I’ve moved to Germany for six months and finally activated in the DM region. Some first thoughts on activating here as opposed to the US. David - N3II, or rather DL/N3II
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David, I noticed your big bump in activator points yesterday after I logged my w/e activations… I immediately had to go look and see where you’d found a mecca of high point peaks… Duh, I’d forgotten you’re on Euro travel.
Throw that loop thingy away!! a low dipole will be better for all those “local” stations (IMO).
Enjoy, and lap it up while you can. Don’t come home 'til you have MG!
Richard // N2GBR…
I felt guilty, kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I also lucked out in terms of weather, which wasn’t pleasant, but was better than predicted - hoving just above freezing during the day and only very brief and spotty drizzles - it kept the crowds down.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to take enough weekends free to get MG before coming home in mid summer, but it’ll be a jump forward, that’s for sure.
SML: I had buyer’s remorse almost from the moment I hit the purchase button. Antennas are one of the few things I’ve been strictly homebrew on. But I was in a rush, and I knew in my living quarters in Konstanz I’d have a balcony but no yard, so … But you’re right, after this test drive I don’t see a need to schlep it along on SOTA activations.
Cheers,
David - DL/N3II
You also said “DL/N3II/P (weight: 104) … oh well.” 
In Kenya I’m stuck with 5Z4/M0LEP (weight: 118) at home, and the mandatory /P elsewhere pushes it to 148, which makes DL/M0LEP/P look light at 130…
…and “signal reports were consistently better with the W3EDP.”
On summits, if you can find the space, good wire in the sky wins, I figure…
73, Rick M0LEP
I don’t believe anyone can complain about a 5Z4 prefix being a burden when it adds a few kW to your ERP.
I wish it had last time… I did manage a DX QSO in the three weeks I was there…
5Z4/DL2RMC was all over the cluster yesterday like a nasty rash.
Back over Xmas and New Year conditions were the worst I’ve encountered from 5Z. I think I managed to find my way onto RBN maybe a couple of dozen times, tops, usually via 3B8CW, but very occasionally via skimmers in DL, HB, OH, or ON, and the 5Z4B beacon wasn’t doing any better.
Just like with engines where there is no real substitute for “cubes”, going somewhere DX-y and not having a PA of “sufficient displacement” is inviting Dr. Snafu to come visit 
Heh. The Kenya licence talks about a limit of “150 watts DC” but also says “400 watts PEP for J3E”. I think that dates it, perhaps? 
Curiously, 100 watts into a dipole at 15 metres didn’t seem to go anywhere, but 10 watts into a vertical on a tin roof made it, just, once…
…so DL1VRL ended up as the only DX in my 5Z log.
Well those limits suggest you need a small solid state expedition amp with a built in switchedmode PSU that you can take as hand luggage and leave there for you next trip. 600-700W should do the job.