Hello,
I am Frank IZ2DQB, and I am just now back home from my first SOTA activation. I was already active with some chasing (but no activations so far) and I always liked to hike in the mountains (but without radio so far). So it was just time to bring some radio with me and head for an easy summit not too far from home (Monte Pana’ I/PM-442). After an hour hike and 350 m height gain I was on top. Unfortunately, and against all forecasts, the wx was infamous: warm and damp during the hike, windy and chilly on the top; I was in the clouds most of the time. I am going to drop some pictures Flickr: The Summits on the Air Photo Pool Pool
The radio experience was a blast: I never been on the right side of a small pile up and it was not easy at times. So, I managed to handle the traffic the best I can, even though at times I was literally shivering in the cold breeze, so my CW was not so good sometimes. Hope you can understand. In the end 17 qso on 14M and 19 qso on 7M were in the log, from all over europe. No extra Europe, no Italians but one S2S qso on 14 M and 2 S2S qso on 7M. I am quite happy about this activation.
I am already looking forward for the next activation. This time I would like to do something more challenging in the alps. We will see …
Many thanks to all the chasers and all who had the patience to give me a call today. See you on the summits …
73,
Frank, IZ2DQB
Congrats Frank,
The first activation is interesting as you do not know what to expect. For me the part that was the most fun was calling CQ on SSB 20m and right after the first call the qrg erupted into a mayhem of callers. Absolutely unexpected. The chasers are a dedicated bunch. My friend and I looked at each other with surprised looks on our faces and I started working the stations best I could. Fun.
Good luck.
73,
Arnaud
Well Done Frank !
It was a pleasure to work you on your first activation…
Your CW sounded pretty good at this end, in spite of the cold.
Looking forward to meeting you again soon
73
Roy G4SSH
Hello Franck,
Welcome to the activator’s club (!)… I am Gerald F6HBI and like you i go in mountains as often as i can.
Depending on the aera you live in I/PM, we can join sometimes to climb summits and activate together.
I live in Nice, not so far from I/LG and I/PM and use to go in Pontechianale (CN) close to Monviso that
i have climb once without radio… good luck in Sota and see you soon, Gerald
Hi all, thanks for your feedback. It was great to have calls from all over Europe coming to me !
Actually I had a bad RF return problem on 20 m with the SST: it seems that the end fed half wave wire is feeding back some RF in the rig. As a result I had to turn the volume all the way down during transmit and turn it back up during receive. Usually at home with the home antenna, it wors fine. But it is all OK, I will see to change antenna and feeding system next time. ON 40 m the KX1 worked flawlessy.
Gerald, yesterday I was in holyday while usually I live in Milan, so i am closer to the LO alps, but in any case mybe we will meet in the future, who knows … for sure on the airvawes !
73,
Frank IZ2DQB