SOTA Cycling to OE (and I) & Mny First activations

SOTA Cycling Week 2016 is over, but my bicycle ride continues.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll set off by bicycle for Tyrol and Kaernten, Austria
(OE/TI, OE/TL, OE/KT). I’ll do OE/KT-304 as a first activation followed
by many other not yet activated OE and maybe I (Italy) summits (summits
of 2000 and 3000m peaks). All final summit approaches will be done by
hiking or climbing.


Journey there:

Total distance (one way): 570.6 km
Total ascent: 5294 m
APRS Cycling: aprs.fi - live APRS map
APRS Hiking & Climbing: aprs.fi - live APRS map

73 Jakob (JP) DK3CW

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Preliminary report:
Arrived in Kals a. Grossglockner, Austria (1,924m ASL) yesterday evening (August 6th, 2016).
Experienced multiple breakdowns (2 broken kickstands, brackets, gear cable, light, axial runout front and back wheel, bent quick release skewers, etc.) on the first, second, forth and fifth day. So I went from Frankfurt to Bad Mergentheim (Baden-Württemberg) by bicycle, by train to Munich the other day and from Munich up to the foot of the highest mountain of Austria, Grossglockner (OE/KT-001; 3,798m ASL, I’ve been on top of this peak 5 years ago) by bicycle. All together in 5 days.

It was a great experience anyway! I met so many interesting people on my way, some cyclists accompanied me for a few miles, hospital farmers allowed me to stay on their field with my tent and bicycle + trailer, I saved 18€ for the tunnel shuttle service as a cyclist from Vienna, who was going by car to Tirol was taking me trough the tunnel passage (bicycles strictly forbidden by federal law) …

Today, I acclimatized myself. Tomorrow, I have to go to a bicycle shop in order to restore working order of my bicycle.
I plan to do OE/KT-304 on Tuesday, depending on wx condx (rapidly changing in the Alps) followed by other summits in this area (OE/KT, OE/TI, OE/TL).

Detailed report including video footage will follow after my return. Short preliminary reports may be posted over here.

Frankfurt-Bad Mergentheim:

Munich - Kals a. Grossglockner:

APRS:

73,
Jakob (JP), OE/DK3CW

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Preliminary report for OE/TI-495 on 8th August 2016:
I found out, that my bicycle is’nt worth a repair so I ordered a new one at a bicycle shop in Lienz: KTM Life Lontano
What do with a partially used day? The wx condx were excellent. I grabbed my GPS and located OE/TI-495, Rauchkofel as the next SOTA summit. No sooner said than done:

Forgot my coax, but I had a PL-male<–>PL-male adapter with me :wink:

I met an communication engineer, who was working at the transmitter facility on the summit. He was very interested in amateur radio and we had a short chat about digital voice communications (TETRA).

Stats:
QSOs: 22
Bands: 40m, 20m, 17m, 15m

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Preliminary report for OE/KT-304 on 10th August:
As I woke up in the morning, the local summits were snow covered:

I decided to do OE/KT-304, which was intended as the very first activation of this SOTA cycling trip to Austria. This summit has’nt been activated until now. As I set-off in Frankfurt, I took everything required for a winter activation for a winter activation with me (except snowshoes). So I was prepared for the activation of OE/KT-304:

Back at the alpine hut, somebody bulit a snowmen. :wink:

Band condx were excellent, especially short skip condx on 20m and 15m.
Stats:
QSOs: 53
Bands: 40m, 20m, 15m

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I plan to do four 10 pointers in the next four days, three of them are first activations. All activations are wx-dependent (forecast).

  • August 12th: OE/TI-042, Böses Weibl - 3119m, 10 Points. I’ve been to this summit a couple of times. Activated as OE/DO3HPR/P (my foundation callsign) in 2011 and as OE/DK3CW/P in 2015.
  • 13th: OE/KT-009, Großer Hornkopf - 3251m, 10 Points. First activation!
  • 14th: OE/KT-282, Klammerköpfe - 3155m, 10 Points. First activation!
  • 15th: OE/KT-006, Roter Knopf - 3281m, 10 Points. First activation!

APRS: aprs.fi - live APRS map
Will be QRV on DMR MARC (TS1 Worldwide) during ascent and descent as well.

73,
Jakob ‘JP’, OE/DK3CW

Great report, great pictures, TNX!
Good luck for the following activations!
DF3MC

Preliminary report for OE/TI-042 and OE/KT-006

I’ve been hiking and climbing in the Schobergruppe from August 12th until 15th.
The wx condx were quite unsettled. On Friday, I was approaching Böses Weibele, OE/TI-042
during a heavy snowstorm and snow levels of about 15 cm. I wasn’t able to setup
my HF equipment on the peak due to heavy winds. And I wasn’t able to get some
chasers on 145,5 MHz in FM either. After one hour of calling, I left the summit
and went to the next bivouac to stay overnight.

