we could then head to the next summit. While packing up I moved one bag and what happened – Yes, an item dropped through the gap in the wooden planks, never to be seen again. This wasn’t an expensive part – it was just a rubber band that I use to keep the wound up antenna “under control” but after the warning, it was embarrassed to have to admit that I had indeed lost something down the hole! Temporarily the old PVC tape came out and served to hold the rolled-up antenna together until I got home where I found a replacement rubber band.

Once we got back to the restaurant, the queue for a table was across the car park. We were wondering whether to leave and try to find a different restaurant on the way to the next summit but after a little while the queue started moving and we were seated at a table. With the COVID restrictions, they are not allowed to simply fill every table which is what used to happen so there are inevitably delays in getting seated. Once seated however we could order and the food and drinks came very quickly (well done Schlossbergalm Zell!). This meant we were back on schedule but in discussions at lunch, we effectively decided to drop summit number three (Zwolferkopf) in favour of a more casual activation of number two (Falkenstein). After a nice lunch, we were on our way again to arrive at the start of the private road up to Falkenstein just after the lights had turned red. (cars are allowed up the road between xx:15 and xx:55 and down the road between xx:00 and xx:10)

The Activation – Falkenstein

After spending ten minutes as a tour guide/explainer to others who hadn’t known there was a one-way road that only opened at certain times in a particular direction and helping out with change for the ticket machine, which only takes coins (the ticket is till €4 as it was last year), we headed up the road as the first car when the lights turned green.

I pointed out the point where I would need to park about 2/3 of the way up the road if we decided to activate Zwolferkopf but with the road open times and the time of Christos’s return train to Munich, we decided to drop the third summit completely.

On arriving at the top car park, I was happy to find it wasn’t completely full, in fact, it was only half full so the crowds of tourists that we saw at Eisenberg hadn’t decided to head to Falkenstein (which was a relief). That’s not to say that there weren’t a lot more people here than I am used to and after we climbed the steep road from the day-visitor car park to the hotel entrance and then on up the steep track to the ruins, there was a surprise waiting for me.

I normally activate from the raised platform inside the ruins but for some reason, when we got to the gate, it was chained and locked. There have been times in winter when it would make sense to lock the gate as the rocks inside and the steps and platform itself are often ice-covered but I presume this action is more related to COVID – wanting to avoid people meeting up on the small platform. In any case as those controlling the ruins are not the hotel but rather the local council, all the way down in the valley, getting the area opened just for an amateur radio action would have not been successful and certainly not within the time we had available. So it was a matter of finding an alternative spot. I had only brought the Komunica HF-PRO-2 and its photo tripod and radials to this summit in any case as the platform is small and because I wanted to show Christos that this antenna does work as he has been blaming it as the reason that he hasn’t heard me from any summit during the last year. Using this on 20m, I worked a friend of Christos, Dinos SV3IEG without problem, so I think the more likely reason for the lack of contacts has been simply that I haven’t been out as much over the last year.

In any case after going around the base of the ruin, we returned back to the side facing the path up and found a small area there to set up the gear on. I wasn’t happy that this was so close to the castle wall but despite that somehow Lars SA4BLM in Sweden made it into the log. We worked 20m SSB and CW before switching to 40 metres which at this time in the afternoon was almost dead. A surprise for me as I’m used to 40m being so full that you can’t find a free frequency! Although we had plenty of time before Christos’s train we had to take into account the fact that the private road used to leave the summit, is only open in a downward direction for 10 minutes and missing that would mean you have to wait until the next hour. All went well, although Christos had rather a long wait at the station in what was like a bus stop shelter (these small rural stations no longer have any buildings whatsoever) and work more like a bus stop than a railway station. 

 Photos – Eisenberg:

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 Photos – Falkenstein:

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Equipment used:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90.
  • Sotabeams linked dipole “Band Hopper” on Eisenberg.
  • 6m LambdaHalbe mini-mast on Eisenberg.
  • Komunica HF-PRO2-Plus-T HF/VHF vertical and photo tripod with radials.
  • Battery box (2 x 5000maH hard-case 4S LIPOs).
  • Painters thick plastic sheet.
  • Lightweight headphones.

