Some quick shots from this week while we did some SOTA in the in the northern Black Forest region. We started on Hohloh DM/BW-054 984m. The next day we went to Hornisgrinde DM/BW-019 1163m. After those 2 I had 994 SOTA Points, only 6 points short of the so hard wanted iceblock trophy.  We then drove one hour further south to the Brandenkopf 945m DM/BW-067. I was not prepared for this (battery-wise) and we hoped that somehow 4 QSOs would come into the log. It became then nevertheless even 10 QSO, until the device switched off from the low voltage. Now I am SOTA “Mountain Goat”. After 177 SOTA activations in 7 countries in 5.5 years. I already ordered the award and I applied for the trophy.

Last year in December I wanted to activate 2 mountains in the Vosges. These two are not too far from my home town. Both could be done from the same parking lot. That day it was below 0 degrees °C and we had freezing rain on the Petit Donon. But in return we got 3 points winter bonus each in addition to the 2 times 10 points. 26 points with only one parking stop is not too bad. I was already on the big Donon at the end of 2017, actually you have to go there more often. Simply very nice there. 13 QSO vom VO-023 on 40m and 20m SSB. Exactly 2 hours after the last QSO we logged the first one from VO-090. 16 QSO here on 40m and 20m SSB with best DX AE7KI in TN. Always great to work DX with 5W.

After EI/IS-050 Torc Mountain the day before we took EI/IS-127 Carhoo Hill 02/Jan/2019 with great condx. Worked a lot US and VE. Thank you GM6ZAK, EA2CKX, EA2DT, G0VWP, G4AFI, M7AFI, DL5AWI, G3OCA, IK2LEY, DG1NPM, F4HZR, S54KD, DL3KZA, AB4PP, N4EX, AA1VX, SV2RUJ/P, VE1WT, SP9ETA, KB9ILT, (18 MHz!). I can highly recommend Ireland. What a great landscape!

Unfortunately, at the moment I don't always get the chance to publish everything up-to-date. Therefore now also with a delay of 1.5 years. Our hotel was in Killarney, so it was a good idea to activate EI/IS-050 Torc Mountain on New Year's Day, 01/Jan/2019. Condx sucked, but I wkd: 2E0WDX /M, IK2LEY, EI3KA/P (S2S), EA2CKX, EA2CE and SA4BLM.
We needed 4,5h from the parking lot to the top and back. Great to chat with EI3KA/p some 30km away on EI/IS-095 on 7 MHz, 14 MHz and 145 MHz.

Today I had planned to activate 4 SOTA summits. That was quite optimistic, because I still had to drive 460km (round-trip) to Belgium.

When I arrived at DM/RP-003 "Schwarzer Mann" (just before the belgian border) it went really well. I had left my FT2 handheld radio at home, but that didn't bother me then. The pileup on 40m was massive. Thanks to all chasers. But then it went a bit strange and I had some problems to solve.

When I wanted to change to 20m, my antenna got caught in the tree at a height of 10m, so that I had to force it down. Then it tore and I lost some meters of my 40m antenna in the tree. I still had about 3 meters of cable in my emergency package. So I extended the antenna provisionally to be operational for 40m on the next summit again. I then drove the 20 minutes to Belgium.

Ich habe heute vom Schaumberg (SOTA: DM/SR-012) beim GMAC mitgemacht. Dabei handelt es sich um einen 2m Contest der GMA Bergfunker.
GMAC bedeutet "Global Mountain Activity Contest". Neben SSB zählen auch alle QSO in FM und allen anderen Modes. Grundsätzlich gelten die
GMA bzw. SOTA-Regeln, also Verbindungen via Repeater oder EME sind nicht gestattet. Heute war in Frankreich und Tschechien 2m SSB Contest, so ging ich davon aus, dass ich einiges höre. Die Bedinungen waren aber nicht optimal, so dass nicht viel ins Log kam. Eigentlich wollte ich Michael, DB7MM in Bayern ein paar Punkte geben, damit er den GMAC gewinnt. Leider hat das nicht geklappt.Ich konne wenigstens meine 2m Endstufe von Alinco testen. Diese habe ich letztes Jahr auf der Ham Radio für 1 Euro pro Watt gekauft. Es handelt sich um das Modell ELH-230 GII.

