ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2025 - Day 2

I left my AirBnb at 08:45 in the morning and had planned three activations. I arrived at the first one at 09:30, temperature was a cool 21°C.

FL/NO-061, Ancien Fort de Liouville - 383m, 2 points (POTA FR-3231)

This summit is a drive-up, the parking is in the AZ, GPS position : 48.829686, 5.619670

The access is via a long gravel road, and somewhere along the road you can stop at a bench.

There is an info panel, and you have a nice view over the area which is calle "La Petite Woëvre".

Here I found some info in English about these wetlands.

At the parking was this welcoming sign, which convinced me to take the short walk to see the old fort.

At the fort, I was a bit surprised to find this sign, not so welcoming ... huh ?

I just ignored the sign, and continued walking until I found the the bridge and gate to the fort.
The gate was closed, the fort can only be visited on the third sunday of each month.

Back at the parking, I set up my station, and started my combined SOTA/POTA activation.
I had 10 QSO's in 25 minutes this time. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch any S2S.

FL/VO-145, Forêt de Meine - 432m, 2 points   

This one is even easier, the parking & activation spot is just driving off the D113 at position 48.567150, 5.810627 . I arrived there around noon.

First I had my lunch, and then decided to use another antenna for a change.
I set up my Chinese vertical (I used my "solution #2", see description here) ).

I deployed the ATU-100 autotuner at the base of the antenna, so I wouldn't tune the coax with it. Since the antenna is not resonant on any band, I can use it on all bands 40m - 10m, without fiddling with the length of the telsecopic whip.

The activation went well, I made 13 QSO's in 30 minutes

But then I had a small problem ... 
The base of the antenna is an aluminium ground spike, covered with a piece of bicycle tyre to reduce the play between the spike and the PVC tube.

During the setup, the PVC tube had slid down completely over the spike, so only the part which I had put in the ground was sticking out. The bicycle tyre must have folded double or something, I couldn't get it out of the PVC tube, however hard I pulled.
Not the biggest problem, for the rest of the trip I used only my 9.15m random endfed.

Only for my last activation,  I used the vertical in another way, see report of day 11.

Time to drive to my last summit of the day, where I arrived at 13:30 local time.

FL/VO-150, Fort Pélissier - 415m, 2 points

This is also an easy drive-up summit. Just beware of all the trucks that use the access road, they drive like devils over there ...

Here is a big parking lot, it was completely empty when I arrived. It may be different in a weekend.
Next to the parking are some picnic benches where you can set up.

I made 24 QSO's (with 3 S2S) in just under 30 minutes, and then had to stop the activation because of a strong wind coming up.

I still had to drive 130 km to my next stop in Le Régit, near La Bresse in the Vosges region. Because the weather prediction said we had a few hot days ahead, I went to a "Action" shop in La Bresse and bought me a tower fan. As the next days will show, this was a good investment ! 😎

Continue reading ... go to DAY 3 

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