Having ruled out my first choice of summit Gefrorene Wand-Spitzen OE/TI-746 due to the requirement for Via Farreta gear that I was unable to obtain in Mayrhofen I activated my second choice, the much easier Hohe Salve OE/TI-517 via cable car from Hopfgarten-Markt.
Shortly after setting up the MPAS 2.0 and IC-705 I added a spot for 20m, then whilst scanning the SOTA Spotter App for S2S I noticed my own summit having been spotted on 2m by Michael OE7MPI. I swapped the antenna briefly for a whip but didn’t hear anyone on 2m, then just having plugged the HF antenna back in Michael realised the same thing and wandered over to say hi.
Confirming what Joe @OE5JFE had told me before my visit - that a 2m only activation is quite tricky in OE7 - Michael confirmed that it was not only because there are only limited operators in the area but obviously that the geography is very much against 2m contacts. He had got two contacts on his handheld. He did say that they had a local simplex repeater in the church tower (shown behind him in one of the photos).
After a chat I offered the IC-705 to Michael to complete his activation - apologies to chasers who got confused at this point!
Great to get a couple of S2S in the log. After a photo opportunity I had a call from my wife who had found that there was no easy way to get back to Hohe Salve and I bugged out, back to the car to move it to a resort that they could access Scheffau, but having misjudged time in the afternoon we ended up being on the last chair lifts up out of a valley and could only then descend via the cable car at Ellmau so had a four bus trip to get back to the car at Scheffau. It’s never been that close before!
Happy New Year 2023 to all and hope to speak to you on the radio from a summit soon (hopefully tomorrow now we’re back in the Lakes).
| TIME | CALLSIGN | BAND | MODE | RST | RSR | OPERATOR | SIG | REF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:45 | EA1DHB | 20m | SSB | 59 | 55 | Ricardo | ||
| 09:46 | SA4BLM | 20m | SSB | 59 | 59 | Lars | ||
| 09:46 | EA1AAP | 20m | SSB | 55 | 55 | Fernando | ||
| 09:47 | EA3IJB/P | 20m | SSB | 59 | 55 | Daniel | SOTA | EA3/BC-010 |
| 09:47 | SV3IEG | 20m | SSB | 59 | 57 | Dinos | ||
| 09:48 | SM5LNE | 20m | SSB | 59 | 57 | Jan | ||
| 09:50 | 2E0VRX | 20m | SSB | 59 | 54 | Craig | ||
| 09:53 | EA2DT | 20m | SSB | 59 | 55 | Manuel | ||
| 09:54 | EA2BD | 20m | SSB | 59 | 44 | Ignacio | ||
| 09:56 | RC7A | 10m | SSB | 59 | 59 | Valery | ||
| 10:07 | SQ9BQW/P | 20m | SSB | 59 | 59 | Wojciech | SOTA | SP/BZ-043 |
| 10:27 | G4OBK | 20m | SSB | 59 | 56 | Philip | ||
| 10:28 | EA3EVL | 20m | SSB | 44 | 57 | PABLO | ||
| 10:28 | SA4BLM | 20m | SSB | 59 | 55 | Lars | ||
| 10:48 | SP6KEP | 40m | SSB | 55 | 33 | Radio | ||
| 10:55 | G3TQQ | 17m | SSB | 55 | 55 | J | ||
| 10:55 | SV2OXS | 17m | SSB | 55 | 57 | Christos | ||
| 11:07 | EA2BO | 17m | SSB | 55 | 55 | Raul |
