Our Summer Holidays 2020 in Bavaria

How it all started.

The summer holidays came along with perplexity.  The original plan was to repeat our 2018 camping tour to Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. It was great fun and I hope at some point I will have a little more time to summarize this great tour on my blog.

The critical COVID-19 situation, the changing weather and the endless traffic jams at the national borders ultimatealy demotivated us for this long tour with two small children this year. Where should we go?

Let’s stay and camp home, I suggested. Bavaria is a beautiful state with many exciting places and beautiful nature. We have large lakes, wild rivers, fairytale forests, rolling hills, and high alpine mountains and lakes as clear as sparkling crystals. Everybody agreed. 😃

We spent the first part of our camping holidays in the Isarhorn nature camping park which is located on the Isar river at the foot of the Karwendel mountain range and 3 km from Mittenwald. Due to heavy rain showers and scattered thunderstorms we had to interrupt our camping trip and return home for a few nights. Then we spent the second part of our camping holidays in the Fall village close to the Sylvenstein lake in Karwendel.  Of course, some amateur radio activities took place whenever possible.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020. SOTA Activation.

Operating spot on the Gerstenrieder Kopf, DL/MF-103.

After rainy, cold days the weather finally got better. Kirian and I activated the Gerstenrieder Kopf (Hochalm), 1421m, DL/MF-103 with 25 QSOs in CW in 30 minutes of operating time. It was a nice workout for Kirian with an altitude of ~500 meters and a total distance of ~10 km.  It’s a very beautiful and adventurous trail through the forest. Our boy made it easy but got quite tired when we got back to the car.

The SOTA activation was business as usual. Not many chasers around 10:00 UTC. Nice view from the top. Some curious walkers and cows around. An easy and relaxed tour.

Thursday, August 20th, 2020. Arrival at the Isarhorn Nature Camping Park.

Arrival at the Isarhorn Nature Camping Park at 11:00 UTC. Building everything up. Walking around. Chatting with other campers. Jumping into the cold river. Enjoying the outdoors. Relaxing in the sun. Beer & Grill in the evening with Andy, DL2DVE and his family.

Actually, I don't really like campsites, I love wild camping, but this one is really nice and not that crowded. Thumbs up! 👍

Yesterday Andy, DL2DVE activated the W. Karwendelspitze, DL/KW-008 in 2m FM, while Kirian and I activated the Gerstenrieder head DL/MF-103 in CW. So today was a relaxing day for us.

Friday, August 21th, 2020. GoGreen SOTA and WWFF Activation.

It was a hard GoGreen activation of the Arnspitze, 2196m, DL/WS-036 in the Arnspitze nature reserve, DLFF-0760 on a very hot day. The bike ride from the campsite to the parking lot Ried took about 30 minutes, the hike to the Arnspitze from the parking lot took about 2 hours. The valley wind in the morning was unusually warm, which indicated a hot day.

I arrived at the top of the Arnspitze at 8:00 UTC. The view from the top was fantastic! I was alone for a (short) while.  What will my next route be here? I guess I know but 😶

 View from the Arnspitze towards the top of Germany, Zugspitze, DL/WS-001 (right upper corner).

The sun above my head blazed mercilessly down with all the intensity of a burning glass. After 110 QSOs in 1.5 hours of uptime and roasting in the blazing sun, I decided to QRT.  The propagation conditions were fair to good.

My operating spot on the Arnspitze, DL/WS-036 in DLFF-0760.

Although I initially toyed with the idea of activating one or the other SOTA reference that day, I said goodbye to this thought. It got too hot for me, the rather high temperature did not provide sufficient cooling for the body, and I ran out of drinking water.  I could have activated the Riedboden nature reserve DLFF-0761 on the way back, but wanted to spend as much time as possible with the family in the afternoon.

The first thing I did when I got back to the campsite was jump into the cold river. The outside temperature was close to 33°C, any kind of cooling was welcome. We spent the rest of the day relaxed at the campsite.

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: August 21th, 2020
• Equipment: high alpine QRP (5W)
• Operating time: ~ 1 and 1/2 hours
• QSOs: 110 in total, 20m – 22 QSOs, 30m – 31 QSOs, 40m – 57 QSOs
• DXCC worked: 24 
• Top countries worked: DL (27x), ON (11x), I (10x)
• Continents worked: 1
• DX: EA, SV
  

• SOTA summits: 1x unique
• SOTA reference: DL/WS-036, Arnspitze, 2196m.
• SOTA-valid QSOs: 110
• SOTA activator points: 8
• GMA activator points: 21
• S2S: 1 
  

• WWFF areas: 1x unique and NEW
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0760, Arnspitze
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 110 (w/o dupes)
• Unique callsigns: 104
• WWFF activator points: 2
• P2P: 3 
  

• Altitude difference made: > 1300m 
• Cycled distance: 20 km
• Walked distance: ~8 km
• GoGreen: yes
• GPS-track record: available on request 

Saturday, August 22nd, 2020. Quick WWFF Activation.

