Category Archives: SOTA

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, QRP, SOTA

SOTA in the Czech Republic – When everything goes wrong

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by Thomas (DM1TBE)

As I have mentioned in my two previous posts, I have visited my family on the other side of Germany. On the way back, I wanted to make a “tiny detour” and activate a summit in the Czech Republic. I like all kinds of numbers and statistics, and that includes my SOTA stats. My goal is not being number one or be in the top region somewhere, but seeing it progressing and developing satisfies me. Until July last year, the upper right pie chart was only light blue, i.e. I had only activated summits in region DM, Germany – Low Mountains. So I use every chance to push the light blue back.

sotl.as

After some concessions, my family agreed and the way back increased from 6 hours and 583 km / 362 mi to 8:30 hours and 732 km / 455 mi.

Route on Google Maps

On the drive to visit my family, I noticed that I forgot my wallet, so I had neither an ID card nor my driving license. In many regions of the world, it would be probably very difficult to cross an international border two times without papers. However, many countries in Europe have signed the so-called Schengen-Treaty, which led to the creation of Europe’s Schengen Area.

Camoka4, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Schengen Area consists of 27 European countries with a population of over 400 million, who have abolished border checks. However, random inspections still happen. The worst case would be a control in the Czech Republic and the official requirement to go to the German embassy in Prague for new papers.
As expected, the border crossing was easy and it could easily been overseen.

If you missed that sign in the photo, you only note that the town names have changed to Czech, as Czech names are quite different. After the border crossing, the summit is just minutes away, and you can drive up to the very top – pretty convenient for a 10+3 points summit.

Derived from User:Rdc, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The summit Klínovec (OK/KA-001), also known as Keilberg, is the highest mountain in the Ore Mountains, located on the border between the Czech Republic and Germany. With a peak reaching 1,244 me / 4,081 ft above sea level, Klínovec has been a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts and tourists, and is the most important winter sports area in the region. The mountain has a rich history that includes mining activities for silver, lead, and tin in the dating back to 2500 BC, and it has evolved into a popular skiing and hiking destination in recent years, attracting visitors from both countries. According to reports, the peak has attracted people for hundreds of years, with the earliest observation tower erected in 1817. Continue reading SOTA in the Czech Republic – When everything goes wrong →

Field Reports, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, SOTA, Videos

QRP DX: A beautiful day for SOTA on Flat Top Mountain!

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The weather on the morning of April 4, 2023, was absolutely outstanding!

I woke up that morning, drank a cup of coffee, looked outside and knew what would be in store the day: a SOTA activation!

My schedule was actually open that fine Tuesday because my daughters were on spring break from school, so the only problem was deciding which summit to activate. A good problem, in other words!

After staring at the SOTL.AS map for a while, I decided to activate Flat Top Mountain (W4C/EM-026) near Blowing Rock, North Carolina. One of the main reasons I chose Flat Top was because the roughly five mile round-trip hike is such a pleasant, casual one. My left ankle was recuperating from a bit of a strain, so I knew Flat Top’s flat, wide carriage trails would fulfill my need for exercise without straining my ankle (which, by the way, is doing much better now).

The drive to Flat Top is a beautiful one–a good third of it is on the Blue Ridge Parkway including the Linn Cove Viaduct which offers up stunning long-range views. I made my way to Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, at BRP milepost 294, where I parked the car and put on my hiking boots.

The park was pretty active for early April, no doubt because the weather was so stunning.

I checked out the beautiful Flat Top Manor to see if renovations had been completed.

It looks very close to completion, I have to assume they’ll be open again soon. The old manor was looking beautiful against clear skies!

Flat Top Manor was built by in 1901 by Moses Cone who was a very successful local textile entrepreneur, conservationist and philanthropist. It’s so fitting that this beautiful bit of architecture and these expansive grounds (which includes no less than two SOTA summits) are now protected by the National Park Service for all to enjoy.

I started my hike by following one of the carriage trails in front of the manor. It leads past a farm building, then crosses under the Blue Ridge Parkway two-lane road. Continue reading QRP DX: A beautiful day for SOTA on Flat Top Mountain! →

Accessories, Antennas, Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, QRP, SOTA

Steve tests the Gabil 7350T antenna, Gabil GRA-ULT01 tripod, and BaMaKeY TP-III paddles

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Many thanks to Steve (MW0SAW) who shares the following field report:

Mini Field Report: Testing the Gabil 7350T and BaMaTech TP-III on a brisk SOTA activation!

by Steve (MW0SAW)

Went for an early walk/SOTA activation up Fan Fawr GW/SW-005 (734m) this morning (9/4/23). I think someone said it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year in the UK. It was about 5 deg celsius with a bitter wind chill of -2c on the summit! It’s very close to the highest peak in South Wales, Pen Y Fan (886m).

