Going easy on a Sunday morning ...
DM/BW-348, Gehrenberg - 754m, 8 Points
[EDIT : after investigation, the GPS module was indeed dead and beyond repair. I replaced it with an older GPS box from gpskit.nl It is a bit slow to aquire a position, but it seems to work, so I'm back on APRS]
After breakfast, I left my Bnb, and arrived at the summit at 09:15. The temperature was a comfortable 25°C.
Gehrenberg is another drive-up summit, 'my' parking spot is here : 47.742628, 9.423206 , and this is already well into the AZ. To the real summit it's only a 1 minute walk.
This is the busiest summit during the Ham Radio, but not only due to the SOTA activators, but also due to the mountainbike trail that runs exactly over the summit. Expect a lot of bikers stopping by, especially in weekends.
It was early morning and the sky was overcast, so I decided to set up at the real summit. But hey, the summit was already occupied !
Christof, OE6CHD was doing an activation on 2m FM, just holding a handheld, while standing on the big rock which marks the summit. After he finished, we had a nice chat, and when he left, I started my activation. Christof was kind enough to take this nice picture of me, but sorry, I forgot to take a picture of him when he was activating.
After a while it even started to rain ... but after one minute it was already over ... so far for some cooling down.
I was about one hour into my activation when another visitor arrived on the summit, and to my surprise, it was someone I knew very well, if only from the airwaves ...
Justin , DL1MJR is another of the regular participants in the QCX QSO parties. What a coïncidence!
He's an American pilot, but living in Xanten, Germany at the time. Also his wife Diana was with him, and she's also a pilot, how cool is that. She took the picture below.
Justin disappeared in the bushes to do a quick activation, CW only with an Elecraft KH1, using an endfed antenna thrown over a tree.
A while later, he came back to say goodbye, when another well-known SOTA couple arrived. They were Andy HB9JOE and Eva HB9FPM. I was so busy in a pile-up by then, I had hardly the time to say hello (sorry guys). Off they went to find an operating spot without QRM from ON7DQ (hi).
Apart from hams & mountainbikers, I had another nice visitor. A beautiful butterfly came sitting on my backpack. Of course by the time I wanted to take a picture it was flying away, but I still caught it in the picture (see the yellow circle).
I stayed on the summit until noon, but with all the talking with visitors, I made only 24 QSO's in two hours time. But I had 12 S2S, thanks to the many activators nearby. Also 2m was working well, I had 9 QSO's on 2m alone.
At noon I went for a pizza, and took the afternoon off to get some rest, and prepare my trip of the next day : Friedrichshafen to Karlsruhe.
By the time I got back in my Bnb, outdoor temperature had risen to 32°C again, indoor it was 26°C, still a bit warm. My XYL showed me via Whatsapp that it was also hot in Ostend, and she was sitting in the garden (in the shade of course!), with her feet in basin of water ...
There you have it, a bit of water in the cooler, problem solved ! 😊
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