Preparation:

This was a test of equipment to be used the following weekend for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, where I planned to head down to my only lighthouses within driving range in Lindau on Lake Constance.

The area available at Lindau to set up in a public park in sight of both lighthouses is fairly small and with very little topsoil, the same in many ways as Kappelhohe at Weichberg.

My experience in previous years has been that just running the 20 watts from the G90 with a dipole was not a strong enough signal to avoid being “stomped on” by other home station “crocodiles” (big mouth, little ears) so I will be using my “G106 Stack” with around 70-80w PEP output. I had considered also taking the wire beam however the space needed would block too much of the park area in Lindau, so I chose a dipole for simplicity (as I will be operating alone), the aerial-51 404-UL off-centre-fed dipole gives me multiple HF bands.

This activation was to check the planned set-up for use in Lindau. I would also have a backup station with me at Weichberg in case there was a single item that needed attention and could be worked around to complete the main tests.

The most critical test was the use of a small shopping trolley, not only to transport the equipment (radio and shade tent) but also to act as the base support for the 6-metre mast.

As usual, the car had the equipment packed into it the day before the activation to allow for an early start as Ernie VK3DET had once again offered to listen out for me from Victoria in Australia.  

The Activation

The drive down was uneventful and the weather was perfect – clear and warm however there was a “dangerous heat” warning out from 11 am local time, so I would need to be home and inside before that. The space weather was not so nice … a pair of CMEs hit the Ionosphere and shot the Kp Index up to 5 (a G1 storm), the disturbance storm index was into the moderate storm level, heading towards the major storm level and the maximum usable frequency was struggling to get up to 14MHz. If I had been heading to this summit just to accrue points I may have called off the activation, however as this action was more to test the mechanical status of my solution for the ILLW, I chose to go ahead with it. As I had already activated this summit in February, I would get no activator points for activating it in any case.

I had already strapped the 6-metre mast to the side of my little shopping trolley before putting it into the car, so once I arrived at the summit, I simply chose a point away from the trees in the middle of the lawn on the summit by the chapel, took out the radio gear from the trolley added the antenna Balun to the mast, raised it and ran out the two elements (which also act as the guy ropes). The “G106-Stack”  comes out of the small rucksack (which sits inside the trolley bag) and once the groundsheet was down on the ground it went onto it and the antenna coax connected to it. 

As I was ready 10 minutes earlier than expected, I sent Ernie a quick message via my phone and a few minutes later the 20m SSB DL – VK3 contact was in the log. Although Ernie was about 5-8 peaking 5-9, even my 70w PEP could only get a 4-4 signal into Victoria. I am not complaining – with all the “action” going on in the Ionosphere, I was happy to have got the contact at all. indeed tuning around, spotting and calling on 20m after the contact with Ernie got zero responses. All I could hear on 20m were some of the usual Russian super-stations. Not even any Italian stations – that showed me how terrible the radio conditions were.

Another component of the set-up for ILLW is an angler’s shade tent, which also packs nicely into the trolley, so I took that out and assembled it – all went well. Rather than finishing with just one contact in the log, I decided to try 40 metres which of course with higher bands being dead was full of stations but I found a spot put out a “CQ SOTA” and bagged 4 contacts in a few minutes. Even those (European) contacts were not as clear as they would normally be as the noise level was 2-Spoints higher than normal on 40m due to the increased atmospheric activity.

  So all in all a successful test of the equipment – I now need both good terrestrial and radio weather for the Lighthouse weekend.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

• Backup-system (not used) Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack with Xiegu G90 radio, batteries, 6m mast, screw-in base, linked dipole antenna, HF-PRO2 antenna and photo tripod.
• “G-106 Stack” G106 radio, RMItaly amplifier, switch LPF box and ATU-100.
• Shopping trolley.
• Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
• Aerial-51 UL-404 OCF dipole.
• 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
• Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

Contacts map

Conclusions:

• The antenna support worked well and indeed apart from one sudden loss of power to the G106 (cabling) everything worked, even the shade tent went up without problems.

• Band conditions were not good but as the target of this activation was primarily to test out the physical assembly of all equipment that was less of a problem.

• I did have one ham come on the frequency and say that my (processed) audio sounded bad but never gave his call sign and did not come back to my request for help in trying different settings. all the stations I worked did not comment on the audio except that when I switched off the speech processor Ernie could no longer hear me. So I will leave that set as is for the ILLW event.

• I did hear some RF-VOX relay chatter a couple of times, so I will increase the value of the capacitor in the amplifier to hopefully reduce this.

73 ’til the next summit.

