our SOTA-Group is planning to activate not only Icelands summits, but also some vulcanos from July 20th to 27th, 2017.
We, Robert DL5RT, Stephane DJ0LRC, Matt M0VWS are all based in Friedrichshafen. The plan is to fly to Iceland and ship our 4x4 expedition vehicle with a Ro/Ro ship from Smyril Line via Rotterdam to Iceland.
The route will bring us to the Highlands of Iceland, driving on F-Roads, as close as possible to the different summits.
Operational bands will be 10 - 40 m SSB and Digital Modes.
And good luck with your expedition to TF Land. My XYL - GM4UXX and myself visited many years ago. Certainly a lovely island with many unique features. Also encountered puffin breast - a bit salty - hi! Also another thing thing that has stuck (well maybe more from Anne’s point-of-view) was the ladies handbags made out of fish skins! Beautiful and you would have no idea what they had been made from.
Another is the cold water out the tap is seriously COLD!
And noticed that Ralf TF/HB9GKR/P was on yesterday. Annoyed I missed him. Garden duty called
Hi,
Looks very interesting!
Have plan to visit TF in summer next year and rent a camper.
Want to take radio stuff with me, but not sure, extra lugage.
Hope to get some info from locals and from you.
Succes,
73 de Hans PA3FYG
Being an avid off-roader and having seen a number of the uniquely equipped Icelandic rigs first hand, I would love to see some pics of your expedition vehicle (either here or on your website). Good luck on your adventures and activations!
Hello Pat,
the vehicle is a Mercedes G300 Professional, currently undergoing upgrades for Iceland. It got locks for rear, center and front differentials, and is equipped with a snorkel to allow crossing of the rivers up to 1 m depth. Ground clearance is elevated, too. There are two independant power generation systems, for 12V and 24V, totalling 5 batteries, plus a shockmounted 19-inch-rack for radios and 2kW inverter to 240VAC . As soon as we have it ready (we’re crossing our fingers it will be soon) we’ll show a picture.
We have arrived and had a chance to meet some OMs from Iceland.
We are in Kerlingarfjoll now and are trying to activate the Snaekollur Kerlingarfjöllum, TF/SL-009. However, the first attempt this morning was not successful. High wind and almost zero visibility forced us to return from halfway to the summit. We will try again tomorrow.
We could not reach TF/SL-009 due to weather and ice conditions.
However, the activation of TF/SL-033 Bláfell was successful for both Stephane, TF4HVD, and myself. After a tedious 3-hour ascent, we managed to set up both stations and work both in a horizontal and vertical configuration.
How did you get to the summit TF/SV-008? The distance from nearest road is about 9 km, the outfit you are wearing looks a bit warm and bulky for hiking that distance on soft snow.
Hello Einar, good to hear from you and many thanks for the hospitality at the meeting of the Icelandic Radio Amateurs.
Have a look at our blog at www.summitexplorers.net. There I explain the whole procedure on reaching the summit. We had to go by 4x4 first, then to traverse the glacier on snowmobiles with the help of a guide. As you know, there are a lot of crevasses, up to 200m deep in the glacier, and the track across the glacier was uncharted and quite dangerous.
Congratulations on your three 10-pointers in one day, amazing job! We had scouted Langjökull before and decided it was too risky to even try the main summit due to the crevasses and the unstable conditions in the wet snow and melting ice. And you did all 3 summits on the glacier in one day - must have been quite a hike, as it is 40 km distance on the glacier - one-way! And not to forget Geitlandsjökull, where we were told, it takes around 7 hours to reach the summit and come back. But you are a local with excellent knowledge of the area and the conditions
Hi Robert.
Congratulations on the two first activations of 10 point TF summits. As you found out, weather, particularly the wind, is critical for activations in Iceland, particularly at the higer elevations. I had been watching the weather forecasts, as july 26h looked promising I planned to go for either Myrdalsjökull ( TF/SL-007 and TF/SL-008) or Langjökull (TF/SL-0013, TF/SL-015 and TF/SL-017). I got my friend TF3DB to go with me. As weather forecast for Langjökull looked better, that was the choice. Weather turned out to be even better than expected and the snow was firm enaugh to make it possible to drive on it with about 4 psi pressure in tires. Activating all three summits required driving almost 100 km on the snow. The vehicle I am using is a 2012 Toyota Hilux, modified similar to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear:_Polar_Special
This givies an idea of the driving conditions: https://eik.klaki.net/tmp/langj0717.mp4