Log – Eisenberg:

Log – Falkenstein:

Conclusions:

  • The radio gear worked without issue with the only problem being the loss of one rubber band used in packing up the linked dipole, which fell between the planks on the platform at Eisenberg never to be seen again.
  • The new smartphone – an LG K42 was better in its “High-Contrast” mode (black backgrounds) but still was not easy to read. It connected to the 4G LTE network without any issues thankfully.
  • This was a day where the temperature was at the point, where one didn’t know whether to wear a jacket or not and the result of a jacket and a still relatively heavy rucksack caused a lot of sweating.
  • It’s enjoyable but tiring to do a joint activation with another amateur.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – March 16th 2020 – DL/AL-167 Falkenstein & DL/AL-166 Zwolferkopf.

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A day of blockages, diversions and re-routing – but at least it was warm & sunny!

Preparation:

This activation was originally planned to cover 4 summits, the two 4-pointers listed in the title plus two other 2 pointers that were not too far away. Even at the planning stage, this looked like it may not be possible time-wise as access to Falkenstein and Zwolferkopf is via a single track road with sheer drops at the side which only opens in each direction at certain times to avoid traffic meeting each other with possible “unfortunate consequences”. I, therefore, changed my alerts the day prior to the activations to indicate that I was concentrating on the first two activations and one of the other two would only be attempted should I be well advanced time-wise from the first activations. This turned out not to be the case and that third alert got deleted from the second summit as it was not going to happen (it’s nice to be able to edit and delete alerts via the SOTLAS website now).

Falkenstein has limited space to set up an antenna and Zwolferkopf is a long steep walk from the road, so in both cases, I decided I would use my “rapid deployment” set-up using the loaded mobile whip antenna rather than taking a mast and wire dipole. While I was still thinking of activating the third summit, that one would have had the mast and dipole set-up, so that was also packed into the car.

In any case, a reasonably early start was planned and all equipment charged up ready to go on Sunday evening.

The Activation:

I woke to a nice looking day, (for a change). The gear was loaded into the car with two jackets, one for rain and cold and one for a warmer day. The trip down to Pfronten, where Falkstein is located above is about an hour and 10 minutes trip normally. However … at about halfway, there was a diversion because the road was closed, taking me way off my expected route and to make it worse as I approached Pfronten at the round-a-bout on the outskirts of the town, there was a barrier across my normal exit but with a sign saying that the road was open up until Meilingen, which is where I needed to turn off to head up the road to the castle ruins in any case. So for a change, I was lucky. I even arrived at the start of the single track road, while it was still in the phase for people to drive up the road!

DL/AL-167 Falkenstein: After parking in the car park at the top of the road I packed everything I needed into my new rucksack, including the Komunica HF-PRO-2 antenna in its protective tube on the side of the rucksack and set off up the road. At Falkenstein, there are car parks for the general public and for those staying at the hotel on the summit. The public car park is about 50 vertical metres below the hotel, so there is quite a walk up to the hotel entrance and then from there up to the castle ruins is probably another 70 vertical metres up a lot of uneven steps. On arriving at the ruins, the metal gate needs to be opened and then it’s up two sets of stairs in the wooden platform where I was glad to find that the small round table was still there.

This was the first time in a while that I had such nice weather on a  summit – as I hope the pictures show. After setting-up the photo-tripod, I re-assembled the vertical antenna from its three pieces and screwed it onto the tripod and last of all fitted the 8 radial wires to the bottom of the antenna socket. I have listed on the transport tube which I made for this antenna, the setting on the coil-slider for various bands  (15 for 40  metres for example) so I set the coil slider at 15 and went back to the table where I had my rucksack laid on. Opening the bottom section of the rucksack I have the rig, the battery box, the microphone, the smartphone which acts as the rigs display and control panel and a new coax antenna lead (this is a replacement for the one which created me problems on my last two outings) which the coax lead from the tripod was then connected to.

