I wanted to write “First activation…”, because I have had this on my plans for over a year, but @HB9DQM and @HB9FVF were a few days faster with their activation on July 24 ;-(.
Anyway, on Wednesday, I am planning to activate the Zimba, OE/VB-095, Zimba - 2643m, 10 Points, also named the “Matterhorn of Vorarlberg”. We will be using the West ridge, a 5 - 8 pitch climbing route in the II+ - III+ grades.
A nice description of the route is here:
I will only be carrying my TinySOTA CW-station with me and operate on 40m and, if time permits, 30m and 20m.
Due to the hot weather and not perfectly stable conditions, we will start very early, maybe 5:00 a.m. local time or even earlier. My rough plan is to be QRV at 08:00 UTC / 10:00 CEST.
We will be going. My callsign will be OE/DK3IT/P. REF is OE/VB-095, will be given on the air from time to time.
Because it will be very hot, we will start very early. I think we will be QRV by 08:00 UTC / 10:00 CEST / local time, but it could also be 2 hours sooner or later.
The activation will be CW-only, starting on 40m, 7.031 +/-, if a lot of QRM, then 7.002+/-. I might have the time for a bit of 30m and 20m.
Please spot me if you hear me.
Please QRS 12 wpm.
I will be using a rubber-stamp QSO pattern as usual, but will now explicitly call QRZ? or CQ when ready for the next chaser, instead of my previous “TU E E” pattern.
Equipment will be my TinySOTA station, 6m carbon-fiber mast and @HB9BCB 3-band EFHW or my SOTA Vertical V5 with a T1 tuner, depending on space on the summit.
Thanks to all chasers! I just uploaded the log (S2S still to be done).
Ahead of the final activation report, a big thanks to all chasers and apologies that I had to QRT after operating for 20 minutes; we were late due to route finding challenges and had a 300m rappel and long rocky way home; thunderstorms were possible for the afternoon and we had to catch the last bus (which me caught just 7 minutes early).
This time, there were many S2S, from Guru operating in Spain to several HB9 activators. This of course took time for rubber-stamo QSOs. The reason why I kept asking for HB9 operators was that I knew that @HB9DQM and @HB9FVF were around, and since they were the first activators of this challenging summit, I wanted to give them a fair chance for a SOTA Complete.