SOTA FH 2017 : Day 1

LX/LX-004 and LX/LX-002

I started my trip to Friedrichshafen from my home in Ostend at 5:30 on July 11th.
Being the Flemish national holiday, I didn't expect much traffic on the highway to brussels.
Indeed, that part went very well, but south of Brussels there was an accident with a truck, so I had to make a detour, which led to large delay to start my activations.

LX/LX-004, Widdierbierg

After a short stop for breakfast, my road continued into Luxembourg for my first activation.
Now to counter eventual delays , I had made up a "plan B", and because of that accident , I already had to use it !



There is an easy way to activate this summit if you are in a hurry, from a spot within the AZ, which can be reached with only a short walk. Studying the maps, I had seen that the contour line of the AZ is very wide, and one can also operate quite far from the actual summit, and still have a valid activation.
Driving along the CR-134, at position: 49.643550, 6.310495, take the small road North-East, and park here : 49.648870, 6.319931 (see picture).

It is forbidden to drive further up the forest track, so you'll have to walk the last part into the AZ, and operate somewhere around 49.650753, 6.325092.

The track is not overgrown like the other places on this summit, and maybe the fact that I got a tick bite there last time, made me look for another way of access, hi.
I made 17 QSO's in CW and SSB, most on 40m.

LX/LX-002, Grengenwald



The second summit was not so far from the first, and again I tried an alternative access.
I think it is also a little easier than the one described by Phil, G4OBK.
I parked my car a bit further East, at this position : 49.670951, 6.206298
Then I walked around the gate, and followed the forest track up to this position 49.6742, 6.2054, which is in the AZ. The summit is a long flat ridge, so you have many operating spots to choose from.
If you continue walking, you will find a nice picknick bench to use as an operating table, I used that one in a later visit, see this report.



I found a nice spot beside the track, near above information sign.
I had even brought my sandwhiches for lunch. After eating my lunch I set up for SOTA ... but the fun didn't last long. After only 10 QSO's I had to pack all my stuff because it started raining ... and it didn't stop raining for the rest of the day !
So, sorry, also no pictures of the activation ... too bad.

So I finally canceled my third summit, which would have been FL/VO-057, Côte de Drince, near the city of Amnéville, where I had booked a room for one night.
It was also getting too late for that one, since I did some shopping, and had enormous traffic jams around the city of Luxembourg.

I stayed in a nice apartment in Amnéville with a lovely terrace, but couldn't enjoy it much, because ... well, you know ... IT RAINED !

More rain to come on day 2 ... read on !

(to be continued ...)

Luc - ON7DQ