Tag Archives: SOTA

DD5LP/P – November 2nd SOTA NA-EU S2S event – DL/AM-176 Rentschen.

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Preparation:

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:

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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.

73 ’til the next summit.

DD5LP/P – August 12th 2024 DL/AL-179 Weichberg.

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Preparation:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Activation

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

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

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

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

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

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

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

Log:

Contacts map

Conclusions:

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

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

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

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

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – August 6th 5th 2024 SOTA DL/AM-176 / HEMA DL/HBY-052 Rentschen.

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Preparation:

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:

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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”.

73 ’til the next summit.

DD5LP/P – June 29th 2024 DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg.

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Preparation:

This activation was scheduled as I would be in Friedrichshafen for the annual “HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen” event. There are two SOTA summits close to “FN” Höchsten” and “Gehrenberg” the latter being the closer but the former being a “drive-up” summit.

As I wanted to plan this as an early morning activation with the chance of some contacts into VK, Gehrenberg is closer to where I would be staying so it was chosen over Höchsten.

I had my standard rucksack packed with the G90, squid poles, screw-in base etc. in the back of the car, so the plan was for this to be a relatively quick activation on Saturday morning before heading into “HAM RADIO” which opened at 9 am.

The evening before however, I met Glenn VK3YY and Andrew VK3JBL who were over from Australia and said that they had tried to get to Gehrenberg and failed because of road closures due to recent flooding. When they described their route, I was of the opinion that they had used a different approach to the one that I have settled upon over the last few years and to be sure, after the SOTA dinner, I drove my route up to the place I normally park for the summit and the route was open however there were some confusing signs related to the route to a different town and these were not relevant but for non-German readers such as Glenn and Andrew, these might seem like road closed warnings.

That evening I documented the route with pictures and sent this all Glenn and he said that they might try to get to the summit the next morning and we could activate together. There was another reason that Andrew VK3JBL wanted to qualify the 8 point summit and that was because his current SOTA activator points total was at 997 and this would take him over the 1000 points making him a “Mountain Goat”.

The Activation

DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg

On Saturday morning I was awake early and decided to head straight up to Gehrenberg to get set up and if Glenn and Andrew came along, I would have made my 4 contacts and be out of their way. The run-up was the same as the previous evening so I sent a short email to Glenn confirming the road was still open.

Luckily the tracks were not as muddy as I had feared they might be and I was set up and running by a quarter to 7 am using the usual Xiegu G90 and the linked dipole with the 20m link open supported by a 6m telescopic pole in the screw-in sun umbrella base with the ends tied off to some tree trunks.  

The first contact in the log was a sked with Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia, after that it was signals from the north – Poland and Finland before another Australian Peter VK3ZPF, who I haven’t talked with for several years and another Polish station and an Italian one finished up the contacts for a valid activation. As I was taking the mast down and packing the radio away, I heard voices and it was Glenn and Andrew coming up the hill, to start their activation and soon after another ham came from another direction to the summit, so this can be a busy summit during the HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen event.

I stayed long enough to see that Andrew qualified the summit and hence earned his Mountain Goat, before heading back into Friedrichshafen to the show.  

Photos:

 

Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella base.
  • 6 Metre Lambdahalbe mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • Modified SOTABeams band-hopper, linked dipole covering 80m-15m.
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DM/BW-348 Gehrenberg

 

Contacts map:

 

Conclusions:

  • Something seemed wrong with the 20m section of the linked dipole. It could be that I had it too close to the trees and they were de-tuning it but it will need to be tested before the next usage.

  • It’s a nice feeling to be there when someone achieves Mountain Goat status (I took videos).

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 30th 2024 HEMA DL/HBY-064 & SOTA DL/AM-180 Berndorfer Buchet.

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Preparation:

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:

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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.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – April 16-19 2024 – Short Break to the Oberpfälz with POTA/HEMA/SOTA activations.

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Preparation:

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.

Wednesday 17th April – POTA/SOTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberpfälzerWald NP / DM-BM-321 Fahrenberg.

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

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SOTA DM/BM-321 Fahrenberg / POTA DE-0024 NordlicherOberpfälzerWald NP

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HEMA DL/HBY-226 Darlesberg (failed attempt)

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POTA DE-0017 Oberpfälzerwald NP

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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.

73 ’til the next summit/park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – March 28th 2024 DL/AM-177 Kirnberg.

