The annual North America to Europe S2S event day had arrived again and (as usual), the weather forecast looked good until the day before when it changed from foggy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon (when the event is), to being cold, damp and foggy all day. Despite that, I decided to go ahead with the activation with the hope of getting some easy S2S contacts from this 1-pointer plateau summit.
Rentschen is the summit I choose for testing new antennas on as it is a flat plateau and so provides plenty of space.
I decided to play it safe for this afternoon’s activation. I packed not only the electrically switchable trapped tri-bander beam but also the manually switched 5-bander and my linked dipole, each with its own masts and supports. To be safe I also packed the antenna analyser, a complete spare radio station (G106 plus 100w amp tower) and 4, 8 & 12 Ah batteries. (I was hoping that the weather may improve so I would have the opportunity to compare various combinations). The weather didn’t change and most of the equipment stayed in the car as it turned out. This is thankfully a drive-on summit.
The Activation
It is rare that I only head out in the afternoon for a SOTA activation – usually, I am eager to get to the summit just after daybreak to work VK via the long path but in this case, where North America was the target the clock difference made a morning activation the wrong options and all of the many SOTA activators who would be out had alerted to be on from around 1300 UTC (or 2 pm local time here) – so that was my target to get on site and set-up.
The run down to Rentschen, I know very well and it was good that I did as the fog came in reducing visibility along the roads for a fair distance. On arrival at the summit, visibility was around 30 metres and it was a very damp fog. As Rob DM1CM was also going to join me I got started straight away with setting up the antenna and station.
As usual, the 2 element wire beam antenna was installed using the screw-in base with the four wires going out at 90° to each other, the combined length of the element and its cord extender (also acting as the guy cords for the mast), formed a 60° angle with the vertical mast, this after looking at a model of the antenna appears to be a better value than the normally stated 56° (the mast is a 7-metre mast but with the top section removed so that the feed point board sits at 6 metres above ground level).
As I was finishing up the set-up, Rob arrived and we took a listen around 10 metres (which I had expected to be the “money band” for this event going by recent radio conditions. Initially, the band was empty but then about 15 minutes later it filled up with stations from Russia and the US. It seems skip was not going to allow me to get any contacts inside Europe but the first in the log was Jörg signing as DL/HB9BIN/P from Laber DL/AM-060 – which, if there wasn’t a forest in the way, would have been line-of-sight from where we were. Watching the SOTA spots on my smartphone, I saw more & more European and UK stations spotting that they were out however when I tuned to their frequencies I could not hear them. I suspect the skip distance on the 10m band at the time was too long. This was in some ways confirmed by the strength of the US home stations. Unfortunately, the US SOTA activating stations all seem to have been using either CW or data so were not an option for me. I put out several CQ calls and was eventually rewarded by calls from three US SOTA chasers calling me.
The cold damp temperatures and the lack of contacts eventually decided me to cut the activation short and head home to the warmth. As I approached home, it was obvious that the weather at home had not been nearly as bad as where Rob and I were located.
There are positive points out of this action. The wire beam works well (even though I set it up 45° off the intended direction). It would have been nice to compare the linked-elements version against the trapped elements but the work involved in the wet and cold was not justified. The G90 radio with its 20 watts output on SSB, continues to “do the job” and the new 12 Ah LifePO4 battery also got another test.
Photos:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Raddy rucksack. (not used)
Xiegu G90 radio.
Xiegu G106 radio plus RMItaly amplifier, LPF box and ATU-100. (not used)
Screw-in mast base.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
Surveyors tripod and 10m mast. (not used)
10/15/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
10/12/15/17/20-metre band 2-element linked elements wire beam.
SOTA/HEMA logbook & pens.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
6m mini-mast (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
8 Ah LiFePO4 battery (not used).
12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
2 x Lightweight headphones (one pair not used).
Smartphone for SOTA/HEMA spotting.
Log:
Conclusions:
The NA-EU SOTA S2S event is “jinxed” every year it is accompanied by bad terrestrial weather (at least here in Southern Germany).
The equipment used worked well and it was a nice “social” meet-up with Rob.
With progress made on the 2-element wire beam by adding a trap for 15m operation and reconfiguration of the speech processor that I use with my G106 radio, I needed to test both out on a summit. The results of these tests would also help me define what equipment I would take to Lindau, two weeks later for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.
Unfortunately, the sun is not on my side again, with a very active sun sending flares and CMEs which suppress the maximum usable frequency (MUF) since the weekend. I was hoping that things would be relatively back to normal on Tuesday (the activation had initially been planned for Monday).
As Rentschen is a drive-on one-pointer summit, I packed the “G106 Pack” and the normal G90 radio and accessories into the car the day before. Looking at the previous week, 21 MHz was unlikely to open before 0700 UTC (9 am local time), so it would be a 7:45 am departure from home to allow for the 45-minute drive and set-up time on the summit. The alarm was set …
The Activation
The morning of the activation arrived and the terrestrial weather looked nice. The trip down took a little longer than expected as I hit some of the morning commuter traffic but I arrived at around 8:30 am as planned and found a spot right next to the trig-point stone – the marker of the absolute summit point and set-up. I had a sked with Ernie VK3DET and we would try 20m and then move to 15m.
The antenna was installed using the screw-in base with the four wires going out at 90° to each other, the combined length of the element and its cord extender (also acting as the guy cords for the mast), form a 56° angle with the vertical mast (the mast is a 7-metre mast but with the top section removed so that the feed point board sits at 6 metres above ground level).
I had two aims with this activation – one was to check that the speech compressor which I use with the G106 and amplifier, now sounds better. I know the built-in one in the g90 is fine. The second aim was to make a contact on 15m with the wire beam, now that I had added the 15m traps to it.
I hadn’t expected problems with the “G106 Stack” ( G106 radio – CB amplifier – LPF filter box – ATU-100 ) as it had worked fine the last time that I used it, but OF COURSE – something went wrong there and instead of over 100w PEP that I got last time (70w RMS) – I got 20w RMS at best. I could hear the VOX relay in the amplifier chattering, suggesting it was not getting enough drive. This is at least something that I can test at home without needing to go /P again. Depending upon what I find, I could match the amplifier+LPF+Tuner up with the g90 on low power for ILLW. We’ll see.
As for the antenna test on 15m, my test with Ernie VK3DET was too early and we gave up because the band was empty of DX. I said 73 to Ernie, switched to the G90 20w radio and went back to bag some contacts on 20m to get the necessary 4 contacts to “qualify” the summit (which, as I have already activated this summit this year for both SOTA and HEMA brought me no points). Rather than the usual quick signal report exchange, I managed a few chats with hams who were interesting and a couple were interested in the wire beam I was using, so we exchanged website URLs and agreed to check out each other’s work. That was a nice interlude in the warm weather on the summit but I still wanted to know whether the beam would actually work on 15m so when I got no further replies to my CQs I went back to 15m
To my surprise there were stations now on the band and from 08:15 – 08:25 I happily listened in to a 15m net on 21.270 with Dave VK6IE, Steve E51CZZ on Aitutaki Isl (South Cook), Paul EA5JZ and a VK3 – It could have been VK3MH Brendan but I think I heard the others call him Andrew, so I may have that call wrong – he was the weakest of them all. The South Cook station was easier to listen to and that was SHORT PATH! I did “turn” the beam (via relays) and there was a difference, this was definitely short path VK-EU from 0800 UTC onwards. After trying to call into the net unsuccessfully – although Dave said he heard “someone” after I called – I gave up on the effort as one of those things, found another frequency, spotted myself on SOTA and called CQ for 5 minutes with no replies. One thing is clear – the beam receives on 15 metres OK, whether it works also on transmit will have to wait until another day.
Photos:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Raddy rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Xiegu G106 radio plus RMItaly amplifier, LPF box and ATU-100.
Screw-in mast base.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10/15/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
2 x 6m mini-mast (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
8 Ah LiFePO4 battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
2 x Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA/HEMA spotting.
