ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 9

Going Home !

When I got up for breakfast, the "lady of the house" had made me some lovely cookies, what a nice surprise !

I took an early breakfast in the hope I could do the last 2 summits on my list before it got too hot, and also to get around Brussels before the traffic was too heavy.

Both summits are very easy ... like most Belgian summits, hi.

First target was 

ON/ON-016, Les Aisances - 445m, 4 Points

Not much to tell about this easy summit, see my previous report here

I made a short activation with only 9 QSO's and 1 S2S.

ON/ON-021, Plantis de Mesnil - 306m, 2 points

I was glad to see that the small parking spot (just off the main road) had been cleared. See my previous report of 2018 here.

So, I took my stuff and walked to the cabin near the summit, and set up in the same spot as last year.

And to end this SOTA trip in beauty ... I stayed a bit longer on the summit, and made 23 QSO's, including 5 S2S.

Mission accomplished, and with a happy feeling I could take on the long drive home.

I left the parking spot at 12:50 local time, with a temperature of 33°C in the shade !

The traffic was rather calm and I got home in Ostend at 15:30, where it was a COOL 19°C , quite a difference.

It was a nice trip with good weather and many nice SOTA activations, and meeting all the friends.

I enjoyed it all very much !

Thanks to all the chasers and activators for filling my logbook.

See you on the next one.

73,

Luc - ON7DQ

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 8

The Northern Vosges region

I had done many summit in the Central part of the Vosges region, FL/VO, but not the few lonely summits in the North-Eastern corner of France.

So I set of for the first one,

FL/VO-048, Grand Wintersberg - 581m, 4 points

If you're a daredevil like me, you can drive right up to the summit.
First you have to find the Col de la Liese, set your GPS to 48.981856, 7.614153
There is a chalet, and in front is a nice statue carved from a tree.

From the chalet, you can take the narrow forest road to the summit at position 48.978479, 7.614486

That road is a bit degraded, but nothing to be afraid of, just drive carefully, and hope you don't meet a car from the other side ... if in doubt you can just walk from the chalet to the summit, hi.
There was a traffic sign that was covered up at the beginning of that last part, so I suppose they close the road in weekends or in winter, or just when it's too busy on the summit.

There is a nice tower you can climb, but no thanks, it was again becoming a very hot day.

The sun is already burning ... the radio tower gives a little shade ...

Luckily, there was a bench under a tree, a nice place to set up my radio.

Only under the bench, and in the tree nearby, it was full of large ants ... some even started crawling up my legs while I sat down ... not dangerous, but annoying, and anything better than catching another tick, right ?

The activation went well, with 22 QSO's and 4 S2S.

after that I had prepared something special ... a first activation !

FL/VO-160, Armsberg - 383m, 2 points - FIRST ACTIVATION

When I planned my trip, I was a bit surprised that three summits in the FL/VO region had not been activated. This region must be one of the most visited places, toghether with the DM/BW region, considering all hams coming to Friedrichshafen, and others taking a holiday here.

Now of the 162 summits in this region, these three were never activated :
FL/VO-160     Armsberg
FL/VO-164 Ouvrage St. Blaise
FL/VO-174 Les Trois Bornes

As reported by ON6ZQ in the database, FL/VO-164 is not possible, it is completely in a military zone.
So that leaves the other two.
I had looked into FL/VO-174, but that seems a tough one, I couldn't see any path on OSM or OT.
So maybe someone else has the courage to go bushwhacking there ... ?
But FL/VO-160 seemed an easy summit, so I went to find out if it was as easy as it looked. And it was !

First I drove along the D662 to this position 49.006556, 7.501071
Besides the woodworking factory (S.k.e) is a forest road, there is a sign that reads "Route Forestière GAUCHSBERG". Gauchsberg is the next summit FL/VO-165, which has already been activated by HB9CBR (yes, HIM again ! hi).

I drove into this road and parked my car here 49.007512, 7.502477, and walked the rest.
My track is on the SMP here.

The walk is nothing difficult, the road is even signposted with a BIG sign.
The only difficulty is that the track is getting overgrown here and there, so make sure to wear long trousers. Clearly, not too many people come walking here.

Also a surprise, where the track was not overgrown, it was really sandy ...

I didn't fnd a path to the very summit, and didn't intend to do a lot of bushwhacking in this heat, so I just set up at the end of the forest road, which was near enough, and certainly in the AZ.
There are no benches, so I just sat on the ground on a towel.