The Riedboden nature reserve DLFF-0761 was only 10 km away by bike. Yesterday I cycled there, the cycle path leads through a very beautiful landscape along the Isar river. Just sit on the gravel and listen to the rush of the water - a little break on the banks of the Isar is worthwhile in any aspect! However, today I decided against GoGreen in favor of family activities, but also partly because of the bad weather forecast.

Breakfast, packing, checking out in the morning. We all (Andy, DL2DVE, me and our families) arrived at the Riedboden at 10:30 UTC. I found a nice operating spot right on the Isar river and set up my tiny QRP station right on the gravel bank within 5 minutes. I was just hoping to get at least 50 QSOs before the rain shower.

Quick activation of DLFF-0761 at the Isar river. Cloudy sky with dark clouds before the thunderstorm.

I logged 60 QSOs in CW on 40m in 40 minutes of operating time, just before the first raindrops fell. What a nice short pile-up!  As soon as we left the Mittenwald municipality it rained heavily and the temperature dropped from 25 °C to 15 °C. It was absolutely the right decision to leave the campsite today and spend the next few days at home! The next three days were rainy, cold and gray…

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: August 22th, 2020
• Equipment: high alpine QRP (5W)
• Operating time: ~ 40 minutes
• QSOs: 60 in CW on 40m, 1 on 2m FM.
• DXCC worked: 17 
• Top countries worked: DL (22x)
• Continents worked: EU 
  

• WWFF areas: 1x unique and NEW
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0761, Riedboden
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 61 (w/o dupes)
• Unique callsigns: 61
• WWFF activator points: 1
• P2P: 0
• GoGreen: no

 

Tuesday, August 25th, 2020. Arrival at the Sylvenstein Lake.

It was a lazy day. Sort of wild camping. Building everything up. Swimming. SUP riding. Cooking. Relaxing. I rode the SUP from the Faller-Klamm-Brücke to the east to the Walchen river, it was about 10 km there and back.  What a gorgeous tour! 

 Our camping setup for three nights at the Fall village.

The Sylvenstein lake. The Lerchkogel, DL/KW-037 in the background (in the middle).

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020. GoGreen SOTA and WWFF Activation.

It was a lonely bike & hike GoGreen tour to the Lerchkogel, DL/KW-037, 1688m in the Karwendel nature park DLFF-073.  The Lerchkogel is technically easy to hike but requires a long distance to be covered. I cycled directly to the Lerchkogel-Hochleger, ~1550m, and then hiked the remaining height difference of 150m. 

Although the propagation conditions were poor and I had to deal with weak signal reports on all bands, I managed to log 69 QSOs on 20/30/40m in ~1 hour.  

My operating spot at the Lerchkogel, DL/KW-037.

I spent about 1.5 hours in absolute solitude on the mountain top. Just me and the mountains around, just the way I like it. The view was particularly beautiful because of the clear air. 

View from the Lerchkogel, DL/KW-037 in the morning.

The ascent took two hours and the descent only 40 minutes. The bike ride was fun, especially downhill biking was the adrenaline rush on two wheels! In a curve it almost knocked me over! Huhhh!

Short stop to enjoy the gorgeous view and to cool down the brake discs.

 

Afternoon Kirian and I rode the SUP from the Faller-Klamm bridge south to the mouth of the Dürrach river. The water level was pretty low, so we had to leave our SUP on the muddy bank and walk to the gravel bank. For Kirian it was a journey of discovery.

In the late evening (at 18:00 UTC) I was briefly at the lake again and had a short run to collect some late chasers. I could have saved myself this action because the yield was quite low, only 9 unique QSQs in 20 minutes of operating time. Well, neither the operation spot nor the time were optimal.
 