Log:
HEMA
SOTA
CONTACTS MAP
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well on 20 metres and received fine on 15 metres (with directivity). I hope transmit on 15m will work fine as well but the conditions on 15m were so variable with the MUF bouncing below and above 21 MHz, it wasn’t a good day for the test.
The problem with the “G106 Stack” will need to be investigated – the fact that I could hear the input VOX relays “chattering” in the amplifier suggests to me that it wasn’t getting enough drive.
I will need to consider what I take for ILLW (International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend) on two counts – firstly the antenna – the beam needs more space than a simple dipole and it doesn’t cover 40m, which could end up being the band of choice depending upon radio conditions. As for which transmitter, I would like to have more than 20w to “fend off” those stations who simply sit on my frequency and start calling CQ because they are either deaf or rude B’s. I could use the G90 with the amplifier rather than the G106 with the knowledge that if there is a problem, I can fall back to using the G90 “barefoot”.
With HF band conditions being the worst in over 20 years the previous weekend, this activation was never going to fill several pages of the log book or deliver any “Special DX”.
Despite that, there was a break in the Terrestrial weather before the returning storms, so I decided I would activate “somewhere” on the 16th of May. As Mike 2E0YYY announced he planned to head out to Mow Cop (HEMA summit G/HSP-020) I decided to head also to a local HEMA summit with enough room for the wire beam, which I am still “fine-tuning”.
Despite the fact that I have already activated Rösenau Kreuz in February, I chose that summit as I know it, it’s about a 40-minute drive from home and normally I am not disturbed while operating there.
So the plan was to take the HF wire beam, but this time with its linked elements rather than the trapped ones, as Mike wanted to try out some of the higher HF bands and 10m was unlikely to be open (which turned out to be true).
Along with the wire beam antenna, I would also take the antenna analyser (with its new set of batteries) so that I could check each of the bands on it, before attaching it to the radio, which, as usual, would be the Xiegu G90.
Ernie (VK3DET) had said that long path propagation had been happening at around 0630 UTC – so planning for that I set my alarm for 6 am local time expecting to leave at 7 am at the latest. All radio gear was stood read in the hallway.
The Activation
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
I awoke before the alarm and was able to leave home at 6:30 am local time. The extra 30 minutes were useful as I had to get petrol at the local garage.
The run down was uneventful and I was on the summit with a heavily loaded rucksack by 7:30 am. I had everything set up for 20 metres by 7:50 but Ernie and Mike had already moved to the higher bands, so I spotted myself and called CQ HEMA on and off for over 10 minutes with absolutely no callers, I decided to try to catch the other two, who were now on 15m. I could not hear Mike in the UK but I managed a 3-3 contact with Ernie VK3DET.
Following 15m, 17m was tried and with Mike’s help, I managed contacts with two more Australian stations on 17m. We then went and tried 10 & 12m – both were completely dead. Mike and I eventually managed a 3-3 both-ways contact on 20m – a “HEMA-to-HEMA” contact as Mike was on the HEMA G/HSP-020 summit.
The thought was it would be a while before 10 metres opened up, so I suggested I would go to 40 metres after taking down the beam and putting up the linked dipole.
This brought its own problem, in that the T-Piece on my linked dipole normally slots over a much thinner fibreglass mast and the top section of this mast, which I have removed. So as always, we found a way and the T-piece got taped onto the mast using electrician’s tape.
Once the 40m antenna was up, I was able to make a far easier contact with Mike 2E0YYY and went on to get three more contacts on 40 metres but then again, the band started to get noisy and I was not getting any more calls.
As it was still cold, rather than continuing on, I decided to pack up and head home, which as it turned out was a good idea, as, just as I was leaving, the farmer arrived to cut the grass for hay.
The walk down the hill was uneventful, as was the drive home in time for lunch!
Photos:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Sun umbrella screw-in base support.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
HF 2-element wire beam (with linked elements covering 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m and remote (ISM) switching box).
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
40 metre linked dipole.
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery (not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Log:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
Conclusions:
The bands were still in a mess. There was no longer a complete HF blackout but the bands were not as good as they were 2 weeks earlier.
The need to lower the mast to switch bands (by closing or opening links) is inconvenient however it does work when care is taken to have all four wires set the same.
Some of the elements probably need a little adjustment for best performance but checking with the analyser all were “near enough” for any mismatch to be compensated for by the ATU in the radio.
The control (direction switching system) box works reliably when a direction change is requested using the 4-button key fob, the switching is taking place correctly and can be heard on the radio.
My closest summit is Berndorfer Buchet and as I needed a summit I know to test my latest build of the 2-element HF wire beam, this one pointer was ideal as I had not yet activated it in 2024.
This was the first dry day in about a week and as more rain was expected later in the week, this was to be a quick activation. Just enough time to set up the beam, test it on the analyser and bag a few contacts ideally on 20 and 10 metres.
A relatively late activation was planned, to arrive at the summit by 9 am local (0700 UTC) but despite this the complete station fitted into/onto my 40L backpack would be loaded into the car, Monday evening, the night before to allow an easy departure the next morning.
The Activation
DL/HBY-064 / DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet
As normal I woke 30 minutes before my alarm went off and was all packed and out of the door at 7:30 am as planned for a 9 am (0700 UTC) start. I had hoped to fill the car at a garage on the way but there were so many queued that I decided to leave it for the return journey.
Although sunny, it was still cool. Walking from the parking spot to the open area 15m below the summit, the track was muddy and I hoped that the small area where I intended to set up was not as much of a bog as it was the last time I used it.
Although soft underfoot, the ground had dried enough from the last few days of rain to be usable. After putting down my painter’s sheet, I proceeded to unpack everything from the rucksack. A more complex operation than normal with the HF beam antenna rather than just a dipole or loaded vertical. Once the mast and antenna were up and the elements/guy ropes positioned, my first task was to run my RigExpert antenna analyser on the beam with it switched to each of its four directions, as while, I had only moved the complete feedpoint electronics from a flat board into a box, there are several things that could have gone wrong. I had done DC connectivity checking but this was the first chance to test the antenna completely.
The first trace (see photos) for the beam on 20 metres (it covers 20 & 10m) with it pointed West, was a little strange with two dips shown. These were OK if a little strange. I then pressed the key fob to turn the antenna to the North and ran another scan – see next photo – this was all over the place. It was worse still when I wanted to clear the trace and try again, the RigExpert analyser would not let me. I tried turning it off – nothing! the trace stayed. Unplugged the coax, no change, so there was nothing for it, but to take the back off and remove the batteries, which I did and I was able to turn the unit on again, but as soon as I tried to take a trace again (this time with the antenna switched back to the known good West direction) the same mess on the screen and the unit had hung up. Luckily I have seen this before – these units don’t like low battery voltage and after once again removing and replacing the batteries, I could see on the startup display that the batteries were low. So, as I had no spare batteries with me I put the analyser away and continued to set up the radio, hoping that the antenna was OK.
Well, the first station in the log was Ernie VK3DET with a 5-5 in both directions, so I guess the antenna was working. Band conditions were all over the place though. Some DX stations (VK4 and Jamaica were booming in while others from Finland were not as strong as usual – with the beam switched north). Ernie reported having just worked some portable stations in the UK with S9+ signals and had expected me to be stronger but 20 metres was in such a mess that in the 10 minutes in between signals had dramatically changed.
After spotting myself on the SOTA cluster I tried calling CQ for 10 minutes on 10 metres with no responders. All I could hear was the local 10m beacon about 25 km to my south – I used this to check the antennas directivity and as before I got 2 S-points less signal off the back and 1 S-point less off the sides. That said, this was not a complete test for the antenna and I will need to plan to go out again and check it with the analyser again, now that it is working fine with some new batteries.
20m had really deep QSB but at least the weather stayed fine long enough for me to complete the activation.
Photos:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Screw-in sun umbrella base.
7 Metre Zita Fibreglass mast.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Remote switched 2-element wire HF trapped elements beam for 20 & 10m.
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Electrical hand warmer.
