ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 3

Leaving my BnB in Pfastatt near Mulhouse at 08:15, I arrived on my first summit at 09:00. 

DM/BW-018 (Blauen)

Last year the road was blocked, so I had to skip this summit.

This time I had more luck. Blauen is an easy drive up to the parking at the hotel "Zum Hochblauen", position 47.777251, 7.701115

A short walk North, until you are behind the transmitting and lookout tower, and you will find a pile of rocks, with a nice bench in front of it, where you can setup and have a wonderful view.

Looking back from my operating position, both towers were in the fog, it was still early morning ...

A few walkers came by when I was operating, but no one asked anything.
But just as I had finished my activation, and was ready to pack up, a couple of walkers stopped and wanted to know what I was doing. Always happy to explain ... but after that, I was in a hurry to pack, and forgot to pack my counterpoise wire !
I only discovered this when I arrived at the next summit of course ... too late to go back.

It was a 4m length of flexible wire, covered with grey plastic.
So if anyone found it ... I hope you can use it or disposed of it in a proper way.
I was not intentionally leaving rubbish on a summit (I wouldn't leave a small paper ...)

HB/SH-002 (Wannenberg)

In 2017 I have been to OE and HB0 to add two new regions to my list, but I hadn't activated one single Swiss summit .. what a shame !

So this year I had to make up for that, and selected the Wannenberg.

Driving over there was a terrible experience, I had trouble with many roadblocks, deviations and traffic jams .. I left Blauen at 10:30, and only got to the parking spot at 12:50.
Parking is here  47.665549, 8.492130, driving further is forbidden, but I saw some locals drive the left road in the picture below anyway ... so you go at your own risk.
There is a track by HB9BRJ on the SMP Tracks page.

Anyway, I walked the left road in ascent, and it took me 20 minutes to the summit. Coming down I took the shorter but steeper path (the right one in the picture), and got back at my car in around 15 minutes. The whole walking + activating took me just 2 hours.

Near the summit is a blockhut, where I set up my station 

Nice place to set up a station ... but it's also the place where I got bitten by a "Swiss tick", so better lookout where you sit, hi.

I could only log 7 qso's here, but 2 were S2S, so I was still happy with the result.
Being way behind on my schedule, I had to skip my third summit DM/BW-235, Hoher Randen, and went straight to this one ... an old favourite.


DM/BW-193 (Schächer)

This is again a super easy drive up summit, with a nice bench to operate.
Parking is at  47.888662, 8.577274 , and the operating spot is right behind the trees.
The real summit is a bit further south, but this spot is well in the AZ.

This time, 11 qso's int he log, and 2 S2S, so again a happy operator !

As it was already after 17:00 local time, and I still had to drive a 100 km and find a place to eat ... I quickly packed up and got driving ...

I had a nice dinner at the highway restaurant "Rastanlage im Hegau - WEST", along the highway 81, GPS position 47.861209, 8.785982
They are not the cheapest (lookout for the salad bar, you pay per WEIGHT of your plate !), but the food is excellent, way better than in most highway "junkfood" stops.

After that I still had some driving , and finally arrived at my AirBnb place in the city of BERG (near Ravensburg), what better place could a SOTA activator dream of  ?

Continue reading ... go to DAY 4 

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Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 2

FL/VO-153 (Bois de Montenoy)

At 08:35 I left my AirBnb place in Ay-sur-Moselle, and went looking for my first summit. 

Since the renumbering of the FL/VO summits, nobody had activated this one yet, so here was my chance  to get a "first activation" !

Bois de Montenoy is an easy drive up summit. Coming from the south, find this spot along the road D913 : 48.775491, 6.274659

There take the Rue des Vergers, direction northwest, and follow the main road ... left, right, left, right, then follow the Rue du Fort, which becomes a farm track.

At the end you will arrive at a parking spot here : 48.784860, 6.249853, which is already in the AZ. Don't park on a farmers field, but close to the forest.

I walked a while into the forest to set up, to be in the shade, and not to attract more attention than needed ...

I got some problems setting up, the KX3 autotuner wouldn't tune ... strange.

I changed out the coax, even put a piece of random wire on a BNC-to-banana adapter to exclude a coax fault, nothing ! The SWR stayed high ... what could be wrong ?

After several restarts of the KX3, finally everything went back to normal. Very strange, and it never happened again on this trip ...

Is it a bad sign that I made also only 13 QSO's on this summit ?  

Well, I didn't let it bother me too much, and went on to some very well known summits.