Preparation:

This was a re-try of the attempted activation from the previous Wednesday when high winds made me call off the activation from the car park before I climbed to the summit. This day was supposed to be a fine, warm, sunny day but as usual, two days before the activation, the forecasts changed to overcast, cold and possible winds.

Despite that, I was determined to be ready for an activation and as long as there were no high winds or torrential rain, I would activate. All the gear was packed in the back of the car on Sunday evening ready for an early start at 7:30 am the next day.

“All” this time was to include the surveyor’s tripod and the large feed-point board for the 20/10m wire beam – this would be the first real test on a summit of the ability to switch the antenna direction from my smartphone, something that had been giving me problems for the last six months. Of course, the usual backpack with radio, battery, masts, backup antennas, food and drink, would also be included along with the RigExpert Antenna Analyser.  

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

On arriving at the car park for the summit, after an easy (and wind-free) trip down, the winds started to howl between the trees and some threatening-looking clouds were approaching. Despite this, I was determined not to call the activation off again as Ernie in VK3 was going to be available and Mike 2E0YYY/P was heading up to Mow Cop (HEMA G/HSP-020) so that we might make this a three-way contact today (at least on 20m, if not on 10).

After a hard trek up the forest path to the summit, with a loaded rucksack, the tripod over one shoulder and carrying a bag of documents, the antenna plate and antenna analyser in a shopping bag in the other hand, the top was reached and I put most of the gear down at the wooden table.

I unpacked the antenna, mast and Tripod and went straight to the complex installation including the relay board with Bluetooth switching and the trapped antenna elements. If this did not work, I could go back to the simpler setup as I had brought everything with me. Using my Rig Expert antenna analyser I could see that the antenna (initially set in the Long Path Direction (West)) was looking fine, so then I sent a message via the Signal app to the other two, who were both almost ready.

First in the log was Ernie VK3DET followed by Mike 2E0YYY/P a minute later. Both 5-8 to 9 signals on 20 metres. For once, it seemed the system was working well, the first time. My biggest problem was using the messaging app with frozen fingers. There was a light wind which grew over time but was always icy cold. The measured temperature would have been around 3°C but with windchill nearer to -3°C!

We actually managed an easy “net” between the three of us on 20m until Mike said 10m was open and he wanted to try there, so we moved up two bands and I switched the antenna to Short Path for Australia (East from my location). After trying several frequencies, we eventually found a free one and although Ernie was getting to me at around S2, he could not hear me. When Mike tried, I had to switch the beam around to West before I could hear him (again at about S2) again, he could not hear me. So the added problem I had was this need to switch directions to hear the two guys but as they could not hear me at all on 10m, nothing was really lost. they managed to make contact and I told them I’d head off spot myself and try to get some contacts in the log. To me 10 metres sounded rather quiet  compared to other days when I have use the simplified version of this antenna but this could also be propagation. in any case I was glad of a ground-wave call from Mario DJ2MX in Munich, so that I had at least one contact on 10m from the summit.

As I was still short of the needed 4th contact, I switched back to 20m, found a frequency, spotted myself and another 15 contacts came in, in quick succession. I was certainly getting out on 20m!

All of this time, I was fighting to have gloves on to try to stop losing all feeling in my fingers and taking them off when I needed to do something on the phone. Time was also passing, so when there seemed to be no more chasers, I called it a day, packed up, returned down the steep forest path and when I got to the car, it started to rain. That was lucky timing!

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg:

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Equipment taken:

• Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
• Xiegu G90 radio.
• Surveyor’s tripod.
• 7 metre fibreglass mast.
• 10-metre band 2-element wire beam (full version).
• RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
• Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
• Aerial-51 UL-404 OCF dipole (not used).
• 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
• Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

Contacts map

Conclusions:

• The antenna worked well with between 1 & 2 S-points difference on weak signals depending upon the direction was switched to.

• It would be nice to have a method to have a one-button direction setting action rather than the 4 actions needed at the moment. Perhaps I will need to try to get another model of relay board to which I could script commands.

• The 10m section of the antenna did not perform very well. Whether that was because of propagation or whether the capacitor does need to be a different value can only be tested by switching between models of the antenna (i.e. with and without the traps).

73 ’til the next summit.

Preparation:

After being unable to activate for some time due to a long bout of Influenza followed by Covid (thanks to the thoughlesss person who decided it was more important to go and buy their coco pops or whatever from the supermarket rather than to self-isolate and in the supermarket, not even wearing a mask to protect others!), followed by a week where we had one metre of snow to block everyone in, I was ready to get out and do a simple activation.

