Tag Archives: POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg

DD5LP/P – November 11th 2025 – Activation of 3-Fer POTA trails – DE-0594, 0595 and 0797 and SOTA DL/AM-001 Hoher Peißenberg.

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Preparation:

After several “PLOTA” activations (operating from within the car), I wanted to get out and do a “proper” activation with my 6m mast, linked dipole, and Xiegu G90 set up. Rather than the “usual” 20m long path to contact Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia, the VOACAP HF page predicted that the Gray Line should be over Europe and at least New Zealand and possibly the east coast of Australia at 0700 UTC (8 am local since we have changed back from summer time in October). The Gray Line (the terminator between night and day – at dawn and dusk) throws a “channel” over different points on the Earth at different times of the year, this is because the Earth’s axis is not straight up and down relative to its orbit around the Sun, but rather at a bit of an angle, so different points on the earth are under the line at different times on different days of the year. November is the month for dawn in Europe to be on the same line with dusk in New Zealand and Australia. I compare the use of the Gray Line terminator to transfer radio signals as being somewhat similar to ducting on VHF in that the signals are carried along the line and, as a result, are generally stronger than if transferred by F-layer skywave propagation bouncing off the Earth and ionosphere. The result is, when it works, it produces stronger signals with lower power. It is very, very rare that Grayline works on bands above 10 MHz, and so it is normally used on 40 and 80m (60m should be fine as well; however, Australia does not have a 60m amateur radio band at the moment).

Everything was packed in the car on Monday evening, so that I could leave early on Tuesday morning without waking anyone.

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797 SOTA DL/AM-001

I could probably drive the route to this summit with my eyes closed, and on some previous winter mornings in thick freezing fog, I had in fact effectively done that. This time, however, the weather was kind and the trip took around 45 minutes, with some delays caused by school buses as 7 am is the time the children are bused to their schools in Germany, and lots of tradesmen are on their way to their first jobs of the day.

After buying a 3-hour ticket (€2) for the car park (using all of my small change as the card reading device in the parking ticket meter was not working). I headed up to my favourite seat alongside the church, looking out over the valley. I had a bad feeling at this point as it was 0645 UTC and VOACAP had told me that Dawn would be at 0700, but the sun was already over the horizon, meaning I should have been setting up at least 30 minutes earlier. The window of use of Grayline is often an hour at best, and I confirmed after getting on to 40m that I had missed it.

After spotting myself on SOTA and POTA sites, I also sent Ernie VK3DET a message, but he could hear nothing from me. I suspect that even if I had been on time for the Gray Line he may have been too far away from the line at his end and another possibility was that other stronger home stations were blocking my signal as the 40 metre band was packed with SSB stations, A little surprising for so early on a work day, but perhaps they were also looking for Grayline propagation? In any case, after spotting myself, I had to fight to keep my frequency after other QSOs (in at least one case, two other QSOs) started up on the frequency that I was using without checking first that it was free (as I had done). Luckily, many of the calling SOTA Chasers and POTA hunters had strong S9+ signals and crushed the other QSOs. I was amazed how my 20w and low linked-dipole was receiving (true) 59 reports for the majority of my contacts. This certainly proved that the 40m portable set-up still works very well! The pile-up only paused a couple of times, and I got 41 contacts in the log in just over 45 minutes. Once the contacts finally dried up, I considered trying 20m despite the threat of incoming CMEs but decided, rather, to call it a day and head home to the warm, happy that even if I was too late for the Grayline propagation, the equipment is still working very well.

Photos:

  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • The Church.
  • The Church.
  • The Church.
  • Station.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Linked Dipole antenna.
  • 6m lambdahalbe mast.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (backup not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797

SOTA DL/AM-001

Conclusions:

The activation was a failure as regards Grayline; however, I know that at the right time on the right day, this can bring good results, so hopefully, I will get out again this month to prove that contacts via Grayline are still very possible. The equipment is certainly still working very well.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – October 10th 2025 – Activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweb and DE-0797 KönigLudwig trail

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Preparation:

I have activated both of these trails before; however, as they run conveniently together through the small town of “Diessen”, when my wife had an appointment, why not do a little radio while waiting. The spot I would go to is less than 10 10-minute’ drive away from the appointment.

