ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 8

Car trouble solved ... and two more summits

In the morning, it became clear that one cell in my car battery was dead.

Still, with only 10.8 Volt on the battery, I was just able to start my car , and so I drove off to the nearest repair centre. 

Next problem : for service, I had to make an appointment, and would have lost half a day !

So I asked, what if I replace it myself ?

Ah, no problem then, and they were kind enough to lend me a wrench , and I quickly put in the new battery and off I went ... 

DM/BW-077 (Braunberg)

A new summit for me, and as it turned out, quite a long walk too ...
I drove to this parking spot 48.44922, 8.20571
From there it took me one hour to reach the summit.

There are no views from the summit, but it is a very nice and quiet place.

I found a large flat rock to use as a shack table .. and as there was no wind , I used my brandnew SOTA flag to decorate my operating position, hi.

This activation went extremely well ... 30 qso's in the log.
This included some special ones .. I worked Mike, 2E0YYY on ... 10m FM !
And at the end of my activation, which already included some S2S contacts, my phone kept spitting out spots for summits that I probably could work ... so I kept searching and calling ... and in the end I had 11 S2S qso's, a good catch.

With all that I had been 1 hour and 15 minutes on the summit.
With the car problem, I had so much delay, that I decided to cancel two of the summits that I had planned, and just do one more and take it easy ... 

DM/BW-019 (Hornisgrinde)

For this summit, I took the "back road" which leads to the SWR transmitting tower, and parked here 48.610682, 8.202058
A short walk along the windmill to the summit, and I found a nice bench to operate.
The fun didn't last long though, as soon as I started operating, it started to rain slightly.
I kept operating as long as I could, but finally had to give up and return to the car.
Only 7 qso's in the log, and no S2S, oh well ...

After that, it was still a long drive to my BnB in the Saarland area, home of 3 nice summits in the DM/SR region, which I hoped to activate the next day.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 9

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 7

Five summits in a day ... and car trouble !

This day I had to start my return trip back home, in three days.

I had planned 5 summits of 10 points, so I started early in Berg near Ravensburg, and my first trip would end in Lahr/Scharzwald, some 200 km further West.

DM/BW-156 (Lindenberg)

I was lucky that it hadn't rained over the weekend, so I could drive right to the operating position.

I parked here 47.993078, 8.674807

Your GPS probably won't guide you there because it's off-road, but study the map and you will get it.

Setup was quick and I had 15 qso's in just 15 minutes, CW and SSB on 40m and 20m.

DM/BW-195 (Zundelberg)

This summits involves a bit of walking, the parking position is here 48.052282, 8.73324 

I took the same track as described by HB9CZF, arriving at the operating position after about 10 minutes.

Now after setting up, I discovered that my trusty 5€ headset had broken again.

One side was already repaired with rubber tape. Now the other side had fallen off !

No problem if you carry some Velcro straps in your backpack (who doesn't ?).

Later at home I repaired it better, also with rubber tape, and I'm still using it because my audio reports were never better than with this cheap headset. Not the original Elecraft MH3, nor any other headset that I tried were any better. So I'll try to keep this baby as long as I can !

The activation went very well, 23 qso's in the log, and 4 were S2S.

DM/BW-228 (Hummelsberg)

This summit is near a glider airfield. The parking is here 48.112037, 8.759774
From there it's a short walk along the airfield. During your walk, you can admire the sheep .. but don't count them,you might fall asleep ;-)

Only 15 qso's here, and 1 S2S. But time to move on .. I was in bit of a hurry ...

DM/BW-042 (Rainen)

EDIT : This summit is no longer valid for SOTA!

This is another drive-up summit, I parked here : 48.179708, 8.808539

Setting up was quick again, and I made 13 qso's, all on 20m SSB.

DM/BW-046 (Plettenberg)

Last summit of the day, and also a drive-up if you go on a weekday.

Parking position was 48.20681, 8.80741

The whole place was deserted, so I installed myself at a nice bench on the playground, hi.

Only could catch 7 chasers here, but one of them was F/G4OBK/P who was "nearby" on FL/VO-070.

Strange enough, I could work him on 20m CW !

My day had been so wonderful and everything went so smooth ... this had to fail somewhere ...

After packing up , it was time to drive the last 100 km to my AirBnb in Lahr/Schwarzwald.

Surprise ... MY CAR WOULDN'T START !!!

I could try to call for help, but how long would that take ?

As if I had some feeling this would happen, I had parked my car backward on a slope near the cafetaria, nose pointing to the road.

So hoping for good luck, I let my car roll onto the road ... and after gaining some speed, I let it go in third gear ... and YES ! It started !

I drove the whole end without stopping, afraid that I would get stuck again .. and safely reached my destination ... SIGH !

The people where I stayed were very friendly, they helped me get the battery out and put it on a charger all night. I had a good shower and was offered a nice meal, and went to bed ...

To be continued in the next report  ... read on !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 8

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 6

SOTA and a Museum ...