Suncream.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Log:
HEMA DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet
SOTA DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet
Contacts map
Conclusions:
You can never predict what will happen. Thankfully the crazy readings from the RigExpert were caused indeed only because of flat batteries.
The band conditions were disappointing overall compared to activations a couple of weeks earlier.
A short 3-night break with the family to the Oberpfälz region (in English Upper Plantine) of Bavaria near the Czech/German border brought the chance of some portable radio activations. The problem of planning ahead with this trip was the uncertainty of the weather with high winds rain and even snow forecast as possibilities, this was going to have to be, grab the activation when you can. Our base for the short stay was the medieval town of Nabburg between Regensburg and Weiden. The Oberpfälzerwald nature park covers a large area of land around our base and hence the likelihood would be that POTA DE-0017 would be activated at the same time as a HEMA or SOTA summit. Very near to the town was an unactivated HEMA summit Darlesberg and this would most likely be the summit in the park, dual activation. The only reasonable summit to take the family to was Fahrenberg (DM/BM-321) and this 8-point, drive-up summit is in the next POTA park northwards, DE-0024 Nordlicheroberpfälzerwald NP so this could be a combined SOTA/POTA activation. On the way to our holiday flat, my wife wanted to see an art exhibition in Regensburg, so this was planned to coincide with me activating the Donaupark which is within Regensburg city.
The equipment would be the 6m telescopic fishing pole, umbrella base and the 404-UL OCF dipole from Aerial-59. The reason not to use the usual linked dipole was the probably need for band changing given the variable radio conditions present. This set-up would be used for the summit activations and the Komunica HF-Pro2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof for the POTA activation from the Regensburg park (or any others that might be needed/possible).
The Activations
Tuesday 16th April – POTA DE-0376 DonauPark.
Apart from a delay finding my way to the parking area in this city park, the planned combination of dropping the wife off at the gallery, driving to the park, taking our dog for a walk, setting up the radio in the car, activating the park (10 contacts needed), closing down and packing away, taking the dog for her second walk and then going back to pick up my wife, went to plan and we were able to continue our journey on to our flat in Nabburg.
The activation itself brought in strong signals from around Europe on 20m but contacts number nine and ten took a little longer to get than the first eight which started me worrying a little that I would not manage the needed number of contacts in the time I had available. I tried 40 metres but with so many stations on that band, it was impossible to find a free frequency to call CQ on and when I did eventually find one, after calling CQ another station starting calling CQ without even asking if the frequency was free. It was a jungle of animals on 40 metres. Luckily I did manage to get the needed ten contacts on 20 metres. 10 metres was totally closed at the time.
As the first day proper of our holiday we had planned to split this between radio and visiting the town of Weiden about 5 km north of Nabburg and that’s what we did, We spent the showery morning in Weiden (well worth a look, especially in the large church there) and by midday, we were heading up to the Fahrenberg. Unfortunately, the restaurant was not open on Wednesdays but again, it has a nice baroque-style church that is worth a visit. Behind the church, there is a perfect grassed area to put the mast and dipole up on and while it was sunny when we got there we did not know how long that would last, so I quickly set up and got calling. An impressive 25 callers got into the log in 16 minutes when the calls dried up on 20 metres I considered switching to 40 metres but as I could see black clouds approaching, I thought better of it and packed up the equipment. Just as I lifted my rucksack to my shoulder the first few flakes of snow started to fall, so timing could not have been better.
As we drove off the snow stopped but it was clear rain at least was on the way.
A good day’s radio operating and sightseeing.
Thursday 18th April – HEMA DL/HBY-226 Darlesberg
This should have been the easiest of the activations. The parking spot I had found on the map was less than 10 minutes drive away from our flat and then it was about a 1.25 km walk up a forest track to a picnic area followed by a smaller walking track of about one kilometre to the summit.
Admittedly with this activation, I carry my rucksack laden with gear for the longest distance but despite that, I did not expect any problems. I arrived at the parking spot around 9 am local time, loaded up and started up the forestry vehicles-only track, the start was a little steeper than I had expected but then it got better. I kept following the main track until after about 45 minutes, it started to go downhill, which made no sense. Rather than take my rucksack off to check my printed-out paper map, I decided to use my smartphone to check how much further it would be to the picnic area. What I saw was that I was on the wrong track. I used Google Maps to start with but then switched to the Mapy.cz app for confirmation which, unfortunately, it gave. about 10 minutes earlier I should have taken another much smaller muddy track (which on the maps is shown as being of the same type as the one I was on – it isn’t). In fact, I was now level with the summit but about 60 metres below it. There was a track to go up through the bush to the summit from this point, but it was a boggy mess and with the steep climb that would have been needed, I decided it was not a good option to try in the drizzle in a remote location. If I slipped there would be no one coming by to help.
I then had to face the decision, of whether to go back and go up the correct track and then join the official walking track to the summit, as originally planned or to abort the attempt. By the time I got back to the junction, I would have walked as far as I would have needed for the complete walk to the summit and then would have to face probably another 30-minute walk. I decided to cancel. Had I been carrying less weight or if the ground had not been so soaked I may have made a different decision. I know now not to rely on my memory of a paper map in my rucksack and either to have it out to check junction by junction or as I did on the return walk to the car, follow my position on an online map.
Friday 20th April – POTA DE-0017 OberpfälzerWald NP
As the previous day’s activation (which would have been a HEMA/POTA one) had to be aborted, I was still left with the POTA activation available to coincide with a break to our return journey home to allow the dog to have a walk and so it was decided that another car based POTA activation would be made near Steinberger See about 30 minutes drive away from the flat, So after packing all our luggage into the car again (which of course got in the way later when I wanted to get to the radio gear) we set off but unfortunately in this area of Germany, the GPS (navi) doesn’t always see enough satellites to navigate accurately. There is also a US forces training base nearby, so what signals they may be putting out could also be part of the problem for car-based Euro-GPS systems. In any case, we ended up near Wackersdorf (famous for anti-nuclear-power rallies in the 70s) and found a parking spot near some woodland which would serve the purpose needed. So with my wife taking the dog for a walk, I set to, finding the radio equipment mounting the antenna and calling for POTA hunters. The contacts took longer than I am used to with SOTA and again there was time pressure to get the needed ten contacts but as this was around 0715 UTC, long-path on 20m was open into VK and I managed a Park-to-Park contact with VK2USH, which while difficult, especially as it suffered heavy QRM from another station was completed.
Photos:
POTA DE-0376 Donau Park
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
SOTA DM/BM-321 Fahrenberg / POTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberpfälzerWald NP
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
HEMA DL/HBY-226 Darlesberg (failed attempt)
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
POTA DE-0017 Oberpfälzerwald NP
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
MountainTop 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with magnetic mount for the first and last activations).
Three-magnet car roof antenna mount.
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (used on 2nd activation).
Aerial-59 404-UL OCF dipole (used on 2nd activation).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
4.5 Ah LiHV battery (not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
POTA DE-0376 Donau Park
POTA Contacts Map
POTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberPfälzerWald NP
POTA Contacts Map
SOTA DM/BM-321 Fahrenberg
SOTA Contacts map
POTA DE-0017 OberpfälzerWald NP
POTA Contacts Map
Conclusions:
The weather was a problem mainly on the third day, combined with the mis-navigation that was a “bad” day – lesson learned to use the Smartphone map/tracking app when attempting to activate a new summit.
The Xiegu G90 continues to work surprisingly well even when only using the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof. That park-to-park contact with Australia was a highlight of the trip.
With band conditions good as we are very close to the top of Solar Cycle 25 and the weather seeming more like spring than winter and importantly with only light winds, I decided another activation with the wire beam was in order.
This time, however, I wanted to use my screw-in-the-ground sun umbrella post base rather than the large surveyor’s tripod. I had also received my awaited rotary switch and so had built the feed-point board with switchable directions. In this case, the mast has to be lowered before the direction the beam is “pointing” can be changed, but this is less work than re-arranging the element/guy cords and less weight to carry that the remote controllable, Bluetooth controlled, relay board.