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: August 26th, 2020
• Equipment: high alpine QRP (5W)
• Operating time: ~ 1 hour
• QSOs: 69 in total, 20m – 12 QSOs, 30m – 19 QSOs, 40m – 47 QSOs
• DXCC worked: 24 
• Top countries worked: DL (10x)
• Continents worked: 2
• DX: NA
  

• SOTA summits: 1x unique
• SOTA reference: DL/KW-037, Lerchkogel, 1688m.
• SOTA-valid QSOs: 69
• SOTA activator points: 6
• GMA activator points: 16
• S2S: 2 
  

• WWFF areas: 1x non-unique (activated by myself before)
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0173, Karwendel
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 78 (w/o dupes)
• Unique callsigns: 72
• WWFF activator points: 1
• P2P: 3 
  

• Altitude difference made: > 900m 
• Walked & Cycled distance: 26 km
• GoGreen: yes
• GPS-track record: available on request

Thursday, August 27th, 2020. GoGreen SOTA and WWFF Activation.

Initially I wanted to activate the eight pointer Schafreiter, DL/KW-035, 2101m from the Fall village.  However, the much lower one pointer Jägerbergl, DL/KW-046, 988m seemed to be a better choice for today’s GoGreen activities, since the height of the mountain doesn't matter for GoGreen awards and the Jägerbergl was less than 30 minutes away by bike. I just found that the GoGreen rewards program can make activating low mountains even more attractive compared to high mountains because the hiking effort is easily manageable, and you are more into radio than mountain climbing. I'm not sure if I would have even considered activating the one pointer Jägerbergl if it hadn't been GoGreen XOTA activation, where the number of QSOs mainly plays a role. By the way, that’s probably why the Jägerbergl was only activated twice compared to the Schafreiter with 13 activations. The GoGreen XOTA creates a different perspective for SOTA activations. So, the Jägerbergl became for GoGreen XOTA more attractive than for SOTA.

Anyway, I've decided to keep activating the Schafreiter DL/KW-035 for the next time as this would have taken a long time. I also wanted to spend the afternoon at the lake with my family and our friends who wanted to join us. After a rich breakfast together, I cycled to the Jägerbergl. I only stopped at a very nice waterfall to enjoy the great view for a while. 

A waterfall with pools on the way to the Jägerbergl.

The flat mountain top is quite densely forested. Today’s plan was to collect at least 100 GoGreen QSOs. I set up my portable station and went on the air at 8:30 UTC. The propagation conditions were fair. I had some troubles with my tiny TRX again, especially on 40m (!?). However, I managed to gather 101 QSOs or GoGreen points in an hour and a half of operation, but I have to overhaul my TRX on arrival at home, I thought. BTW, the TRX is now dead.😭

My operating spot at the Jägerbergl, DL/KW-046.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach and ended the day with a long and late dinner with our friends.

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: August 27th, 2020
• Equipment: high alpine QRP (5W)
• Operating time: ~ 1 and 1/2 hours
• QSOs: 101 in total, 20m – 35 QSOs, 30m – 24 QSOs, 40m – 42 QSOs
• DXCC worked: 21 
• Top countries worked: DL (20x), I (13x), ON (11x)
• Continents worked: 2
• DX: NA
  

• SOTA summits: 1x unique
• SOTA reference: DL/KW-046, Jägerbergl, 988m.
• SOTA-valid QSOs: 101
• SOTA activator points: 1
• GMA activator points: 9
• S2S: 2 
  

• WWFF areas: 1x non-unique (activated by myself before)
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0173, Karwendel
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 101 (w/o dupes)
• Unique callsigns: 90
• WWFF activator points: 2
• P2P: 3
• Altitude difference made: < 200m 
• Walked &amp; Cycled distance: 12 km
• GoGreen: yes
• GPS-track record: available on request

Friday, August 28th, 2020. Relax and pack.

On the agenda were breakfast, swimming, SUP riding, packing, driving home. I rode the SUP from the Faller-Klamm bridge to the mouth of the Isar river to explore opportunities for bushcrafting on an island. It was a beautiful morning with clear sky, bright sun and weak fresh wind accompanying me. It was a lot of fun to maneuver between small islands with the SUP.  I discovered a couple of interesting places for bushcrafting next time. The SUP ride was ~7 km.

We left the Fall village in the late afternoon when the first raindrops fell from the gray sky and arrived home in the early evening in a heavy rain shower and a temperature around 15°C. Almost perfect timing!

According to the weather forecast for the next few days, rain and cold were announced… Autumn is knocking on the door. 

Short Summary.

Although we would have wished for fewer rainy days, we all had a great time! My amateur radio activities resulted in 375 QRP QSOs in CW, four activated SOTA and three activated WWFF references.

Mni tnx all chasers and activators fer QSO!
73 de Dzianis, DD1LD/P