I chose Weichberg as it is one of the closest SOTA summits at about 30 30-minute drive away from home. It also turns out that the last time that I activated it was April this year, it was after the Winter Bonus had finished, so while I wouldn’t get the 1 normal activation point for the summit, this time I would get the 3 Winter bonus points.

As often is the case, I decided to try some new equipment. Not the 20 & 10m wire beam that I have been working on but simply a new mast base spike after my previous two from DECATHLON failed on me. The last one on my Cyprus “mini.DXpedition”. I have bought two meal peg bases but as they are meant for the thinner carbon-fibre masts, I also made an adapter arrangement consisting of half a broom handle that pushes up inside my small 5-metre fibreglass mast.

Apart from the new base (I also packed the old sun umbrella screw-in base as well) the rest of the equipment would be the tried and tested Xiegu G90 radio and the SOTABeams linked dipole (with a couple of backup antennas as well of course).

I spotted for a 0830 UTC ():30 am local) start in the hope of catching the Long Path on 20 metres down into VK. This meant I would need to get up at about 6:30 am local to be on the summit on time.

The previous 4 days, the bands had been terrible due to one of the largest CMEs of the last 20 years hitting the Ionosphere but I was hoping it would have cleared by Monday morning.

I alerted on SOTAWatch and checked with Mike (2E0YYY) and Ernie (VK3DET) to see if they would be around and indeed Mike agreed to go up to his local HEMA Summit – G/HSP-020 Old Man of Mow.

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

Well, I was up long before the alarm went off and rose at 5:30 am rather than 6:30 am, despite taking my time, this still meant that after an uneventful drive down, I was set up and calling CQ by 07:48 UTC. I started on 40 metres hoping that I might catch some DX via the Greyline but I think I was probably about 30 minutes too late.

I did however get a good pile-up of European chasers and despite the mast on the new peg almost falling over at one point (ground problem not a peg problem – once I moved it, it was fine), I managed twelve contacts in fourteen minutes.

At this point, Ernie and Mike sent me messages to say they were almost ready so I lowered the mast, unlinked the 20m links in the antenna and put it back up. Initially, the 20m band was empty but despite that, Ernie put out a call and I could hear him at around 5-3 to 5-4 level – unfortunately, he could not hear me strong enough to work. The difference between an S0-S1 noise level at my end and an S4-5 level at Ernie’s end along with the fact that Ernie was running 400w and I was only running 20w added up to a believable reason but what was to turn out to be the biggest problem was that the propagation skip distance was short (probably as the Ionosphere hadn’t yet recovered from its battering over the last four days). Signals from the UK and even local signals within Germany were 5-9+. Normally on 20m, I struggle to hear stations in the UK, but when I called John M0JWK, we exchanged 59+ reports despite his beam pointing Stateside!

Now I tried for a QSO with Mike 2E0YYY/P and to my surprise he was only about a 53 signal but gave me a 59 report. We wondered how that was possible. Due to high winds, his antenna was lower than usual but that should not make a great difference (if at all, as we both have height through being on top of hills). Mike runs 50w portable to my 20w so if anything Mike should be putting a stronger signal into me than I do into him – and usually he does.

Only later did Mike realise that he was not putting out the normal power level – indeed he could see almost nothing on the output meter. After getting home, Mike investigated further and it turned out to be a faulty cable between the microphone and the radio (we were both running SSB) – so very little audio equates to very little power output.

Overall, for my first activation after Covid, I was happy with the results but I could have done without the icy winds that gave a chill factor taking temps down to -2 or -3°C.

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg:

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Equipment taken:

• Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
• Xiegu G90 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
• Lamdahalbe 5m mini-mast and new metal base peg.
• SotaBeams linked dipole.
• 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
• Gardener’s kneeling pad.
• Lightweight headphones (x2).
• Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

Conclusions:

• The radio conditions on 20m were short skip due to recent disturbences so although I could hear Ernie, VK3DET, a two-way contact was not possible.
• All equipment (including the new mast spike) worked well.
• I’m glad I went out despite the cold weather – after all, “Wintertime is SOTA activation time” Right?

73 ’til the next summit.

Preparation:

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. 

73 ’til the next summit(s).

Preparation:

The purpose of this activation was to test that adding a link for 15 metres into my long-suffering linked dipole hadn’t caused issues on the other bands that it covers. Ideally, some contacts on the new 15m section would be great but this would depend upon the MUF getting high enough, which over the preceding days had not been the case.

