Preparation:

This activation on Höhen Peißenberg was in preparation for a similar action on October 17th, when a Summit-to-Summit event is scheduled between UK/EU and VK/ZL. As three POTA trails also pass over Höhen Peißenberg, these are also included here, however the primary activation was for SOTA.

The equipment used for both this test and the actual event in October was the same equipment tested out on the previous Thursday in my POTA 4-fer activation and it was loaded in the car on Friday so as to reduce noise during my early 7 am start on Saturday morning.

The Activation

This test was suggested by Andrew VK1AD and several other activators agreed to come out and see what would be possible. Unfortunately the weather in the UK turned out to be less than friendly with high winds and in some areas, storms, so only a few UK SOTA portable stations were on

On the other hand, I was greeted with sunny if cold (7°C) weather on the summit. I was set up and operational by 8 am local (0600 UTC) rather than my planned 0630 UTC, despite having to divert around two road closures en-route. As as soon as I had set up, I was called by Ernie VK3DET, who had also agreed to be on, so that I would at least get one VK call in my log. As time went on however, the number of DX stations were quite respectable, despite very deep QSB and lots of QRM (it was Saturday after all and the 20m band was full).

In an hour of operating I managed 11 contacts in all, 7 into VK, 1 into ZL, two into Russia and one into Sweden. The one S2S contact that I managed was with Andrew VK1AD, who had arranged this “test”. Several VK SOTA stations seemed to have decided only to operate on CW – possibly thinking there was no chance of SSB getting through. Once again SSB, even just 20w and a relatively simple antenna, will get through, at least for an exchange of reports but in some cases, a short conversation was also possible.

I did listen for the few stations who were out in the UK, on their spotted frequencies, I could hear “something” in the noise and the stations calling them however the skip was too long today for contacts into the UK.

Photos:

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

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• “Red Slug” ground mounted quarter-wave vertical.
• 5.6m reflector element to make up a two element parasitic array.
• 8Ah LifePO4 battery.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Contacts Map (not contacts were all made by long path, not short path as shown)

LOG:

Conclusions:

The fact that the field had just been mown, was a nice surprise, however there was always the risk that the farmer may appaer at any point to collect the cut grass to use as winter fodder for his anilamls, as has happened to me before on this summit.

Overall, all equipment worked, although the radial wires on the driven element got tangled up and cost me extra time(I am going to see if I have enough of the silicon rubber covered wire to update this set of radials, as the other set does not get the same issue.

At one point, I lost about half of my RF output, this seems to have been caused by a bad microphone connection. I do have a spare cable but until the problem becomes permanent, I will continue to monitor.

73 ’til the next activation!