The Sunday of my stay in Friedrichshafen, I decided to skip the Hamradio and do something else.

I found a nice summit in DL/AL region, and since I had never done a summit in DL association, this would get me one closer to the Golden Mountain Explorer Award.

DL/AL-272 (Altringenberg)

I had figured out I had to drive to a small community that is called Schweineburg. Not sure why they decided to put a plastic cow there ... hi.

I had no problem getting there, and parked at pos 47.663288, 10.007760

Across the street is an info panel, explaining all the summits you see in this wonderful panorama ... Austria and Switzerland in the distance !

Following the farmers track to the trees, and then going left and a bit in a half circle around the summit will get you to a nice operating spot in the AZ.

It was a nice and sunny day. and I took my time .. which resulted in 33 qso's, including 15 S2S contacts. Two of those were with the same summit, so only 13 counted for points. Still a very nice result.

At the fair I had bought a SOTA flag from Andy, MM0FMF, and this was the first time I could use it. But of course ... there was no wind on this summit, so it's hardly visible in the picture below, but it is on the top of my pole for sure !

Elektronik Museum Tettnang

The afternoon was spent visiting the city of Tettnang and the nice Elektronik Museum.
Their website is here http://www.emuseum-tettnang.de/
One drawback may be that the site and everything in the museum is only in German.
But then, entry is only 3 Euro, and most of the exhibits speak for themselves.
The museum is in this nice building, the entrance is the door on the left.

Lots of old radios, but also the history of calculators and computers is shown.

In those days, it was probably normal to sell boxes with the name "Radiomann", I didn't see any "Radiofrau" boxes, hi. 

And this would be what you got if you built one of those kits.

To my great joy, they even had the very same experimenters box that I started with when I was 14 years old !

And on the way back to my car, I saw this nice old house, it's near the city cemetery (in the Friedhofstrasse, where you can park for free).

Continue reading ... go to DAY 7

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 5

The Hamradio, the SOTA meeting and the Maker Faire.

Hamradio 2018

Saturday was the day of the big SOTA meeting, but first I went to see some more of the new stuff on the Hamradio. I didn't buy much, just some accessories and components to tinker with once back home.

Of course I had to stop at the Elecraft booth to say hello to Eric,WA6HHQ, who was very busy as always.

A bit further I saw the one and only Mr. Pietro Begali ... with a collection of beautiful CW keys and paddles ... alas, just a bit over my budget, hi.

On the main stage would be a demo of how to learn CW. Since I only got back into CW since 2016 (main reason being the use for SOTA), I wanted to see what they were going to show.
To my my surprise ... the girl in the picture was Laura, DL2JJ, daughter of famous "crazy" SOTA activator Emil, DL8JJ. She was not learning CW, but took a proficiency test.
And the man giving the CW test to Laura was a fellow SKCC member Marcus DF1DV.

Oh, and this had to be the best day of my life ... I got to meet Hans G0UPL, of world fame ... maker of the QCX kit (of which I have built two : a 20m and a 40m model).
I had brought my 20m model, complete with resonant endfed antenna, 9g lightweight paddle and some other stuff, all packed in a small bag (that used to contain 10 cassette tapes, remember those ?).
Hans took a bunch of pictures of my rig , and even put them on his website !
You can read that story here : https://qrp-labs.com/newsjul2018.html#c4
If you want to read again how I built this kit, that story is here :
https://on7dq.blogspot.com/2018/03/my-build-of-qcx-5w-cw-transceiver.html

Now, is Hans really that tall, or am I such a "shorty" ? Haha !

Next to the QRP-Labs booth was Palm Radio, known for their Mini and Pico paddles and keys.

Dieter of Palm Radio was showing another QCX, built into a U3S case from QRP-Labs, with built in battery and Pico Paddle, now that is a complete station, nice work !

The SOTA Meeting

At noon, it was time again for the meeting at the QSL wall, and who did I spot ? Of course it was Geert, PA7ZEE, the best known Gran Canaria activator. He helped me prepare my trip to EA8/GC with many useful tips and warnings .. except for one, as we will see in a moment ...

In the afternoon I went to the big SOTA Meeting, as always organized and perfectly timed (hmm) by Juerg, HB9BIN.
Again a nice compilation of subjects came along.
All presentations can be downloaded from the HB9SOTA websdite :
https://hb9sota.ch/hb9sota-hamradio/

Many familiar faces in the room, and on the screen ...

Andy, MM0FMF was surely telling a joke ... 

Emil DL8JJ presented a nice video called "4000 Days" ... about the ham & climbing career of his daughter Laura DL2JJ.
If you missed it, you can still watch the video here.

With the same ticket as for the Hamradio, you get also access to the Maker Faire, so I quickly went to have a look before I left  ... because I would not return on Sunday.

The Maker Faire

This fair has a bunch of strange people with strange contraptions ... here just some pictures .. without comment , hi.

I have long wanted to build one of these ... a Theremin !
But there is always something more interesting to do ... so haven't got to it yet.