FL/VO-002 (Le Hohneck)

Easy drive up to the official parking lot here 48.037926, 7.015268

BUT OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE !

When I was here in 2017, I almost got blown off this summit and had to abandon the activation after just one qso (read that report here ).

This time the weather was beautiful, which also meant a lot of visitors on the summit.

This included a group of very loud British people who thought that making noise on a French summit is a way of being "important". They belonged to a UK BMW Oldtimers club (http://bmwhistoricmotorclub.co.uk/ ).

They drove some really beautiful BMW's on a trip through the Vosges region.

If you're interested in what other cars were on the summit that day, read some more in this report from our "Big Chief" Andy MM0FMF, who also was on the summit that day.
His report is here.

I did set up away from the central lookout point but not far enough as it would seem ...
I had to interrupt my activation when this group came to "admire the views" with a lot of commentary !
I guess the pints they had in the café before increased their "dB level" ... they were 59+++ , even using my  headphones ... I just couldn't hear the chasers any more !
Luckily, after a while the went away and I could continue my activation.

Not a bad result in the end, with 18 QSO's in the log, and 3 S2S.
It was time for the third summit ...

FL/VO-001 (Le Grand Ballon de Guebwiller)

The parking lot for this summit is here 47.904615, 7.103006

It is only a small walk to the summit.

And same story as on the previous one ... much better weather than last year, when I was on the summit but could not possibly set up an antenna. 

There was another small problem though, the shortest path to the summit was blocked ! 

Being hams ... we know a solution to that , see pictures below ;-)

To avoid the wind, I set up my station at the "stone field" near the summit, which is still in the AZ.

Only 14 QSO's here, all on 40m CW.

But just for fun, being on the highest summit in FL/VO after all ... I took my FT1D and called cq on 2m FM. After a while , I did get one call back, from a mobile station.

It turned out to be Jean-Bernard, F4EOH. We had a nice qso, and he told me he was on his way to Friedrichshafen, and he had a stand in hall A3. I went to visit him a few days later ... see report on Day 4.

After this I had one more summit on my list ...

FL/VO-017 (Le Molkenrain)

Parking is easy at the Ferme Auberge du Molkenrain, at position 47.853331, 7.135684
I took the shorter track by HB9DIZ, which is on the SMP. It starts right in front of the cars on the left in the picture above.

Don't walk towards the radio towers, the summit is the other way ...

With a nice 22°C , I enjoyed the short 10' walk to the summit, and set up under a tree near the pile of stones which mark the summit.

From this one, you have a nice view of FL/VO-001 with it's typical radar-dome.

As for SOTA, I ended this day with 12 QSO's in the log, all in SSB this time, and on 7 and 14 MHz.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 3 

or

Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 1

ON/ON-017 (Bois Haut)

I left home in Ostend at 05:40 local time, still I got into several traffic jams. So with some delay , I arrived at my first summit at 10:40 local time.

EDIT : This summit is no longer valid for SOTA!

The parking spot is next to a bench which is in the activation zone, at position 49.545825, 5.753395.

It was raining all the time, so I had to make it a short activation

I quickly set up my 6m fishing pole away from the bench, and hanging the 9.15m random endfed as a sloper , connecting to the 9:1 UNUN, which I tied to the bench.

Operator and rig were kept as dry as possible with a large umbrella, and a plastic container.

I had the container on its side, thereby covering the KX3, CW paddle and logbook.

A nice comfy mini-shack !

After only 7 CW QSO's, all on 40m, I had to quit, the rain was getting really heavy, so I packed up, and went to a shopping center in Luxemberg for lunch and fuel ... and kept myself warm and dry there for a while. After that, I drove South to France , and went to this summit.

FL/VO-057 (Côte de Drince)

I arrived at 15:40 local time, found a forest road in very bad shape, and flooded with water ... still I took the risk and drove to this parking position : 49.220599, 6.08632, next to an old forest house.

The start of this forest road can be found here : 49.216107, 6.080344, along the road D112C (Rue de Verdun).

From there I followed a track through the forest, up North, until I was in the activation zone. This track was also flooded in places, so I had to find a deviation through the trees ...
Because of all the bad weather, I didn't record a track, sorry.

And when I finally had found a suitable (fairly dry) spot to setup my TWO umbrellas ... the rain stopped and the sky cleared up a little.

I had double the number of QSO's here, so 14 QSO's in the log, a mix of CW and SSB , on 40-30-20m.

