South Korea Activation - 10th May

Andrew, you need a KX3 or fit a decent battery into an 817. I am guessing with 100 watts available you took an 857?
No problems with 1 x 4200 mAh LiFe battery as carry on baggage and the KX3 loaded with internal batteries.
With the KX3, and now with more concentration on CW, definitely 6 and probably a few more activations should be possible with 8 to 10 watts out.
Yesterday, the qsb took you out each time the crucial part of the report was given out. I reckon CW would have made it at our first attempt.
Nice to see a smile on your face.
Cheers & tnx, Tony

Yep, I have an 857. While a KX3 would be nice, and an 817 light, I am limited in what radios I am, ahem, permitted to purchase, hence the compromise. I wonā€™t respond to the CW comments other than to point out I did try - SSB only wasnā€™t by choice, but by godawful preparation :wink:

Incidentally, our QSO I was running about 40W output.

Andrew, at first I was running 100 watts and later 300 with the amp on. Thought it worthwhile to burn up the ionosphere a bit.
CW only mentioned as the conversations are generally ā€œto the pointā€ and thus short, increasing battery life per activation that way and also by lower power / narrow band width.
My best effort was going out portable and forgetting the antenna, went home and could not find it. Turned out it was with me all along but in a rarely used section of a back.
pack!

Hi Glenn,

We accessed it from a shanty town around here: Google Maps Just follow the tracks up to the right until you hit the saddle/ridgeline and keep climbing. Itā€™s about 1.5-2km from there.

Alternatively, you could access the track we descended down from Google Maps. That would be a harder climb, plenty of stairs and slippery rocks. 20 minute descent from the summit, if that, call it 1km or so. Thereā€™s next to no transport links there; we were dropped off and had to take a taxi back to the hotel. We started to walk, before we eventually found one 30 minutes later. There are a few subway stations around, but we got a taxi first. Guryong or Maebong station seem the most likely.

The only thing to remember is to head to the right when you hit the ridge. The way to the peak is signposted in English and Korean. Thereā€™s probably 5 or 6 ways up from those locations. Thereā€™s a nice map at the top showing trails, but I neglected to take a photo of it, and being at the top, itā€™s not much use to you :smile:

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

OK, thanks for that. It sounds like a better alternative to the tourist filled Namsan or the off limits for SOTA Ingwansan.
Am also heading to Busan for the weekend, so might ask Jason for suggestions there as I think his callsign is from that area.

Cheers,
Glenn.
VK3YY
HL1ZIB