Hello all,
here is a report of my recent mountainbike-tour in OE3. On Saturday the weather forecast promised nice weather for Monday and Tuesday so I decided to activate some summits in the Waldviertel region and stay overnight at a hotel. The planning of the route has already been done last year … so the only thing to do was transfer the GPX-files to my Garmin Edge 830.
When I got my mountainbike out of the cellar I noticed a flat tyre. So I had to change the tube before I could start my car drive, which is about 1 1/2 hour of driving from my home QTH.
I arrived at the starting point a bit late, so i quickly I headed to the first summit Mandlstein OE/NO-267. It was mostly an easy drive on asphalt road, only the last meters were on a footpath.
Unfortunately the sun was not getting through the clouds, but that changed during my activation and the rest of the day it was a nice sunny and warm day. After 27 QSO’s I packed my stuff and began to cycle to my next summit which is across the border in the Czech Republic.
On nice roads with almost no traffic I reached Vysoká OK/JC-029 at the estimated time posted on SOTAwatch. Again it was possible to drive up to the summit without any problems.
With autumn coming closer it was beginning to cool down a bit and so at 16:00 local time I made QRT after 18 QSO’s. The last 10km to my car were mostly downhill.
My LoRa APRS beacons were received by several iGates that are being operated by local hams in the area:
I stayed in a nice hotel in the middle of nowhere. If you want to visit a remote area this region is what you’re looking for …
After a nice breakfast I started my tour a bit earlier than yesterday. I drove through a really nice valley up to my third summit Tischberg OE/NO-200. Again there was a gravel road up to the summit.
A local ham told me during our QSO that mountainbikers are not welcome by the landowners on the summit and that I should avoid being seen on my way down. On my way up I looked carefully and could not see any sign that said that mountainbiking is prohibited. I gladly saw nobody on my way down to the town of Karlstift. Unfortunately in some regions of Austria you are being treated like a criminal when you are driving your mountainbike on the wrong road … but that’s another story!
The next 25km I was using an official MTB route, so I could enjoy my ride without having to worry about angy landowners … 
My last summit planned for today was Wachberg OE/NO-298 … but this activation did not happen! With every kilometer I was getting closer to the summit the signs “cycling prohibited” increased in an incredible amount. The forest road I wanted to take up to the summit of course was also closed for mountainbikers. I could hear forest workers in the distance and so I decided to skip this summit. maybe i will have the chance to activate this summit sometime in the future …
I sat down on some of trees, ate the rest of my lunch and thought that perhaps I should start my own business making cycling prohibited signs …
LoRa
On my way home Karl OE5JKL called and invited me for coffee and cake. We had a really nice chat about Amateur Radio, SOTA, …
73 Martin, OE5REO
