ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2023 - Day 2

I had again planned three summits for this day, bringing me another 400 km closer to my destination.

The first summit was

DM/RP-365,   Höchst - 444m, 2 points

Since this summit is in the Nassau Nature Park, it is also valid for POTA, with reference DA-0037

Parking position: there is an official parking at pos 50.369342, 7.917958 , but I found you can also park a few cars here 50.379571, 7.917021 , which makes for a much shorter walk.
Walking time 15 minutes one way.

I arrived at the parking spot at 09:25, with a cool 21°C.

Too bad the GPS in my phone made some strange jumps, and didn't record half of the walk, so I don't have a useable track. I recreated what I walked with Google Maps, which looks like this.

At this junction, I took the right road, and a little further set up my station, which was well into the Activation  Zone.

I had started my day a little earlier than planned, so I took the time to erect my longer endfed antenna (22.3m), which performs better on the low bands.
I started calling on 80m but got no replies, and the same happened on 60m.
Then I went to 40m and got a nice pile-up, and later also 20m added a few more contacts.

Maybe difficult to see, but the wire goes up to the top of the fishing pole, then back down, the far end is about 1m from the ground, so the wire forms an inverted-V.

Result : 31 QSO's with 4 S2S, and finally 1 DX (EA8).

I was back at the car in only 10 minutes, and at 11:05 I left for my next target.

DM/HE-003,   Großer Feldberg - 879m

Since this summit is in the Taunus Nature Park, it is also valid for POTA, with reference DA-0034

Parking position:
this is an easy drive-up summit, but can be very busy. When I arrived, there was a kind of mountain bike event going on, and the first parking was full.
I was lucky to find a free spot at the parking next to the "Feldberghaus" at position 50.231503, 8.457906

No walking is needed here, so I set up my station at the side of the parking lot, a few metres from my car. Again, I needed my umbrella as a "parasol" ;-)
Temperature had risen to 25°C.

Result : 20 QSO's with only 1 S2S, and no DX.

I kept the activation short here, because of all the people around, and also because it was still a long drive to my last summit.

DM/BM-135,  Hesselberg - 689m, 6 points

As to make things worse, the last village before the summit (Wittelshofen) was completely blocked by road works, and I had to make a big detour via narrow farm roads, so I arrived with some delay at the parking spot, at 17:23 local time. Temperature was now 31°C ...

Parking position: 49.067776, 10.528250
Walking time only 3 minutes one way. 

There is one bench at the summit, but it was occupied by a family. I walked around a little to take some pictures of the impressive TV tower, and luckily the family left, and I could take the bench for my activation.

The delay and the roadworks were quickly forgotten, the sun was still shining, so I had a nice activation.

Result :  8 QSO's with 1 S2S, no DX.

After that, I still had to drive to Rainau where I was supposed to have a room in an AirBnb. Now the lady where I would stay had made a double booking, but had found me a hotel apartment nearby, at her expense of course. The room turned out to be even nicer than what I had booked, so no complaints from me, hi.

A good dinner in a nearby Gasthof, with a "Grosse Hefeweizen"  finished off another nice day.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 3 

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Go back to overview HERE