Radio conditions were not expected to be good with a major coronal hole on the sun throwing out one CME after another.

This would also be another test of the radio to ensure the problem from a few activations ago is now fixed. The same equipment as used for the last few activations operated from within the car.

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 / DE-0797

The weather was mixed but stayed dry. After dropping my wife off at her appointment, I drove up to the car park near the town’s monastery. Once parked, mounting the HF-PRO2 antenna on the magnetic mount on the roof, connecting the battery cables to the radio, powering up and running the ATU took all of 5 minutes. Initially, I took a quick listen on 10 metres, but the intended operation was to be on 20 metres, and the first station in the log (whom I could not really hear on 10 metres) was Mike 2E0YYY/P, who was out on Merryton Low in the centre of England.

After spotting myself on the POTA website, calls came in on a fairly regular basis and at the end of the activation, before trying on 10 metres, I did some “Search & Pounce” on other POTA activators to get a few P2P contacts in the log. The activation on 10 metres brought zero calls, unfortunately, and the interference from passing cars seems worse on 10 metres than on other bands.

A nice event, as I was packing up, I was approached by four young children (between 7 and 10 years old) who asked what I was doing. I explained quickly and, seeing some real interest, grabbed a couple of my pre-printed (DARC) brochures about amateur radio and gave them to them. They were happy and went away chatting about what they had seen.

The radio and indeed, all of the equipment had performed without losing a beat, so hopefully that is the last of the earlier (apparently heat-related) shutdown from 20W to 1W output.

Photos:

  • Trail sign
  • Station
  • Antenna
  • Views around site.
  • Views around site.
  • Views around site.
  • Views around site.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0594/ DE-0767

Conclusions:

For a quick ad-hoc activation, the availability of so many POTA trails and Parks near me makes it easy to include a PLOTA activation into a schedule and at short notice.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – September 9th 2025 – Activation of 3-Fer POTA – DE-1061 Ammerseeufer & Leitenwälder, DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg & DE-0797 König Ludwigsweg.

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Preparation:

Having spotted some new POTA parks in my area, I wanted to get my name on them as “First activator”, and as my wife had a physiotherapy appointment in a village near one (DE-1050 Ammerseegebeit Bird Sanctuary), I decided this was a great use of the waiting time for her appointment. Unfortunately, the day before, the practice called and cancelled as the therapist was sick. A new appointment (after some pressure) was made for Friday (2 days later). Having already prepared the radio gear for the activation and packed it in the car, we decided to go to the other side of Lake Ammer, where another new park had been added to POTA. This one ended up being a 3-fer if activated from one specific point, which I scouted out, and the plan was set. Depending on the weather, we would head out to this other new park. While my wife took a walk along the lakefront, I would head up into the forest and activate. The other park, with any luck, I would catch as the first activator for that one on Friday.

The Activation

POTA DE-1061 / DE-0594 / DE-0797

The day started with thick fog with a thin rain haze within it, so I was wondering whether this would work out, but luckily, as we drove cross-country, the weather slowly got better. It was never going to be a warm day, but as we arrived in Herrshing, it was not raining. The forecast was for heavy rain to arrive at 11 am (and it was already almost 10 am), so this would need to be a short activation.

Mike 2E0YYY was also out testing a new radio, and I was hoping to get set up and running before he had to leave his (GMA) summit in the UK, and indeed that’s how it worked out. For me, once I was parked at the trail head, inside the park, I only needed to put the antenna on the car roof and plug in the DC cable to the 8Ah LiFePO4 battery that I had brought with me.

