Hi,
tuesday was Schöckl-day. 4 qso on 2m with local stations. Thank you! Winter bonus earned 
. The vertical dipole (flowerpot style) worked well.
Some views showed snow and of course there is much fog below.
73, Johannes
Thats the antenna used on Schöckl recently:
Yesterday the activation of a small hill of about 300 v m up from the bus stop Dürrgrabenweg was done. oe/st-424 (Gipfel östlich von) Lineckberg is a really nice destination for little walk.
Three qso with local stations and 4 s2s connections. Thanks to all.
73, Johannes
Hello again,
this week I hat to wait till yesterday for good weather to do my walk. My start from the bus station was in full darkness, the air was moist and I could feel the fog blanket above. Soon I entered the fog and repeatedly I told myself, there will be bright sunshine above it. Just some vertical meters to go.
And there it was:
On the slippery path snow spikes are even more important the the poles.
At the saddle I was reluctant to follow my plan, which meant to leave the warm sunshine and dive into the shadows of the mountains north side. But I did it to have a different way to go. So I went 250 vertical meters down and via another path up again. Most of it was convenient.
Up at the saddle again, I could walk in the sun again.
The view from the summit was overwhelming once more.
In addition to this I rewarded myself by playing radio. Four stations answerd my call and qso were done to Graz, Feldbach and Gamlitz. Thanks to the OMs. I dont mind, that activating the same summit this year again and again doesnt add points to my account. But I appreciate the contacts a lot.
After walking 1350 vertical meters up and the same down again I caught my bus shortly after the daylight was gone.
73, Johannes
The next walk was a short one. I still felt the fatigue from the one before, but 250 vm up were ok. Another Buchkogel, oe/st-311 was activated this time.4 s2s and 2 local qso. Many thanks to the OM.
73, Johannes
Hello,
today I didnt feel quite fit. So I decided to visit the hill next to my home, Fürstenstand, oe/st-299. Just to keep moving. The ascent was 400 vm only. And after 200 vm I began to feel better. It seems to be true. Sports ist the best medicine. But it has to be dosed carefully, it can have adverse side effects.
On summit there is a lookout tower, which can be used to screen off the radio services working here.
It was a good opportunity to use my antenna mast for the first time.It is not much material to be installed:
And this was done in no time:
The flight deck ist quite handy too:
Five really nice qso were done. Thanks to the YL and the OMs. The weather was overcast, but calm, in a sense pleasant.
One of my next steps will be to reactivate my homebrew antenna matching unit for hf. Some time ago I used center fed dipoles and I am not sure wether It works for the EFHW without modification. I will see.
73, Johannes
Hi,
yesterday we had bright clear weather so I tried a high ascent again. I felt better than two days before, but I was not quite sure how much ascent I should plan. 150 vm lower to the summit there is a saddle where I can decide to go straight up and do 1000 vm or go the north side down to “Schöckl Nordlift Talstation” an abandoned ski chair lift. The latter would lead to 1250 vm ascents. Arriving at this point I felt strong enough and took the additional round course. Another, smaller additional lap I omitted. But I was still slower than usually. Thats ok.
On my way back up I chased three stations to contribute to this part of sota too.
45 minutes prior to ETA I alerted and on summit I could do 7 qso including one s2s. The sotaists were quite busy. Thanks to all. On a relatively high summit on saturday in bright clear weather there is a lot of radio traffic to be heard.
On my way down I felt more tired than normal. Ok there are those days. Just keep moving, go easy but go on.
Daylight was gone before I arrived at the valley. The torchlight is one of the things I carry with me even when I think I do not need them.
All together 1300 vertical meters upwards were done.
cu hear u 73, Johannes
Hello,
yesterday I had to do a smaller hill again and I chose to activate Hohe Rannach. The leeside ascent from Fuss der Leber was warm and calm but on the top I felt some wind chill. I managed to start the activation according to my alert and I called cq just once. Holyday after lunch seems to be a good moment. In seven minutes six qso were done. dx qth were northern slovenia, southern styria and up to Graz just below my position. Thanks to the chaser comunity!
As always I selected a route which does not put too much load on my old and damaged knee joint. As it is a real pleasant round walk, I show it here for the locals. It is 586 vm up and 13.4 km distance.
My best wishes to you all and have recreative holydays,
73, Johannes
Hi,
yesterday I activated Schöckl oe/st-248 the last time this year. It was the 7 th activation of this summit in 7 weeks. Before radioing I walked up 1430 vertical meters, and 50 vm afterwards on the way back home. The training is paying off, my endurance has increased a bit.