I had initially planned to activate on Thursday morning, however as Mike in the UK (2E0YYY) was also planning to go out and rain was expected for him on Thursday, we agreed on a Friday morning activation, with Ernie VK3DET also listening to help with tests (we do call ourselves the “Comms-Testers” so this all makes sense). My weather forecast for both Thursday and Friday were good and for one (thankfully) that turned out to be the case.
As usual, all equipment was packed in the back of the car, the day before to allow for an early start. This time in addition to the radio gear I also packed an electric hand warmer “stone” that had been recommended to me after my problems with cold hands on the last few activations.
The Activation
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
This is one of my closest summits about 30 minutes drive away so the trip down on Friday was uneventful. On arriving at my car parking spot in the forest at the first of a series of pilgrims’ holy crosses that lead up the hill into the forest, I finished packing the rucksack. I estimate it weighed somewhere between 16 and 17 kilograms but once on my back, I just had to bear it. The road itself goes further up the hill however it is restricted to non-powered vehicles apart from those with the right of access.
My usual spot is close to the cross outside of the forest where it is, but I wanted to see if I could set up closer to the escarpment which may give a better operation of the antenna. This meant heading in the direction of Schwalbenstein (a lower summit on this ridge). Upon inspection however the flat ground where I would have liked to set up is fastened off with barbed wire, so it is obvious the owner doesn’t want people going there. The activation zone for this summit spreads a little way up and down the ridge, so the next time, I may plan to explore some other areas to see if I can get nearer to the escarpment (and the wonderful views of the River Lech over 100 metres below – as you will see from the pictures). For now, though, I would have to return to my usual activation point as Ernie and Mike would be waiting for me.
Setting up the antenna and radio was problem-free and the screw-in post certainly provided enough support for the 7-metre mast and antenna, so that was one test completed successfully.
Having quickly checked the antenna on the antenna analyser I turned the radio on and tuning around on 20m, I found Mike and Ernie chatting and broke in at the point that they were saying they needed to send me the free frequency they had found. Both stations were strong and we exchanged 5-9+10dB reports between Germany and the UK and 5-7 reports between Germany and Australia. This was on 20m and while Ernie and Mike wanted to go off and try the higher bands, I asked them to give me 5 minutes of conversation, so that I could test switch the antenna direction. Well, of course, it turned out to be ten minutes but the results were worth it! With the antenna electrically pointing West (UK and long path to VK) I took reference signal values from the S-meter and then switched to the other three directions, checking back at the radio each time and on both signals (at different signal levels), I got the following results;
antenna 90° off – i.e. pointing North or South, signals 1-S-point down.
antenna 180° off – i.e. pointing East, signals 2-S-points down.
So another test was completed successfully, both on the switching mechanism and the antenna in general.
While Ernie and Mike went off to try and get successful contacts on 17, 15 & 12m, I spotted myself and worked half a dozen stations on 20m. When the callers dried up, I decided to switch to 10m and just as I was ready, I saw that Ernie and Mike had moved there, so I tried to get in contact with them again on 10m. 10m at this time was not very good and while I could hear both Mike in the UK and Ernie in Australia, I was only able to make a minimal contact with Ernie. One problem now was that I needed the beam pointing East to get the Short path to Ernie but West still for Mike. Despite this, the tests showed that again the antenna was directional but the signals were simply not strong enough to make easy contacts.
Once Ernie and Mike had finished their QSO, I asked Ernie to stick around while I changed the elements on the antenna. I suspected that the single band (10m only) elements might work better than the trapped elements, for some reason. Although Ernie was stronger after I changed the elements, 10m it appears had also improved, so this was not a valid test and is one that I will need to repeat this comparison on my next activation, where I intend to head to a summit in the early afternoon when more US stations could be on an. An early morning activation is OK for Australia but it corresponds to the middle of the night in the US and hence there are fewer people on the air.
All in all, this was a good activation and some good tests were completed. It was cold to start with and the electric hand warmer “stone” was used successfully a few times, so that was another successful test and will remain part of my activation “kit” at least in the winter months.
The return down the hill was uneventful, as was the drive home in time for lunch!
Photos:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Sun umbrella Screw-in base support.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10/20 metre 2-element wire beam (with switchable and simple feed-point boards).
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).
SOTABeams end-fed random wire antenna (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA spotting.
Log:
DL/HBY-040 Rösenau Kreuz
Activation Zone:
Map:
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well on 20m with between 1 & 2 S-points difference in signals depending upon the direction was switched to.
The need to lower the mast to switch the direction is inconvenient however the solution is lighter and stronger than the fully remotely switchable option that I tried on the last activation.
The 10m section of the antenna still needs to be tested as this time, the band was changing too much to make any conclusions as to whether the elements without traps work better than the trapped section on the 20m elements.
With progress made on the 2-element wire beam and success at Peissenberg a week previously in the 10m only form, it was time to test the antenna this time with the trapped elements which should make the antenna a dual band antenna able to operate on the 10-metre and the 20-metre bands. This was not to be a test of the Bluetooth relay switching board but rather purely to test out the dual-band nature of the elements. Testing the full system with remote switchable direction will need to wait until another day.
After some days of rain showers, Monday had a good forecast with winds supposed to cease by 9 am and then the day to be sunny if not warm.
After a couple of tests in the muddy local field, the simple feed-point plate with the trapped elements had been trimmed to length, so everything was set for a test from a summit and so the surveyor’s tripod, the 7-metre mast, the antenna analyser and the antenna components were all loaded in the car on Sunday evening along with my 40-litre rucksack containing radio, battery and several antennas and masts, ready for an early start on Monday morning.
The chosen summit “Rentschen” is a plateau and as such a good summit for antenna testing with lots of space and few obstructions. This is a summit that is both in the HEMA and SOTA schemes and so is a “twofer” as POTA activators would say.
The Activation
The trip down was uneventful and I arrived at my usual car parking spot at around 8:15 am local time with my plan to be on the air before 9 am to catch the 20m long path into VK (I had set up a sked with Ernie VK3DET) and then to try the antenna also on 10 metres.
I chose a spot not far from the trig-point stone and I unpacked the mast, tripod and antenna first. These went up well, in the same way as I had installed them on the local field for the earlier tests and trimming. The four wires go out at 90° to each other and because of the combined length of the element and its cord extender (also acting as the guy cords for the mast), form a 56° angle with the vertical mast (the mast is a 7 metre mast but with the top section removed so that the feedpoint board sits at 5 metres above ground level).
Before unpacking the radio, I attached the antenna analyser to make sure that all still seemed OK with the antenna – it did. Then the Xiegu G90, headphones, battery and log book were unpacked and laid on my painter’s thick plastic sheet on the ground.
After sending a short Internet message to Ernie and agreeing on a 20m frequency that was free at both ends, I called Ernie and there he was – armchair copy, solid signal! I had the antenna “aimed” long-path (West from me) for this contact. When I needed to move to 10m, it would need to point short-path (East from me) so, rather than going straight on to 10m (a bad decision as it turned out), I decided to work more chasers (HEMA & SOTA) on 20m first.
In the middle of the SOTA callers on 20m, Matt ZL4NVW from Otago on the South Island of New Zealand called in. This suggests that 20m would have still been good for contacts into VK for another hour or so at least.
Another surprise contact was Alan G7KMW actually mobile while heading into work in the midlands of the UK. An easy copy so I think the antenna is definitely working.
When I decided to switch to 10m it was getting close to 0900 UTC and after dropping the antenna, turning the feed-point board 180° so that the beam would be pointing short-path to VK and raising it again, Ernie VK2DET and I tried for a 10m contact but if I hadn’t known he was calling I would have mistaken it for just part of the noise. The signal was so weak that there was no chance of Ernie hearing me (but I did try). What was strange was that two VK2 stations VK2CPC and VK2GM were both booming great 59 signals on 10m. Initially, I had thought my antenna wasn’t working on 10m but later I found it was most likely a propagation problem with an X-ray flare hitting the Ionosphere over Australia and pushing the MUF down over VKs 3,5,6 & 8 but not affecting VK2.