Some quick shots from this week while we did some SOTA in the in the northern Black Forest region. We started on Hohloh DM/BW-054 984m. The next day we went to Hornisgrinde DM/BW-019 1163m. After those 2 I had 994 SOTA Points, only 6 points short of the so hard wanted iceblock trophy.  We then drove one hour further south to the Brandenkopf 945m DM/BW-067. I was not prepared for this (battery-wise) and we hoped that somehow 4 QSOs would come into the log. It became then nevertheless even 10 QSO, until the device switched off from the low voltage. Now I am SOTA “Mountain Goat”. After 177 SOTA activations in 7 countries in 5.5 years. I already ordered the award and I applied for the trophy.

Last year in December I wanted to activate 2 mountains in the Vosges. These two are not too far from my home town. Both could be done from the same parking lot. That day it was below 0 degrees °C and we had freezing rain on the Petit Donon. But in return we got 3 points winter bonus each in addition to the 2 times 10 points. 26 points with only one parking stop is not too bad. I was already on the big Donon at the end of 2017, actually you have to go there more often. Simply very nice there. 13 QSO vom VO-023 on 40m and 20m SSB. Exactly 2 hours after the last QSO we logged the first one from VO-090. 16 QSO here on 40m and 20m SSB with best DX AE7KI in TN. Always great to work DX with 5W.

After EI/IS-050 Torc Mountain the day before we took EI/IS-127 Carhoo Hill 02/Jan/2019 with great condx. Worked a lot US and VE. Thank you GM6ZAK, EA2CKX, EA2DT, G0VWP, G4AFI, M7AFI, DL5AWI, G3OCA, IK2LEY, DG1NPM, F4HZR, S54KD, DL3KZA, AB4PP, N4EX, AA1VX, SV2RUJ/P, VE1WT, SP9ETA, KB9ILT, (18 MHz!). I can highly recommend Ireland. What a great landscape!

Unfortunately, at the moment I don't always get the chance to publish everything up-to-date. Therefore now also with a delay of 1.5 years. Our hotel was in Killarney, so it was a good idea to activate EI/IS-050 Torc Mountain on New Year's Day, 01/Jan/2019. Condx sucked, but I wkd: 2E0WDX /M, IK2LEY, EI3KA/P (S2S), EA2CKX, EA2CE and SA4BLM.
We needed 4,5h from the parking lot to the top and back. Great to chat with EI3KA/p some 30km away on EI/IS-095 on 7 MHz, 14 MHz and 145 MHz.

Today I had planned to activate 4 SOTA summits. That was quite optimistic, because I still had to drive 460km (round-trip) to Belgium.

When I arrived at DM/RP-003 "Schwarzer Mann" (just before the belgian border) it went really well. I had left my FT2 handheld radio at home, but that didn't bother me then. The pileup on 40m was massive. Thanks to all chasers. But then it went a bit strange and I had some problems to solve.

When I wanted to change to 20m, my antenna got caught in the tree at a height of 10m, so that I had to force it down. Then it tore and I lost some meters of my 40m antenna in the tree. I still had about 3 meters of cable in my emergency package. So I extended the antenna provisionally to be operational for 40m on the next summit again. I then drove the 20 minutes to Belgium.

Ich habe heute vom Schaumberg (SOTA: DM/SR-012) beim GMAC mitgemacht. Dabei handelt es sich um einen 2m Contest der GMA Bergfunker.
GMAC bedeutet "Global Mountain Activity Contest". Neben SSB zählen auch alle QSO in FM und allen anderen Modes. Grundsätzlich gelten die
GMA bzw. SOTA-Regeln, also Verbindungen via Repeater oder EME sind nicht gestattet. Heute war in Frankreich und Tschechien 2m SSB Contest, so ging ich davon aus, dass ich einiges höre. Die Bedinungen waren aber nicht optimal, so dass nicht viel ins Log kam. Eigentlich wollte ich Michael, DB7MM in Bayern ein paar Punkte geben, damit er den GMAC gewinnt. Leider hat das nicht geklappt.Ich konne wenigstens meine 2m Endstufe von Alinco testen. Diese habe ich letztes Jahr auf der Ham Radio für 1 Euro pro Watt gekauft. Es handelt sich um das Modell ELH-230 GII.