Lately I have been very busy at work and I spent all weekends since end of August rebuilding my new flat. We have gone through nicest and warmest autumn for decades, of course, because I was required to be indoors…
This week we had to visit my girlfriends parents, so I decided it was time to finally go outdoors after quite a while. Weather was not that pleasant as it was before, but I was willing to activate a summit no matter what the conditions are. On Saturday morning the decision fell on Lysina OK/KA-009, the second highest summit of Slavkovský les woods. We left our car near one of the unpaved forrest roads and started to go up. I can suggest that anyone who goes up on this summit really uses the main forrest road. Yes, it is at least three times longer than just going straight ahead towards the summit, but my first two activations nearly failed because I decided to take a shortcut. The tall forrest soon changes to young and very dense forrest combined with swamp. Definitelly not a route you want to go. I have already learned my lesson, so we used the propper road. Unfortunatelly the peak is hidden in woods, which is the reason it is not recognized as something interesting for hikers. There is no nice path with tourist marking to the very top, at some point you have to go into the forrest and go uphill, until there is nowhere higher to go.
The activation itself was very nice, weather was not pleasant, it was about 4°C and little bit foggy, but I finally had a chance to make a few /P QSOs with my new KX3. I worked about 6 stations from the motherland of SOTA, which I can’t say was caused by propagation, far superior RX performance of the KX3 compared to my kit radio or something else. In total I worked about 30 stations 40m SSB in less than twenty minutes. Everything was getting wet including the two of us, so we decided it was enough for today and packed all things up.
On the way back to the car, the weather cleared out. We stopped on the only open spot to look around and take a photo.
I really enjoyed the nature and the activation, I hope I soon find some more time to get out again. Winter bonus is approaching!