I had used some tick spray, but still I have seen two ticks, one on my trousers, and one on the yellow plastic bag on which I had put the rest of my stuff. I was lucky to spot them before they could get under my clothes !

Again, it was a good activation with 21 QSO's and 3 S2S.

So I set off to the last summit I had planned, FL/VO-166, Stromberg - 314m, 1 point

But the traffic was intense, I was getting a lot of delay, and temperatures were again nearing 30°C ... and I decided that for one meager point ... it wasn't worth it.
So, I went to a nice airconditioned shopping center (CORA in Messancy), and had my dinner there too.

After that I went to my last BnB in Hondelange, had a good shower and tried to get some sleep during a hot night ... and be ready for the last part of my trip : going home !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 9

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Go back to overview HERE
  

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 7

Going home ... through the Black Forest

I left Berg near Ravensburg around 8:30 local time, and had planned 3 summits in the DM/BW region.

First one was 

DM/BW-853, Blankenhalde - 871m, 10 points

This is an easy drive up, I parked my car just off the road at position 48.043152, 8.996740, which is already well in the AZ.

But to stay out of sight from the main road, I set up my station in a small side-road a bit further, to the left behind my car.

I had put my fishing pole at one side of the road, and my chair at the other side, so that the antenna wire would not be too close to the foliage.

I had just made a few QSO's when a large pick-up truck with a trailer came into the woods, and not only that, but he wanted to back up into the side road where I was sitting !

It turned out I was at the entrance to a meadow, and the three  men in the car came unloading a few sheep there ...

I could quickly pull the fishing pole from its stand, and put it on my side, so that they could pass.

They were very friendly, and when I told I came from Ostend, Belgium, one of them told me he had taken the boat from Ostend to Dover once ... must have been long time ago, since the ferry to Dover has ceased to exist in 2013.

Mountain Goat meets sheep ... BAAAAA

The activation resulted in 11 QSO's , with 5 S2S, so not bad, but also not a pile up.

Just when I was packing up, these men returned with another load of sheep, their trailer could only hold some 5 sheep at a time.

The same man that spoke to me earlier said he had seen another "fisherman", not too far from where I was. So after my activation I went to look who that might be ... ? 

I turned out to be Mark, HB9DBM and his xyl,
Mark is a well know activator and chaser, which I had met several times on the air, but never in person. Mark was using the KX2 and also an endfed antenna, but a much longer one than I use, and stretching it over two fishing poles.
 After a nice but short chat, I had to move on to my next summit ...

DM/BW-041, Wandbühl - 1007m, 10 points

This was a new summit for me, since the nearby summit of Rainen (DM/BW-042) had been replaced by this one. I had chosen this parking spot : 48.165644, 8.794488

It is near the transmitter tower and a nice "Huette am Turm".

The Huette is closed on weekdays, but luckily I had brought my picknick, but that had to wait till after the activation.

I followed the tracks shown by OSM on my phone, the first part is quite a long stretch of paved road, before you take a trun to the right and get into the woods.
I passed by a nice cabin with a bench, but according to OpenTopoMaps, it's just outside the AZ, so I continued to the summit.

Just before the last part of the track, I saw a steep shortcut to the left, where they had cleared some trees. I decided to give it a chance because I saw some open air and a lookout tower.
But when I reached the tower, it was so hot already , I decided to go back into the woods, and setup there.

So after some detour, I ended in the middle of the woods, and I could set up my station.
The only problem were the immense amount of FLIES !
So after only 10 QSO's (with 3 S2S) I packed up and wanted to get out of that place as quickly as possible.
And then it happened ... in my haste I must have dropped the DC-cable for my KX3 on the ground.
It's only some 25 cm long, one end has PowerPoles, the other end fits the round DC input of the KX3.
Of course, I only noticed this when setting up on my last summit.
Lucky for me, I always carry some items in double, and an extra DC-cable is one of them !
I started this amusing thread on the SOTA Reflector about the "lost cable" ... enjoy the serious and the silly responses to my post in Geocaching on Wandbühl anyone ?.

On this summit, I also saw a spot for Markus, HB9BRJ on ... DM/BW-041 ... Huh ?
Markus seemed to be on the same summit, but I hadn't seen anyone, besides a lady walking her dog.
I tuned to his frequency, and for sure, he was booming in on 14.05950 with S9+++
I didn't call him, since the QSO would not be valid, not for S2S nor for chasing.
But I got to meet him later ... read on.