I only got one contact on 10 metres and that was off the side of the beam with Mario in Munich.
The next test will be to fit the Bluetooth-switched top board, to see if I can hear any difference in signal strengths as I “rotate” the static antenna electrically. I also want to see if I can support the mast with just a ground peg rather than using the surveyor’s tripod. On Rentschen at the start of the activation, there were only very light winds but when I went QRT, they had increased to a level where I may have had issues putting the antenna up so I had timed it right in that respect.
Photos:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90 radio.
Surveyor’s tripod.
7 metre fibreglass mast.
10/20-metre band 2-element trapped wire beam.
RigExpert AA-30 Antenna Analyser.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
Lamdahalbe 5m mini-mast and new metal base peg (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
Gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for SOTA/HEMA spotting.
Log:
HEMA
SOTA
CONTACTS MAP
Conclusions:
The antenna worked well on 20 metres. The problem with getting through on 10 metres to VK3 was later found to be an X-ray flare hitting the atmosphere over part of Australia, explaining why VK2 and JAs were getting through but not VK3. Others in Europe experienced similar problems.
Once the band is open and DX stations are coming in, the “search & pounce” approach can be forgotten as there are too many high-powered stations with large beam antennas that believe it is their right to get in contact with the DX station and if they hear someone else calling ahead of them, they repeat their call after the portable station finishes to make sure that if the DX station goes back to the portable station, he/she can no longer hear the DX station because of the DQRM they are causing. Hardly in the spirit of ham radio!
A short 3-night break with the family to Füssen near the Austrian/German border brought the chance of some portable radio activations. The problem of planning ahead with this trip was the uncertainty of the weather and indeed two of the days were ruled out due to high winds or constant rain but a POTA activation and a combined HEMA/SOTA activation could take place. See previous reports to explain how a summit can be in both HEMA and SOTA. As my new wire beam has, because of long-term sub-zero temperatures and snow cover, not been able to be tuned as yet (and its supporting surveyor’s tripod could not be taken along due to lack of space in the car), the good old 6m telescopic fishing pole with a linked dipole would be the antenna of choice on any summits and the Komunica HF-Pro2-Plus-T on a mag mount on the car roof for the POTA activation which would be again a PLOTA (Parking Lot on the air) from a car park, just within the boundaries of the park.
The Activations
Monday 22nd January – POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alps NP.
This POTA park is quite large and the last time I activated this, it was a joint activation with the SOTA “Laber” summit which is in the East of the park. This time I would be activating from the western edge of the park.
After checking into our hotel and dropping off my wife at the Spa, our dog Bonnie and I drove to the parking area that I had found on the map to be within the park’s boundaries. Of course, before starting operating, a higher priority was to take the dog for a walk up into the forest on the side of the hill. Once this was taken care of I could set up the station in the car. The G90 radio and its battery were put on the front passenger seat and the antenna was located on the magnetic mount on the roof.
I had decided to start on 40 metres as normally this is a sure way to get a few contacts in the log and with POTA 10 contacts are needed to qualify the park. This was more difficult than expected with the spot on the POTA site not bringing the expected flood of calls. I tried a different frequency in case there was someone, that I could not hear on my chosen frequency and after a little while longer I managed four contacts but then the calls dried up. It was about noon and perhaps this is not a good time for 40 metres?
So after a switch to 20m and re-adjusting the antenna, we had a totally different story with lots of calls getting into the log. Indeed the final count was 23 contacts in 45 minutes, with a few of those being a little longer than the usual report exchange.
Tuesday 23rd January – HEMA/SOTA DL/HBY-036 Eisenberg / DL/AL-171 Eisenberg.
I had considered activating some summits closer to Füssen, that I had not activated before, however as most tracks were still snow-blocked and some others simply dangerous at this time of year, I decided to drive a little further and activate a summit that I know well and have activated several times over the last few years. Eisenberg has a publicly accessible castle ruins on its summit with a wooden platform added to one end, where I normally set up.
En route the rain that had started soon after I left the hotel stopped just as I was arriving at the starting point for the climb. The walk up from the (unfortunately closed) Schlossalm Zell restaurant needed me to fit my shoe spikes as the path was thick ice and as I got closer to the summit, the winds were increasing.
I was not worried as I knew I had a good strong point to strap the mast to and could shelter alongside the wall on the platform. On arriving at the platform, I was surprised to see a new fence across it as it seems half of the platform has rotted away and is awaiting repair. This messed up the idea of setting up on the platform so I searched around in the ruins in the hope of finding a large enough area to string out the antenna and at the same time have some shelter from the winds.
No such spot was to be found but I did find a sheltered spot with enough room to put up my backup antenna, the Komunica HF-PRO2-Plus-T on its tripod with radial wires. This was going to have to be the option and as I could see further clouds heading towards me, I wanted to make a fairly quick activation (for both HEMA and SOTA only 4 contacts are needed to qualify the summit)
Learning from the previous day’s experience I decided to start on 20 metres rather than 40 metres and given the incoming weather, this was going to be a single-band activation.
This activation racked up 17 contacts in 14 minutes (several of these regular chasers who I had not yet talked to in 2024) before I packed up and headed back to the car at which point the incoming rain started – I had been lucky with the weather.
At this point, an activation of Falkenstein (another summit with castle ruins on it), had been planned for either Wednesday or Thursday but very strong winds on Wednesday and constant rain on Thursday, meant that activation never took place.
Photos:
POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alps National Park
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
HEMA DL/HBY-036 / SOTA DL/AL-171 Eisenberg
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
MountainTop 40-litre rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with magnetic mount for the first activation and on a tripod with radials for the second activation).
Three-magnet car roof antenna mount.
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
SotaBeams linked dipole (not used).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
4.5 Ah LiHV battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
POTA DA-0003 Ammergauer Alpen NP
POTA Contacts Map
HEMA DL/HBY-036 Eisenberg
SOTA DL/AL-171 Eisenberg
SOTA Contacts map:
Conclusions:
The weather was a problem mainly on the second two days, stopping the hoped-for third activation.
The Xiegu G90 continues to work reliably.
Again the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T – again saved the day on the summit activation.
I accepted an invitation to the wedding of a radio amateur I have known since my time in Australia and as he was marrying his English lady on the Island of Cyprus. I, of course, could not miss this opportunity to operate a portable radio station from the island in the Mediterranean Sea where I had never been before. I decided this would be a series of activations in HEMA, POTA and SOTA (I suppose I could also have classified this as an IOTA expedition as well as the Island has its own IOTA number (AS-004)). Interestingly in contests, it counts as being part of Asia, a point that makes it attractive to European contest stations who often operate from Cyprus to get continental multipliers for the easy European contacts.
I would be on Cyprus for exactly a week, so I planned 2 activations every couple of days around some other holiday activities and of course the wedding!
I arrived and left on Sunday, so those days were out but Monday was planned for POTA, Wednesday for HEMA and Friday for SOTA with Saturday left initially free for a possible POTA “2-Fer” activation in the town of Paphos where I was staying.
The Activations
Monday 11th September – POTA.
Firstly a POTA park to the northwest of Paphos – 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings.
This park was literally 15 minutes drive from where I was staying and as the car park is officially within the park grounds, this was a simple, from-the-car, activation using the HF-PRO2 loaded whip on a small magnetic mount on top of the hire car.
Upon unpacking the equipment from my small rucksack to set up in the car I found that one side of my small transportable JVC headphones had come apart with the foam rubber pushing through the fake leather-looking plastic on the headphones. So the first repair was made using electrician’s tape even before the first contact on the holiday was made.
That first contact though was a good one – Ernie VK3DET was there for me again as he had promised to try to be and a contact with 20W of SSB on 20 metres using a multiband loaded whip on a magnetic mount received a 3-3 report from the land down-under. Ernie was about a 5-4 signal. Surprisingly this was not to be the only contact from VK3 – 25 minutes later David VK3BY from Melbourne replied to my CQ calls and we exchanged 5-3 signal reports. Other countries making up the rest of the twelve contacts (10 contacts are needed to qualify a POTA park) were made up of Italy, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Romania and France.