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in our emails, I wanted to test a new compact antenna I purchased recently, called the Gabil 7350T in the USA, and branded as the Sharman MD-3500 in the UK where I got mine. I also took the Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK2 tripod which I did purchase from the USA on Amazon.com.

The Gabil 7350T Compact Antenna and Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK2 tripod

Another first for the the activation was the Bamatech TP-III ultra compact paddle, Dinos were included 🙂

Starting my walk, the lovely view of the reservoir quickly disappeared and was the last view I would see ascending into the mist.

I took refuge in my Decathlon 1 man camping shelter, setting up the tripod and antenna close by.

The wind was howling and turning my back the antenna toppled over. This was quickly resolved with a tent peg on one of the tripod legs. Quick setting of the slider with the analyser got 1.2 SWR and so after a slurp of coffee, I started to call CQ on 20m CW. A nice stream of European qsos ensued with good reports (many 599), it was pleasing to hear with such a small antenna (about 8 ft). Just as the contacts were drying up, I was taken aback by a strong VK station! Always great feeling to get some dx like that but especially pleasing with this tiny antenna on its maiden voyage 🙂

I switched to 20m SSB for a few more QSOs but struggled with QRM on two frequencies. My allotted time was running low and my fingers were numb, so I packed up the HF and got the handie out to catch a few local VHF contacts.

So what can I summarise from this activation, well I can safely say I love the Gabil/Sharman antenna and Gabil tripod. They would make a really nice additional to a small go bag, they seemed to work almost as good as a full size 1/4 on 20m. Time was limited this trip and I was too cold to hang about to try more bands, but extremely pleased with the performance so far.

The Bamatech key is a pure work of art, beautifully made, sensitive and precise. Probably my best portable key to date in my collection.

Equipment:

(Note: Amazon links are QRPer.com  affiliate links.)

Thanks to all the chasers.
73
de MW0SAW/P

Accessories, Field Radio Kits, Grab And Go, New Products, News, Portable, POTA, Reviews, SOTA

First look at the Blue Ridge Overland Gear Gadget Bag

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In early February, Jeff (KD4VMI) sent the following message to me:

Good evening. Love your YouTube videos and QRPer posts and, from them, I know you appreciate rugged packs and gear.

I enjoy POTA, although I don’t get out as often as I’d like, but I’ve found Blue Ridge Overland Gear’s various bags and modular systems to be very handy for bundling my radios, batteries, cables, and antennas.

It’s been on my mind for some time to let you know about them (if you don’t know about them already) and I finally decided to take the time to write you. I’m not associated with them in any way, and I didn’t approach them about passing this on to you, or anything like that. I just really appreciate their gear and I think you might, too.

The BROG materials are high quality and stout, the zippers are beefy and smooth, everything is double or triple stitched and everything is modular so it can be used for just about anything, and in pretty much endless combinations with their various bags and gear.

Their products are not overly cheap, but are guaranteed for life. They’re located in Bedford, Virginia and all their things are made in the USA (I think mostly in Bedford).

I often use their tire puncture repair kit bag, for instance, to carry my FT-891, Bioenno battery, cables and mic, and PackTenna, and then strap the coax to the Molle system on the front of the bag.

They posted a YouTube video showing their gadget bag with accessory pouches for HTs, etc.

Their website is: https://www.blueridgeoverlandgear.com/.

Anyway, I appreciate all you do for our great hobby and just wanted to share this info.

Take care and all the best to you and yours…

Thank you so much for the kind words, Jeff, and for the tip about Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG). You’re obviously a skilled pack enabler because you had my attention by the second paragraph–!

Shortly after my exchange with Jeff, I checked out the BROG website and was really impressed with their line-up of packs and gear–all with a focus on modular organization, especially in-vehicle since it’s for Overlanding. It’s just the icing on the cake that their gear is made in the USA.

I was very curious if their Gadget Bag, in particular, would lend itself to being a modular flied radio kit pack.

Thing is, there are so many options and configurations for the Gadget Bag, I wasn’t entirely sure what to order.

Being a fellow who expects to pay a premium for rugged products, made in the USA–especially ones that carry a lifetime warranty–I was prepared for some sticker shock. Turns out, BROG pricing is pretty reasonable in comparison with other cottage industry pack manufactures.