On turn on, I found lots of stations booming in. I searched for a free frequency but after not getting a reply to my question “is this frequency free”, spotting myself and calling CQ, I heard a station booming in, only 1 or 2 kHz away, making the frequency unusable. This happened time and again on both summits and on the second summit, I had at least one station deliberately causing QRM on my frequency – where is the mentality in that? In any case, once I got on a semi-free frequency the contacts came rolling in and I ended up with over 20 stations for this first summit in the log and it was now time to look at heading for the second summit. Remember that the single track road is open in one direction at a time so I had to get back to the car before the full hour to be able to drive down the road to the spot that I wanted to park at before setting off on the about 2-kilometre track to Zwolferkopf from about halfway down the road. Well again, it worked out well with me with everything packed in the car in the car park ready for the traffic light to turn green from red.

DL/AL-166 Zwolferkopf: On arriving at the start of the track which is about half the way down the single track road I found a place to park which was not too muddy and did not cause any obstruction, locked up the car and set off again with the loaded rucksack up the track. This is a summit where some care is needed. In places, it is not clear where the track goes but thankfully every so often you see there red/white/red mark on a tree or rock, to let you know you are on the track. We are following track E4 here but apart from the start at the roadside, the track number is not indicated en-route. So some fitness is definitely needed as well as no fear of heights as the track weaves it’s way first up the side of the ridge and then along the top of it. This time there was an added complication. From the high winds, we had about two weeks earlier several very large and tall trees had been ripped out by their routes and were blocking the track making it impassible in about four places. This meant some off-track excursions down and around the bottom of the tree or at least to a point where it is possible to climb over the tree or trees blocking the way. With a fairly heavy backpack – I estimate between 15 and 17 kilos – this made the journey “interesting” and longer than expected. When I eventually arrived at Zwolferkopf, which used to carry two SOTA IDs as it sits exactly on the German / Austrian border, it was time to have lunch. The views in the sunlight from this summit are also amazing

As I mentioned earlier, I seem to have been plagued by stations causing me  QRM and this summit is where I had one deliberately causing QRM by running a carrier for minutes on what had been a free frequency (In had checked and called) – there are some strange people in the hobby these days! I managed to copy some chasers through the carrier but after a while, I had to try to find a different frequency and it was on the third frequency that I had QSYed to that I eventually got the calls rolling into the log. I could have, of course just logged the first four contacts and then packed up but I realise that for many chasers this could be a new summit for them as it’s not activated that often. Most likely because of the problems of getting up that track. That being said, while I was there a young guy came up to the summit on a mountain bike! How on earth did he get that past the trees with the bike?

I had just one technical problem on this activation – when I put my hand near to the microphone socket while transmitting, the receiver started making strange noises. I presume this was RF feedback as I had experienced with the amplifier previously but at the moment, I did not have the amplifier installed!

Once I finished and packed up the antenna, tripod etc. into the rucksack, it was time to head down and try to get to the car at the right time to be able to drive down the hill. With no traffic lights visible where I had parked, it would be a matter of checking the clock. Quarter past to 5minutes to the next hour has cars coming up the road and from the full hour for 10 minutes has cars going down to the valley.

I thought as I had found my way around, over, under or through the fallen trees on my way up the track to the summit, it would be straight forward to reverse the process on the way back. It wasn’t and at one particular point where several trees were blocking the track, I was guessing as to how to get around the obstacle. Unfortunately, a couple who had been in front of me were now out of sight so I couldn’t see how they had got past the obstacle. My attempts at getting around the trees took me further and further down the side of the ridge with what felt just like leaves and branches and leaves underfoot. Eventually, I got past the bottom of where the trees were (this was definitely not the route I had taken on the way up the track!) and rather risk heading further down the side of the ridge to come out at a place I would not recognise, I clambered back up the ridge to the track, so that I could follow that back to my car. A lot of effort with the heavy rucksack!