Radio operation started at 08:45 local time (05:45 UTC) and ran for an hour. By the end of the hour – even with the shade within the car I was feeling the heat, so I packed up and went to walk around the park. For just €2.50 it’s a vast area to look into the various excavated tombs but also as this is on a promontory, to look out to sea with the clear blue waters. I know I only saw possibly half of the park but after about an hour of walking in the heat (wearing my wide-brimmed “Tilley” hat), it was enough, so I headed back to the car and then to the large supermarket for supplies as I was staying in a self-catering apartment,
After the mid-day heat, the afternoon brought another planned POTA park activation. This one needed a 20 km drive to the southeast of Paphos to the Aprrodites Rocks where the forest is a national park and number 5B-0005 Aprodites Rock Forest. The car park for the beach by the rocks is within the forest park area, so this again would be a car-based activation using the same loaded whip on the car roof and 20 watts on 20 metres.
The difference with this activation was that the car was already hot even though it was 3 pm local time, the heat sat in the air and getting the needed number of contacts was more difficult. Add to that an extra complication that the 4AH LifePo battery’s built-in management system decided to cut the power to my radio about halfway through the activation resetting all defaults in the Xiegu G90 radio (which doesn’t like power to be cut without warning).
The black case on the radio is not an advantage in mid-30s (Centigrade) temperatures even though I have covered the top side of the radio with white sticky-backed plastic after a POTA activation in 5B – the case is too hot to touch!
The battery problem was easily resolved in that I have a backup 2AH LifePO battery and once that was connected, I was back on the air to collect more needed contacts.
This time there were no VKs in the log (it would be the middle of the night with them and the long path had long ago closed). Calls came in however from Sweden, Spain, Greece, Italy, France and North Macedonia.
Again this was an hour-long activation from 12:00 – 13:00 UTC and after completing the last call, I packed away the radio gear and headed down to the beach to see what all the fuss about the rocks was – as you will see from the pictures – they are impressive!
It was about a 40-minute drive back to my apartment and time to meet up with the other wedding guests for a meal. After that, I was able to enter my logs into POTA, so that those chasers would already see the contacts logged (in POTA only the activator does the logging work, unlike HEMA and SOTA where both the activator and the chaser have to log the contact).
Wednesday 13th. September – HEMA.
After Tuesday was taken up with a tourist bus tour, Wednesday was planned as a HEMA day with two first activations of summits. Indeed this expedition was the first time ANY HEMA summits have been activated on Cyprus!
The first summit was 5B/HCY-011 Axylon near the village of Aksylou about 20 km northeast of Paphos.
The drive was fairly straightforward however the access track towards the summit quickly gets difficult for a small rental car and with only limited parking possibilities, I decided to park by the village water tower which is within the 25-metre activation zone and with some space to put up the mast and linked dipole antenna this time.
It was 9:15 am local time (06:15 UTC) by the time I had got set up and there he was again – Ernie VK3DET, first into this log as well – making also the first VK – 5B HEMA contact as well as the first contact to an, up to this point, never-activated HEMA summit. From here, with the better antenna, Ernie was 5-8 with me and he gave me a 5-6 report. It’s still quite amazing what can be done with low power and a simple antenna when you are on the air at the right time and propagation is on your side!
The following contact was also a surprise, Andy M7FTM was on his way to work in Dorset, mobile from his car running 10 watts to a whip antenna and coming in at about 5-4 with some QSB.
The following calls were from all over Europe – France, Macedonia, Georgia (country not US state), Russia, Slovenia, Italy and Poland.
I had planned to activate my second HEMA late in the afternoon but as the bridegroom’s stag night was planned for the evening, I decided to head to the 2nd summit from the first hoping that Google Maps on my phone would find the way for me.
It did and by 11:00 am local time (0800 UTC), I arrived at 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas (to find this summit look for Villa Breeze on the map and follow the track past the water tower behind it). The views from this summit are fantastic – the blue Mediterranean Sea and the rolling hills down to it as well as the countryside around are truly beautiful. One thing to beware of however is the undergrowth which consists of mostly prickly weeds. The ground is also very hard and I had to search around to find a spot to put the mast base spike in the ground. Once I had done this I ran out the linked dipole wires across the ground, trying not to tangle them in the spikey plants. I raised the 6m mast up and went back to peg out the antenna elements which also act as guy ropes. In the meantime what had been a nice cooling breeze in the hot sunshine turned into a light wind but even that light wind was enough to blow the mast over. As I went back to the mast, I could see that the mast was fine but the Decathalon peg-based (or De_crap-a-lot as I am now calling equipment from this company) had broken the base support in that the nut, which is only set in plastic with no strengthening, had bent over and could not be simply pushed back as the plastic had broken. This is a horrible design. This same problem has happened to me before but on the advice from several SOTA activators, they said I must have simply got “a bad one” last time, I bought a new one and this is what happened. The design is simply not thought through. De_crap-a-lot, I will not buy from you again!
Of course, I have a backup for such let-downs. I packed the mast and Linked Dipole away and took out the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T loaded whip and my converted photo tripod and radials. Once that was all set up, I could hear a VK6 station still on 20m but with the now limited antenna and late time for the propagation, he could not hear me.
I spotted myself on the HEMA site and the DX-Cluster in the hope of making 4 contacts to make the journey out to this summit worthwhile. After a lot of effort, I managed one WWFF contact and two HEMA-to-SOTA contacts in Greece, Italy (x2), and Austria.
At 12:15 local time, I decided to pack up and head back to the apartment to get something to eat, rest and then prepare for the evening.
Friday 15th September – SOTA
With the wedding now having taken place (a great success, where everything went very well and all were happy if a little drunk later on), Friday would be a SOTA day. I knew that getting contacts would be easier due to the number of chasers that monitor SOTAWatch compared to HEMA and POTA however I would have to rely upon the HF-PRO-2 loaded whip as the antenna. As it was to turn out, it did a great job!
The first SOTA summit of this “Mini-DXpedition” was one with no name 5B/CY-042, which I chose to call Chapel of Agiou Mama as that is a little further down the track, so following signs to the chapel take you to this No-Name summit just south of the village of Koili which is about a 20-minute drive north of Paphos.
It seems that in Cyprus, every summit near a village has a water tower on it as several have and this one also had one. Similar to the ground covering that I found on Wednesday this location also had a lot of prickly plants and the ground was again rock-hard so there was no way that the now fragile, damaged Decathlon mast spike would work here, so I set up the HF-Pro and tripod next to what I think is the pump building, which provided me with a little shade from the sun.
So how well, did this “compromise” antenna work from this small summit? How about a call from Paul VK5PAS in South Australia as the second contact? That, with true 59 / 55 signal reports!
I even managed an S2S contact with Andrew VK1AD/P on his SOTA summit VK1/AC-043 in the Australian Capital Territory.
For all of those who say Life’s too short for QRP – look how just 20 watts of SSB to a loaded vertical whip has performed this week from Cyprus. OK, these were not 59+20 dB reports each way but those reports indicate the stations are breaking their licence rules which clearly state “only use sufficient power to make the contact”. Here 20 watts is getting 55->59 reports from around Europe and 52->55 reports from the other side of the globe!
This set-up provided 17 contacts in 20 minutes from this summit. see the log below for the full details.
Rather than heading back to Paphos and going to my second SOTA summit in the cooler, late afternoon, I decided to head straight on to the SOTA Summit 5B/CY-035 Mazi relying again on the Google Maps app playing through Android Auto in the rental car to get me there.
This time, things did NOT go to plan … The directions were fine until it told me to turn off the main road onto a stone track which was a little wider than the car itself. I did not turn that way thinking that it was wrong and that even if I should have done it, I would be brought back via another route. I carried on and the app kept giving me directions, in this case, it took me onto smaller and smaller roads and eventually after it took obvious “short-cuts” between the more “normal” roads, I knew this was really taking too long for the relatively short distance between the summits. There was no way to turn around, so I decided to follow the first sign that directed me back to Paphos and my apartment and then to “re-group” after something to eat. The route back to Paphos was also “interesting” with the road full of goats with no shepherd to be seen and another place where there were tens of quad bikes heading to some waterfalls. Eventually, I reached Coral Bay, which I knew was up the coast from Paphos. So I eventually found my way back onto known roads after a nearly 2-hour detour.