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Preparation:

This activation was scheduled to get the 3 winter bonus points before the end of March. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so good over the last couple of weeks but it looked like Thursday the 28th before lunch should be a pleasant sunny time to enjoy an easy morning activation on this simple summit, and soak up some sunshine. The Wednesday was indeed a sunny morning with showers in the afternoon, so all looked good for Thursday being the same. Rather than testing new versions of antennas as I have been doing on recent activations. This time I would just take the 40m dipole and small (6 metre) mast. I chose to take the Spiderbeam 404-UL rather than the linked dipole as, as well as 20m, I hoped to try for some contacts on 10 metres as part of the current 10 metre challenge. The previous weekend however there had been some really hefty solar activity meaning that 10 metres was unlikely to open but by taking the OCF, I could easily switch bands from the radio without needing to change anything on the antenna.

The Activation

DL/AM-177 Kirnberg

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 (0800 UTC) start on Kirnberg. I had not realised but the Thursday before Easter is one of, if not the, busiest days on the roads in Germany. A combination of normal traffic, plus people going early on their Easter holidays, people stocking up with food and drink for the long weekend and trucks trying to get their runs completed before being banned from the roads for four days starting on Good Friday. On my route home after the activation, a government road works department had decided this busiest day on the roads, day, was the ideal day to close half of a major road so they could replace some barriers at the side of the busy two-lane “A” road that have needed to be replaced for over a year! The workers put traffic lights in, making it a single-track road and immediately caused a long, long backup of traffic (luckily more in the southern direction as I was heading north). This caused twenty minutes or more delay for travellers within 30 minutes of them starting their work.

On arriving at the normal parking spot for Kirnberg (actually at a Gigersau farm) I was surprised to find a well-prepared parking area for about three cars and a new stoned path up to the summit cross from the parking area. Previously both of these had been a muddy mess, indeed some years ago, I got completely bogged in the parking spot and had to ask the farmer to tow me out with his tractor. These improvements have been paid for by the farmer, not the community and as the cross now forms part of a walking route will get used often.

The set-up for this summit was very simple, the Xiegu G90 radio and the Aerial-51 / Spidebeam 404-UL OCF dipole at 5 metres AGL.

Initially, I started on 20m and contacts from Spain, Finland and the UK before managing a more difficult contact with Ernie VK3DET in Australia. We agreed to try 10m but although I could recognise Ernie’s voice right down in the noise, apart from call signs, I could not understand what he was saying and he could hear nothing from me. this was not a surprise as 10m with the CME hit a few days earlier was opening later than it did the previous week and we were simply too early. Soon after this attempt some of the local feathered community came by as the hens from the farm did what seemed to be their daily round seeking out food in the ground. I had hoped to stay longer and enjoy the sunshine while working more stations today but it was getting colder and while, when I set up there was no wind, there was now an icy cold one and blue skies were starting to fill with clouds.

Back on 20m, I worked another Spanish station and another UK station and then decided to call it a day. I had got enough contacts to qualify the summit and get the winter bonus points but my hope for easy contacts on 10m in the sunshine never happened. 

There’s always another time.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella base.
  • 6 Metre Lambdahalbe mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • Aerial-51 404-UL 40 metre Off Centre Fed dipole.
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Electrical hand warmer.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AM-177 Kirnberg

 

Contacts map

Conclusions:

  • You can’t trust weather forecasts. I’d have loved for this to be a longer activation on more bands however it was not to be.

  • The OCF and 6m mast along with the Xiegu G90 are still adequate to the task of bagging DX contacts although 10 metres didn’t play ball this time.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – March 8th 2024 DL/AL-169 Auerberg.

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Preparation:

This activation was rescheduled three times because of bad weather. The aim was to activate DL/AL-169 Auerberg, DL/AL-170 Zweiselberg and DL/AL-172 Senklekopf. Thursday afternoon sunshine was predicted to start and continue through Friday.

 These are three different summits, with different levels of difficulty to reach and different amounts of space available for antenna installations.

Auerberg is a relatively easy summit but space is restricted, the wire beam I have been using will not fit in here. The OCF would be used on this summit as it enables quick band changing in what was likely to be cold conditions. The second summit, Zwieselberg has enough open space for the beam however is a difficult and long climb up a track but I wanted to use the beam from this summit. The last planned summit Senklekopf is even more difficult to get to along single-track farm roads and then up the edges of fields rather than tracks. Although there is enough room for the beam, the extra weight to carry up the steep route, meant that for this summit I planned to use my linked dipole. There was however a problem, with Senklekopf being in the afternoon, there was a good chance that 10 metres would be open to North America and my SOTABeams Linked dipole does not have a link in it (yet) for 10 metres.

I realised however, that if I took two of the the linked dipole elements that I had recently built and calibrated for the wire beam, I could easily build a linked dipole with those same bands (10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m) available. So a new feed-point plate with just two element connections was made up and put in the wire beam box.

All was set, three summits, three different antennas – set the alarm for 6:30 am – what could go wrong?

