ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2024 - Day 13

This day saw some 240 km of driving, one last SOTA activation ...and rain again !

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

I activated this summit on my own last year, and liked the rather tough mountain walk over a cobbly track. So I wanted to take the XYL on the same experience ... it don't have to be drive-up summits all the time, right ?

See my previous report for the parking spot and how to get there.

Last year I had beautiful weather, not so this time. During the walk to the summit it was more or less dry, with a very light drizzle coming up when we approached the summit.

I quickly set up my station, but already feeling more and more rain, I chose an operating spot inside "The Temple", there were only a few visitors anyway. I couldn't find a good place to put the spike for my fishing pole, so my antenna was sagging and hanging low above the ground, but it seemd to still work ok.

Sitting behind a pillar, and at the right angle, I could protect myself and the rig more or less.

Considering the circumstances, the activation went well. With 13 QSO's and two S2S in the log, this concluded the SOTA tour.  

After a wet descent, we decided not to activate the closeby summit of Le Petit Donon, and drove to our last AirBnb in Pont-a-Mousson. There was no rain there, so we enjoyed the last evening of our trip at the borders of the Moselle river ... and with a view of nearby summit Butte de Mousson FL/VO-060.

This was the last post of this trip. Day 14 was just driving home, nothing special to report.
Thanks for reading, and see you on another SOTA trip soon !

73 de Luc, ON7DQ & XYL Karine

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2024 - Day 12

 Triberg Waterfalls

Proudly presented as "Deutschlands Höhste Wasserfälle" with a height of 163m ... that is if you sum up the height of seven small water chutes along the way ... none of those are actually spectacular.

We parked here 48.123249, 8.222143 (Parkplatz Adelheid), but there are several other entry points where you can park and start your visit.

With a 3.75€ parking fee, and another 8€ per person to get into the park, this looks a bit like a tourist trap ... but it's still a nice day out, and the whole place is well maintained. 

At midday, we had our lunch on the parking lot near the car. The weather looked nice enough to have a second attempt to activate Kandel. So off we went ...

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

DA-0004 Südschwarzwald Nature Park

When we arrived at the parking for Kandel (pos 48.065336, 8.016146), it was cloudy but still dry. 

But just as I was setting up, it started raining, so I had to move all my stuff up in the watchtower. I still had to set up my antenna, in the pouring rain, so by the time I got under the roof, I was already quite wet. 

I tried to keep the equipment dry with a towel and the plastic cover of my Go-Box. 

But the situation was getting worse, the wind was sweeping the rain under the roof, so I had to keep the activation very short and abandon ship after only 5 QSO's, just enough to have a valid activation. Not even one S2S this time, oh well ... 

Driving down from the summit was a bit dangerous, the visibility was very bad, but we made it safely  back to our Bnb.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 13

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