Preparation:

This was to be an activation to test out my “Ultra-light” kit. My Xiegu G106 radio and the SOTABeams Bandspringer long wire antenna as I have now added an external “Z-Match” manual ATU to the configuration. The antenna gets launched into a tree using a weighted bag and cord, so the complete station packs into a very small bag (about the size of a lady’s large handbag).

Radio conditions were all over the place so I wasn’t planning for any DX and while this was going to be a “family outing” with my wife and dog, I knew I would be restricted, however, I still packed the usual 40L rucksack with the G90 configuration in it, into the car as well, just in case the new configuration did not go as well as hoped. I could then hopefully qualify the park/summit having driven there.

The location chosen I had visited and activated before as a HEMA summit – DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg about 10 km west of Augsburg which itself is about 45 minutes to an hour’s drive away from our home. The summit overlooks the village of Bonstetten which has a wonderful, old restaurant in it, which is open on a Monday (many restaurants close on Monday & Tuesday here) and as the weather forecast was that Monday was likely to be the only dry day of the week, this fitted well. Since activating the (drive-up) summit last Autumn, I have started activating POTA parks and this summit was in the Park I could activate both schemes at the same time. POTA has almost as big a following as SOTA these days, so spotting on the POTA cluster pretty well guarantees enough contacts to qualify the Park (and Summit). Unlike the WWFF Park award scheme which requires 44 contacts, POTA only needs 10 (and HEMA only 4 of course).

The hope was to have the Ultra-portable configuration work “well enough” to use on the family short holiday in the Oberpfälz (Upper Platine in English) near the Bavaria/Czech border, the following week.

The Activation

POTA DE-0006 7 HEMA DL/HBY-038

The expected 45-50 minute drive was extended by the police stopping all traffic on the highway to pull out foreign trucks and check their loads and that the truck conforms to the regulations. This was STILL going on when we returned on the other side of the highway about 4 hours later, so this would have caused even bigger delays as the day went on. Of course, there was no warning of this happening in any of the radio road reports as the Police don’t want to tip off the truck drivers but I’m sure the word would have got out very quickly via their CB radio network or simply via some online social media platform.

As we had set off a little earlier than planned, this meant that I still got to the summit in the park at my alerted time of 0900 UTC (11 am local).

This summit is interesting in that as well as a small chapel, it also has the old American Forces Network (AFN) MW relay station for Augsburg on top of it. I’m not sure what it is now used for however the mast is still there and someone was working in the compound while we were there. Perhaps just keeping the grass under control?

From this summit, there are a few tracks off, that served well for my wife to take our dog on her morning walk, while I set up the antenna and radio. As I mentioned, I had brought along the SOTABeams Bandspringer end-fed antenna and a throw bag to get the antenna up into a tree. In fact, the design is for perhaps a quarter of the wire to head off from the location in the branches in an inverted L kind of configuration. The other half of the antenna, the counterpoise wire,  simply runs out over the ground. It was interesting that this wire was noticeably longer than the driven element.

Both wires have banana plugs on them which plug into a BNC adapter, which then goes directly into the ATU. In my case, this is a manually tuned Z-Match. I first tried to get a dip in the indicating LED in the ATU on 40 metres, both using the narrow and wide impedance settings of the ATU no dip could be found. I put out some CQs and spotted myself anyway and while I was receiving fine, I got no calls. I switched then to 20 metres where I could get a very slight dip in the LED light at the very end of the Tune and Load controls. I again spotted and called – no callers. I found another POTA activator who had a strong signal and tried calling him three times – nothing – and it was not a case of another station getting in first as he simply kept calling CQ. This antenna was simply not working. Which for SOTABeams is a surprise however I was surprised that it is supplied without the normal 9:1 UNUN for end-fed random wires.

Time was passing, so I decided to switch radios, leaving the same antenna up (as it had taken some time to get it up in the tree). I went back to the car and brought my Xiegu G90 and its battery, microphone, etc.  Connecting that up to the antenna and tuning, it took a lot longer than normal to find a match, but it did manage it (the G90 is known to have an in-built ATU with amazing capabilities). I found a free frequency on 20m and spotted and called again – now I had chasers calling me back and I received the needed 10 contacts to qualify the park (and the summit). No DX just calls from around Europe.

At this point, my wife and dog had been back for some time and were waiting for us to go for lunch in the village “Bonstetten” that this summit is above. So I packed everything up (the antenna, thankfully came down without any problems – often there can be problems with wire antennas jamming in trees) and we went for lunch to a lovely restaurant the “BräuStübel” in Bonstetten and then drove home at the end of what was a nice trip out and we may repeat later in the year.

 Photos:

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Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Xiegu G106 radio with Z-Match ATU
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with tripod (not used)
• SOTABeams 60-10m Bandspringer long-wire antenna.
• Linked dipole antenna and 6m Lambdahalbe mast (not used)
• 4Ah & 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries.
• 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery and 3S 2.5Ah LiPO battery (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0006 Augsburg Westlicher Wälder NP

POTA Contacts Map

HEMA DL/HBY-038 Staufenberg

Conclusions:

• The SOTABeams antenna needs the G90 ATU to work and the external manual Z-Match that I have added to the G106 is not as broad as the built-in one in the G90. I have bought a 9:1 UNU(N to add to the end-fed random wire from SOTABeams to see if that brings it into range for the Z-Match ATU.
• It is always good to have backup options available and I will be taking the tried and tested G90 + dipole set-up on our holiday, even if I manage to get the BandSpringer to work with the G106 using a 9:1 UNUN.
• Having the option to spot to a larger group of chasers, whether POTA or SOTA is very useful when the number of HEMA chasers available during a weekday is limited.

73 ’til the next activation!

UPDATE:

After writing the report above, I have indeed bought a cheap 9:1 UNUN from Amazon and by having this inline between the z-match manual ATU and the antenna, I can match the antenna to the radio on 60,40,20,15 &10m (I have not tried the WARC bands).

The UNUN was this one from Amazon:  ” https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C3ZRXD2J “

73 Ed.