2 s2s were done and 2 local qso. 14:00 lt is a bit late, even on a sunny saturday. While walking up and down the mountain before the activation I could chase some summits. Thanks to the yl and the oms. Playing radio while walking causes a little delay but that is ok. On the summit I met a group of 5 sotaists and we had a short but interesting talk. Congratulations to Arnold and Stefan, who achieved their Mountain Goats on this day. See also here.
hny 73, Johannes
Hello,
now I am considering the next steps. Anyway I have planned to continue my extensive walks once the week. But in between there are the shorter activation hikes where I have more time available and where I am not so exhausted. On these occasions I want to start operating HF radio again. The equipment is far from being ideal for sota, but it worked well some years ago. It was not designed for sota but for experimental exporation.Less weight will be nice now. But I start using the station again just as it is, and I will change things when I had more time to contemplate about the variants and when I have sota experience with the HF gear. A redesign with sota in mind will be easy. No functionality and no quality have to be abandoned. It has just to be adapted to the new requirements: less weight and smaller variability.
Today I got it out of the cabinet and started testing with the dummy load. It was ok from 7 to 14 Mhz, which is the tuning range I want to use.
There is an LC matching unit in L topology. It works fine with center fed dipoles between the trees available on the lower hills here up to approximately 1700 m asl. The addaption to off center fed antennas on one mast is a minor one. A tuneable common mode block (Potter trap) is included.
The ft-817 has a VSWR indicator included, but this is a coarse thng. To have a more sensible indication, I can use the homemade VSWR bridge shown above too.
73, Johannes
Would really recommend a multiband tuned antenna. Then you can dispense with half of that kit! An endfed 40m halfwave would give you 40,20,15 and 10m and probably 17m too. Easy to make at very little cost.
Fair enough - you are the one carrying it! There’s always a compromise to be made between RF performance and weight/convenience: the correct position on that scale will be different for all of our use cases.
sorry, no comment to offtopic
Today, saturday I carried this experimental HF gear 400 vm up to Fürstenstand oe/st-299. There I had 8 vhf contacts to stations in two countries and 5 qso on 7 Mhz to 5 countries. Thanks to the yl and the oms. The latter band was rather full, it was difficult to find a quiet frequency without splatter. I hope on workdays it will be easier. Hf is another kind of fun compared to vhf. I like both.
I began my experiments with a V dipole (not inverted). This variant I will probably keep as an option for activating densly forrested hills without carrying a mast.
73, Johannes
Hello,
two days later I visited the next of the hills, oe/st-381 Steinkogel. Calling cq on vhf once and doing 5 qso in 5 minutes was a good start. Thanks to the om. But on hf I faced new issues. I am used to throw the wires into trees from a meadow, which is quite easy, but there was no meadow. There was sparse high forrest. Super, so many masts up here I thought. Yes they were there, and undergrowth including plenty of bramblebush too. It was not as easy as usual to move around with the wires. Havin a pruning shear with me was a good thing. BTW this tool is very useful on less frequently used paths. Anyway I had to streamline the handling of the lines and wires. A useful lesson learned.
Trying to find an free frequency on 7 Mhz on a holiday was the next issue. When I found one, it was not free any more and used by a strong station before I had finished writing a slf spot on the phone. I could not manage calling and self spotting at the same time. Before I found a new free spot on the band the server software timed out.
A north Italian sota station could not hear me anwering. And my calling cq without spotting was not answered.
All together I had a nice walk, weather was better than the forecast. Vhf worked perfectly and some needed information gathered. WIth hindsight I found some solutions too.
I changed my procedure to coil the lines and wires and to hoist the antenna up the tree. A cq parrot ist ordered. In the future I will have the hf equipment established before doing vhf. So we can change to hf quickly and I will have well audible qso partners there. And I do not need to spot me by myself.
Another thing is, I consider purchasing an antenna analyser. It is not really necessary as all the measurements can be done in old school manner, but they can be done easyer and quicker in the field using an instrument with direct display of the impedance values.
73 and always come back down your hills and mountains safely,
Johannes
Hello,
today the next of the lower hills around here had to be visited. Early in the morning some rain fell, and when I left home it was mostly overcast. From bus station Friesach Friesacherstrasse I started to walk about 300 vm up to Eggenberg oe/st-484. The ascent provided some nice views.
Stübing with Stübing Castle at the left side:
A quarry in the Rötschgraben:
The forrestry road led conveniently to the summit. There is even a cross and a bench.
Sun was shining now. Just on time I called cq on vhf and got the answers promptly. The chaser community is great! Many thanks to them!
On descent there was aonother kind of view visible.
Walking down was easy and I caught my bus back to Graz at station Thomahan. There is plenty public transport available.
73, Johannes
Hello everyone,
the next one was a longer hike again. Sunny weather was predicted for saturday. That had to be utilized. This day I activated the summit when I arrived Schöckl oe/st-248 for the first time. It was sunny indeed, but temperature was 8 centigrade below zero and the wind gusts reached 40 km/h. A sunny leeside spot was optimum for playing radio. 11 qso to two countries could be done, Many thanks to the yl and the om. The hills were busy so 4 s2s connections ware also done.
After radioing I completed my training so I reached a sum of ascents up of 1520 vertical meters. Walking down finally, I was tired and satisfied dreaming of the summer to come.
73, Johannes