Have a break, …


have an apple! :wink:

At sunrise on Saturday, there was no overcast sky at all. Early this morning, I left my huge backpack (about 25 kg)
at the bivouac and climbed to OE/KT-042 only with minimal equipment for HF. I
worked 10 stations on 20m SSB from 7 countries.

Elberfelder Hütte (2,346 m ASL)

Because two attempts were required to activate OE/TI-042 successfully, activating another
summit on Saturday wasn’t possible. I went to Elberfelder Hütte (alpine hut)
and stayed there over night in order to approach OE/KT-006 (2nd
highest summit of the Schobergruppe, 3281 m ASL). The next day turned out to be
as wonderful as Saturday in terms of wx conditions and propagation conditions.
I went to Roter Knopf, OE/KT-006 (hiking and a bit of climbing) and stayed on
the peak for several hours. I was able to work 62 stations on 20m, 40m, 17m and
2m from 25 countries, thereof 5 S2S contacts.

As I arrived at the Elberfelder Hütte in the evening in order to stay there for another night, the weather got bad. During the
evening and throughout the night, heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms occurred.
The weather report forecasted sunshine until midday but heavy rainfalls and
thunderstorms for the afternoon and evening. Doing another summit on my last
day in the Schobergruppe would’ve been risky. So I went back to Kals am
Grossglockner, were I left my bicycle. As expected, it began to rain and to
hail with thunderstorms. I found shelter in a refuge and stayed there for
more than 1 ½ hours before I was able to return to the valley safely.

During the hiking trips, at the biwak and the alpine hut; I met many interesting people
and had interesting conversations not only about amateur radio but also about
other topics.

73,
DK3CW, Jakob ‘JP’

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Very nice report! You didn’t pick the easiest of conditions…
Happy to work you at the weekend - thanks a lot for the S2S contact :grinning:!

73, Sylvia

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I’ve uploaded more pictures which are embedded in my last posting.

At least on OE/TI-042, the weather conditions weren’t easy. It was a real pleasure to have a chat with you both Peter OE6AUL/P, and Sylvia, OE5YYN/P on 20m. The propagation condx on 20m were in favour of short skip QSOs. I’ve missed to count our QSOs as two S2S contacts indeed. I’ve logged 6 S2S QSOs with 6 activators on 5 summits. Thats a new personal S2S record during a single activation.

I went to Obertilliach (East Tyrol) with my new bicycle and the mono-wheel carrier. (aprs.fi/DK3CW-7). I plan to do Hochspitz, OE/TI-200 (Not yet activated!) on August 18th. (aprs.fi/DK3CW-8).

73,
DK3CW, Jakob ‘JP’

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Will listen out for you tomorrow! Good luck for the climb and activation!
We are planning to climb and hopefully activate Großer Geiger (OE/TI-022) at the end of September…

Vy 73, Sylvia

Preliminary report for OE/TI-200 on 18th August

This turned out to be true on 18th August in terms of path conditions and weather conditions but not propagation conditions. :wink:

The approach to the foot of the north site of the mountain top was quite easy on a gravel road trough the valley Winklertal. From the
rear of Winklertal, I left the gravel road on the right and continued along a overgrown path, now directly ascending towards
the Karnischer Höhenweg on the border between Austria and Italy.

I had to cross several rivers and streams in order to get to the willowy path uphill.

The following path to the Karnischer Höhenweg on the border was adventurous. A machete would’ve been useful on this overgrown path:

I passed a scree and continued on a less overgrown part of the path above the timber line. I spotted a marmot and approached Hochspitz Senke (Forcella Val Carnia) at 2314 m ASL on the border between Austria and Italy.

I went a few hundred meters on the Karnischer Höhenweg heading east until the final approach to the summit of Hochspitz (Monte Vancomun) OE/TI-200.

As a arrived on the summit at about 2 p.m., I noticed the stratus clouds quickly moving from Italy towards my loaction. This is why, I gave it a try on 2m FM first, in order to avoid HF operation with my 10m pole during bad weather. I was’nt able able to get any chaser on 145.500 FM. It started raining and hailing after a short while, so had to stop the activation in order to look for a shelter, which I’ve found under a spur next to the summit.

After over 1 hour of continuous hailing and raining, the stratus clouds moved to the north and I was able to set up my HF equipment. I’ve worked 21 stations on 20m and 40m, thereof one S2S with OM1DK/P on OM/KE-005 and one DX with N1GB. The weather remained foggy during the stay and descent from the summit. As I heard a thunderstorm in the distance getting gradually louder, I announced to continue my operation on 40m for 10 minutes via APRS2SOTA in order to leave the summit soon.

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