What had happened was that the phone had lost cell coverage (and hence access to the Internet) just after the track where it wanted me to turn off and although I had downloaded the local region map to the phone, something was not working correctly with that map it seems.
After some food and rest, I decided to try again and this time when I reached the small track (which actually had a sign pointing down it with a road number on it!) – I took it and this was a road NOT to take a hire car down (even the cross-over model – that the rental companies call a mini-SUV, which I had). Part of the route is concreted, part of it is pure stones and part is a mixture of surfaces with potholes everywhere. Steep climbs and drops and bushes sticking out to scratch the car along the route test the driver. Google Maps likes to take short-cuts it seems, which means that you use even smaller roads – at Mazi, it is best to head towards the couple of houses there and then head back along and up to the summit (as I found on the return route back to the main road). In any case, upon arriving, I realised there was NO space to park off the road in what looked like olive plant fields. I did find a road junction and was able to position the car in the corner so that anyone coming along with a smaller vehicle would be able to get past. I hoped that no tractors or larger trucks would arrive while I was operating – luckily no one came by.
I clambered up the soil wall at the side of the road and found a spot where I could put down my painter’s sheet to sit on and again set up the tripod and HF-PRO-2. Even with a working mast peg, this would not have been the place to put up the linked dipole antenna because of lack of space.
Once set up and self-spotted on SOTAWatch, I had a constant flow of calls (24 in 14 minutes) – no Intercontinental DX this time but calls from all around Europe and two SOTA S2S contacts – see the log below for details.
Getting to this summit took some doing. Going there again, if I ever get a chance to return to Cyprus, would of course be easier – for those reading this report while planning your activation of Mazi, I hope these tips will help.
At the end of the day, this activation again amazed me as to what is possible with low power and a simple antenna system. I was glad to get back to the apartment that evening for a rest.
That was supposed to be the last activation of the holiday but as the bridegroom wanted to work some HF and I had a “backup” POTA “2-fer” ready to cover if the others had not worked out, we decided to play some radio on Saturday…
Saturday 16th September – POTA 2-Fer?
After a late breakfast, Adrian M0GLJ and I headed over to the Paphos Archaeological Reserve POTA 5B-0113 and after paying the €4.50 entrance fee headed through the park towards the Paphos Liighthouse POTA 5B-0067 and found a shaded area in the lighthouse area.
This was to be the same set-up as on the previous activation, the HF-PRO2 antenna on the tripod with the radial wires laid out roughly around the base. I set the slider on the antenna to the position for 20 metres, connected everything up and tuned the band. It was very quiet. I checked all connections and even ran the ATU in the radio, no difference. I did find one Italian station and called him but while he could hear me, we could not make a full contact. This was a Saturday morning, the band would normally be full of stations. Tuning up and down the band, I could hear blips at irregular intervals but no more stations.
I decided to switch to 40 metres reset the antenna and tuned around there – nothing, not one station!
I wondered whether the radio was faulty in some way but all seemed fine – I changed AGC settings pre-amp settings and all made no difference. This demonstration activation of HF radio was certainly not going the way I had hoped. Adrian had his Yaesu HT along and had found the local FM repeater. He put a call through there but no one came back.
Then I thought I might know what had happened. On Cyprus there is a UK Royal Airforce base which has a Megawatt over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) station – if that was operating, it could flatten all receivers in a several hundred kilometres radius and we were probably 45 km away, from where we were.
I decided if that was the case, we had no chance and we both decided to call it a day with the radio, take a look at some of the excurvations on the way out and then head for Coral Bay for lunch.
As it turned out, checking the propagation reports that evening, there had been a series of HF radio blackouts at around the time we were trying to operate. While conditions during the week had been so good up to that point, it hadn’t crossed my mind that what we had was, in fact, a radio blackout, which it seems was in fact the case. Just unlucky timing on our part!
It would have been nice to have activated the “two parks in one” 2-Fer POTA location but I can only say that the rest of the activations went off very well despite a couple of problems and Saturday was just “one of those things”.
Sunday, I flew back home to Germany.
Photos:
POTA 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
POTA 5B-0005 Aphrodites Rock forest
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
HEMA 5B/HCY-011 Axylon
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
HEMA 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
SOTA 5B/CY-042 NoName (in Koili village)
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
SOTA 5B/CY-035 Mazi
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
POTA 5B-0067 and 0113 Lighthouse in Archaeological Reserve
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Equipment taken:
Raddy 20-litre mini-rucksack.
Xiegu G90.
Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna. (used with mag mount for the first two activations or on a tripod with radials for the later activations).
Single-magnet car roof antenna mount (used for both POTA activations).
Modified mini photo tripod with clip-on radials
Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast.
SotaBeams linked dipole.
De_crap-a-lot mast base peg (until it broke).
4 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
2 Ah LifePO4 Eremit battery.
Painter’s thick plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone to spot and back-channel comms.
Logs:
POTA 5B-0114 Tombs of the Kings
POTA 5B-0005 Aphrodites Rock forest
HEMA 5B/HCY-011 Axylon
HEMA 5B/HCY-001 Trachonas
SOTA 5B/CY-042 NoName (in Koili village)
SOTA 5B/CY-035 Mazi
Conclusions:
The weather was never a problem on any of these activations but a wide-brimmed “Tilley” hat and lots of sunscreen definitely helped.
The Xiegu G90 worked reliably although it got a little too hot on some of the activations.
The surprise top performer turned out to be the Komunica Power HF-PRO-2-Plus-T – that loaded antenna works better than it should. The linked dipole when I had it up worked well as well but of course, the failure of the Decathalon mast mount meant I could not use that on the summits that I had planned to.
It is very hard at times to get the needed contacts in the POTA and HEMA schemes but you are fighting off the callers when operating SOTA.
When you think all is going fantastically, the Sun can hiccup and spoil what should have been a simple activation on the Saturday, by causing a total radio blackout!
The idea of World HEMA Day is to get as many HEMA activators out as possible to try for H2H contacts. With the recent expansion of HEMA into Malaysia (West & East) and Canada as well as across Europe, with good propagation and good timing, someone may manage some good DX H2H contacts. For me with the times I could get out, my target was around Europe but as you’ll read surprisingly there was some DX around (if chaser stations, not activator ones).
My original plan was to activate two summits on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday but when the one on Saturday became difficult to reach as roads were closed for re-surfacing and I decided on a different summit, this became a possibility for a “family day out” with my wife and dog. Seeing some countryside that we have never been to, having a nice outing in the good weather and topping it off with a nice meal at a country restaurant.
So with that extra work on Saturday, I decided to keep the Friday activation down to my most local HEMA summit and as it turned out that was a good decision with additional road-closed delays affecting that activation.
As I will be heading to Cyprus in just over a week, for a week (including some radio activations), these two activations were also to serve as equipment tests. The first just using my normal radio station in a 40L rucksack set-up and the second trying to operate with a smaller (5 metre) mast and a smaller ground peg.
The Activation
Friday 1st September 2023 DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet
The usually simple drive to this HEMA/SOTA summit was complicated by a main road being closed the day before. While there was an alternate route, the fact the normal route was closed was not shown on the road until after I got past the exit for that other route. Indeed I only knew that I could not turn right as normal in Fischen until I got to the roadworks themselves. I had to turn around a head back about 3 kilometres to the alternate exit – this added about 20-25 minutes to what is normally a 35-40 minute run. Luckily I had set off early and was able to be set up on the summit to activate as planned for the start of “World HEMA Day” which ran from 1200 UTC (2 pm local time) on Friday, September 1st to 1200 UTC on Saturday, September 2nd.