I also had just received a new beta version of the FT8 Radio smartphone App from Dhiru, where he had added support for the G90 radio, so I needed to test that out as well. The change over just using vox as I have been doing is that the radio is now switched via CAT running over a second cable between the Xiegu G90 radio and my Android 11 smartphone. The change should also automatically move the radio to the required frequency to transmit its data message into the FT8 network, later to appear on SOTAWatch as a spot message – This is sent over RF for situations where no cell coverage for internet connectivity from the phone and even no SMS coverage. Some people would use APRS to achieve a similar result however the number of in-range APRS digital gateways on HF may be low, where HF skimmers and SDRs that receive FT8 signals are plentiful.

Checking with our small “comm Checkers” group, Mike 2E0YYY was willing to head out to his local park and Ian VK3YFD was also happy to try for contacts on the bands as we moved up them to test the antenna.

As usual, all equipment was packed and ready to go on Thursday evening for the early departure on Friday. This consists of just one backpack to carry everything needed.

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

The last time I activated this summit was in May under the DL20SOTA call sign, so I would not receive any activator points for this outing but the main purpose was to perform tests. The site is good for that with a nice area for setting up the 6m mast and antenna. What I had forgotten was that there is only a thin topsoil before you hit stones into which the screw-in sun umbrella base which I use to support the mast does not cut into very well. I would have been better bringing the surveyor’s tripod with me but I didn’t so I had to make do with a slightly wobbly mast.

Both Mike and I arrived at our respective sites at around the same time just after 0530 UTC (or 7:30 am local time with me) and indeed the first and only 40m contact today would be a short contact with Mike, who was having difficulty hearing me. Ian in Victoria, Australia took a listen as well, but not surprisingly no contact on 40m. So we all agreed to head up to 20m and after changing the links on the antenna and finding a free frequency, Ian, VK3YFD was the first 20m contact this morning in my log. Ian puts a good signal into Europe thanks to his beam antenna. 

Mike joined Ian and me a couple of minutes later and we had a small net going. Ian was having issues with WSB on my relatively weak signal with him, but he made it work.

The next band up to test was 17m and when we all went there none of us could hear each other and indeed we could hear nothing on the band. The band was dead, so trying even higher on 15m would have been a waste of time, so we all agreed to head back to 20m, where I logged a few SOTA contacts before saying 73 to the guys, leaving Mike with the frequency.

So my next task was to test the updated smartphone App and although I was able to successfully send the spot via RF using FT&8 and it was picked up and displayed on SOTAWatch, I still had to tune the radio manually to the required 14074 kHz frequency for the transmission. So although the message sending worked, the new feature has not given me anything in addition to what I could do using VOX rather than CAT control and for CAT control I have to have a second cable between radio and phone.

I have reported back to the developer that the frequency change feature has not worked.

By 0700 UTC the skies were still dark and a cool wind had appeared. as I had finished the purpose of my activation, I decided to pack up and leave before any rain arrived (it didn’t, at least not until the afternoon).

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

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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.
• SotaBeams linked dipole (modified).
• SotaBeams random length end-fed antenna (not used)
• 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 4000maH LiHV battery (not used).
• Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
• Gardeners nealing pad (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for back channel comms with the group over “Signal”.

Logs:

DL/AL-177 Weichberg

Conclusions:

• The FT8 Radio App appears to have an issue with the “set frequency” function.
• Extending the coax on the Linked dipole made it easier to position the mast base than had been possible previously with just seven metres of the feeder. I now have almost 10 metres of coax on the antenna.
• It appears that certainly on 40m and 20m that adding in the new 15m band link has not affected the antennas performance however the most likely band to be affected would be 17m I will need to test again, once 17 & 15-metre bands open up more often,

73 ’til the next summit(s).

Preparation:

With the S2S event coming up on the 19th and the fact that I have built an HF Amplifier that hasn’t been tested “in the field” I needed to do an activation where I could use all the gear I have planned for Attensberg on the 19th. Weichberg is a good location to test as it’s about a 50-minute drive from home, has just enough room to get the VP2E antenna out and it has a picnic bench and seats to work from. I had intended to do my test a week earlier however I caught the flu and the weather turned bad. The weather forecast for the 8th. was one of the better days in the week, with heavy rain expected from Wednesday onwards. As I was going to be using the gear intended for contacts into VK/ZL, I decided an early start to get me to Weichberg in time for the morning long path window would be a good idea and one of my mates in Australia – Ernie VK3DET agreed to be in the shack to see if he could hear me and give me a call.

All was not to go to plan …. But the purpose of this activation was to catch problems before the “big event”.

The Activation:

The trip down to Weichberg was uneventful even in the new car (a three-year-old Peugeot mini-SUV 2008 model – a bit underpowered compared to my last car but far more economical). Another question was answered as regards transport – the Surveyors tripod would fit in the back of the car along with the usual small rucksack and camera bag (which now holds the rig, the amplifier and the battery box).

