ON7DQ Trip to Friedrichshafen 2025

This is the report of my SOTA/POTA trip  to Friedrichshafen, the SOTA Dinner, the HAM RADIO fair and more ... 

Click the picture above to see a selection of my pictures in an 11 minute video. 

I you stumbled on my blog by accident, and don't know what SOTA means, read this first :
What is SOTA?

Summary

This was my eight visit to Friedrichshafen, this year it was again a "solo" trip.

My XYL had already used all of her vacation days for our trip to Gran Canaria (see this report).

Car parked for the ascent to DM/BW-147, Gespaltener Fels

This time, I was on the road for 11 days, I drove 2108 km, using 156€ of fuel, thanks to my hybrid car (Toyota Corolla TS, see above).

Example of one of the cosy rooms where I stayed

I stayed in 6 different AirBnb's, which is a cost-effective way of travel. At the same time, you can have a chat with some interesting people, much better than the anonymity you get in a hotel. Often you get a kitchen to use, a nice garden, some lovely pets, ...

I activated 21 SOTA summits and 21 POTA parks, most of them in one activation, only 3 parks were seperate activations.

Some statistics for SOTA

This trip  added 134 activator points, which got me a second Mountain Goat (see this note on the SOTA Reflector).

Also adding 395 chaser points, 512 summit-to-summit points, 16 new completes, 17 new activator uniques and 24 new chaser uniques. 

SOTA is not a conpetition, but it's a fun game between Peter, ON4UP, and myself, to be the number 1 in the S2S ranking for Belgium. So I'm number one for the moment ... that is until Peter gets on the road again, hi.

Equipment used

IC-705 in Go-Box + ATU-100 Autotuner

For this trip I took again the Icom IC-705 in it's Go-Box, and the Satrover QO-100 setup.

See more details of this equipment in last years' report.

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

Coax 5m RG-58.
ATU-100 autotuner (built from a kit).
Sony headphones, stock microphone.
Palm Mini paddle (green edition).
6m fishing pole from Decathlon (missing the thinnest element, so really only 5.5m).
Cellphone with data plan and Ham2k Polo for logging/spotting.

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

• FL/NO-058, Bois Bryas - 396m, 2 points (POTA FR-3182)
• FL/NO-006, Les Dames de Meuse - 402m, 2 points  (POTA FR-3182)
• FL/NO-145, Garenne du Moulin - 340m, 1 point 
• POTA FR-3150 Vallee de la Meuse 

Day 2

• FL/NO-061, Ancien Fort de Liouville - 383m, 2 points (POTA FR-3231)
• FL/VO-145, Forêt de Meine - 432m, 2 points   
• FL/VO-150, Fort Pélissier - 415m, 2 points

Day 3

• FL/VO-170, Le Rainkopf - 1305m, 10 points  (POTA FR-3409 and 5 others)
• FL/VO-080, Rothenbachkopf - 1316m, 10 points (POTA FR-3409 and 5 others)
• FL/VO-082, Petit Ballon - 1272m, 10 points (POTA FR-3409)

Day 4

• DM/BW-008, Schauinsland - 1284m, 10 points  (POTA DE-0004)
• DM/BW-105, Schönberg - 645m, 6 points

Day 5

• DM/BW-233, Buchberg - 880m, 10 points (POTA DE-0004)
• DM/BW-235, Hoher Randen - 930m, 10 points (POTA DE-0004)
• DM/BW-359, Stöckenloch - 698m, 6 points

Day 6

• POTA DA-0156, Riedlepark
• DM/BW-854, Höchsten - 838m, 8 Points
• The SOTA Dinner

Day 7

• The Ham Radio fair
• The SOTA Meeting
• The SOTA booth 

Day 8

• DM/BW-348, Gehrenberg - 754m, 8 Points
• with Second Mountain Goat !

Day 9 

• DM/BW-064, Heersberg - 964m, 10 points
• DM/BW-147, Gespaltener Fels - 1000m, 10 points (POTA DE-0005 & DE-0929)
• DM/BW-054, Hohloh - 984m, 10 points (POTA DE-0009)

Day 10

• DM/RP-411, Hohe Derst - 561m, 4 points, chased (POTA DE-0016)
• FL/VO-166, Stromberg - 314m, 1 point (POTA LU-0015 & FR-3232)

Day 11

• POTA BE-0508 Laarbeekbos ... and going home !

Continue reading this story ... go to DAY 1