The activation brought in contacts from around Europe. I started on 40m and there were several strong Italian stations on the band to start with then I suspect the critical frequency rose over 7 MHz as propagation became very NVIS-like and the second part of the hour that I activated was almost all stations from within Germany. It was a pleasant time chatting with other amateurs but as I had alerted to operate on 20m as well, after about an hour I decided to move to that band and re-spot myself using the new “HEMA Assistant” Smartphone app. This app appeared to be very slow in refreshing its list of spotted stations but even with the slow response (which wasn’t a problem on Saturday. It was some kind of temporary problem – possibly with my internet access from the summit). The app did show however that I was the only HEMA activator out at the time I was on my summit. Among the 40m contacts I did have a summit-to-summit contact however and that was with Ben DL2DXA on GMA Summit DA/SX-224 near Dresden.
After switching to 20m and hitting the tune button on the radio, the Linked dipole which would normally tune straight away was causing issues. I lowered the mast again and found that the 17m link had come open. Looking at this, I could see that the wires were taught and the solder joints were looking a little “aged” so one maintenance task when I got home was to adjust where all wires were tied into the links and to resolder all joints to the 2mm power connectors which I use for these links. This was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to find before my trip to Cyprus.
Back to 20m – after reconnecting the 17m link and raising the 6 metre mast again. the G90 tuned the antenna quickly – actually with this (resonant) antenna I could turn the internal tuner off but it does help to spot these kinds of problems. I decided to tune around on 20m and while there was not a lot of activity – this was about 13:15 UTC, I came across Tony VK5KI on Kangaroo Island in South Australia working an XE station (who I could not hear) – unfortunately I waited too long to call Tony as I wasn’t sure when the other station signed off. Tony was about an S7 so a contact might have been possible. I suspect Tony may have been going QRT in any case as it would have been approaching midnight with him.
Further searching on 20m brought some Eastern European stations in a net but apart from that the band was very quiet, so I found a free frequency and spotted myself both on HEMA and on the DX Cluster. Unfortunately about a quarter of an hour of CQing brought no responses. As it now started to get colder and there was a possibility of showers forecast, I decided to call it a day, knowing my home route would be slightly longer given the road closure, so that was my first activation for World HEMA Day completed.
Saturday 2nd September DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg
I had planned the summit Rentschen (DL/HBY-052), which is a 45 minute’s drive to my south for my Saturday summit but for that one, I was forewarned of the road closure and so for an extra 5-minute drive, this time north from where I live, I decided to do the first activation of Staufenberg (DL/HBY-038). This is a literal drive-up summit (as is Rentschen) and for anyone looking for a really easy summit to activate in a beautiful country area, this might be a good choice.
We set off at 9 a.m. only to hear that part of our route on the Autobahn was down to one lane from three following an accident and to expect a delay of at least 20 minutes filtering through the one, still open lane. So, we told our GPS to seek a different route and we went cross country. Unfortunately, this route was to cost me. While going through the industrial outskirts of a town with minimal traffic I sped up to get through some lights before they changed only to find a speed camera waiting to trap people on the other side just before the speed limit increased from 50 to 60 km/h – flash … I now wait to see what the financial damage will be!
Soon after I had set up the station, the air-raid sirens went off in the area for about 10 minutes. As this was at exactly 10:30 a.m. local time, I presume it was a test of the emergency alarm system in the area and not that my mighty 20W of RF had triggered some alarm HI.
As well as the normal equipment in the car, for this activation I had brought along my 5-metre squid pole, which will be light to carry for the Cyprus trip. Along with that, I intended to use the decathlon base spike to support the base and the normal sun Umbrella screw-in base is not practical for the trip. The first obvious limitation was that the thin 5-metre pole was very loose in the base but after searching around for some cord in my rucksack, this limitation was addressed and the cord is now packed within the base so that it stays with it. I was of course unable to use the top section of the pole so the antenna’s feedpoint was at around 4m AGL meaning that the end cords needed to go out a fair distance and that the 40 metre end sections of the linked dipole were quite close to the ground. Use of this antenna with with my 60 or 80m extensions would not work with such a low mast however as I rarely use those bands that is not such a great loss.
Once the antenna was set up in the grassed area alongside the small chapel on this summit, the radio was unpacked and set up on my normal plastic sheet and I was ready to start on 40m to see who I could find.
Before spotting I took a tune around and found Peter in Dusseldorf with a strong signal calling CQ and getting no replies despite his special event callsign of DQ23IVG for the Invicta games being run in Dusseldorf this year. (The Invicta games are for injured soldiers – from any nation – to compete in sport despite their injuries and form part of their recovery and return to as normal a life as possible).
Next, I checked the HEMA Assistant app (which worked with little delay on this activation) to see that Dave G8XDD was out on the G/HSE-019 HEMA summit in the UK. After a couple of tries, I managed to break into his pile-up and got the first H2H into the log.
I then found a clear frequency and spotted myself via the app. 40m was terrible with QRM from multiple contests that were in progress (which is the main reason I rarely activate on a Saturday). There were callers but they were crushed by splatter from the station who started up a kc or so away from the frequency I was using without checking first. Bad operating? Yes, but these are crocodile contesters – most don’t listen for stations under an S9 signal level – perhaps their radios aren’t capable of it from all the stray RF coming back into the front end from their own linear amplifiers? As I have said before there are good contesters but unfortunately they are the exception, the majority don’t care about other spectrum users.
After fighting to get contacts on 40m I decided to move to 20 metres to try my luck there. At this point I found another advantage of the lower mast – I was able to un-clip the 20m links in the antenna without lowering the mast. while this is just a small point it does make the operation simpler. Once on 20m, I wished I had moved there earlier. The contesters had not yet arrived in their hoards and the band was relatively quiet, enabling me to find a good frequency, spot myself on HEMA and start calling CQ.
The first station who called was Uwe as IK7/DF3DAD a solid 59 signal from Ginosa down in the “heel of the Italian boot”. Following Uwe was Don G0RQL from Cornwall England who had tried on 40m but on 20m this was a 59/58 easy contact.
There then followed a nice stream of chasers from Poland and the UK. One Karl 2E0FEH told me he had just worked a HEMA activator, Bill M0DXT, but he was not spotted on the HEMA list so Karl agreed to do that. Of course, Bill was back on the QRM-band 40m but I would try after all the aim of World HEMA Day was to get as many H2H contacts as possible. As soon as I announced that I was moving to 40m of course I got more calls on 20m, so with those logged and happy, I then switched back over to 40m to go and hunt Bill. Again the lower antenna meant a quick change of bands was possible and I found Bill on the frequency that Karl had told me he was on but unfortunately, two Italian stations were also having a long chat on the same frequency – I suspect neither Bill in the UK nor the two Italians could hear each other but unfortunately with me being in the middle I could hear both. In any case, I battled on and in the gaps in the Italian’s transmissions, I managed to get the H2H contact in with Bill M0DXTT on G/HLD-043 for my second WHD H2H contact.
All of this time my wife had been walking the dog along several of the clearly marked walking tracks that go off from the summit and I decided that after an hour of operation, it was time to pack up and head off to the beer garden restaurant in the Bonstetten village for lunch.
This had been ideal activating weather and the sunshine through the trees and some very good food for a reasonable price in the beer garden just made it a perfect day – well actually only half a day as it was altogether a 4-hour round trip. None of us were eager to do too much more however when we got home. Some good weather, fresh air and good food made this an ideal day for all three of us!
Photos:
DL/HBY-064 Berndorfer Buchet:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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)
Let’s hope that more HEMA H2H contacts were made on Saturday. On Friday, I was the only HEMA Spotted station on! The problem on Saturday was as always, the contest stations.
The equipment tested on the Friday activation had me repairing and adjusting the linked dipole so that the links no longer jump out. The smaller mast and mast base tested on the Saturday activation worked fine and in fact with the antenna wire a little lower I was able to switch between 40m and 20m without lowering the mast, however, this set-up will not let me use the 60 or 80m extensions to the antenna.
DD5LP / G8GLM / VK2JI blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.