Still, I wasn’t quite sure how easily some of my radios and gear might fit in their zippered pouches, so I reached out to BROG–mentioning QRPer and my constant search for field radio packs–and asked if I could order some packs and pouches, test them with my radio gear, then pay for what I decided to keep.  I didn’t want free gear, I just couldn’t tell based on the product images and posted dimensions what pouches and packs might fit my various radios and accessories. Also, I knew readers might ask if certain pouches and packs might fit certain radios.

The good folks at BROG kindly obliged, so I asked for the following list of items:

– QTY 1 Gadget Bag (shell) in black
– QTY 3 Large Velcro Pouches
– QTY 6 Medium Velcro Pouches
– QTY 1 Velcro Cord Keeper
– QTY 1 Medium GP Pouch
– QTY 1 Velcro Headrest
– QTY 1 Headrest Pouch Kit

Some of these items weren’t in stock, so it was a week or so later when I received notification that the package had shipped. It arrived a couple days later.

I love the feed bag style packaging, by the way.

Photos

Although you’ll start to see this field kit in upcoming activation videos, I thought I share a photo tour of this pack… Continue reading First look at the Blue Ridge Overland Gear Gadget Bag →

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, QRP, SOTA

SOTA with two PAC-12 antennas in a JPC-7 dipole configuration on the Wasserberg

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Berndm aus g, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Thomas (DM1TBE)

Intro

Nearly a week has passed since my last activation and the AWS–the Activation Withdrawal Symptoms–started to kick in. Furthermore, I received an antenna during the week which I wanted to try. However, the weather was unsettled, and showers were forecasted over the whole weekend. This did not prevent me to try at least an activation with the new antenna.

So, I started to the Wasserberg (DM/BW-664) on an early Saturday morning. The summit has a height of 750 m / 2460 ft and a wooded peak. The parking place is already elevated, so there was only 1.6 km / 1 mi left to walk with an ascent of 166 m / 540 ft.

The peak is wooded, but you can enjoy the view at the beginning of your hike, just after parking.

The trail is well-developed and easy to walk, except for the high incline at the beginning.

You come along something that looks like an old wall, but it is probably a place where stones have been taken from in earlier times.

The forest still looks like winter, and you can see the landscape through the trees

But if you look close enough, you see that the spring is not too far anymore.

Although the way to the peak diverts from the well-developed trail half way, I followed the way to visit the Wasserberghaus (it basically means “house on the water hill”, with “water hill” being the name of the hill).

Europe has an extensive hiking network. It ranges from European long-distance paths, with trails up to 10,000 km / 6,200 mi, over national routes to small hiking path networks operated by local municipalities. This is a hiking guidepost at my trail to the summit. Continue reading SOTA with two PAC-12 antennas in a JPC-7 dipole configuration on the Wasserberg →

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, POTA, QRP, SOTA

A story about a gluttonous dragon, a princess, a knight, and many DX contacts to the US from a volcano in Germany

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by Thomas (DM1TBE)

Intro

If you have read my previous activation reports, you may remember that the temperature was more often than not below 0° C / 32° F. I am tired of the winter. So I was very pleased when the weather forecast indicated 18° C / 64° F on a Saturday.

In one of my previous posts (How I found the best antenna for my SOTA/POTA activations) I have outlined, that I like using the 30-meter band for being reliable on short and medium distances – in my case, Central Europe. However, I wanted to try an activation with an antenna that is more appropriate for DX. The wire winder for my 30-meter antenna had plenty of space left, so I decided using a commercial 12/17-meter band wire antenna that I have discussed briefly in the report linked at the beginning of this paragraph.

The day before, I built a 20-meter end-fed with parts that I found in my basement and a tiny 1:49 transformer from K6ARK. I added a short coil, so the feed point wouldn’t be at or too close to the ground when using my 10 m / 33 ft fiberglass mast. I know it needs some polish.

The Limburg

The Limburg is a conical summit about a 30-minutes drive from my home. It can be activated for a couple of programs like SOTA (DM/BW-110), POTA (DA-0203), WWFF and COTA.

The Limburg is, or better was, a volcano; technically, a volcanic vent of the Swabian Volcano, a volcanic area of 50 km / 31 mi radius with over 350 volcano vents. Seventeen million years ago, it produced massive gas and dust explosions. Be careful when ramming your antenna groundspike into the ground ;-). So it became a steep summit, elevated around 200 m / 650 ft over its surrounding area.

Earliest traces of population around the summit date to 3000–1800 BC.