That was a long day at the Hamradio ... so that beer tasted very good ! Cheers !

Continue reading ... go to DAY 6

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ON7DQ Friedrichshafen 2018 - Day 4

Hamradio 2018 - SOTA Activations - SOTA Dinner

Hamradio 2018

Day 4 of my trip was first spent at the Hamradio fair, visiting the fleamarket and the companies showing off and selling the new stuff. 

Here an impression of the "Funkflohmarkt" as the Germans call it.

Some nice collectors item ...

And here he is, Jean-Bernard F4EOH, at his stand in Hall A3, and his xyl in the background.
He's the one I talked to from FL/VO-001 (see here).
He sells a whole assortment of BALUNS and UNUNS, and much more.
I felt a bit sorry that I didn't buy anything from him, but I build my own baluns.
So the least I can do is give him some free advertising on my blog, hi.
Visit his shop here http://f4eoh.free.fr/

The SOTA meeting at the QSL Wall

At noon, it was of course time to see some familiar faces ... I'm looking out to this meeting more and more each year.

Mike DJ5AV and Tom DL1DVE.
In the background Andy DL2DVE, Karel ON4FI and Phil G4OBK.

Ian GI0AZB and xyl Esther GI0AZA, Luc  ON7DQ and Joe OE5JFE

And of course Ed DD5LP, at work ... making reports with the ICQ Podcast team, but also organizer of the SOTA dinner (see below).

Sota Activations

DM/BW-348 (Gehrenberg)

This is the third most activated summit in DM/BW.

After the visit to the fair, I went to activate the two summits close to Friedrichshafen.
Both are very easy, and the first one was the Gehrenberg, and it is almost drive up.

In Markdorf, take the road to Harresheim, which is just called "Gehrenberg".
Don't get confused by the sight of the Gehrenbergturm on your left, that is not the summit.
Continue until you are close to Harresheim and take the road "Unterharresheim" on your right, and follow it to the parking spot.
There is a "verboten" sign if you can read German, but it is not an official traffic sign (with a red border), and it is not very well visible either ... so it's open to discussion if you can drive up the forest road or not , hi.
My parking spot was here 47.742420, 9.423273 (along the "Turmweg"), and from there it's just a 5 min walk to the big rock which marks the summit.

Last year , there were some activators just before and after me, like we had it all planned to the minute ... this year I didn't see anyone else.
So I had a short activation with 14 qso's in the log.
Three of those were S2S with activators close by.

DM/BW-854 (Höchsten)

This summit is also very easy, the road goes over the summit through the activation zone.

It became only valid in January 2018, but it sure will be a very popular one too ...
G4OBK posted some nice pictures on the SOTA Reflector here.

If you are in a hurry, park here 47.819991, 9.401837 and it is only a few steps to the nice lookout.
I parked a little further , at position 47.818279, 9.404315 near the Berggasthof Höchsten.
Yes, you can stay the night on this summit if you like !

I then took the nice walk to the lookout, along some nice panels with German texts about food and drink, and the translation in to the local dialect " Schwabisch".

This summit was rather crowded, as we were close to SOTA Dinner Time ...
Already on the summit was Herbert, OE9HRV.
By "shouting", I found out Herbert was on 20m, so we agreed that I would get 40m, hi.

I had setup my HF station at the watchtower, and a bit later Peter, DO4TO and his xyl showed up.
Lucky for me, Peter was only doing 2m SOTA, so no problem.

Lots of visitors there too .. and many asking questions ...
A friendly lady asked if she could take some pictures of me, no problem, but of course I made here take one with my camera too, hi

Later on, even more company !
Phil, G4OBK had already activated the summit the day before, but just stopped by to say hello, because this summit is also on the way from the Hamradio to the village of Pfrungen, where the SOTA dinner was held. Here Phil is talking to Jürg, HB9BAB.

With all the local "QRM", this was no quiet activation, and in the end, I only got 10 qso's in the log.
And just as I was ready to go .. three more hams showed up, and I was happy to give them my spot on the bench !
(Also, can't recall who they were, so if you know their calls and names ..please fill me in)

The SOTA Dinner

The SOTA dinner is becoming a "classic" .. around 22 people attended this year.

Here a new ham from Austria,  Alex OE5LXR & xyl, our "organizer" Ed DD5LP, and Andy DL2DVE.

Some familiar faces : Fritz, OE5DUL , Heinz OE5EEP, Phil G4OBK and xyl Judy.

If you follow my blog closely, you will surely remember the SOTA dinner with "THE HAT", where I won the SOTABEAMS WsprLite prize.

This year Ed had collected no less than 15 prizes !
In the picture : Ed DD5LP, Heinz OE5EEP, Andy DL2DVE and DM Manager Michael DB7MM.

And lo and behold, I did win another prize this year !
It's a kit for an 80m ARDF receiver, with a Chinese manual ! Luckily, there was also an English translation in the box, hi.

I have built the kit and it works ... but haven't got around to use for real foxhunting though.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 5

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