It all worked out though, but through the lost time getting pat the fallen trees, I had missed the narrow, downhill time window for the road, so rather than wait, parked where I was, I decided to drive back up to Falkenstein and wait in that car park which has the traffic light and in fact went and sat in the park nearby in the warm (20 degrees C) sunshine and caught up with my emails until it was time to be able to head down the road again, this time all the way to the bottom.

Knowing my preferred route home had the blocked road, I took a different route home as recommended by my car Navi which took about 5 minutes less than my normal route.

All in all a successful day out. good radio, good exercise and sunshine!

 Photos:

   Falkenstein:

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   Zwolferkopf:

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Equipment:

  • Xiegu X108G.
  • Photo tripod
  • Komunica HF-PRO-2 multi-band HF vertical antenna.
  • Battery box (2 x 5000maH hard-case 4S LIPOs).
  • Surveyors tripod with DX-wire 10m mast (packed in car but not used).
  • Aerial-51 OCF 40-10m dipole & SOTABeams Band Hopper linked dipole (taken but not used).
  • Thick plastic painters sheet.
  • Smartphone with PocketRxTx App and USB cable acting as an external display to the rig.

Logs:

DL/AL-167 Falkenstein:

DL/AL-166 Zwolferberg:

Conclusions:

  • The weather was wonderful for a change!
  • The “rapid deployment” (lighter) kit appears to work well with just the one RF feedback issue appearing.
  • I was right to drop the other two summits, I was exhausted after the problems getting back to the car from Zwolferkopf.
  • It seems the un-healthy amateurs from 80m have moved down to 40m so next time, I may try activating just using 20m if the MUF is high enough. This should allow me still to get the needed 4 contacts to claim the points for the summit (and the winter bonus points at the moment).
  • I would have liked to have tried out the speech processor (which I had with me) but with all the DQRM going on, I wouldn’t have been able to make any reliable tests.

73 ’til the next summit!

DD5LP/P – December 30th 2019 – DL/AL-167 Falkenstein – Winter Bonus points activation.

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Preparation:

As the end of the year got closer, I realised there was one more summit that I might be able to squeeze in, that I hadn’t activated in 2019. In fact, the last time I had activated Falkenstein was in 2017, so I missed the points from this summit in 2018 somehow!

Looking at the weather forecast, Monday the 30th. December looked like being a dry day and as it turned out, while cold enough that the ice and snow on the summit hadn’t melted, it was actually quite sunny.

This summit does not need a cable car to get to it. It is a “drive-up” summit, at least to about 70 vertical metres below the summit. It does have a novel access restriction however, in that the road up to the summit is a private, one-track road with tight hairpin turns and sheer drops off the mountain face at some points! The road is owned and maintained by a hotel that is located just below the summit and there is a charge of €4 for the use of the road, which is paid at a ticket machine at the start of the road by the traffic lights. To avoid vehicles meeting each other going in different directions (there are no passing spots) the road is controlled with traffic lights on a timer and cars are allowed to drive up the road between a quarter past the hour and 5 minutes to the next hour and drive down the road between the full hour and 10 minutes past. As it takes 5 minutes for the drive, the no-drive gaps of 5 minutes allow for those risking a last-minute sprint (usually the hotel supplies van).

So that I could get on-air at my planned time and return home for some afternoon shopping, I had to plan the trip precisely so as not to be delayed too long if I arrived at the traffic lights at either the bottom or top of the road, at the wrong time as that could cost me 30 minutes easily.

I decided that I would once again use the small set-up with the photo tripod and the Komunica HF-PRO2 loaded HF mobile whip. But, just in case, I would also take along my 6-metre mast and a couple of Inverted-V dipoles. My operating position is on the summit, upon a platform within the ruins of the castle. This does not allow a lot of space to run out dipole wires so it would be simpler if I could get my required 4 contacts just with the mobile whip.

Falkenstein is the highest castle ruins in Germany and it was to be another hunting lodge type castle for King Ludwig II but he was drowned in Lake Starnberg before the work could be completed. The location therefore also has a Castles on the Air and a World Castles Award designation of SWB-13014 and DL-0246 respectively.

