Activating SM/SE-001

Hello friends
Saturday morning I will try to get up early to reach the top of Mount Kullaberg in south Sweden. I am sure I will make it to the top 188 meters over the sea level. That`s one of the two “mountains” we have in south Sweden.
I have been living and working in Ecuador, South America for 11 years, on the level of 2800 meters and more, so I am sure I will make it.
I will bring a homebrew cw tranceiver for only 40 meters with 4 watts output, and the antenna is an ordinary dipol. The tower is a “fishing rod” 8 meters long which I already have checked out and it works fine.
This is amy first summit expedition, and a test for next summer. I have talked to my three grandchildren, boys 16,15 and 14 to follow me up north. As an old scout-leader I will prepare something great for the boys. It also means that I have already someone to bring my equipment up to the summit.

Now looking forward to my first expedition and hope it will be good one. I know that the wx will be just perfect and I hope the radio conditions too.
See you on 7.032!
73 de Mats SM7BUAI

In reply to SM7BUA

I wish you good luck and nice wx
on your first activation Mats!

Vy73/hej de Fritz HB9CSA,DL4FDM

In reply to SM7BUA:

Hi Mats,

I will be on-air about the same time. Looking for S2S contact on 40m!

73 Heinz, OE5EEP

In reply to OE5EEP:
Thank You all for a very special day at Kullaberg.

I have written a report with pictures on the following website:

http://www.resdagboken.se/Default.aspx?documentId=3&userId=222419&section=blog&entryId=1803756&journeyId=307279

Mark it and read it !

73 de Mats SM7BUA

In reply to SM7BUA:

Hi Mats

Congratulations on your FB first summit expedition, you did a superb job with big sigs into the UK. Well done and I look forward to your next one.

Vy 73
Mike GW0DSP

In reply to SM7BUA:

Hi Mats,
Congratulations on your first activation. signals from your H/B rig were FB here in the SW of England. Thanks for the QSO. 73 Jeff G4ELZ

In reply to SM7BUA:
I went to Kullaberg - Håkull on 8th August 2011 in the middle of our family holiday in Skåne. I’ve put the route details, radio info and links to Photos in an article on the summit page :-
http://www.sotawatch.org/article.php?summit=SM/SE-001&id=5004

It was my first SOTA abroad and followed failing to qualify [1st time too] G/SE-015 Cheriton Hill on 31 July before catching the Dover - Dunkirk ferry. After a 1000 miles of driving [much harder than cycling to Cadair Idris last year!] I wanted my single SOTA point. I must be mad… I also had a happy hour or so as a guest operator on SJ22S at the World Scout Jamboree in Kristianstad earlier in the same week. 600W into a dipole on 40m didn’t get many contacts because the sky was broken but at least I got a few scouts to pass on their greetings messages. My son Thomas and I did our Jamboree radio scouting badge. ARDF was fun - another first for me. My plan to activate OZ/OZ-010 didn’t happen on the outward journey - we spent the time sat outside a motor workshop while the old Renault 19 got a new front wheel bearing set and we got a 220 Euro bill. {:frowning:

As I’ve detailed on the summit page, it’s a pleasant 15 minute stroll to the top. Like Mats I strapped the 8m roach pole to the slender brick column and attached the guy lines to the end of the 40m section of the dipole and pegged straight into the ground. No walking poles were with me. I was on air at 1125z on 40m phone. Static crashes were evident the whole time. I made contact with DL0WFF activating DL FF057 nature reserve before calling CQ on my own frequency after my self-spot to no avail for 20 minutes. I’m used to qualifying hills a bit quicker than this. Desperation set in and I keyed CQ SOTA on 7032 very slowly with my Czech army straight key for the first time in my life. Goodness doesn’t SM/M0YDH/P take an age to send twice? I thank Wim PA0WDG for his patient repeats till I could send a proper response, RST and SOTA ref back. There was a pile up but there was a long string of dots. I keyed BK G4SSH ?? which proved to be correct. I had hoped to have a QSO with Roy and got a 559 from him at 599 from my end. I rang the G4SSH dial a spot service and got a huge amount of encouragement from the man himself plus confirmation that I’d got the first two QSO’s right. I completed an exchange with DL3HXX then called Roy again to say that a wall of rain was racing across from Denmark and I was going QRT for a while. I asked him to spot me on 14.285 ssb in about 15 minutes. Sorry to other cw ops who wanted Kullaberg. I disappeared under the gorse bushes with the FT817 while the deluge went on. Restored to bright sunshine, I ate my lunch and changed the antenna to its 20m section and found 14.285 ssb was free. My CQ was answered by the rich, familiar tones of Don G0RQL. Thanks for the spot Don. I spoke with Joska HA5CW, Bob G3VXJ, Abe EA5YI and Andre ON4CAP with crashes of thunder out to sea as a background accompaniment. This seemed good value for 5W. Unfortunately M6ZOG took my frequency and couldn’t hear me calling him back. I looked up and saw another dense curtain of severe sogginess advancing up the Öresund from Denmark. I can advise you that if Hamlet’s castle Elsinore has just disappeared from view so should you disappear also from the top of the Håkull. I packed up PDQ but not fast enough for a hailstone bombardment to strike hard. The Kullaberg brick columns were very good to hide behind! The thunderstorm followed and I went down as quickly as I could to get away from any lightning and back to my car.

The family and I went for a walk later in the week up the Kullaberg to the same spot. I tried 2m FM on my VX-7 handheld with just the rubber duck antenna. After all the summit is line of sight to Copenhagen and other large centres of population. Not a peep. We did try the other path north westwards off the summit and through the vegetation arch. It gave a more gentle descent but over more broken ground. We looped back through the beech trees to the original path at the base of the hill.

It’s a great little hill and deserves to be activated more often. Thanks to Roy and Don for spots and encouragement and to all the other callers.

Back to normal - I plan to do Garway, Wapley and Shobden hills in G/WB next week during the evenings while I’m at the Tandem Club national rally near Leominster sometimes with Alastair 2E0SCZ.

Tack så myckett

73
David M0YDH