Last year, F6HBI and I failed this treck ! So it is time to try again !
It was long time that DUCROUX’s Family did not talk about them ! Let’s go for a nice adventure ! Roger F5LKW and I (F5HTR) will walk for a long trip to activate 5 summits over 2500 m in a day ! Gérald will not come with us cause works.
References are : F/AM-256, F/AM-242, F/AM-264, F/AM-258 et F/AM-280
5 sommits over 2500 m :
F/AM-256 : Cime des Lauses :2651 m
F/AM-242 : Le Pépoiri : 2674 m
F/AM-264 : La cime de Belletz : 2610 m
F/AM-258 : Le Caire Archas : 2632 m
F/AM-280 : Le mont Archas : 2520 m
we know quite well the area, this is also the National Park of Mercantour
We were not sure about path in the Cime de Belletz but today Gérald F6HBI went there without radio and made a tracing for us. So now we get ready !
Departure : 4h30 / 05h00 AM, as soon as the light of day appear, We will activate summits in the order listed above. Departure from “parking des Millefonds” (2000 m) where we will camp the day before!
TIME : first summit about 07h30 AM ! We rely on you to get up so early on purpose!
QRG : 7.032 MHz, 10.118 MHz, 14.062 MHz
RIG : Only one station cause very long trip, FT-817, only one battery and MP-1 antenna, my mast and my doublet, nothing else superfous !
TRAFIC : As we have to walk a lot between summits, we will make short activity on each one. We think to do 20 qso for each station only. We have to walk for 8 hours so no to much time to stay on the air.
Of course, we are asking chasers to be disciplined ! Do not send 2 time your callsign, it will be faster like that ! Don’t worry, at that altitude we listen everybody!
QSL : We send QSL cards to people who we have contacted at least 4 times !
For sure, we have to do s2s ! We planned to start also between 07:00 / 07:30 from cime des Lauses.
The weather seems to be good for thursday, hope we gonna reach our goal !
best 73 and see u on the air
Having a look to today spots, we can see AM-256 activated, AM-242 activated, AM-264 spoted but any QSO?, AM-258 spoted but any QSO? and the APRS track stops there with the mention ‘Walking to AM-280’.
Then no APRS car track
May be some rig or APRS problem ? Hope nothing worst
In reply to F6ENO:
Hi everybody !
We did not ride 5 summits ! I am tired out tonight i will tell you later !
in fact, we activate 4 summits and between 4 and 5th we lost in the mercantour !
a lot of fog after the second summits !
So next year we will try again ! or may be somebody will do it before !
see u later !
In reply to ALL:
Hi everybody !
We’ve got a rest now, what a good night ! I can explain our tour that did not held as we wished.
Yesterday, that was not possible to give report to all ! in fact in the second SOTA (F/AM-242 - Mont pépoiri) My battery 12v 7,2 Ah was empty !I thought it was OK at home but it was not enough ! So we decide to continu with the internal battery and very low power (500mw) But it was also empty (only one qso) !
Roger brought his fnb-85 with him, so we change and could continue. Lucky i take a little screw with me in order to change internal battery !
But it was not possible to do 20 qso on each summit, we decide just to do 4 or 5 qso.
lucky I brought my solar panel, during the travel to the third SOTA, the bettery charged, but no to much sun, a lot of clouds are around us !
On the third SOTA (F/AM-264 cime du belletz) Roger could do 4 qso with le battery and solar panel and then empty. I have done 4 qso with the internal bettery !
Clouds were growing, and now the visibility was 20 meters ! Roger could not see me while we were walking ! the same as before we charge battery during the walk to the 4th SOTA which is at 2632 meter ( F/AM-258). That was difficult to orientate when you do not see the summit where you go !
The new Roger’s GPS says Low battery ! So we decide to switch off, and to use it in case of urgency if necesary ! pity for the tracing but our walk was so long.
After the 4th Summits, very difficult to climb, Cloudy began to change color, a bit black, and visibility 10 meter. We have done a error of navigation, we did not find the path to Mont Archas ! Usualy, with a nice weather, we can see it easily, but in clouds it was really stress ! So we lost our orientation and took a wrong way, after a while we understood that we were at the opposite of the car.
