Visiting Bavarian Forest

Activation Reports Pre-Planning
1

Dear all

We are in the DM/BM region for some holiday now and are going to discover this border region. The weather forecast is poor, so probably no alerts and only spots on SOTAwatch here and there. We’ll start at Dreisessel with a good umbrella, but we won’t do any nonsense and take profit of the hotel spa if it is worse. It’s holidays and no expedition, hi!

Vy 73 de Markus DL/ resp. OK/HB9DIZ/p

3 Likes
2

Dear all

Weather was much better than predicted, so we let the umbrellas in the car for a few days now.

I’ve enjoyed to hear many of you on the bands during the last days.

Tomorrow Monday is our last day of SOTA activity in the Bavarian and Bohemian Forests. Tuesday will be a day off from the frequencies.

Thanks to everyone for their interest in our activities. So listen once tomorrow on 20 m and 40 m!

Vy 73 de Markus, DL/ resp. OK/HB9DIZ

DL-HB9DIZ_on_Grosser_Arber_2019
DL-HB9DIZ_on_Grosser_Arber_2019.JPG1707×1280 688 KB

3

Dear all

I’d like to point out something special out of the activations in the Bavarian Forest: Schwarzriegel, DM/BM-368, is well visible from far because of these two thick towers on the top of the ridge. The so called “NATO towers” played an important role for western airspace observation in the period of the Cold War. They are now out of service and as a first part the top platform has been made accessible by a large external staircase. The platform is accessible via a turnstile (EUR 6 per person).

This is Sektor F (Website, in German only), the former code name of this installation. The Website provides information of the former purpose of these installations and Sektor F in particular. There are even other websites with (nowadays) historic information that is retrievable easily via Google.

Schwarzriegel_NATO-Towers
Schwarzriegel_NATO-Towers1790×1288 1.28 MB

There is a short finger dock on that platform that is not made for shy people, hi. The floor is a grid of steel grating, so you can see the ground below your feet. This should be my place for the activation! I let slip the 20 m of wire through the grid and hoped that it would not disappear and fall down until the end of the activation, hi. I sat down on the grid and installed my gear and was curious if it would work.

And it did! I had great reports of 59 and even better both ways from some of you on 20 m. 40 m on the other side was not good there, with a QRM level of almost 59, so only the strongest signals from your side could be recognized on the tower on 7 MHz - my apologies for this inconvenience.

. . . and a look back on SOTA holidays in the Bavarian and Bohemian Forest

My partner and I have enjoyed discovering this region with much nature and much fewer contemporary interference than at home, in the city. We really met nature, tradition but also a good comfort for a rainy day . . . and a good cuisine at our hotel, hi.

What have we kept in our memories as a souvenir?

Day 1

  • OK/JC-003, Trístolicník: for being the last summit to reach Mountain Goat status and for the bubbly opened in real by ourselves and shared virtually with Sylvia and Peter on the frequency;
  • OK/JC-030, Špicák: for activating on the German side of the border, simply in the woods, at a nameless point of the former Iron Curtain;
  • DM/BM-065, Haidel: for some cold wind mixed with rain and QRM on 40 m on top of the tower (no evening sun unfortunately!);

Day 2

  • DM/BM-063, Almberg: for offering a short ascent and a comfy shack at a chair lift hut;
  • OK/JC-033, Silnická hora: for meeting deer at the summit shack at short distance;
  • OK/JC-012, Obrovec; for being our northest summit and for offering an easy, straight forward ascent to the best places of a bird singing contest;

Day 3

  • DM/BM-279, Geyersberg: for a parking chaos due to a garage sale at a big former health care building being torn down soon;
  • DM/BM-012, Brotjacklriegel: for meeting the girlfriend of Harry, DF7FX, on the way up to the summit (no . . . it’s only a stone staute aside the trail, hi!);
  • DM/BM-324, Fürberg: for an interesting and well viable trail through a boulder landscape and for the Fürberg chapel with lots of traditional memorial plates;
  • DM/BM-271, Eschenberg: for a shack nearby a former military airspace observation station being disassembled now;

Day 4

  • DM/BM-262, Rabenholz: for the most unspectacular summit of our tour and for being a great shack in the nature;
  • DM/BM-258, Einödriegel: for offering a ride on a very nostalgic and slow chair lift;
  • DM/BM-295, Abendberg: for justifying its name with long shadows in a beautiful forest just behind an inn;

Day 5

  • DM/BM-036, Großer Riedelstein: for the memorial monument of the regional writer Maximilian Schmidt aka Waldschmidt on the top rock;
  • DM/BM-368, Schwarzriegel: for a great 360° outlook from the platform of the former NATO tower (“Sektor F” today) and for suspending the antenna wire from a dock 50 m above the ground level;
  • DM/BM-028, Großer Osser: for taking a tough one at the end of a well loaded day and for the absolute peace shared with others on the rocky summit nearby the summit cross;

Day 6

  • DM/BM-006, Hirschenstein: for the longest hike of the tour, for a familiy friendly summit area and for a S2S QSO on VHF with an OE2 summit;
  • DM/BM-002, Pröller: for an easy summit above St. Englmar with a comfy summit zone;
  • DM/BM-296, Hadriwa: for an unexpectedly spicy summit ridge and for a thrilling fight of a fly against a ground spider;

Day 7

  • DM/BM-047, Großer Arber: for meeting another HAM radio operator at the top;
  • OK/PL-003, Jezerní hora: for an extraordinary insight into the Sumava nature reserve from the border (access not allowed to the real summit);
  • OK/PL-017, Vysoký hrbet: for the dead straight access road 190 to the summit from the south;

Day 8

  • DM/BM-259, Weigelsberg: for the first cornflowers seen this year nearby the car park;
  • DM/BM-261, Wolfgangriegel: for the highest number of contacts from a summit on this tour and for a nice summit with benches and a hunter cross in the forest;
  • DM/BM-263, Kronberg: for the closest summit to the hotel and for a lovely summit zone with a bench and a summit cross on the ridge.

In case you should have missed me here and there: there is a new chance soon, since Mark, @HB9DBM, will be in the same region. He is a “mixed guy” enjoying both SSB and CW. Listen for him in June!

I’d like to thank especially Sigrid & Harry, DL2FAZ & DF7FX, Jan, @OK2PDT, Phil, @G4OBK, Michael, @DB7MM, and Paul, @DL6FBK, for various useful info, advice and hints that made these SOTA hiking holidays a good and memorable success.

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

6 Likes
4

Congratulations on several instances of tower climbing where you operated on your very successful Czech and German tour Markus. I enjoyed reading your summary of the tour.

73 Phil

1 Like
5

Markus,

The impedance coupler on the photo (2nd post) triggers my curiosity: Which impedance transformation is used: 1:9, 1:49, 1:64, 1:81?

73 tks, Heinz

6

Hi Heinz

Thanks for your message. It is 1:64.

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

1 Like