Video and report for my activation of Pilatus/Tomlishorn HB/NW-011

Hello all,

On July 11, 2017 I activated Pilatus / Tomlishorn HB/NW-011. I took the cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad up to the Pilatus-Kulm mountain station, from where it was about a 40 minute hike to the top of Tomlishorn. It’s mostly an easy trail also suitable for the non-experienced mountain hiker (like me), although towards the end the trail becomes rocky and will be uncomfortable without proper shoes.
Once on the 2132m high top (SOTA mentions a height of 2182m, other sources 2132 and 2137m. At the Pilatus-Kulm mountain station there’s a sign saying 2132, and coincidentally the GPS of my handheld also reported 2132m in the APRS beacon I sent out) I quickly set up my portable station. This was only my second SOTA activation AND second CW activation. It was misty and I saw some dark clouds, and when I turned on the transceiver the band was full of loud static crashes. This got me quite nervous, as I was afraid of getting caught in a thunderstorm. Then I did everything wrong. I put in just PA7MDJ for my spot on SOTAwatch instead of HB9/PA7MDJ/P. Then I started CQing and chasers started calling when I found out I hadn’t grabbed the logbook, pen, and clock from my backpack yet. This, the loud and numerous static crashes, and also me being not very experienced yet in CW activations, caused quite a mess for a couple of minutes. In the mean time SP9AMH luckily had spotted me with the correct callsign, still no lightning had appeared, and soon I got more confident and got into the “flow”. I made a total of 15 QSOs on 40m before packing up and heading back to the mountain station.

At this link https://youtu.be/pVVVOU2PIMo you can find a YouTube movie of the activation. It was my first attempt at making a movie with video editing software which I only this week started working with. I hope you enjoy it.

Best 73 de Michael PA7MDJ

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Very well done on your second SOTA and CW activation! Thanks for the QSO and the video :grin:

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Well done on both the activation and video!

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Thanks! 73 de PA7MDJ

Thank you very much, Manuel! For the unexperienced CW and SOTA activator during an activation there’s so much going on in the brains, and it wasn’t until after the contact that I realized it was you :slight_smile: Thanks for the QSO and see you down the log! 73 de PA7MDJ

Well done (video es activation).

73

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Thanks!! 73 de PA7MDJ