ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2022 - Day 1

A HOT start !

We left Ostend at the early hour of 05:45 local time, to avoid the traffic around Brussels. But we started on a Sunday morning, so the traffic was exceptionally calm. No problems anywhere. We took a breakfast at a stop along the motorway, and arrived at our first summit at 10:30 local time.

NOTE : we filled up with fuel in Luxemburg, but to our surprise, it was no longer cheaper than in Belgium ... the price was exactly the same !

FL/VO-056, Bois le Comte (Vittonville) - 400m, 2 points

There is a public parking spot for this summit just behind the water reservoir at position 48.990785, 6.065031, in the village of Arry.

If your GPS doesn't know this place, set it first to position 48.991577, 6.065272, along the D67, then take the small road going south, called 'La Moutotte'. The parking spot is just some 50m away. You can check this place in Google Streetview.

From the parking spot it is a fairly easy walk to the summit, it's 2 km with only 50m ascent. Part of it is in the shade, which was welcome, since the temperature was already high .

The real summit is not on the track, but the AZ is wide enough to find a nice place in the shade. I set up the long endfed as an inverted-V and started my first activation. 

Note the 'pancarte' with QR codes next to my backpack, the codes point to pages on my blog explaining what SOTA is, in three languages (French, German and English). During the trip the codes have actually been scanned several times by people passing by. Try it for yourself using your phone and the following picture! Click the picture to enlarge it.

The log showed 32 QSO's, mainly 40m and 20m SSB,with an incredibly high number of S2S contacts : 17 in total !

After the first summit, we briefly visited the town of Pont-a-Mousson, where our B&B was. But it was way too hot to stay long, so we quickly went to the second summit.

FL/VO-060, Butte de Mousson - 382m, 2 Points

For summit info, see my previous report here.

I found a place in the shade to set up, but the temperature was now 34 °C !

Despite the heat, I managed to get a few good pile-ups, and the log showed 44 QSO's, mainly SSB on 40m, 20m and 17m, and  I finished the activation with some CW on 20m. Also 6 S2S contacts made me a happy activator.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 2

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