Hi all:
To make up the missed SOTA opportunities this summer, I wanted to activate the very easy DM/BW-348 (Gehrenberg) today, which is just 1 - 2 km of hiking from one of the parking places. I had been there before in 2017, so I thought I would be a nice St. Nicholas walk in the snow-covered woods.
Everything went fine until I heard a strange smashing sound… one of the bigger parts of the tree top maybe 50 - 70 m away broke and came down. The trees are old and pretty tall, and what came down was quite something. Never too old to learn a new thing to observe.
This is just a friendly reminder that to all fellow operators - there was zero wind, it was from the pure weight of the wet snow of the starting winter season. And had I had my both earphones on properly, I would not have even noticed it.
So I started to feel uncomfortable, finished my minimum number of QSOs and packed up.
All the best to all of you! And let’s hope for a great 2021 SOTA season!
73 de Martin, DK3IT
