ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 3

DM/BW-008, Schauinsland - 1284m, 10 Points

A nice and easy summit, but as reported elsewhere, do this one in the morning, and on a weekday. The road to the parking near the summit may be closed and fully used as a parking space, so on a busy day you may have to walk a bit more.

I was enjoying the scenery and not paying too much attention to the map on my phone, and so I started off by taking the wrong way ... instead of the stairs to the shortest path to the summit, I followed the nicely paved road below and around the summit ...
This was my track.

It was a nice walk though, and in fact, it was a bit less steep than the direct ascent.
And I got some nice views ...

... and now that I'm one myself, it was good to meet my friend the mountain goat ...

... and after a detour reaching the summit with some delay. 

Despite knowing that this is a busy summit, I decided to set up near the tower, and of course attracted some curious looks and had several people asking questions. So in the end I kept my activation rather short, after 13 QSO's with 5 S2S I packed up and went to the next one.

DM/BW-015, Hochfirst - 1190m, 10 Points

Nothing special about this summit, see my previous report here.

Walk to the paraglider launch site behind the tower and enjoy the lovely view over the Titisee.
Operating with this view in front of you is a real pleasure, but after 24 qso's (3 S2S), I had to pack up and leave.

Above picture already shows that the weather was changing, and by the time I came on the next summit ...

DM/BW-193, Schächer - 921m, 10 Points

RAIN !

Not looking good here, and no direct change in view, I first tried to find some activators on 2m FM. That didn't work out, so then I decided to throw a wire over the bushes, and see if I could tune it up with the KX3 Autotuner. It did tune up ; but operating while keeping up an umbrella was a bit of a challenge, so no qso's made.

Luckily, after a while it cleared up and I could finally set up my fishing pole, and made 8 qso's (1 S2S). Activation secured, and then it was time for a last one, and a new summit for me, which I needed for complete.

DM/BW-361, Rossberg - 640m, 6 Points

Easy summit, with a very short and easy walk.

I parked as close to the start of the track as was permitted, at this position 47.803628, 8.959089
From there it is less than 10 minutes into the AZ.
Everything to the side of the road was very wet, so I decided to set up my station right in the middle of the track !

The antenna was planted just beside the road.

I did get chased ... but on the air, resulting in 9 QSO's.

That was it for the day, time to find my BnB in BERG (where else ?) near Ravensburg, where I also stayed last year, and had a good nights sleep before going to the Ham Radio.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 4

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Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 2

After the warm-up on two easy ON summits on the previous day, it was time to attack the FL/VO region. From my BnB in Mexy it was 86 km to my first summit.

FL/VO-060, Butte de Mousson - 382m, 2 Points

This is not a drive up summit, but the walk is very easy and short.

Parking is here 48.904603, 6.079405

From there walk up the Rue des Templiers, in 5 minutes you will arrive at the ruins and a modern style chapel (see picture above).

I set up near the chapel on a stone wall, and had a nice view over the area.

I made 26 QSO's here, and 2 were SS2.

FL/VO-021, Schratzmännele - 1044m, 10 Points

Parking spot is here 48.079275, 7.143579 , near the German war cemetary of Hohrod.

I followed the track by HB9DIZ from SMP. 

It's a short but fairly steep walk to the summit. I did it in 10 minutes, and in 6 minutes I was back at the car.

14 QSO's with 5 S2S here.

WARNING : I operated sitting on a pile of wood, on which I had put a plastic bag. Despite using anti-tick product, I think I catched a tick on this summit ... un souvenir pittoresque de la région as the French would say, hi !

(It could also be from the next summit, I'm not sure when or where I got it... only found it in the evening)

FL/VO-091, Koenigsstuhl - 936m, 10 Points

Near the nice village of Riquewihr is a nice summit, but it is not an easy one.

Parking spot is here 48.183131, 7.239085, along the Ursprungweg, and  near the restaurant Saint-Alexis. Then follow the track from SMP, along the Fuchshoehlenweg, but take care ... there are a few places where you might get lost.

I found the first steep shortcut and took it, and I missed the second shortcut, making a whole tour around the summit to finally reach it. Double error !

In retrospect , I should have done the opposite : skip that first shortcut, because it goes through a dry river bed (at least it is dry in summer), and is not easy, with lots of fallen trees etc ...
But I should have taken the second shortcut.

I only found it during descent, and it looked easy enough for ascent as well.

Here my track (reversed to show how to ascend).

This is a view of where you have to go up to the left for that second shortcut, easy to miss it ... like I did !

Also, avoid doing this summit when thunderstorms are coming, or you might end up like this unfortunate young man ...

   

Lucky for me, the weather was nice and I could set up on some rocks of the "Kings Chair"

With all the delays, I had to make it short and made only 7 QSO's, and then it was time to find my BnB in Jebsheim near Colmar. Along the road near Colmar, I had one last look on the FL/VO summits ...