Back at my car, I first had my lunch, with a nice view of the transmiiting tower.
Next to my car was one more car, but with a German license plate.
I made the (wrong) conclusion that must have been the (rental) car that Markus used, so I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote some short message about being on the same summit and 73 GL etc ... and put it behind the windshield wiper on that car. As I found out later, it wasn't Markus' car, so some German will have had a tough moment deciphering my cryptic message hahaha.

Third and last summit of a day that was getting very hot ....

DM/BW-038, Lemberg - 1015m, 10 points

The large parking lot for Lemberg is easy to find, at position 48.144818, 8.748317

There is a pichnick place and a playground for children.

Just after I started walking, I saw a couple coming down the forest road ... nothing special, I see more couples taking a walk in the woods ...
But this one was special, the man had a fishing pole in his backpack !
The man must have noticed my fishing pole as well, because almost at the same time we said something like "You a ham?" haha
And yes, this time it WAS Markus HB9BRJ, and his xyl Lucie HB3YHR, who had just activated the summit.
We had a short chat, and then I did the climb to the summit.
Halfway, there is a nice viewpoint, so time for a picture and some water.

Finally , at the summit, there is a lookout tower, but I didn't climb it, it was getting near 30 °C !

Also, most of the benches were in the sun, so I chose a spot in the shade of the chalet.
I could fix the balun to the roof, and the endfed to the 6m pole.

Again 10 QSO's here , with 4 S2S. One of the S2S was with DL/HB9BRJ/P, who had arrived at DM/BW-228 in the meantime. Great !

And Markus guessed it right, of course I was wearing one of my special SOTA T-shirts, hi !

After this, I drove to my BnB near Hagenau in France, from where I was going to attack some more FL/VO summits the next day ...

Continue reading ... go to DAY 8

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 6

Tour of the three Hegau Volcanoes

I did a lot of studying and preparing , and decided it should be possible to do these three summits in one day, they are after all very close toghether.
The summits are Hohenhewen, Hohenstoffeln and Hohentwiel.
So I set off from Berg near Ravensburg at 08:30 local time.
While driving I had already a nice view of the three summits, in reverse order.
You can't miss them !

So the last one in view, was the first one to climb.

DM/BW-086, Hohenhewen - 844m, 8 Points

I had decided to try the shorter approach from the South, rather than take the long walk from Anselfingen (track by HB9BRJ on SMP).

So I parked at an official "Waldparkplatz" near the ranch "Burggut Hohenhewen", parking position 47.841531, 8.735992

The first part of the walk is very easy, a paved road and then a gravel road.

The last part has some steep shortcuts through the woods, but it was all not too difficult, and a nice walk up. After 35 minutes I was on the summit. My track is also on SMP, so you make your choice ...

On top of a ruin wall, they have built a nice lookout tower, which I climbed before setting up my station. Nice views of the area are your reward, and the Bodensee can be seen in the distance.

I took one of the new benches as my "shack", and had a nice activation, and some visitors who wanted to know what I was doing. All explained with a smile of course !

The picture above was taken by one of them, he had a colleague at work who was also a ham, but alas I have no name or callsign.

I had a nice result : 24 QSO's and 7 S2S.

Back to the car and on to the next one ...

DM/BW-085, Hohenstoffeln - 844m, 8 Points

On this one, I followed the track by HB9BRJ on SMP. Parking is here 47.788199, 8.765623.

The tracks were wet and muddy here, and the main cause of their bad state is their use by many mountainbikers. A young couple was a bit ahead of me and I followed them as they took a path beside the main track which was a bit better.

I got at the summit in just 42 minutes.

Taking a short rest at the cross halfway.

On the summit, another cross ... and not much space to set up a SOTA station.

Looking back at my previous summit.

So as not to hinder the (many) other visitors, I set up just below the summit, where you will find a nice bench.
I made only 11 QSO's here, but  9 were S2S wow !

OK, time to move on to the last one, I felt I was going to make it in time ...

DM/BW-101, Hohentwiel - 690m, 6 Points

This summit has a castle on top, where you have to pay to visit, but it seems it is very nice.

It seems ... because I will not know for another year (or more), since I couldn't visit the castle, it was closed !!!

Check the following website to see if the summit is still closed:

https://www.festungsruine-hohentwiel.de/en/home/

There is no other way to activate this summit, the whole AZ is inside the walls of the castle (note the steep walls and cliffs outside of the fortress).  Parking is here 47.766977, 8.818272

So this was a bummer, but it meant I was home a bit earlier and could have a nice dinner, and prepare for my trip home ... 

Continue reading ... go to DAY 7

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