After working Mike, who had switched to a backup radio as the new radio was unfortunately giving problems, I spotted to the POTA website and slowly got some contacts into the log. as is often the case in these activations, I would get two or three stations and then no one as the band (20 metres)= changed, eventually I managed 12 contacts and was able to pack up and go and collect my wife from the cafe where she was keeping warm on the lake front. Just as we arrived home, the rain started.

So a short activation, but a nice spot (but it may get busy at the weekend and is only served by a single track road) and another new park for me in my activation logs.

There was no extreme DX in this activation; however, two separate stations from different Canary Islands in Africa were not a bad result.

Photos:

  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • Station.
  • Antenna.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (backup not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-1061 / DE-0594 / DE-0797

Contacts Map Activation Log

Conclusions:

It’s good to see the POTA organisation continuing to add more parks & trails to the scheme in my area, while the SOTA scheme is taking them away..

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – June 11th 2025 – Activation of 3-Fer POTA trails – DE-0594, 0595 and 0797 and SOTA DL/AM-001 Hoher Peißenberg.

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Preparation:

After several “PLOTA” activations (operating from within the car), I wanted to get out and do a “proper” activation with my 6m mast, linked dipole, and Xiegu G90 set up. As Ernie VK3DET, Mike 2E0YYY/P, Jon VK7JON/M, Helen VK7XYL/M and John VK7MD/M were planning to be on the band, this seemed to be an ideal opportunity to get back “into the field”.

As the Long Path on 20 metres has been opening around 7:30-8:00 am local time recently, this would be an early start with the alarm set for 6:15 am. The location needed to be a simple one to get to one and while I considered a HEMA/POTA location, when I realised that these three POTA trails go over the top of the SOTA DL/AM-001 summit, and this one-pointer is a drive-up, it won the choice.

Everything was packed in the car on Tuesday evening, so that I could leave early on Wednesday without waking anyone.

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797 SOTA DL/AM-001

I could probably drive the route to this summit with my eyes closed, and on some previous winter mornings in thick freezing fog, I had in fact effectively done that. This time, however, the weather was kind (if still cold) and the trip took around 45 minutes. After buying a 3-hour ticket (€2) for the car park (it used to be free, but like many well-visited locations, someone decided they could make more money out of tourists). I headed up to my favourite seat alongside the church, looking out over the valley, on a very misty morning.

I had arranged a sked with Ernie VK3DET and Mike, and contacted them just as Ernie was finishing with Mike and packing up. I was told that Jon VK7JON/M/M, Helen VK7XYL/M and John VK7MD/M had all cancelled because of bad weather in Tasmania.

Never mind, for once, the terrestrial weather with me was good, indeed, even warm!

I set up the linked dipole set to 20 metres in my usual position and took a listen around the band. I could hear Mike 2E0YYY/P and Dave G4AKC/BM, but very little else on the band. Conditions were going to be a challenge. Ernie had just finished working Mike; however, I could hear nothing of Ernie. There was, however, another station, VK3USA, who joined Dave’s groups, and after Mike, I tried, but although we got reports across, I would not call it a real contact. The additional 10 dB loss from the UK to Southern Bavaria of the last hop, combined with my reduced power compared to Mike’s, was simply too much for a true contact to be possible.

I spotted myself separately for SOTA and POTA and had two different sessions for each award scheme, but at the end of the day, contacts were hard to get in the log with the radio conditions, the way they were.

Overall, the activation (my first SOTA of the year and first outside POTA (i.e. not PLOTA) was a success, as all the equipment worked as it should, and I got to sit out in the sunshine for 90 minutes before it started to get more crowded, and I decided to call it a day.

Photos:

  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View around Summit
  • View arView around Summitound Summit
  • View around Summit
  • Antenna
  • Station

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Linked Dipole antenna.
  • 6m lambdahalbe mast.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (backup not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0594 / DE-0595 / DE-0797 SOTA DL/AM-001

Contacts Map Activation Log

Conclusions:

The activation was worthwhile to test out the equipment, even if the radio contacts were not all that they could have been. I hope the fine weather continues, and I’ll be heading to some more HEMA or SOTA summits in the next few weeks.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – January 27th 2025 – Activation of POTA DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg, DE-0595 SüdostBayen Jakobsweg & DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg (3-Fer).