That was not possible to go back cause weather was uncertain, and more than 3 hours walking ! We were walking from 05h30 in the morning ! we were tired out ! and it was 18h00
So we were lost, no GPS (battery out of order), no card because we were outside of the card ! Because we have done a copy of card A4 format ! So we could not see where we were ! After a long and difficult walk though stones, we found a official path who goes in a very small village in Mercantour (Molliere). In fact we were lucky, we meet the last car who goes back to the city Saint Martin Vesubie where we live Roger’s car ! Our adventure is well finished ! In the national park of Mercantour the phone relay works very well, and we phone many many time without interruption, I think we were lucky once more ! Arrived at home at 22h30 ! and Roger 24h00
Anyway, We did not achieved our goal of 5 summits, but only 4 ! 4 summits over 2600 m needs to be well prepared !
LESSON : I will never use copy of card anymore ! I will use the whole card !
So, next year I will try again this challenge of 5 summits over 2600 m !
best 73 to all, sorry not to give report to everybody.
Thanks for these infos, and congratulations !
remember… I was talking about batteries in one of my last posts… hi !
Finaly, the most important is that you are safe.
In reply to F6ENO:
Bravo à tous deux pour cette performance, même si elle est inachevée.
Mais, à mon avis, pour ce type de rando, vous êtes bien trop chargés et pour activer seulement du 40 au 10m, il n’est pas utile de prendre avec soi un FT817 qui pèse bien plus qu’un KX1 ou similaire. Avec une batterie de 1.2Ah et le KX1, j’ai fait 70 qso sur les 3 bandes et j’ai pu constater que la batterie était loin d’être déchargée.
Voila pour l’info.
Cordiales 73 et bon repos
André
Trop chargé, je le pense aussi, mais… nous avons eu besoin d’un tournevis et j’en avais un, puis d’électricité, j’ai sorti le panneau solaire, plus trois fringues que je pensais utiliser en cas de froid. J’ai aussi trimballé une bouteille de champagne que nous n’avons pas ouverte avec les coupes ! ! Mince alors !!
Que des déboires avec la MP1 ! on a pas réussi a la faire raisonner, alors s’il faut un analyseur pour faire fonctionner cette antenne, s’il faut passer 10 mn a bouger la self puis tendre des radians correctement etc… J’ai sorti mon mat ! j’ai sorti mon fil a tendre le linge et ça a marché impec tout de suite ! Enfin jusqu’à ce que la batterie soit morte !
En temps de montage, j’ai presque fait plus vite que la MP1, que je trouve bien trop fragile pour cette utilisation. Il suffit qu’elle tombe de sa hauteur et la self est tordu et le brin téléscopique plié ! si le sol n’est pas parfaitement droit, elle tombe sur le coté. Si l’on utilise un trépied, c’est pareil, encore plus instable, donc il faut haubanner le trépied. Pour moi la MP1 n’est pas pratique pour la moyenne et haute montagnes, ou l’on ne doit pas passer trois heures a regler quoique ce soit !
Rien de mieux que le bout de fil, qui peux tomber, courber dans le vent, mais qui marchera toujours !
Nous avions beaucoup d’eau et nous avons tout bu. 3 litres chacun.
Mais ce n’est pas le poids des sacs qui nous a fait rater la mission ! c’est le temps, nous n’y voyions plus rien et nos erreurs de navigation !
Si nous avions été completement perdu, j’avais K-Way et pull encore, paire de chaussettes en plus, tee shirt ! encore deux boites de céréales.
Je viens de comprendre maintenant notre erreur de navigation, et le mauvais du vallon. j’y retournerai encore avec gérald qui lui pourra faire les 50 points. Notre deuxieme erreur c’est déjà peut être prolongé le tour sans la visibilité sachant notre GPS était défaillant en batterie aussi ! il aurait été plus raisonnable certainement.
BOn tout est bien qui fini bien, heureusement ce n’est que le Mercantour, et une nuit fraiche nous aurait bien fait marcher 20 km de plus !
Ah ! enfin une info intéressante sur la MP1… hi !
Jusque là, je me suis abstenu dans les discussions puisque tout le monde avait l’air de dire que c’était la panacée.
J’ai toujours été contre ces antennes racourcies… pourquoi ne pas se brancher sur un sapin (quand il y en a …) et avec une bonne boite de couplage, on arriverait à un ROS de 1 et dire 'FB, ça fonctionne !"
De plus sur les sommets de 2500 et plus, comment la ‘planter’ et la faire tenir debout dans le vent.
Avec nos dipôles, il faut un peu de place (c’est le seul problème) car on haubanne en fixant les cordes avec des cailloux et le tour est joué… et … ça marche !
Bien sûr, il faut se trimballer la cane à pêche.
Bonne récup à tous les deux et à bientôt depuis un autre 2600