SOTA FH 2017 : Day 8

When I left my BnB in Plobsheim near Strassbourg, I noticed a ham living across the street, in the " Rue de la Niederau" (lookup coordinates 48.475322, 7.734684 on Google Maps).

I couldn't find out on qrz.com who this ham would be, so if anyone has more info ... always welcome.

FL/VO-007, Le Grand Brézouard 

The road to the parking at 48.193533, 7.146444 is not too long. It starts at the "Col des Bagenelles", and the last part is a gravel road, just needs some careful driving.

The walk to the summit is just 1 km, and not too difficult.

At the summit I found an aluminium flagpole one could use to put up a VHF yagi (you can actually lift the pole from its base, attach your antenna and put it back).

I wanted to test a new endfed I made just before this trip, so I didn't want any metal objects near it, and used my 6m fishing pole as usual.

The endfed is just a 21m wire, with a 49:1 transformer. I put it up as an inverted V.

SWR was below 1.5 on 40m, without a tuner, but on 20m and 10m, where it is supposed to work as well, I didn't get a good SWR.

I guess the proximity to ground made it lower in resonance than expected, so I will have to shorten the wire some ... hope to get that antenna ready for my next tour.
I had a nice activation with 15 QSO's, mainly on 40m, and including 2 s2S, with F5UKL and IN3ADF. A Danish family came walking on the summit and of course I had to explain what I was doing with my radio. Always great to see the look on their faces ...

FL/VO-016, Le Rossberg

This summit is a bit confusing, since there is also FL/VO-013 Rossberg, but this is "Le Rossberg".

Anyway, I found a parking spot here 48.183350, 7.092887 , along the D148.

It's an easy walk to a spot in the AZ, all along forest roads, but I had to step over a fallen tree at some point.

I set up the endfed and KX3 and worked 4 S2S first, and finally was lucky to work Petr, OK1CZ, who was on DM/BW-193 !

In total had 22 QSO's, so happy with a good activation, I went to the next summit.

FL/VO-003, Gazon du Faing

There should be ample parking at the Auberge Gazon du Faing, here : 48.109087, 7.064348.
But in summer it can get full, so you may have to park a little further along the D61.
The reason : many people come here for picking blueberries, they're delicious ... and free !

You can't miss the path to the summit, but it is very annoying, every few metres you have to take a step , and the whole path is uneven and full of rocks ... good shoes and careful walking advised !

From the rigde on the summit, you have a wonderful view over the region, with the lake "Lac du Forlet" in the valley.

I made only 10 QSO's here, 2 on 30m CW, and 8 on 20m SSB.

I was getting behind on my schedule again, and little did I know I would get behind a lot more ... anyway, it was time to move to my last summit for the day ...







FL/VO-014, Chaume de Sérichamp

I followed the instuctions I got from Peter, ON4UP, and took a small road called "Le Vic" in the village of Sachemont. This road starts at 48.147237, 6.980842.

After a long drive through wooded area, and the road degrading more and more ... I finally reached the parking spot at 48.109832, 6.994016. 

From there is an asphalted road to the transmitting tower, which is in the AZ. I operated a little further behind the tower.

In just 11 minutes I had logged 22 QSO's, all on 20m SSB. Then it was really time to go to my BnB in Rodange in Luxemburg, quite a long drive ahead.

What went wrong that day I don't know, but it seems I 'found' all the road blocks, deviations and traffic jams there were in that corner of France, leading to an enormous delay, and only arriving at my destination at 21:00 local time. Well, I made it, and a good shower and a comfy bed made me ready for my last day ... returning home via three ON/ON summits !

(to be continued ...)

Luc - ON7DQ