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Preparation:

Following along from my POTA 3-Fer (which I didn’t realise was a 3-Fer until afterwards) on January 14th, I started checking where multiple POTA entities (parks or trails) crossed or ran together. These spots often seemed to be where large churches with a hostelry were (I guess pilgrims do need sustenance after a day’s walking). A great help in doing this is a website called pota-map-info which maps out the POTA trails and parks (and also SOTA summits) for the German-speaking countries in Europe. This must have been a major undertaking as getting the exact routes of trails and boundaries of parks in a digital mapping format from many different sources is very difficult.

Thanks to this great resource, I was able to quickly see that three trails converged on what is also a SOTA summit (DL/AM-001) at Hoher Peißenberg. In the summer, this could therefore be a good choice for a combined SOTA/POTA activation however in pouring rain/sleet, the attraction to operate from within my car (which in POTA is allowed but not in SOTA) was too great. as a second purpose for this activation was the chance to test out my recently completed portable amplifier box. Normally I operate just 20 watts of SSB from my Xiegu G90 radio but there are times when a little more (such as during the international Lighthouse and Lightship weekend) when closer to 100 watts would be useful. The “pelican-like” plastic case, not only holds the converted Chinese 20-30MHz amplifier but also a band-switchable Low Pass Filter and an Antenna matching unit – the well-known ATU-100. To power all this the case has a 12 AmpHour LifePO4 battery strapped into it and this also provides the power for whichever radio I decide to use with it, whether the G106, G90 or X6200 – all have the needed 5 watts drive to produce at least 60 watts output from the box (more on some bands). This box had been tested in the cellar into a dummy load but not yet in a real activation.

    Following the same process used on recent POTA car activations, the radio gear was set up in the car ready for use, the previous day, even down to the three-magnet base being put on the car rook (but without the HF-PRO2-PLUS-T attached, so that all would be ready for an early (8 am local time, 07:00 UTC) start the following day. As usual, Ernie VK3DET had promised to listen out for me however I expected him to be one of my later contacts as the long path on the 20 metre band to Australia had only been opening around 09:00 UTC of late.  

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 & DE-0595 & DE-0797

After an uneventful drive down to Hoher Pießenberg (a run I have made, many, many times in the past), I was happy to find the car park almost empty and drove over to the parking fee machine and emptied 10 cents coin by 10 cents coin, my weighty and unwanted small change into the machine to pay the €2 fee for up to 3 hours parking.

This summit/site has the luxury of having a publically accessible toilet house where I also left some more of my unwanted small change (this time as a contribution, there is no fee for usage).

With the car now parked looking over the rolling meadows behind the church and looking towards the Ammer Lake, I took the pre-set antenna out of the back seat of the car and extended its telescopic whip to maximum length.

I powered on the new portable amplifier box, ran the ATU, found a free frequency, posted a spot on the POTA site and sent Ernie a message informing him that I was set up and running and would you know it, my first contact was with Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia at 0750 UTC about an hour earlier than expected. He simply returned to my first CQ call as if I was just down the road! He was also working “barefoot” without his amplifier and this was an easy contact and nice to have him first in the log. A few more CQ calls and I slowly got up and past the required 10 contacts for a POTA activation (finishing with 14). There was no real pile-up this time, just hunters getting on and calling me when they saw the POTA spot. Contacts came in from all directions around Europe as you will see from the map and log below.

There were no calls from the US although my signal would be passing over the southern part of the US to get to Australia but looking at the clock difference, there’s an obvious reason why I got no calls from the US – they would all be in bed sleeping!

While there were no park-to-park contacts on this activation, several of the hunters were very happy to hear that they had scored 3 POTA contacts in one.    

