6 activations in FL/VO; five of them first-timers

I had a great time activating in Alsace last weekend; great, accessible summits are there in abundance, and Alsace has a lot to offer by way of liquid refreshment once you’re done. Without a French SIM I was unable to self-spot; so I’m all the more grateful to the chasers who sought me out and spotted me. I also appreciated the challenge of having to work a little harder for the contacts.

I was especially pleased to make a qrp qso from FL/VO-093 with ZL2IFB on 30m. At nearly 3,000 miles per watt that was the 900 meter altitude hard at work. I was also proud that the first qso of the first activation of FL/VO-082 was S2S with HB9ELD/P on HB/SH-002.

Cheers and 73,
David, N3II

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Good show David… using a Dipole now! Looks like some nice hiking…

Richard // N2GBR

Thanks Richard @N2GBR. It was good hiking. It reminded me of W3 because you never end up above the tree line. The FL/VO region is also one that doesn’t have a lot of SOTA activity (yet); so even though most of my activations were firsts for the summits, they weren’t that complicated.

Yes, I’ve started using a dipole. I had a crisis a few weeks ago. Since I’m a long way from my workshop and don’t have more tools with me than a screwdriver, I’m still not sure what the exact cause is. My W3EDP just stopped tuning up. Could be the antenna, the tuner, the balun… Won’t know for sure till I get back home. Fortunately, I’ve made some connections locally and am using a linked dipole for the time being. No tuner necessary. I’m getting used to having one fewer thing to pack (the tuner); so I might just stick with it once I get back to the US. Plus I got great reports with it.

Still looking forward to a joint activation one of these days. In the meantime, 73.
d

David,
I’ll make a convert of you yet :smile: … (dump that end-fed) 100% comit to the resonant Dipole!

If you want to really have a test… forget the pole and put up the Dipole at ~6ft height // as you can reach easily… I think you’ll be surprised with the results…

Richard