I went to my summer cottage to close up for the season and while I was in the area I took the car to one of my closest summits, Hökberget, SM/ DA-031.The name would translate to Hawk Mountain but I didn’t see any this trip.
The car was parked on a dirt road and I took my small back pack and started to walk towards the view point. After some 30 minutes walk I reached a point where I could see Orsa Lake in the distance. On a small sign I red Okbjär 390m above sea level. The spot was covered with tall trees and no low branches to throw up my antenna line in but I managed at last to find one where I could hoist up my wire.
At 11.40 I turned on the radio and logged 4 QSO in a minute on 40 meter. Good activity and after that it continued in the same way. After 2,5 hours I gave up and my fingers were numb. The temperature was one or two degrees above 0C and no wind.
Looking in my log I got 79 QSO in total and some DX from W and VE.!
Here in Sweden we have to travel north and towards the boarder to Norway to find qualifying SOTA. I will do my best to hand out summits here in Dalarna when I’m here. I plan to take my tent this winter and try winter activity.
It was a pleasure to work you Neil. If I would have been retired now I would go for all the tops in Dalarna now but I have to work some more years before that happens Talk to you soon again.
73 Jaan
Jaan, speaking of winter activations: this coming winter my XYL and I will visit Abisko, which we have chosen because it reportedly is a very good place to see the Northern Lights. We have very few opportunities here in the US state of Georgia! Unfortunately I am not planning to bring my SOTA system because I think the days will be too short and the weather conditions too extreme. Also, when I look at SOTAmaps for the Norrbotten region, the summits near Abisko appear to be too far and too high to reach in winter except with a serious winter mountaineering climb. Only one summit, Loktacohkka, has ever been activated and that was done in August. So I guess I will admire your mountains from afar!
Hi Scott, sounds like a good idea, both things, The trip all the way up to the northern part but also leaving your equipment at home. When I was much younger than today I hiked from Abisko to Kebnekaise (Highest point in SM). During winter You most likely need skies or snow shoes to reach the top.
As you probably noticed almost all SOTA tops are not activated due to the fact they are so remote. I hope to get out there during summer to activate perhaps one or two firsts.
Take care and enjoy your stay and really hope you will see the Aurora Boreralis and the scenery it creates.
73’s Jaan
Nice to see that there are other SM op’s going for sota. Only activated 2 so far, where the first (SM-VB001, 2 days hike) didn’t qualify due to short activation (hard wind), but it was fun anyway.
Second was this summer at the SM3 high coast with reasonable “get to time” whilst on vacation.
Hoping to do perhaps a week long mountain expedition next fall
We had a wonderful time in Abisko. There are many attractive-looking summits in the area, but snow cover and daytime high temperatures of only -15C, I think we will have to return in the summertime! But the northern lights were beautiful, as is the Abisko National Park.
The Northern Lights:
Sorry for the delay in responding, Razvan. Jaan probably has more information than I do, but here are my thoughts based on my trip:
It will be very convenient to stay at the STF Abisko Turiststation, which is in the Abisko National Park and is a lovely place. The staff are very helpful, the food in the restaurant is great, and the rooms are quite comfortable. If you are on a tight budget, they also have a hostel with less expensive housing and with cooking facilities you can use. The Turiststation also has on site a well-stocked equipment store where you can buy almost any gear you need, rent much of it, and get maps (and guidance from the staff). Everyone speaks English and almost everyone is extremely fluent. I believe German is also an option.
If you join the Swedish Tourist Foundation, STF (https://www.swedishtouristassociation.com/ ), your membership gives you discounts on your accomodations at the Turiststation and on purchases in the equipment store.
I looked at the map of the Abisko National Park while I was there, thinking ahead to a future SOTA trip (we can dream!). It looks like most of the summits will require hiking to reach each mountain - not many roads in this area. Also, many mountains did not have well-established trails leading to their summits, or to be specific, few had such trails indicated on the maps. One of the Turiststation staff told me there are informal trails leading to many summits. This suggests one would want to confer with the staff to get suggestions, mark potential routes on the map, and be prepared to navigate one’s way up the hill.
I do not know how many summits can be reached by one day, up-and-back hikes. One may be looking at overnight backpacking to reach some summits. Perhaps Jaan can share his assessments with us, or suggest how one could get more information.
Your trip will be in the autumn and the weather will be tending toward cool and rainy. The appropriate preparations for mountain safety will apply. The locals can provide more specific guidance.
I apologize that I can’t provide more specific information than this. I envy you your trip!
Wow, thank you very much for the detailed posting. Indeed, the summits don’t look very accessible on the map, I didn’t have high hopes.
As we’ll be travelling rather light, looks like I’ll only take the Yaesu FT2D with me, forget any SOTA plans and just focus on the more touristic aspects of the trip. The tips about accommodation are very useful too, those were the two places I had in mind as well but didn’t know about the STF member discount.
Razvan,
Glad to share what information I have. I should also mention that if you want to join STF, you do not have to join in advance. You can join when you arrive at the Turiststation in Abisko. When you check in at the front desk, tell them you want to join STF. They will provide the form you fill out, take your membership fee, and apply the discount to your hotel charge. They also will give you a temporary membership card to use until your permanent card is mailed to you.
We just received our first issue of the STF magazine, which is included in the membership. Since we don’t read Swedish, all we can do is enjoy the pretty pictures.
Is there much 2m activity up there? I didn’t bring an HT on our visit.
I don’t expect VHF/UHF activity in the area, the closest repeaters (3 of them) seem to be in Kiruna (about 100km / 70 miles away). I’m taking the train from Stockholm to Abisko (for the full experience) so hopefully there will be other repeaters to entertain me on the way. Sweden has over 400 repeaters listed on Repeater Book, which is an extremely high number for a country of about 10 million people.
The STF magazine sounds interesting, I think I’ve seen one a couple of years ago in a outdoors shop but can’t remember where.
Talk to you soon again.
