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