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Portable amplifier box
  • 6-metre mast and linked dipole (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Three magnets, car roof antenna mount.
  • 12 Ah LifePO4 battery (in portable amplifier box).
  • 2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log (same for all three POTA entities):

DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg, DE-0595 SüdostBayerischer Jakobsweg & DE-0797 König Ludwigs Weg

Conclusions:

  • The Portable amplifier worked perfectly, signal reports were higher than usual and no problems (such as RF Ingres) were reported.
  • A contact between DL and VK3 at 07:50 UTC on 20m SSB was a surprise and just goes to show that you can’t trust propagation to behave as you expect and the only option is to get out and try!
  • The pota-map.info site is just what I bemoaned the lack of in my last but one activation report. Thanks to Rob DM1CM for pointing me to this great resource. It’s a shame that it only covers Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria but for me it’s ideal!

73 ’til the next activation!

G8GLM/P – September 24th & 26th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Country Park and UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC Bunker.

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Preparation:

Linked with my visit to the UK to visit my brother & sister and to attend the national Hamfest in Newark, I wanted to do some radio activations using my new Xiegu X6200 transceiver. As I left Germany, it was not clear which SOTA, HEMA, POTA, COTA or UKBOTA sites I might get to activate. I had planned to activate Bardon Hill – a SOTA summit (G/CE-004) on the way from the airport to where I would be staying but the weather was terrible with many roads in the UK closed because of flooding and as the access to Bardon Hill starts with a trek over a field, on the way driving there, I decided to cancel and concentrate on getting safely to my destination.

The Activations

POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Park  & UKBOTA bunker B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

I had the opportunity on Tuesday to combine the activation of a POTA park near Nottingham, which for some reason, no one had yet activated, with taking my sister to visit a friend. Cotgrove Park has a housing estate in the middle of it but also some tributaries of the River Trent, near to one of those I found an area of grass large enough to set up the linked dipole and operated on 20 & 40m from a bench. There was some interest from passersby – mainly from their dogs – this seems to be a favourite dog walking park. Initially, I was only able to get contacts by search and pounce of strong stations but then after calling CQ for some time, I managed to get a flow of contacts ending up with 11 (one more than needed for a POTA activation). I then had to curtail operations as I needed to pick up my sister from a friend’s house where I had dropped her off earlier. The drive back to the other side of Nottingham was horrible. flowing traffic had changed into crawling traffic around the Nottingham ring road but at least I could chalk up an activation. I had started to think that my bringing the radio gear had been a waste of time. 

On Thursday I went to a point within a kilometre of a UKBunkers site about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. My originally planned set-up point was in a car park shown on Google Maps, which turned out to be a private one with locked gates at a (closed) sports centre, so I went further down the riverside and found a parking spot just before the Ferry Boat Inn at Stoke Bardolph. During my visit to the UK a year ago, I tried to get to one of two bunkers near where we were staying in the Lake District. The first was inaccessible as the fields were both overgrown and flooded, the second I managed to get to and operated from the top of the entrance but conditions were not kind to me and I got no contacts from there. This year, I checked the rules more carefully to find that I only needed to be within one kilometre of the bunker and could therefore activate from the road, from inside the car. The result however was not a lot better than the year before, with only two completed contacts.

Photos:

POTA GB-2021 – Cotgrave Country Park

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UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu X-6200 radio.
  • Linked Dipole (used for POTA activation)
  • Six-metre mast (used for POTA activation).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical, tripod and radials (Used for UKBOTA activation).
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Country Park.

 

UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

 

Conclusions:

  • The activations could have gone better – whether that was conditions, lack of chasers or just not a big enough signal from the 8w X6200 (my normal G90 is a 20w radio) I am not sure. I question whether the extra effort of taking the radio gear was worthwhile (especially with the recent cases in the Middle East of exploding amateur radio transceivers making airport security more careful). I was the first activator of the POTA park, just beating another ham who activated the following day. 

73 until the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – July 24th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg & SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg.

