Activation of Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze)HB/VS-001 and Mont Blanc F/AB-001 July1-10 2017

A bit of a crisis was averted today thanks to Tim, KB7MDF from Arrow Antenna.
The yagi I planned to take with me was too long for the luggage so I reaced out to Tim and he rushed me one of his antennas, 144-4BP a 4 element yagi with M/B-II bracket to mount it on the trekking pole.

Thank you again Tim and hope to hear you all on the air. Will be in Verona this Wednesday June 28

Hi Relu,

Andy, @MM0FMF, pointed me to your plan that youā€™re soon going to activate F/AB-001.
I just skimmed over this thread and saw that already a lot of good recommendations have been given by others, so it seems that I cannot add too much from my side.

But you can find my short activation report from my last years visit of F/AB-001 here on the reflector. It is just a short recap of my impressions during that activation, including a couple of pictures. Maybe it will be of interest to you:

Concerning the ascent, Iā€™d put an alternative approach up for consideration. Since the most critical section, as others have already pointed out, is climbing up the Grand Couloir, a lot of rockfall can generally be avoided by climbing up during the nighttime. Since during nighttime temperature is dropping and therefore the thawing of the permafrost is reduced. Also, at nighttime much fewer people are on the way who potentially could cause rockfalls.
Of course, at the other side, you need to have enough experience in climbing in darkness and you should have somebody with you who knows the route very well.

It is very hard to give general recommendations, because it depends on so many factors, like someones fitness and experience and not to forget the weather which can finally completely upset someoneā€™s plans.

I wish you good luck for your activation and, most important, a save return from the summit!

73, Stephan DM1LE

Dufourspitze is still on for tomorrow at 10:00 UTC, however Mont Blanc will not happen due to time constraints.
Tomorrow will try to also activate Punta Gnifetti I/PM-419 at 11:00 UTC

Attributed to Hervey Voge

Could not hear anyone on 145,000 or 145,500.
I was told 145,000 is a repeater input that might be why but reaearch shows that it is the IARU region 1 calling frequency.
It is unfortunate but at least I had the satisfaction of reaching the peaks.

Since there is no time to activate Mont Blanc we are moving to Cervinia and will look for some 4000+mtrs peaks there to activate.

Thanks to all for the help and encouragement.

73 Relu NJ9R

Iā€™m glad to hear that you reached Dufourspitze ā€“ congratulations, a great achivement! I was listening for you on 145.000 and 145.500 from Hasenmatt HB/SO-001, which has a clear line of sight to Dufourspitze (about 148 km, see below). Nothing heard at all on my HB9CV antenna; normally this distance should be no problem on 2 m FM in line-of-sight, even with one side using an HT.

At what time approximately were you calling on HB/VS-001?

73, Manuel HB9DQM

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It is in most of Europe. The normal 2m repeater inputs are 145.0 to 145.2 with outputs 145.6 to 145.8 using 12.5kHz spacing. France is sandwiched between UK and Germany which are 2m high activity countries (well they were) so a lot of French repeaters use odd splits and frequencies to fit between.

145.500 is the calling frequency.

Manuel I started calling later than I wanted about 9:30 local time 11:30 UTC. It was later than I anticipated because the climb was very difficult.

Strated on an east heading then south then west and finaly north. I called mostly on 145,000 with occasioanal calls on 145,500 and local repeaters in HB9, I, and F asking for simplex but nobody came back.

Iā€™ll be moving to Cervinia tomorrow so the day after, Saturday I will try again some area peaks.

Hmm, 9:30 local time would be 7:30 UTC. But in any case, I was QRV the whole morning, so it wasnā€™t an issue of not listening to the right frequency at the right time. Even heard another activator calling on 145.500 from a DM/BW summit about 90 km away (on the backside of my antenna), and worked him :wink:

Hopefully youā€™ll have more success on Saturday and get some SOTA QSOs!

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Hi Relu,
congratulations on the ascent to Monte Rosa, I am in Aosta Valley and hope to hear you tomorrow or in the next days at 145,500.

73, Stefano

Well done Relu! Any pics of your summit-ing? Strange about lack of activity on FM :confused:

73

Jack(;>J
GM4COX

It was my mistake mostly called on 145,000 with occasional calls on 145,500 and the local repeaters but no luck. Weā€™ll see what the next two days hold.
Radiowise it seems a bust but the trek up was fabulous. We had very good weather.

I will have pictures when I get them from the group.

Tomorrow will try again from Breithorn HB/VS-018 around 12:00-13:00 local 10 -11 UTC 145,500 FM

Tks Relu. Looking forward to having a ā€˜look-seeā€™ and any subsequent pics!

(;>J

No activation today unfortunately. The snow was wet and it took a long time to get up Breithorn only to be greeted by a summit full of people and strong winds. I forgot it was the weekend. HI

Really excited I now have a few 4000+ mtrs under my belt but radiowise it was a disappointment.
I guess the higher the harder it is to activate it so congratulations to all who have tried and especially those who have succeded.

Thanks to all of you for your support. I will try to upload a picture since I had my phone charged this time.

73 NJ9R Relu

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