Jürg HB9BIN and I will be traveling in Lower Saxony (DM/NS) for a good two weeks starting tomorrow November 1, 2025, for SOTA, POTA, and WWFF. This is the area between Osnabrück and Harz resp. between Hildesheim and Göttingen.
Let yourself be surprised by which summits we include in our daily programs. These summits also determine the by-catch for POTA and WWFF. Weather and traffic will determine what is possible at the end.
We will spot our SOTA activities and also record collective or specific alerts as far as possible. Depending on time constraints, there may also be a comment or two in this thread.
Lower Saxony mainly comprises 1- and 2-point hills in a lower-mountains region in northern Germany for SOTA, with a few exceptions. The hikes resp. bike tours are quite easy. But they will certainly ensure a healthy appetite. Between the summits there are many valleys with some pretty villages and towns.
Jürg and I look forward to both receive your calls! Jürg does CW and I do SSB, but there are certainly exceptions. We’ll know more after our tour is over.
Great to hear from you. If things don’t work out with Markus or Jürg, I can certainly help you out sometime. I don’t live too far away and haven’t been on those summits in a long time.
thank you again for the lovely dinner tonight. So many interesting stories! And we were finally able to meet Michael DL4ABO, who lives very close to us.
Thanks for your welcome to your region! We‘ve already met beautiful autumn forests. These colors are incredible! We‘ve switched today from Seesen in the Harz region to Hameln. The plan for tomorrow are the summits north of the town.
On the other side I‘ve seen here the ugliest summit ever since after 850+ SOTA activations. This is Fahrenberg, DM/NS-110. All access trails to the real summit seem to have been dug up by wild boars. The terrain is wet and muddy. And tons of blackberries with their long thorny fingers slow you down further more.
After sitting down to dinner the night before last and having a wonderful conversation, I visited Markus and Jürg today during their activation on the Bückeberg.
It’s quite special to finally meet again after having had countless QSOs.
Markus and Jürg’s visit to Northern Germany is slowly coming to an end. It was great having you here. And, as a side note, the number of activations of the Bröhn DM/NS-122 has increased to 377.
But the story about Markus being chased by a bear on the Bückeberg is just a legend.
Thanks Chris, this was fun, since the bear was not for real. But I would not like to know how these methods can be used to our disadvantage!
Thanks for being our good guy here for this beautiful area supporting us on many details with me using my hiking shoes and Jürg using a bicycle - to my fun, I was the first one on the summit and transmitting many times.
Thanks also to you, Uwe and Michael for having met you locally - you guys give a face to this nice area of Weserbergland and Harz. I hope that you continue to be ambassadors for DM/NS and convince many of your friends to activate here frequently.
Our trip comes to an end now, travelling south to Göttingen tomorrow and finally back to HB9 on Sunday.
The highlight of today November 14 on summit Bröhn, DM/NS-122, was an S2S with Fredi, D4BHU (= @HB9BHU) on a summit on the Cape Verde Islands west of Senegal. I could hear him well on 10 m with the KX2 and the end-fed antenna, but I had my key in the hotel.
Then I had a good idea. I remembered the funny YouTube video where someone imitated Morse code on SSB by singing it. Would that work?
Fredi was on 28.063 in CW mode. In SSB, I heard his signal half a kilohertz lower. I took a deep breath, then a loud staccato: “Biiibibi bibiiibibi biiibibibiiibi bibibibi biiibibibi biiibiiibiiibiiibip . . .” And sure enough, Fredi responded immediately – 559 on both sides and twice the summit reference. The QSO was in the bag!
Later, I asked Fredi about any peculiarities in my transmission, such as sound or behavior, as I had used a new Morse key . . . His answer: “Basically easy to read, but strange sounding, as if you were transmitting in SSB with a tone generator.” Right! I was the generator myself, hi.
That had taken some time. Down to the car, and soon we headed back to the hotel.
We’ll know more after our tour is over.
That’s what I wanted to say!