ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2026 - Day 9

From Friedrichshafen to Karlsruhe, 258 km

Due to the broken GPS module, APRS has stopped working in my car, but this was the route as plotted by Google Maps.

I left my Bnb in Friedrichshafen at 08:45, and during the 100 km ride, I had some rain. 

But when I arrived at the first summit at, the rain had stopped. Lucky me!

DM/BW-058, Burg - 975m, 10 points

The road to the summit is again an "Anlieger Frei" road, so you can easily drive up to the gates of the deserted military installation. Parking position : 48.27195,9.02257

As it felt COLD at only 18°C, and the long grass on the path through the forest was all wet, I didn't want to walk to the viewing point, and just set up a few metres from the car.

I had 33 QSO's with 4 S2S, one of those was on 2m FM with Tom HB9EVF/P at a distance of 129 km, using only 5W from my FT1D and a Chinse RH-770 clone. Nice!

DM/BW-846, Burg Hohenzollern - 850m, 10 points

Another easy one. It seems the parking fee for Parking P1, closest to the castle, is comprised in the entrance ticket. Since I didn't want to visit the castle, I just drove to P1 and paid nothing ... hi.

Nobody bothered me. P1 Position : 48.325664, 8.963969

I first had my lunch near the car, temperature was a nice 24°C. 

 

I wanted to take the footpath to the castle entrance, and the first part looked nice.

But the second part was (still) closed for construction works, so I had to follow the main road, and watch out for the shuttle busses.

I guess it doesn't takes much longer to reach the castle anyway.

I had a quick look at the entrance gate, and then looked for a place to set up.

I thought the end of the guardrail near the bus stop looked just big enough to use it as a table for my rig. The 'no parking' sign was ideal to attach the 9:1 UNUN. A bit further, my 6m pole was holding the wire. I posted myself behind the guardrail, so I wouldn't bother any walkers or shuttle busses.

The activation went well, but after a while, a man in  a white shirt with a Burg Hohenzollern logo came to me, telling me I was on private property and a lot of other things I didn't understand.

I politely explained (in German of course) what I was doing, trying to have a few contacts with other amateurs, but also that I was off road, bothering no one, and that the forest around the castle is public walking area.

He just replied "Sie haben recht" (you are right) ... and he walked away. I continued my activation for another 10 minutes without 'local QRM' and then packed my stuff and went back to the car.

My log showed 22 QSO's with 5 S2S, not bad. All QSO's were on 20m CW, with two exceptions : I worked Michael, DB7MM/P on 40m SSB, and surprise : Rob, DL/K6KM/P was worked on 10m CW. To be fair, Rob was only 22 km away on DM/BW-041, so that must have been a groundwave contact.

After this it was time to start driving again, still 140 km to go ... and with heavy traffic.
I found my AirBnb near Karlsruhe, arrivng at 17:40. Temperature had risen to 29°C, but luckily, this Bnb had airconditioning ... wonderful.

Tomorrow still two SOTA summits in the DM/RP area.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 10

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