Tomorrow I'll dive into the DM/BW area !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 3

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Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2019 - Day 1

Day 1

ON/ON-004, Bois de Hazeille - 586m, 6 Points

Drive up - Parking spot 50.031536, 5.427229

After leaving my home QTH in Ostend at 05:15, taking a short stop for breakfast, and having some traffic delay around Brussels as usual, I arrived at my first summit around 09:00 local.



I set up my endfed with a longer wire this time (length abt. 21.3m) as an inverted-V on the 6m pole, hoping to get a better signal on 80m than with the 9.15m wire I normally use.
I could work 4 chasers (3 ON stations and Mike DJ5AV), with reports between 57 and 59, so I suppose the antenna does work quite well, even when so low above ground.



On 60m , I could only get Fabio, IK2LEY.
All other QSO's were on  40m, where I attracted a good number of chasers, and a final call on 20m got me only 1 QSO. Total number of QSO's was 32, not a bad start.

Here my nice setup, using the SOTA flag in another way than intended ;-)




ON/ON-017, Bois Haut - 405m, 4 Points

Drive up - Parking spot 49.545825, 5.753395

I arrived at my second summit at 11:25 local, so I quickly set up on the bench near the parking spot, which is in the AZ. I made it a short activation, but still got 21 QSO's in the log, with an incredible 11 S2S QSO's .. wow ! 

After that, it was time for my favourite lunch ... Boulettes Liègoises ... even when I was in Arlon, hi.




In the afternoon I went swimming, then some shopping in Luxemburg and of course filling up my car with cheap fuel !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 2

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Go back to overview HERE

ON7DQ SOTA Roadtrip to Friedrichshafen 2019

In 9 days from Ostend to Friedrichshafen ... and back !

This was my fourth visit to Friedrichshafen, and the third time I drove over there in my own car.
I left Ostend at 05:15 local time on June 18th,
Being on my own, I had plenty of opportunity to do some SOTA !

I had planned 22 summits, but in the end only activated 20.

Equipment used :
KX3 and homebrew Li-Ion battery pack (either 4000mAh or a smaller 1800 mAh as a backup)
Antenna 9.15m or 21.30m random wire endfed, with 9:1 UNUN and 4m counterpoise.
Coax 3.5m RG-58.
Cheap PC-headset with PTT box.
Palm Pico paddle or homebrew relay contact paddle, both were used.
6m fishing pole from Decathlon (missing the thinnest element, so really only 5.5m).
Cellphone with data plan and Sota Spotter app.

For each SOTA trip, I put all the info I can find (parking spots, tracks, maps, descriptions ...) in a handy document, which I then convert to pdf, put it on my phone and tablet, and print it out as well.
If you're interested to get one of these documents, send me a mail (address is on qrz.com) or via PM on the SOTA Reflector.

Here the list of summits followed by some statistics ... click on the Day x link to go directly to the report of the resepctive summits.

Day 1

• ON/ON-004, Bois de Hazeille - 586m, 6 Points
• ON/ON-017, Bois Haut - 405m, 4 Points

Day 2

• FL/VO-060, Butte de Mousson - 382m, 2 Points
• FL/VO-021, Schratzmännele - 1044m, 10 Points
• FL/VO-091, Koenigsstuhl - 936m, 10 Points

Day 3

• DM/BW-008, Schauinsland - 1284m, 10 Points
• DM/BW-015, Hochfirst - 1190m, 10 Points
• DM/BW-193, Schächer - 921m, 10 Points
• DM/BW-361, Rossberg - 640m, 6 Points

Day 4

• DM/BW-348, Gehrenberg - 754m, 8 Points
• DM/BW-854, Höchsten - 838m, 8 Points
• Also report of the Ham Radio and the SOTA Dinner

Day 5

• No summits here, but the report includes the SOTA meeting at the Ham Radio.

Day 6

• DM/BW-086, Hohenhewen - 844m, 8 Points
• DM/BW-085, Hohenstoffeln - 844m, 8 Points

Day 7

• DM/BW-853, Blankenhalde - 871m, 10 points
• DM/BW-041, Wandbühl - 1007m, 10 points
• DM/BW-038, Lemberg - 1015m, 10 points

Day 8

• FL/VO-048, Grand Wintersberg - 581m, 4 points
• FL/VO-160, Armsberg - 383m, 2 points

Day 9

• ON/ON-016, Les Aisances - 445m, 4 Points
• ON/ON-021, Plantis de Mesnil - 306m, 2 points

After the trip I ended on 1184 activator points, 11141 chaser points and 3032 S2S points.

Total activations is 226, of which 147 are unique summits.
I have made 4963 qso's as an activator so far, and 2346 chaser qso's.

Continue reading this story on ... DAY 1

EA7 SOTA Tour - Day 19

This was the last activation of the EA7 SOTA Tour.