So far for a wet start of what would otherwise be a very nice and sunny trip !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 2

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Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ SOTA Roadtrip to Friedrichshafen 2018

10 Days on the road ... to the Hamradio 2018 and lots of SOTA !

This would be my fourth visit to Friedrichshafen, and the third time I drove there with my own car.
Last year I enjoyed the trip so much that I added another day, so I had even more SOTA fun.

Here some statistics. I stayed in several AirBnb places, and met very nice people everywhere ... some young, some older, but always very helpful. As you will read later, I could use some help at one instance.

Equipment used

KX3 + homebrew headset with PTT for SSB, Palm Pico Paddle for CW

Mini 6-button memory keyer with DigiSpark ATTiny CPU (I will make a post about that when I find some time). This saves the use of the memory buttons on the KX3. 

Battery : homebrew 4S2P Li-Ion pack, giving 16.8V when fully charged, so using the automatic voltage reducer by AD5X , giving 15V at the KX3, so I could always use 15W (on 80-20m).

Antenna : homebrew EARCHI type antenna, consisting of 9.15m random endfed radiator, homebrew 9:1 UNUN, 4m counterpoise, 3.5m RG58 coax. Some pieces of rope.

A 6m fishing pole from Decathlon, free standing in a ground anchor, also by Decathlon, positioned "10 steps" away from the operating position, so the endfed mostly works as a sloper.

Several large and small umbrellas, folding chairs and mini tables, all used depending on weather, terrain and  walking distance. 

And 1 telescopic walking stick, sometimes also used to keep the UNUN off the ground.

And here is the (long) list of summits - click on each link for a detailed report, including parking position, tracks when available, and other useful information. And above all ...some nice pictures !

As in previous trip reports, all is organized per DAY, so you may find several summits on one page.

29/May/2018 ON/ON-017 (Bois Haut)
29/May/2018 FL/VO-057 (Côte de Drince)
30/May/2018 FL/VO-153 (Bois de Montenoy)
30/May/2018 FL/VO-002 (Le Hohneck)
30/May/2018 FL/VO-001 (Le Grand Ballon de Guebwiller)
30/May/2018 FL/VO-017 (Le Molkenrain)
31/May/2018 DM/BW-018 (Blauen)
31/May/2018 HB/SH-002 (Wannenberg)
31/May/2018 DM/BW-193 (Schächer)
01/Jun/2018 DM/BW-348 (Gehrenberg)
01/Jun/2018 DM/BW-854 (Höchsten)
03/Jun/2018 DL/AL-272 (Altringenberg)
04/Jun/2018 DM/BW-195 (Zundelberg)
04/Jun/2018 DM/BW-228 (Hummelsberg)
04/Jun/2018 DM/BW-042 (Rainen)
04/Jun/2018 DM/BW-046 (Plettenberg)
04/Jun/2018 DM/BW-156 (Lindenberg)
05/Jun/2018 DM/BW-077 (Braunberg)
05/Jun/2018 DM/BW-019 (Hornisgrinde)
06/Jun/2018 DM/SR-006 (Trautzberg)
06/Jun/2018 DM/SR-012 (Schaumberg)
06/Jun/2018 DM/SR-075 (Langensteinchen)
06/Jun/2018 LX/LX-002 (Grengenwald)
07/Jun/2018 ON/ON-016 (Les Aisances)
07/Jun/2018 ON/ON-021 (Plantis de Mesnil)

Continue reading ... go to DAY 1

Two summits near Trier

After my trip to Gran Canaria, and before taking off  to Friedrichshafen, I still found time to get away for a weekend to city of TRIER in Germany.
Being with two friends, I couldn't spend all my time on SOTA.

But on the Sunday of that weekend, I managed to drag my friends to two easy drive-up summits in the DM/RP association.


DM/RP-171, Röster Kopf - 708m, 6 points

There is a good parking spot along the road L146, at position 49.674106, 6.833372, which is already in the activation zone.

The parking spot is not a good place to set up though, it's all under the trees. So I walked some 100m further North, past the radio tower, to set up in a clearing at the summit.

The fishing pole at exactly 10 "steps" from the operating position, perfect to attach the end of my random endfed.
The 9:1 UNUN tied to the tree, as high as I can reach, so that is not very high, hi.
Operator and KX3 are ready, and ... action !

A short but good activation, 12 QSO's in the log, including 3 S2S.


DM/RP-449, Teufelskopf - 695m, 6 points

Driving to the parking spot is easy, the GPS position is 49.598526, 6.826607.
No walking needed.
There is a bench to set up, near the Michaelskapelle.
See a nice description of this summit (in German) by John, DK9JC here.