The Activation

DL/AL-169 Auerberg

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 start on Auerberg. I normally combine Auerberg with Weichberg as they are close to each other but having already activated Weichberg this year I could not get any more points for it, so I effectively drove past the summit and onto Auerberg. There was some early morning fog which I hoped would clear. It did not, rather as I approached Auerberg, it got worse and worse so that I was slowly down considerably from my normal driving speed. Surprisingly as I arrived at the car park for Auerberg, I came out of the fog and into the sunshine however, all around was under about half a metre of snow. This is not such an issue at Auerberg as the walk from the car park up to the church which sits on the actual summit is up steps with a solid handrail. After sliding a little in the car park, however, I wished I had my shoe spikes with me (I did not).

  On arriving at my usual operating position at the rear of the church I was greeted with half a metre of frozen solid snow on top of the benches which need some good repeated kicks to clear off to make space to set down my rucksack and later the radio. I used my normal way to support the 6-metre mast here by “Bongo-tie”ing it to a fence post and running out the two wires from the balun to fence posts along the border of the drop at the rear of the Church. The coax was run back across the path and to the bench and the radio set up. It was 9 am (0800 UTC) exactly.

I had arranged with Ernie VK3DET to call him at this time, so I checked the Signal messenger and he said he was just about to leave 20 metres to try for a contact with Dave G4AKB on 17 metres but he would be back. Well, as he gave me the frequency on 18MHz, I simply went there and called him and we got a contact in before Dave had left 20m. The equipment was working! As Ernie was waiting for Dave on 17m, I went onto 10 metres put up a spot and was called straight away by EA8DDW from the Canary Islands (officially Africa – so that was two DX continents in the first two contacts). That was to be the only confirmed contact on 10 metres – even though I had half a contact to another SOTA summit in Poland – that would have been groundwave as it is far too close because of the skip distance on the 10 metre band and signals were at the noise level.

Following this I bagged Ernie VK3DET in Australia another two times – once on 15 metres where he was again waiting for Dave, who I could hear, but he could not hear me and also 20 metres which was so full of stations it was really difficult to find a free frequency (and this on a Friday morning).

Although I now had four (or maybe 5 with SP9JTR/P on SP/BZ-024) contacts, these were not 4 different stations, so I still needed a couple more contacts to officially “qualify” the summit. 

Moving to 40 metres gave me eight more contacts in four minutes, after which it was time to pack up and head to the next summit.

The fog still had not lifted and it was as though I was driving down into the clouds when I wound my way back down the road from the summit. I chose not to take the small farm road that the GPS was suggesting as the shortest way to get to the next summit and continued down into Bernbeueren to take the main road. All the time I was hoping that as I approached the next summit, the fog would lift and the snow start to disappear – neither did and as I got probably 90% of the way, I could see that the small roads around had not been cleared well enough for a normal car and that would also mean that the track to the Zwieselberg summit would most likely be blocked. I made the call and turned and headed home rather than heading to either of the other two planned summits. Senklekopf would have been even more difficult to approach as that requires about 10 minutes of driving along a single-track farm road to even get to the parking spot.

Photos:

DL/AL-169 Auerberg:

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Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella base(not used).
  • 7 metre fibreglass mast (not used).
  • 6 Metre Lambdahalbe mast.
  • 10-metre band 2-element wire beam (manual switch version) (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • SOTABeams Linked Dipole (not used).
  • Aerial-51 404-UL 40 metre Off Centre Fed dipole.
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet.
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad.
  • Electrical hand warmer.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AL-169 Auerberg

 

Contacts map

 

Conclusions:

  • You can’t trust weather forecasts. Although disappointing, the cancellation of summits 2 & 3 was the right decision and hopefully if the weather improves, I may get a chance to activate them before the end of March (when the winter bonus points stop).

  • The OCF and 6m mast along with the Xiegu G90 are still adequate to the task although 10 metres does seem very quiet compared to other bands on the radio.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – February 21st 2024 DL/AM-178 Ammerleite (Schnalz).

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Preparation:

This was to be another test of the beam antenna to take advantage of good propagation and terrestrial weather conditions and while I wanted to try to get some contacts into North America, this would be an afternoon activation rather than my usual early morning ones.

The equipment would be the same as the last time (no tripod) but this time also no antenna analyser, I am confident enough now that, as long as I connect everything up correctly, the antenna will be resonant on 20m and 10m.

As I wasn’t sure of the 10m performance of the trapped antenna variant the last time that I was out, I also packed the non-trapped 10m elements for the antenna. As I have not got a small plastic case where I can pack the beam, both the manually switched and the non-switched feed plates would be taken along.

The Activation

DL/AM-178 Ammerleite

An afternoon activation means that I have time to pack equipment in the car, have my lunch and then travel down to the summit (about a 45-minute drive). I was expecting a muddy track to the summit, but it wasn’t too bad. The main thing was that it was not raining or windy and in fact the sun had actually come out!