Around the year 1050 Duke Berthold I., picture below, built one of the oldest Romanesque castles on the top of the summit. It was the seat of the House of Zähringen, who were related to the House of Hohenstaufen, about whom I wrote in an activation report here earlier: DM1TBE Field Report: Shivering with 18 WPM on the ruins of the medieval Hohenstaufen Castle

Around 50 years later, his son Berthold II. built a new castle some 150 km / 90 mi away and moved the seat of the family. Shortly thereafter, the castle was destroyed (probably, nobody knows exactly). It was rebuilt and destroyed again in 1130 and rebuild again. After the year 1150 a new, larger castle was built not too far away and this castle lost its importance and, eventually, gave up. Continue reading A story about a gluttonous dragon, a princess, a knight, and many DX contacts to the US from a volcano in Germany →

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, SOTA, Videos

Huge 30 Meter Pileups: Beautiful day for a SOTA & POTA Activation at Hanging Rock State Park

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There are a few reasons I love Summits On The Air (SOTA):

  1. I love hiking.
  2. I love going truly portable with my radio gear; packing an entire minimalist station in my backpack along with first aid supplies, water, and a bite to eat, then hitting the trail.
  3. I love the views.
  4. I love the sense of accomplishment (hiking to a summit doesn’t happen every day).
  5. I also love that post-hike feeling–my body telling me, “Hey, T, thanks for doing something today!“

No kidding: If I could, I would do a SOTA activation at least twice a week. Maybe when I retire, I will.

Living in the mountains of western North Carolina, I have no shortage of summits to activate–indeed, one is within (strenuous) hiking distance of my QTH.

So why don’t I activate more summits?

It’s because they are much more difficult to fit in my active schedule.

You’ll notice that the bulk of my POTA activations take place within a one hour window of time. This includes set-up, on-the-air, and pack-up time. The brilliant thing about POTA sites is that they’re so accessible in my weekly travels. (Plus, I absolutely love POTA too!)

My average SOTA activation, on the other hand, requires at least a three hour window of time. In fact, it’s usually much closer to four or five hours.

The view from Dogback

Drive-up summits like Anderson Mountain and Dogback Mountain are the exceptions. There’s no hiking time involved, so they are pretty easy to fit into my schedule.

On Saturday, February 18, 2023, a rare thing happened: an entire day opened up for me to play radio. The only real obligation I had was to set-up and participate in a live stream with Josh (KI6NAZ) on the HRCC channel that evening.

At first, I thought about doing a five park POTA rove, hitting four parks and one game land all that eight hour window of time. It was very doable and I knew it would be fun.

But then again, park roves allow very little time for hiking–typically, they’re wham-bam style short activations.  It was also a gorgeous day weather-wise so I scrapped the idea of a POTA rove. (This time!)

Instead, I had a hankering to do a SOTA activation and hike. I took a quick look at SOTL.as and remembered how much I enjoyed my last activation of W4C/EP-001 (Moore’s Knob) at Hanging Rock State Park (K-2753). And hey! It’s both a SOTA and POTA site!

It’s been nearly two years since I’d visited Hanging Rock SP because it’s a two hour drive in a direction I rarely travel.

Hanging Rock  a beautiful park and I truly enjoyed the hike to Moore’s Knob.

As a bonus, Hanging Rock State Park is less than a 30 minute drive to Pilot Mountain State Park. I knew I’d have time in the schedule to do activate both sites! Score!

Hanging Rock State Park (K-2753)

I pulled into Hanging Rock that morning and made my way to the parking area by the lake.

Since it had been nearly two years, I consulted the hiking trail map at the trail head to confirm I was taking the correct loop (Moore’s Wall Loop). Continue reading Huge 30 Meter Pileups: Beautiful day for a SOTA & POTA Activation at Hanging Rock State Park →

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, QRP, SOTA

Pilgrimage to Summits on the Air

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by Thomas (DM1TBE)

After a rainy and windy Friday, the weather was expected to improve a bit the next day. The temperature was still forecasted with around 0 °C / 32 °F, but no rain was expected. So, my friend Jochen (DG1PSI) and I thought we could operate outside. We have chosen a summit called Bernhardus. The summit is next to “Kaltes Feld” on the opposite side of the valley, where I was a some days before. With an 1.2 km / 0.75 mi trail and an ascent of 124 m / 440 ft, it is not the hardest summit around.

We had an appointment for 10 o’clock. The parking lot was still empty at the time, but the weather seemed a bit more difficult than expected. We have asked some other members of our local ham radio club if they want to join us. But surprisingly, no one wanted to get up early on a Saturday morning, hike and operate a radio in freezing temperatures.

As mentioned, the summit was near “Kaltes Feld”, on the opposite side of the valley. You can see the SOTA activation zone of “Kaltes Feld” on the left, the glider airfield in the middle and some miles in the background another SOTA summit called “Stuifen”.

