Activation report DM/HE-497

Saturday, 03/11/2007

The 60 km drive from my home-qth to Untersensbach took about 1 hour.
Walking up to the foggy summit in heavy rain took another hour.
I was lucky to find a “hunters-lookout” to prepaire “my shack” and
have the rig on a dry place.

The 1st contact on 80m was with “papa” HB9RE at 10:49 utc.
A few more callers followed, but the change from summer to wintertime
was not good for 80m for late-morning SOTA.

When changing to 40m I`ve already heard some pile-ups and excellent signals
from many stations. The 1st contact on 40m was F5ROL/p on F/AM-628.
Then I found a good free 7.032, called cq-SOTA and made some fb QSOs.

In between the QSO with HB9AFI Ive heard some shots. I knew in autumn are always some hunters around. But normaly they have to place signs around the area were they hunt. Well no problem, I learnt at the Swiss Army to listen and calculate the distance of the shots. They were still in a good distance to continue the activation. Some QSOs later the shots were coming closer and I thought I´d better leave this unfriendly place... I told this case on the band (mni tnx G4SSH for the info/spot!). But a few minutes later was silence, no more shots. I continued the pile-up with nice s2s-contacts with GM4COX/p and HB9BAB/p. Then I QSYd to 7.068, but to much QRM for SSB today.sri
Another try on 40m CW to work “black-forest Klaus” DF2GN/p was not possible,
because the hunters started again to shoot.
They were now very close to me, as well as the deer-hounds were loud and clear (579 hi)…
I made QRT, put all the gear into my backpack and run down the summit.
After 15 minutes I met the “hunting-friends” with their dogs.
The averag-age of the hunters was around 70+ years.
I talked with them, heard some (unbelievable) stories and learnt they are very experienced hunters.
But I dont know about their eyes, can they realy see the difference between a "deer-ham"
and a “SOTA-ham” sitting under a tree in the forest???
The thing that I`ve learnt:
on my next SOTA-activation in autumn I wear the yellow vest of my first-aid box.
I am sure look like a paradise-bird but everybody can see me…

On the way back to the car I saw that meanwhile the signs “Treibjagd” (hunt) were placed. hi

Many thanks for all the nice contacts (and HB9RE,DL7RAG,G4SSH for spotting!)Hope to cuagn soon on the band with a bit more time(hi).

Vy73 and good SOTA´ing

Fritz DL4FDM,HB9CSA