06/Jun/2019 EA7/MA-077 (Las Mesas) EA7/ON7DQ

The summit is inside a gated area, so you can only activate it when the Acinipo ruins are open.
The visit is free though.  More info on this website (in Spanish), or read some info in English here.
Parking is here 36.832272, -5.236366

A track for finding the summit is not really needed (but there is a track by DL8DBW on SMP).
First walk to the Roman Theatre (pictured above), there go left around it and continue climbing until you hit the stone wall, then follow this wall to the right. After a while, there is no more wall, so don't fall off the cliff, but continue straight ahead until you reach the vertice, which is at the summit.

I set up below the vertice, looking for a bit of shade, and fixed my antenna to the vertice pillar.
The whole place is full of sheep droppings, so don't wear your best shoes, hi.

More or less a "Last Man Standing" type of operation ... hi.

YES ! I did it ...I did it !

This last activation was also validated for DVGE, see report here.

So the SOTA Tour was over , but wait ...
In the evening , I still had not done enough radio ...
I did set up my endfed antenna on the hotel balcony, as an inverted-L, and with a wonderful view on the "Embalse de Zahara-el Gastor", I made another 7 QSO's in the SKSE event of the SKCC (Straight Key Century Club) !

Only THEN it was all over for the the EA7 tour 2019.

See you on another SOTA expedition soon !

Well, it won't be too long for that, since 10 days after this trip I set off to Friedrichshafen ... read about those adventures here.

73,

Luc ON7DQ

Back to overview

EA7 SOTA Tour - Day 17

Again on the move ... from Sevilla to Ronda this time, I activated this very nice summit (Thanks for the suggestion to Thomas DL8DBW)

04/Jun/2019 EA7/CA-007 (Lijar) EA7/ON7DQ

This is a drive up summit, but this means driving for 10km on a seemingly endless forest road with many bumps and turns ... see the map below.
First find the start of the gravel road, where you will see the sign above, at position 36.929071, -5.403586 . It's along the road CA-9101. You can see the entrance on Google StreetView, but they didn't drive any further.

Take the forest road to the summit, which is near the "Mirador de Levante", here 36.898462, -5.393281.

This spot is also a launch site for paragliders, so I guess it's best to avoid activating in a weekend, and then you can use their nice shelter with benches to operate (and there is even a Porta Potty ;-).

Once you reach the summit , you are rewarded with this magnificent view.

This is the cosy operating desk under the shelter. On one of the pillars there was even a sign from a Belgian paraglider club.

And here is a short video of the peaceful surroundings

The antenna was set up behind the shelter, in the direction of the fire tower, where the vertice is.

What a luxury : all equipment found a nice spot on the "shack table" ... something different from sitting on the ground on a plastic bag ...

My log showed 32 QSO's, and 8 of them were S2S ... great !
Since I spent around THREE hours on this summit, it qualified as a vertice activation as well , see my report here


For the next and final activation, continue on  Day 19

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Go back to the overview

EA7 SOTA Tour - Day 14

After two days in Córdoba, we moved to Sevilla, but not without doing two more activations, and visiting the nice town of Carmona, where the second summit is.

01/Jun/2019 EA7/SE-025 (Palomarejo) EA7/ON7DQ
01/Jun/2019 EA7/SE-026 (Carmona) EA7/ON7DQ

Both summits are easy drive-ups.

EA7/SE-025 (Palomarejo)

This is not much of a summit,but just a height where a bunch of windmills were planted.
There is also a vertice in the middle of a field, but I didn't intend to activate it, so I didn't check if one can walk to the vertice. I just parked near the highest windmill here : 37.454220, -5.158539 , and set up my station, sitting on the ground to operate.
This was a first activation for SOTA. Made 23 QSO's including 1 S2S


UFO ?

In the distance, I could see a VERY BRIGHT light, I had no idea what it could be.

Later I looked it up on the internet, and found out that it belonged to a thermosolar energy collector, called TORRESOL. Read more about it on Wikipedia here.
The official website of the Torresol company is here.
Distance from the summit was 17 km, but also in Carmona it was clearly visible, over a  distance of 27 km.


EA7/SE-026 (Carmona)



This one is even easier, there is a large parking lot next to the castle on the summit, and it is in the town of Carmona. So while you're there, don't forget to visit the town, it is very nice.
Parking is here 37.474267, -5.633224 , or if you're lucky, there are a few parking spots in the shade at the entrance to the castle (which is now a hotel), here 37.472343, -5.633891.



There is also a vertice here, but it is on top of the castle, and not accessible to the public.
One can activate it though, if you upload a picture (or a video) that shows your operating spot AND the vertice at the same time. I didn't bother since it was hot, and I didn't want to sit in the heat for an hour, or make 100 QSO's. I just set up behind the castle, and activated for SOTA only, logging 13 QSO's, one being a S2S.

For the next activation, continue on  Day 17

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Go back to the overview