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Preparation:

This is the second preservation/nature trail I have submitted for inclusion in the POTA award system and it was also accepted.  This trail is very interesting, starting as it does at the spot where King Ludwig was found drowned on Lake Starnberg and finishing near his world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle (think of the well-known Disneyland castle – that was a copy of this real-life one). Along its route, it entails a ferry trip across Ammersee a visit to the UNESCO-listed Weichkirche church and at least one SOTA summit. The route runs right past the seat that I use to activate the DL/AM-001 SOTA summit.   

One reason for this activation was to be the first to activate from the trail and to do that one does not have to walk the 6-day long trail but rather just set up somewhere along its route. Although I have already activated the SOTA Peißenberg summit this year and hence won’t get any points for it, I chose to do the combined activation as then I could call on two groups of chasers for contacts and my second reason for the activation would benefit from having as many contacts as possible. The second reason was to test out equipment prior to its use during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August. I had found on previous ILLW activations, that the signal from my 20w radio was getting stomped on by other stations, so (as well as using the two-element wire beam this time), this year would have some more power on board, specifically 50-70w RMS (over 100w PEP) depending upon the band in use. I have worked at trying to get a Chinese amplifier to work reliably for a couple of months but with the MOSFETs blowing regularly it did not look promising and I decided to buy a commercial HF amplifier. Now those designed for ham bands are expensive, however, those designed for the CB bands are a lot cheaper and can be modified to work across the complete HF spectrum (3-30 MHz).  I bought an RM-Italy KL-203P unit. The missing component in a 27MHz amplifier is protection against harmonic emissions. In an amplifier designed for amateur radio use, switched low-pass filters are used to block any harmonic signals. As I had, from my work with the Chinese amplifier a switchable LPF board I cased this up and cabled it to follow the amplifier and precede the ATU-100 tuner. While the LPF box uses Butterworth filters, it can operate on transmit and receive.  So, as you can see, the station for the ILLW event is made of several, cabled together units and this combination needed to be tested in a portable operation before relying upon them for my ILLW station. This activation would be that equipment test.

Map where POTA nature trail and SOTA summit meet.

The Activation

POTA DE-0797 / SOTA DL/AM-001

Originally planned for Tuesday but rescheduled to Wednesday as some strapping components were delivered later than promised by Amazon and so I would have had no chance to do a dry run from the home station – that test took place on Tuesday with a contact with Leif LA9BM in Norway. He commented that the G106 with my RF Clipper speech processor and the amplifier and other components after if, while OK, the audio sounded a little deep and muffled. This report was also received later during the activation and the adjustment to the speech processor is an outstanding action to be completed.

As regards the activation itself, I had the alarm set for 6 am, was on the road by 7 am and set up and running at 8 am (all local times – UTC+2).

A quick tune of 20m showed a couple of US stations booming in. First in the log was Ernie VK3DET and we exchanged the same report on signal strength with Ernie running 100w, that seems a good start. It took a while to get the needed 4 contacts to qualify the summit. I put this down to the crowded part of the 20m band where I was operating. I could have moved to another frequency on 20 metres but rather I decided to change to 40 metres, as another test of the equipment. On 40 metres I had no problems finding the extra 6 contacts needed to qualify a POTA trail, indeed I had 18 contacts in 35 minutes and then, as the skies were darkening again, I decided to call it a day with the new combination of units working well together. Three further callers commented on the audio being a little difficult to read, so this confirmed what I already thought to be the case and that will get looked at while at home.

When I got home, I calculated that I had drained 2 Ah from the 8 Ah battery in just over 35 minutes so I will need to take a spare battery (or two) along for the (longer) ILLW activation next month.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • DF4ZS Mini-RF-Clipper speech processor.
  • RM-Italy KL-203 P amplifier.
  • Switch LPF filters box.
  • ATU-100 tuner.
  • Aerial-59 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna.
  • Six metre mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (not used).
  • 5-band linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 8Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg.

SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg

Contacts Map

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well, I was the first activator of this POTA trail, and the radio equipment performed well. The battery drain level will need to be watched at the higher power levels and the speech processor needs to be adjusted.

73 until the next activation!