The peak was easy to reach and invites enjoying the beautiful view.

On the actual summit there is a small chapel. Continue reading Pilgrimage to Summits on the Air →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, News, Portable, QRP, SOTA

CQ From Latvia with Love

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CQ From Latvia with Love

by Leo (DL2COM)

A completely under-prepped SOTA & WWFF activation which turned out to be perfect

In preparation for a tough conversation a good friend once told me: “You know what, just walk into the fire. If you have bad news to deliver, don’t sugar coat it and do it right away. You’ll be fine.” 

“Just walk into the fire.” I believe this can be applied to many other situations in life. While I would consider myself to be well-prepared on most trips, hikes and activations and getting a lot of joy out of optimizing my kits I try to stay open-minded. Imagine the things you would miss out on if you wouldn’t be spontaneous or only do things while fully prepared and 100% safe – even if it means taking risks.

On the road back to Riga
The QCX-Mini silently drying after a successful activation

Last Wednesday, I kind of walked into the fire. Not fire as in fire-fire but fire as in Latvian winter storm. In general this wouldn’t be such a big deal had I brought the right clothes, gear and shoes to my short business trip to Riga.

Due to very strict luggage restrictions I could only bring one small backpack for three days. Inside I had enough room for a laptop, washbag, spare clothes and the compact QCX-Mini Kit I built for exactly these occasions. I was wearing sneakers and jeans. At this point I had not planned a specific activation but I wanted at least to be able to operate YL/ & /p maybe 30 minutes from a nearby park – not a problem if you can jump right back into the warm hotel afterwards.

My rental car rocking summer tires in Winter (yes, I was driving veeeeeeery slowly)

During our stay, my schedule for Wednesday morning freed up so I decided to try activating one out of only three SOTA summits in Latvia: YL/YL-003. It turns out this summit is also located within WWFF territory YLFF-0007 about a 1,5h drive from Riga. Big Thanks to Val (YL2SW), Latvia’s WWFF manager, for assisting me with local rules and processing my log. A quick look at the weather forecast showed freezing temperatures, 90% chance of snow, heavy winds and overcast. Many of you will understand why a SOTA&WWFF combo in a rare country could be a small reason not to use the hotel’s sauna on a day like that. Sometimes things just need to get done.

Summit watchtower
The majestic watchtower on YL/YL-003

I got up early the next morning and was very happy to be able to grab a Bolt rental car from the street and get going quickly. The drive went by without issues up to a point just about 3km away from the mountain (well, 1-pointer hill I should say). The roads were completely covered in snow so I could barely see where I was driving. Latvia is a rather flat country but here it started to get a bit hilly and the tires were certainly not cut out for that. Continue reading CQ From Latvia with Love →

Antennas, Comparisons, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, SOTA

How I found the best antenna for my SOTA/POTA activations

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How I found the best antenna for my SOTA/POTA activations

by Thomas (DM1TBE)

Intro

Until January this year I had a German “Klasse E” / CEPT-novice amateur radio license (equivalent to the US General Class), which limits the use of HF to the 10-,15-, 80- and 160-meter bands. When I started with SOTA I used homemade single band end-fed antennas most of the time. However, that is only feasible for the 10- and 15-meter bands.

Unfortunately, both bands are very moody and sometimes they have not worked at all. Unlike the UK for example, FM is uncommon for SOTA in my home association DM (i.e. Germany Low Mountains). You can be lucky and get your 4 QSOs, but I did not want to rely on pure luck.

Therefore, I bought an end-fed half-wave antenna for 10-, 15-, 20-, 40- and 80-meter bands, after some experiments with 10-80-meter end-fed half-wave antennas, from a small German company called ANjo.

Although I could not use the 20- and 40- meter bands at that time, the EFW80-10P (en: auto-translated) antenna gave me the possibility to use the 80-meter band. The antenna could also be tuned for 15. It has a mechanical length of 23.6 m / 77 ft and a coil for the 80-meter band. It is pretty lightweight with 0.4 kg / 14 oz and allows up to 30 watts PEP – more than enough for me. 80-meters is not the best band for daytime SOTA activations, but in 21 months doing SOTA activations, it worked 37 times and tipped the scales for an activation from time to time.

It was sometimes a bit tricky to raise the long wire into the air, but it always worked … better or worse …somehow … like here in the woods along a trail.

In January this year, I upgraded my license and a new world of HF-bands opened for me. Although I have learned a lot about propagation for the exam, I am in favour of a German saying: “The difference between theory and praxis is larger in the praxis than in the theory”. Continue reading How I found the best antenna for my SOTA/POTA activations →