40m on Petru Paler

Serra de Sicó

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Cold and windy triple activation.

Cold and windy — should have brought some layers.

Senhora do Socorro

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Three-way activation: SOTA, POTA, and WWFF.

Mata Nacional das Mestras

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

POTA activation with a park-to-park first contact.

First contact was park-to-park with CT2IFE activating Mata Nacional do Vimeiro very close by.

Serra da Melriça

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

SOTA activation by car.

Serra da Boa Viagem

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

SOTA activation from a geodesic marker.

Aroser Weisshorn

Sat, 26 Aug 2017 19:10:55 +0200

Birthday activation with a view.

It was my birthday and nice weather, so we packed up the family in the car and headed out for a 10 point cable car accessible summit. The drive was very enjoyable, especially the section between Chur and Arosa with its stereotypically Swiss look: twisty, steep mountain road, wooden houses with little flags, and expensive cars zooming by. Arosa itself is picturesque and nestled around a small lake.

Once on the summit we first had lunch, then set up the antenna (by now a smoothly streamlined tag team activity with my wife) and got on the air. I started with an S2S by calling into an activation of the nearby HB/GR-275. Afterwards I found an open frequency on 20m, spotted and called CQ, then immediately had HB9BIN reply for another S2S. A promising start!

A bunch of contacts and 2 more S2S ones later I tried to switch to 40m. Nobody was answering my CQs but there was a high pitched QRM… which turned out to be GM8OEG/P on GM/SS-187, only 2kHz below my frequency. I noticed him on SOTAwatch, but could unfortunately not copy him well enough for a S2S. After moving to a clear frequency further away I resumed calling CQ, still with no results. Remembering the issues I had on Batzberg and the fact that I still hadn’t trimmed the antenna to resonance nor brought an analyzer, I turned on the KX2’s internal ATU and tried again. This scored one QSO, and after a few more fruitless CQs I called it a day – my head was once again warm due to forgetting the hat at home and using a hoodie instead.

Once everything was packed up we took in the nice view some more then headed back home.

Meta lesson learned: having a written checklist to go through when preparing would help avoid repeating past mistakes (no sun hat & antenna analyzer).

Batzberg

Sun, 20 Aug 2017 19:07:26 +0200

This took a few changes to complete.

Together with the wife and baby, we initially headed out to HB/ZH-015. The baby fell asleep in the car, so we changed course to HB/ZH-004 which was further out and thus would allow for a longer nap. HB/ZH-003 was even further in the same direction, so we headed to that. Once almost there, we realized that the access road is not driveable and, given that we weren’t ready for a 1h+ hike with a baby, went back to HB/ZH-004. Once there, a surprise: there was an openair cinema ongoing, which resulted in a whole lot of people and cars and nowhere to park nearby. Almost defeated, we were ready to head back home but had another look at the map and noticed that HB/ZH-020 was nearby and went to have a look.

This time there was nobody around and the summit was reachable after a short hike. We started setting up, with a different antenna as compared to the previous activation: a lighter 6m mast instead of the 10m, and a SOTAbeams Bandspringer Midi instead of the LNR endfed. Not being used to the antenna it took longer than usual to raise, although with my wife’s help it went smoothly.

Once on the air, I spotted myself and started calling CQ on 20m. Called, called, and… nothing! Similar results on 40m. It didn’t seem like anybody could hear me, and there was no way to check. I wished I had brought a Morse key – I’m not sure if my CW is good enough for an activation, but I could have at least used the reverse beacon to see if my signals were making it out.

After a few more minutes of fruitless CQs, we took the antenna down and replaced it with the trusty LNR endfed. After what felt like a long time calling CQ on 40m again, SP9AMH finally came back for the first QSO of the activation. I could barely hear him, though, and he also gave me a fairly weak signal report (44). Switching to 20m I got a second QSO with HB9BHW, who was close enough that I suspect it was groundwave propagation. A bunch more CQs later I started wondering whether this would be my first failed activation.

Switching to 40m again, I noticed that SWR was quite high. The LNR trail friendly uses a trap for 40m and needs careful length setting, which I hadn’t bothered to do so far and now it was likely costing me in efficiency. I turned on the KX2’s internal ATU, knowing that I’m just papering over the problem. However, once I started calling again SP9AMH jumped in again to say I was a 57 now, so at least things improved a little. After another half hour of persistent calling I managed to rack up 3 more QSOs, for a total of 5. Yay, success!

Despite all the back and forth, this was a fun activation and it was really enjoyable to drive through the scenic Zürcher Oberland. It’s hard to tell whether the difficulty in getting QSOs was due to the antenna setup, dense vegetation around, bad propagation conditions, a combination thereof, or something else entirely.

Lessons learned:

check road accessibility
check for events
test antennas beforehand
bring an antenna analyzer or at least trim them to size before leaving
bring a Morse key even if not planning a CW activation
persistence pays off!

Pfannenstiel

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 18:57:28 +0200

Second attempt, with 100% more radio.

Another pleasant, warm weather family SOTA outing. After a false start the day before (when we drove all the way there just to realize I forgot to take the backpack with the radio & antenna), we went again and started off with lunch at the Hochwacht restaurant.

A short hike afterwards we reached the summit, a small clearing in the forest with not much of a view. A slightly crooked tree served as antenna pole binding post, while the other end of the inverted L was strung up in a branch. After finding an empty frequency and self spotting, a small pileup quickly developed (although it later seemed as if not all of it was related to my activation). Once it cleared up I tried 40m, but nobody was there and QRN was quite high. A look at the SOTA spots showed HB9DQM/P on HB/SG-026, so I tuned up and worked a S2S with mutual 59 signal reports (I suspect the summits are in direct line of sight propagation). A final attempt on 40m netted 1 QSO with HB9AGH, who was apparently trying quite hard to dig me out from the noise (received signal report was 52!).

The crouching position, heat, and flies were getting bothersome so I wrapped up, packed everything again, and we headed back to the car enjoying the views from the path. A nice and fun activation overall!

Aeugsterberg

Sun, 18 Jun 2017 18:48:53 +0200

Nice activation close to home.

This is the second closest summit to my home and so it made for a good target to activate together with the family. We took advantage of the warm day, packed the baby and radio in the car, and headed off. It wasn’t very clear where to best start hiking through the forest but we found a good enough spot to park and started walking.

After navigating some twisty forest paths we made it to the ridge that seemed to continue all the way to the summit. By now the wind and the shade made things feel somewhat chilly, despite the sun still shining up high.

Once at the top, I quickly set up the antenna by tying its support pole to the conveniently located bench and stringing it up to a tree. After finding an empty spot on the 20m band I spotted myself with the phone and called CQ. 2 QSOs quickly followed, but then nothing. We were getting quite cold by now so I moved to 40m and spotted myself again, hoping to get the 2 more QSOs I needed. This quickly resulted in a small pileup, including a S2S with S575S/P on S5/BI-018.

With 7 QSOs in the log and almost freezing in the wind, we packed everything up and headed back towards the car. Walking and the sun warmed us again, and everything ended up well.

Overall a fun activation with one lesson learned: bring an extra layer of clothing even if it’s a hot day.