Today I did my first summit activation and I am planing to do more, step by step.
Basically walking up the Mountains and visit some summits is my first hobby and I try to do it regularily to keep some strength and endurance. At the moment I do mountain hiking twice each week. One walk is over 1100 m difference in altitude and the other is just 400 m. Being on the path alone for a considerable amount of time I wanted an additional communication tool independent of any cellphone masts, just for fun but for safety reasons too. So I came back to my other Hobby, amateur radio, and purchased a ft-65 vhf uhf fm hhtr.
My first step ist getting used to the device and to the handling of it. My qso skills are quite rusty by now, I have to think, what to say next, but this will change very soon. Today I discovered, what I need next: A flight deck to use when walking. So I carry the board with rig, log sheet and optionally an EFHW attached to it in my left hand and can write while listening, talking and walking.
Todays excursion to FĂĽrstenstand oe/st-299 was quite pleasant. Saturday and sunny weather. First I listened with interest to the traffic running. The rig works fine and the rubberducky is quite usable for the beginning. When I started to go back down, I heard oe6wpf Wolfgang from oe/st-129 Rappoldkogel. I stopped, went a few steps back to a better position and we did qso and so I finally completed my first activation. Thanks to Wolfgang. The points are not important and I will visit this hill several times this year.
Next I have to find out, how to organize activation of the summits after a more exhausting and time consuming ascent. e. g. oe/st-248 Schöckl 1100 m sum of differences in altitude up. The days are short now and so is the time I can spend at the summit. The hikes will take place on weekdays. Spotting will be necessary. Better antenna can help. Mast can help. The good thing is, I have time.
thank you for the friendly welcome here. Yes the climate in this forum is remarkably friendly and helpful.
Having seen your frequent activations of high summits in the east alps, I think we will probably s2s in 2m soon.
By the way: I have no antenna and no radio station at home, just portable equipment. My other rig is an ft-817, but I stick to the ft-65 by now. Later, when I will be used to communicate out of the rucksack, may be I will do 40m and 20m. These days I am quite occupied with building up my health condition. (I cannot translate “Kondi schinden”. hi)
Yesterday I walked up the 1000 vertical meters to the summit of Schöckl oe/st-248 and tested it. I find it very helpful, everything ist logged immidately, even non sota qso’s while stlll ascending.
It was a fine activation beyond my expectations. 4+ qso’s. Thanks to the op’s. It was a wonderful day in the sunshine above thick stable inversion fog some 300 meters below. Details will follow soon.
The name of my summit here, Schöckl derives from the slavic word chekalo, which means watchpoint. Chekati means to wait. And the mountain serves this purpose very well. The foto above points to northwest. The summits in the background are, beginning left, Seckauer Zinken, Hochreichart and seemingly very small the Bösenstein. The lonly one in the middle is Grosser Schober. And to the right there are the Eisenerzer Alpen with the most prominent Gösseck, followed by Wildfeld and Stadelstein. I am dreaming of activating one or a few of them next summer. This views kelp to keep my motivation for training alive.
Now to the radio experience. In the presence of many hundreds of kW from professional radio services up there, the ft-65 worked undisturbed, at least with the rubberducky. No additional filter necessary.
We managed a qso to Trofaiach. Thanks to Armin for patience and readjusting his directional antenna. Dx was 42 km and there is the Hochalm in between The Fesnel zone was not free. Some reflexions must have helped or was it diffraction? I like the small wonders.
On the weekday the vy near big city of Graz helped to get replying stations, even a little after lunch break. Notes to myself: Remote summits on weekday will require EFHW or even HF equipment. Getting up even earlier in the morning will make sense too. I have to find out 40m ssb sota frequencies and start listening, when on the path.
Welcome to the pack! I am glad that you made some activations and that you had fun and success!
I just have two recommendations for you:
Try to get a better 2m antenna than the rubber ducky and try to get it further up, e.g. on a short fiberglass pole. You willl be surprised what difference this can malke.
Don’t forget your FT-817! This is a great radio for SOTA and many of us have started with this set-up. For serious SOTA I would recommend an external battery pack with it.
When you go into shortwave you will need a pole anyway. So why not get it soon and use it on 2m for now.
Your “recommendations” are confirming the plans I mentioned above…
ft-817, Tuner, 40m antenna, masts and battery pack are ready. I will set the hf portable station to operation, when its time to do so. I build up my sota thing step by step. There are many other things to do and this hobby must not occupy too much time in one piece. Among other things I have to deal with severe health issues.
Now I have to reorganize my training. The walking on relative high and remote summits will take place on saturdays, when the hills and mountains are populated by yl’s and om’s.
EDIT:
This means, I’ll do my short hike on a weekday. Then I have time to operate the HF station and mostly there are trees to conveniently pull up a V (non inverted) dipole for nvis mode on 40 m. An inverted V efhw over my telescope Mast of course ist also possible. Equipment weight is not that critical on those shorter excursions.
Next is looking for a 2m efhw ready built, with sheath wave blocking and the suitable cables. (Tinkering ist not an option by now.) No, I will not be surprised by considerably better results, I expect them.
Next thing after this will be listening to 40 meter sota ssb traffic and find out the usable qrg’s.
Having seen some of your activations I am sure we will hear one another s2s soon. It will be a pleasure to me.
73, Johannes
The walk was over 1100m upwards and 23 km in distance (roundtrip). Its a convenient variant with very moderate steepness. Starting point is the bus stop of the city bus # 53: “Fuss der Leber”.
For the international readers there is one more foto.
today I activated Fürstenstand again and I did earn points. There was bright sunshine and the summits were busy. So it’s real fun to go for a walk up and to play radio. Thanks to the chasers and the two s2s stations.
The foto shows Schöckl, the qth of my last activation seen from today’s qth:
on tuesday it was again time for a long walk. For reasons I went up Schöckl oe/st-248 again. Of course no points were earned, but I dont consider the excursion pointless. Weather was cold and windy, quite uncomfortable, but I put my bivvy bag on and this worked very well. Its a valuablepiece of equipment and doesnt add noticeably weight. The planned external antenna will help sheltering while playing radio and maintaining good radio contacts at longer distances.
Due to circumstances I radioed just a short time, but there were three qso’s. Thanks to Endi oe6end/m for coming back the third time and to Martina @S54TIM and Marjan @S56IHX, “hvala lepo” for patiently exchanging the Info.
Being familiar with the paths up there, it is easy, to adjust the exercise volume to my needed achievment level. I am cranking up my vertical range by a mean increase of 30 m per week. 30 vertical meters is very little, but it will sum up in 20 weeks to 600 m, provided no acute health problems will show up. Now I am at 1200 m. In spring I hope to reach 1600 m. Beeing an old man of 71 I am quite happy how it develops now. My motto is “stick to it prudently and carefully”.
On my way back down I met two chamois. The chamois is my heraldic animal on my avatar. I consider it a good omen.
