ON7DQ SOTA Trip to Friedrichshafen 2023

  ON7DQ SOTA Trip to Friedrichshafen 2023

10 days on the road ... 20 summits, the HAM RADIO, SOTA Meetings & Dinner

Click the picture above to see a 10 minute video about my trip.

Summary

This was my sixth visit to Friedrichshafen, and the fifth time I drove over there in my own car. This year it was again a "solo" trip, the YL could not join me this time.
No problem for me, that meant I could do more SOTA, yiehaa :-)

I had made a planning for 22 summits, but in the end I activated only 20.

I drive a brand new car, a Toyota Corolla TS Hybrid.
I drove 2285 kilometers, this used up some 182 € in fuel.
I looked up the data from last year : then we drove 2153 km and 300€ for fuel !!!
So this hybrid car is surely saving me some money (after I spent a considerable amount of money to buy it of course).

Equipment used

For this trip, I wanted to have a better solution for setting up my station at the summit. 

I got tired of taking the KX3 out of its protective bag, set it up end plug in two connectors for the headset, a power connector, a connector for my memory controller, get the Palm Pico paddle out of its box, connect the rather flimsy lead, plug it in at the paddle and the other end at the KX3, and finally connect the coax to the antenna. 
At the end of the activation, repeat all in reverse order, sigh ...
There had to be a better solution.

I had thought to make a "Go Box" like I had seen on the internet, but this meant that I would need to make "extensions" for all connectors, and this introduces new possibilities for bad contacts. It is also a more complex job, and I didn't have much time left before making my trip. 

So I took a simpler approach. I mounted all the stuff that I need on a thin wooden board, all connections permanently made to the rig, only the antenna is not inculded  (for obvious reasons). A cover bent from a plastic sheet protects the equipment when stored in my backpack. On the summit it protects from the sun, or when it would start to rain, I can lower the lid, and get some protection from the rain, and keep operating.

My board (see picture below) contains : KX3, 4S2P battery with power switch, automatic voltage reducer, a cooling fan with ON/OFF switch, a logbook and pen, my Arduino memory controller, a headset and 2 CW keys (PalmPico and homebrew backup paddle) and a small digital clock. The main power switch connects to an extra PowerPole input in the OFF state, so I can use an extra battery if needed. Yopu can see that connector front left.

Here a view from the front

And here a side view

Only the memory controller is not permanently plugged in now, I am waiting for some more cables with right angle 3.5mm plugs.

Antenna's :  9.15m or 22.30m random wire, with 9:1 UNUN and 4m counterpoise.
Short wire setup as a sloper, long wire as an inverted-V.

Coax 5m RG-58.
Cheap PC-headset with PTT box.
Palm Pico paddle or homebrew relay contact paddle.
6m fishing pole from Decathlon (missing the thinnest element, so really only 5.5m).
Cellphone with data plan and Sota Spotter app.

Here is the list of activated summits followed by some statistics ... click on the Day x link to go directly to the report of the respective summits.

Day 1

DM/NW-003, Ölberg - 461m, 4 points
DM/RP-366,   Asberg - 441m, 2 points
DM/RP-456,   Dernbacher Kopf - 427m, 2 points

Day 2

DM/RP-365,   Höchst - 444m, 2 points

DM/HE-003,   Großer Feldberg - 879m

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

Day 3

DM/BW-131,  Ipf - 668m, 6 points

DM/BW-653,  Grünenberg - 733m, 6 points

Day 4

The Ham Radio fair with the SOTA meeting and SOTA Dinner
DM/BW-854,  Höchsten - 838m, 8 Points

Day 5

The Ham Radio fair with the SOTA meeting

DM/BW-348, Gehrenberg - 754m, 8 Points

Day 6

DM/BW-101, Hohentwiel - 690m, 6 Points
DM/BW-850, Hochbühl - 717m, 6 points

Day 7

DM/BW-193, Schächer - 921m, 10 points

DM/BW-014, Weisstannenhöhe - 1190m, 10 points

DM/BW-009, Kandel - 1241m, 10 points

Day 8

DM/BW-115, Kaiserstuhl/Totenkopf - 564m, 4 points

Day 9 

FL/VO-019, Le Champ du Feu - 1098m, 10 points

FL/VO-023, Le Donon - 1007m, 10 points

FL/VO-090, Le Petit Donon - 950m, 10 points

Day 10

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

After this trip my totals were :
1664 activator points
21435 chaser points
5548 S2S points.
This trip also resulted in 16 new uniques and 15 new completes.

My total activation number is now 304 summits, of which 176 are unique ones.
So far, I have made 7300 qso's as an activator, and 4538 chaser qso's.

Continue reading this story, go to ... DAY 1