As there is no cable car involved I decided to take both radio bags, so including the amplifier and various spare cables and things “just in case” i.e. twice as much weight as I really needed! All was packed the day before however for me it was a relatively late start at 9:45 local time for the estimated 75-minute drive. To arrive just as the road would open for traffic to go up it.

The Activation:

The drive down went well and I actually arrived 15 minutes earlier than I expected, meaning as I arrived I saw the light change from green to red. As I hadn’t paid my ticket at that point, to dash through the light would have been a bad idea. I waited the 15 minutes and then took off up the road. I have driven this road two times before but some of the hairpin bends were interesting to negotiate, as was getting past a parked truck, in use by a crew installing Armco barriers a little further up the road. In any case, I was back in my schedule when I arrived in the “day visitor’s” car park and loaded myself up with two bags and the HF-Pro2 antenna in a protective tube that I made for it.

The walk from here up the rest of the road to the hotel entrance is steep – especially when carrying the weighty bags, but the road was fairly clear of ice and so no problem to get up. The next stage after passing the hotel, on the final path and stone steps up to the ruins were more of a challenge and I stopped and added spikes to my boots, which made all the difference. Where other tourists were having some real problems with lack of grip, my spikes were cutting into the ice-covered stones and giving me good traction with my heavy load.

Upon arrival at the ruins, I found the gate open (as it’s supposed to be) and went in and up the wooden tower that has been built inside the stone walls. On arriving on the top, I was happy to see the same wooden table that was their three years ago – much better than having to put the equipment on the floor, especially as more and more people were arriving as I set-up.

The tripod and HF-Pro2 went up quickly and then it took a while to untangle the eight counterpoise wires and run them out. Once that was done, I set the loading coil on the antenna to the position for 20 metres connected the rig to the battery. I decided not to bother with the amplifier despite having carried it up to the summit, I also left the speech compressor and power microphone in the bag and stuck with the standard microphone. As I turned on the rig I wondered what I would hear. On my last two activations at this summit, QRM from the hotel or the microwave relay station behind it wiped out 20 metres on one activation and 40 metres on another. This time although there was some background QRM on both bands, it wasn’t enough to be a problem, so it looks like whatever was causing the QRM previously has been fixed.

I started on 40m but the band was busy and the first two frequencies where I called CQ and spotted myself were immediately swamped by splatter from stations just off frequency, so I’d hear someone call me – I’d go back to them, pass it back and then hear nothing more from them as I presume, I had been flattened by the other station. Perhaps I should have put the amplifier on? In any case, my third frequency worked fine and I got a nice series of seven contacts including one S2S contact with Rudi OE7RDI on Laber. When the calls dried up (bearing in mind, my wish to get back to the car to be there at the right time for the 10-minute window when one can drive down the hill) I decided to give 20 metres a quick try and made two contacts there before shutting down, packing up and heading back down to the car. The trip home was uneventful and I managed the planned shopping trip as well.

All in all, it was a successful activation, getting me the 4 activation points plus 3 winter bonus points and proving again that the simple loaded whip on a tripod can get a signal out all around Europe.

Photos:

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Equipment:

  • Xiegu X108G.
  • Komunica HF-PRO2 HF bands vertical whip.
  • Converted Photo tripod and counterpoise wires.
  • Battery box (2 x 5000maH hardcase LIPOs).
  • SOTA Beams linked dipole (not used).
  • 6-metre Lambdahalbe fibreglass portable mast (not used).
  • Plastic painters sheet (not used).
  • 2 Smartphones one running PocketRxTx App and USB cable as an external display for X108G and one used for spotting and taking pictures.

Log:

Conclusions:

Keeping the operation simple is the best solution and when I receive my birthday present of a slightly larger rucksack, I’ll be trying to cut back to include all essential equipment in the one bag, but not more than is required.

Overall the outing was worth it as I got my points and some time out in the sunshine.

73 ’til the next summit!