The weather forecast for Friday was good for outdoor activities. My legs felt quite tired after a 25km long run yesterday, so that I wanted to have an "easy" bike & hike activity. I decided to activate both Hoher Grasberg (1783m), DL/KW-041 and Pfetterkopf (1546m), DL/KW-042 in the Karwendel nature park, DLFF-0173, at least I hoped I would have enough energy for hiking them both. I announced my activity in both SOTA- and WWFFAlerts.
I started in Vorderriss (790m) at about 6:15 UTC. I wanted to hike to the Hintere Grasbergalm starting from the north or Isar side. This trail is neither signposted nor marked, from time to time I only saw a very weak trace. However, it's fairly easy to follow. Some preparation and good orientation skills are required, especially, given that fact, that there is no trail to the Pfetterkopf at all, and a SOTA activator will need to figure out his own path to the top. My partly recorded GPS track is available below. Unfortunately, my GPS tracker ran out of battery at the mountain top.
I arrived at the Hoher Grasberg at 8:45 UTC. After having a breakfast and enjoying a gorgeous view a bit longer than usual, I built up my tiny portable station and started calling CQ.
The Hoher Grasberg (1783m) is not often hiked and has a little summit book.
View from the Hoher Grasberg (1783m) towards the Soiernspitze (2259m), DL/KW-029.
My tiny operating spot on the Hoher Grasberg, DL/KW-041.
The Walchensee is in the middle in the background.
The plan was to try another strategy - to gather at least 44 QSO = 1 WWFF activator point from DL/KW-041 and as many QSO as possible from DL/KW-042 in one hour. The scheduled operating time from each summit should not exceed one hour. With some luck I should be able to get 88 QSO or 2 activator points within two hours of total operating time.
The strategy and plan worked out. The RBN and both WWFF- and SOTAwatches immediately spotted me calling from DL/KW-041. Under poor propagation conditions I made 50 QSO on 40m and 30m in 45min, packed everything together, adjusted alerts for KW-042 and rushed down to the Grasbergalm. I approached the summit meadow of the Pfetterkopf in the sparse forest without a trail on the western slope. No routes lead over the mountain, it will probably remain lonely at all times. There were no particular difficulties but are still 250m in altitude. Yesterday's 25km long run could be felt with every move that was a huge effort. "I'm getting old for this shit!", I thought, "and why do I do this [SOTA] shit? Well, because..."
View from the Pfetterkopf DL/KW-042 towards the Isar river and Walchensee.
There was plenty of space on the summit top meadow, so that I easily found a suitable place in the shade. I erected a L-shape aerial this time, in the hope of getting better signs on 40m. I felt like I was hearing a bit better on 40m and 30m if compared to my standard GPA installation on KW-041. Only 5 stations came in on 20m although I spent some extra time calling CQ on this band. Altogether 46 QSO were logged within one hour of operating time. Unfortunately, I had to QRT at 13:00 UTC and rush down as fast as I could. ~1.5 hours later I was in my car driving home after a tough day. The catch of the day were 96 CW QSO in 1 hour and 45 minutes of operating time. It always could be better, however, is not bad for a Friday! And, what a wonderful day in beautiful nature full of loneliness!
Operating spot on the Pfetterkopf, DL/KW-042. The L-shaped aerial worked well on 30/40m.
View over the Isar river. The water level is quite low for this time of the year.
Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:
- Date: May 8th, 2020
- Equipment: high alpine QRP + FM handheld
- Operating time: 1 3/4 hours
- DXCC worked: 21
- Top countries worked: DL, SP, F and I
- Continents worked: 2
- DX: ~6300km on 20m in CW
- SOTA summits: 2x unique (not activated by myself before)
- SOTA reference: DL/KW-041 and DL/KW-042
- SOTA-valid QSO: 96
- SOTA activator points: 12 (6+6)
- S2S: 1
- WWFF areas: 1x non-unique (activated by myself before)
- WWFF reference: DLFF-0173
- WWFF-valid QSO: 86
- Unique callsigns: 77
- WWFF activator points: ~2
- P2P: 1
- Altitude difference made: ~ 1250m
- Walked distance: ~10 km (partly recorded)
- Cycled distance: 13 km
- Overall distance: ~23 km
- Overall activity length: ~8 hours
- GPS-track record: available HERE (t.b.d.)
Mni tnx to all chasers fer QSO!
73 es 44 de Dzianis, DD1LD/P
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