As I arrived two walkers were just leaving, so I had the whole area around the cross to decide where I would set the antenna up and which of the two seat benches, I would activate from.

Setting up the antenna has now become routine and the biggest issue is trying the get the screw-in base support fairly near to vertical (I still need more practice at this, as you will see from the photos).

The fact that the antenna has 4 support cords (the antenna elements plus their extender cords) makes the mast/antenna more stable than when just using a dipole.

Once the antenna was set up, I ran the coax back to the bench and set up the radio. I decided to start on 10 metres, as I could see some other activators were already on the band.

The first contact in the log was Rob DM1CM out on Auerberg, so a local Summit-2-Summit contact. He had been on two summits and had started in the morning. The second contact was a call from Holger operating as DL/OE7HPI from another local summit – Rentschen, so there was another S2S contact. This was a good start to the activation but contacts quickly dried up and I found that 10 metres sounded rather quiet when there was no signal present. This started me wondering whether this was a problem with the new antenna or perhaps the radio.

In any case, I decided to switch to 20 metres to see what was happening there and I got a stream of thirteen contacts from around Europe until that seemed to dry up. So I used this time to test the antenna while pointing west initially on some relatively strong signals that I found on the band, I turned the antenna from West to South, to North and back to West – each time needing me to lower the mast, turn the switch and raise the mast again and then wait for the monitored station to come on again. the results I got were the same as at Rösenau Kreuz. Turning the antenna away from the direction of a signal, dropped the signal 1 S-point when side on and 2 S-points when back-on to the station. This (rough) measurement tallies what the antenna models say.

I then switched the radio back to 10 metres again (this is the advantage of having a trapped antenna, that I don’t need to do anything at the antenna when I change between the supported bands).  Just tuning around, I found another SOTA activator who was very weak but was being worked by Sid ZS5AYC out of South Africa. This was the other activator’s frequency so I could not call in, so instead, I switched the antenna to radiate to the South, found a free frequency about 5 kHz higher, spotted myself and started calling CQ. After a couple of minutes – Sid called me, so that contact with Sid and his wife Adele ZS5APT were to be my longest contacts for the day. It was interesting to hear a warbling sound on the signals – which I put down to the Trans Equatorial Propagation.   

After getting those two DX contacts in the log, I tried calling CQ on 10 metres for a while but got no takers. I even tried calling a loud US station, who was calling specifically for low power stations but unfortunately, all the callers I heard, I know have high power stations and hence I and probably most other low power stations could not get through.

I decided to move back onto 20m to at least “reserve” my frequency for a sked I had set up with Caryn KD2GUT who was out in a POTA park on Long Island New York. I got another 10 contacts on 20m into the log but unfortunately, none of those were Caryn – I “think” I heard her voice once, deep in the noise but I’m not sure and it wasn’t long before some QRO station decided to sit 2 kHz off the frequency and splatter all of the frequency making any further attempts at the POTA to SOTA contact futile.

The afternoon was getting closer to dusk and the sun had gone, so I decided to “call it a day” and pack up. I was just finished packing up when a local, walking his dog arrived, so I left him the area – I suspect he might have been there to await the sunset.

Photos:

DL/AM-178 Ammerleite:

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Equipment taken:

  • Mountaintop travelling 40-litre rucksack.
  • Xiegu G90 radio.
  • Screw-in sun umbrella base.
  • 7 metre fibreglass mast.
  • 10-metre band 2-element wire beam (manual switch version).
  • Komunica Power HF-Pro2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna and tripod (not used)
  • Lamdahalbe 6m mini-mast (not used).
  • SOTABeams Linked Dipole (not used).
  • 4 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah LiHV battery(not used).
  • Painter’s thick plastic sheet (not used).
  • Gardener’s kneeling pad (not used).
  • Electrical hand warmer(not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for SOTA spotting.

Log:

DL/AM-178 Ammerleite

 

Contacts map

 

Conclusions:

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

  • Once I got home, I tried the G90 radio on the main antenna and while it was a lot more “active” than when out on the summit another point I had seen while out – that turning off AGC completely, had no effect on signals -was still there. So it looks like the “quiet 10 metres” is down to the radio more than the antenna. I then went into the settings and changed the RF gain from 50% to 72% and it made all the difference on 10 metres, the band sounded better and turning off the AGC had the expected effect of “boosting” weak signals. So I’ll be leaving the RF gain at 72% now. Unfortunately RF gain is one control which applies to all bands, there is not a separate setting for each band, which would be nice.

73 ’til the next summit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – February 12th 2024 DL/AL-179 Weichberg.

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Preparation:

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

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

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

The Activation

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg:

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Equipment taken:

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

Log:

DL/AL-179 Weichberg

Contacts map

Conclusions:

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

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

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

73 ’til the next summit.