The weather forecast was for dry but cold – and indeed it WAS cold! My quilted winter jacket put in good service but as many actions needed me to take off my gloves and by the end of the activation I could hardly feel my fingers. I guess it was never over 6 degrees on the summit and with the winds during the second half of the activation, I guess the wind-chill factor took temperatures down to near zero.

As mentioned above this was NOT an easy activation with several problems occurring causing me, most likely to miss the long path window due to the delays. Here is a list of the problems …

Problem 1 – while putting up the mast, I dropped and lost a large silver coloured washer – not essential but I didn’t want to leave litter on the summit – searched around for 15 minutes – it had disappeared! I found it when packing up, but why was it not visible earlier I have no idea!

Problem 2 – I was surprised to fund squeezing in the 40/20m VP2E antenna was a stretch and involved a bit of careful climbing down a slope to tie off one end of the antenna to a tree in the correct direction. This took longer than expected.

Problem 3 – Once I had connected all the gear up (made more complicated with the added amplifier and its control cable), it didn’t seem like I was getting nearly as much power out as I would expect. Suspecting the new amplifier I tried with the amplifier turned off (pass-thru mode) – even that was not showing a fifth of what I would expect on the power meter. I replaced both coax leads thinking that may be the issue – no change – then I decided to check the SWR on the antenna – it was bad, with way too much RF coming back down the antenna lead!  OK, something has failed in the antenna. should I put up the 20m/17m VP2E antenna instead? Probably not as 40m seemed to be the band of choice. So I took down the 40m/20m VP2E and packed it away and then put up “old faithful” the SOTABeam 40/30/20m linked dipole. As I was rushing, it managed to tie itself in knots but I got it up eventually.

Problem 4 – now checking the SOTABeams linked dipole, it also had a terrible SWR – why is that, is it the SWR bridge that is faulty? Then the penny dropped …. the coax cables on the back of the meter were reversed – so of course the reflected power was high and the forward low – as this was reversed!! I switched the cables around and things looked fine again. Of course, I now don’t know if the VP2E had a problem or not – probably not but I will need to check again. Having lost so much time, I decided not to switch back to the VP2E and rather just use the linked dipole – which was, of course, was set-up in the wrong direction for VK/ZL but even at the 9 metres that the middle now was, the Inverted-V on 40m has little or no directivity.

Problem 5 – in order to try to get the average output up, I had increased the compression on the built-in (audio) compressor to 3 from the usual 2 (it can be set from 0 to 10) and that was not sounding good to some contacts but while the button on the X108G for putting the value UP works fine, the one for DOWN did not (something else to fix). These are rubber buttons that have ferrite in them that short against printed circuit board contacts. I decided after trying several times, to leave it as it was – the winds had increased at this point and some clouds were heading my way, so I tried a couple more calls specifically looking for Ernie VK3DET without success and then started to pack-up.

Throughout the activation, it only ever took 2-3 minutes for QRM to appear next to (or on) the clear frequencies that I found – unfortunately that’s normal for 40 Metres SSB in Central Europe!

At least the day was so dull, that I could read the display on the rig and didn’t need to plug the Smart Phone in to see the frequency, power etc. It served its other roles as a camera and a spotting and email terminal.

Photos:

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Equipment:

• Xiegu X108G.
• Battery box (2 x 5000maH hardcase LIPOs).
• Linked (20m/40m) VP2E (Vertically polarised, 2 element, wire antenna).
  • SOTABeams Linked Inverted-V 40/30/20m dipole.
• Surveyors tripod.
• 10 metre DX-Wire fibreglass portable mast.
• HF 70/100w PEP output power amplifier.

Log:

Conclusions:

This activation was not as successful as I had hoped. It would have been great to make a contact with Ernie in VK but with the delayed start I think I was simply too late. The PA doesn’t seem to be putting out as much power into the antenna as it did into the dummy load and the X108G’s standard microphone doesn’t seem to be very “punchy” I will consider trying a different one once I make up an adapter. The VP2E antenna will need to be re-tested to make sure it’s SWR is actually OK and it was only my cabling error on the SWR Bridge that was the problem. The button problem is solved as I have swapped the important DOWN adjustment button with a less used one. Longer-term I may look to replace these buttons with proper mini-buttons with normal contacts in them.

This was planned as an activation to find problems and that it did! I will need to make another outing (probably not to a summit this time), to check the antenna is, in fact, OK and possibly to try out the different microphone.

73 ’til the next Summit!