And yes, it's nice to have a real table to set up my station every once in a while  ...

Again a short activation, the log showed 14 QSO's , with one S2S.

See you on another summit soon ... 73,

Luc ON7DQ

EA8/GC-012 (Amurga)

"An accident waiting to happen" ... (PA7ZEE)

I had planned this summit as my last one for this visit to Gran Canaria.

If "old man" Geert PA7ZEE could do this at age 77 ... this youngster of only 60 years sure could do it too ? Boy, was I wrong ! Read on ...

I found a nice parking spot North of the village of Fataga, at position 27.891172, -15.563388

(You can easily see it on Google Maps in satellite view and in StreetView, it's just at the entrance to a retreat called EcoTara.

NOTE : the parking spot advised by PA7ZEE at 27.890332, -15.562975 is no longer useable, there is a NO PARKING sign now. But it is the position where you start walking to the track.

You could drive up to the water reservoir, but maybe it would offend the locals.

See picture below, explaining the situation (click on the picture for enlarged view).

At the start, I was still full of courage ... as you can see in the picture.

At the white house (see map above) , I briefly spoke (in Spanish) to a friendly old lady that was hanging the laundry in front of her house.

She told me that not many people walked the track to the summit, she must have thought I was another crazy tourist ...

This sign will be about the only clue you will get as to where the track to the summit is, apart from some 'stone men', that are not always easy to spot.
So I tried to follow the track from OpenStreetMaps, which I also had on my phone in the app MAPS.ME. I also had the written instructions of Geert, PA7ZEE, so what could go wrong you would think ?

Well, I still managed to miss the track somewhere, at a point where you have to climb over a pile of rocks to get on the ridge, and found myself much lower on the slope.
This is the track of the first part of my ascent (click the picture to have a better view).
The point where I realised I was way too low connects to a track that may be a bit shorter to get to the ridge.

With some trouble, I did get "back on track" ... but lost some time in doing that.
I continued as good as I could, but this track has many dangerous places, where you have to go around a lump of rock, and where the path is very narrow, and having loose gravel ... so in one word : DANGEROUS. I had read somewhere that this is not for people with vertigo, and I can confirm that !

Finallly I found the "caves" that were mentioned by PA7ZEE, so I knew that I was right ... but I had already walked two hours by then, and was getting tired .... 

I continued walking for another hour, passing points like on the next picture. There is hardly any firm or flat ground to step on, still you have to get around that "lump of rock" ... I took the picture looking backwards, in case I forgot how I got there ... pointing with my finger where I kind of ... "walked" ... hmmm.

After three hours, three things made me decide to give up.

Bad weather was coming in, I was getting exhausted, and I couldn't determine how far I really was from the summit.

Not only do I carry a fine HF transceiver, but also some (small) dose of wisdom ... which told me it was not worth risking my life for this summit, and I returned.

This is my track to the point where I gave up. I was probably not too far from the summit, if I have its location correct, but I couldn't be sure at the time.

Making no errors in the descent, and also finding the rock climb spot, I was back at my car in just under two hours.

*****

And now for the strange title at the start of this post.

After this trip, I made a 10 day trip to Friedrichshafen, to visit the Hamradio fair, but also to meet a lot of SOTA friends (see another post on this blog).

At the SOTA conference, one subject was presented by PA7ZEE (hey, I knew that call !).

The title of his speech was "An accident waiting to happen" ... what could that mean ?

As it turned out, and to my surprise, one of the examples for a failed activation was about Vic, GI4ONL, who got in trouble on this very summit in March 2017. He had fallen and had to be rescued off the summit by helicopter.

If Geert would have told me this story before my trip, I think I would never have considered this summit. So I was lucky to have aborted the activation in time, and to get back safe and sound !  

If you are interested in this presentation, you can download it HERE.

******

For my last day on Gran Canaria, I had to re-pack my stuff for the flight home, therefore I didn't have all my SOTA gear in the backpack (like fishing pole and "dangerous" metal parts ...).

And with my Amurga adventure in mind, you will understand that I didn't feel for any more SOTA either ... hi.

So I spent my last day driving up the "Barranco de Guayadeque", which is a beautiful valley near Ingenio. I drove the GC-103 all the way to the Restaurante Vega, which is built inside a cave.

This was the last report on my 2018 trip to EA8 Gran Canaria, thanks for reading !

See you on one of my next adventures ... 

73 !

Luc ON7DQ 

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