Sorry for the short activation of the Hochlantsch today. It was below -10° and the wind made it feel closer to -20°. It would not have been possible without my new heated gloves, and even these gave out rather quickly in the cold. The moment I changed into some dry clothes, the wet ones froze solid and my hands went numb. Luckily I had the heated gloves and was able to thaw out my fingers as I thought about how I was going to set up. The LCD on the QMX was very slow to react, but everything worked at least. Logging was slower than usual as I didn’t want to risk my keyboard with so much spin drift around. My noise cancelling headphones wouldn’t work as the cold killed what was left in the rechargeable battery. My CW wasn’t so good in my heated gloves, and when they stopped working in the middle of the activation, my finger went numb almost straight away. Everything was stiff as a board and my zips stopped working. Finally, when it came time to pack up, the antenna, the antenna reel had frozen shut, so I had to coil it round my hand and shove it in the bag. I was walking a long time in my down jacket before it got too hot to continue. At least the view was worth the effort.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt