I took a look at the weather forecast, the weather on the weekend would have been unstable close to the Apls, but still good for a bike ride around the corner. Sunday was the last day of the 11th World Castles Weekend (WCW-2020), I didn't want to miss it. I just got a new reference DL-05240 for the Schwaben Castle in Markt Schwaben from Manfred, DF6EX and it would be "my duty" to activate this reference. I decided to operate from the Wiegenberg, DA/AV-209, which is just located in the activation zone of the castle. It's 14 km there and back by bike, so it would be a good bike round for Kirian. I have announced my schedule through the reflector of the WCA Group.
The WCA Group has published an announcement on its website. Thank you very much!
Kirian was too tired on Sunday morning... So I was on the air an hour late. I started on 20m at 9:00 UTC and got a few QSOs in CW, then nothing came back, even though the copied signs were loud!? I decided to try SSB. The propagation conditions were good, I collected 55 SSB QSOs in less than one hour. After a short and low yield CW run I switched to 40m and had a similar situation - I got more QSOs in SSB than in CW, i.e. 33 QSOs vs. 19 QSOs. As far as I remember, this is the first activation where I have made more contacts in SSB than in CW, thanks to good propagation and good location as well.
Operating spot on the Wiegenberg/Wittach, DA/AV-209.
GPS coordinates are 48°10'58.3"N 11°51'51.1"E.
Andy, DL2DVE and my friend Anton paid a visit to us. Andy brought some snacks for lunch (tnx Andy) and invited us for coffee and ice cream in the afternoon. We spend about three hours on the hill. Due to rain and other curious visitors, I had to interrupt my activation several times, which led to an actual uptime of around two hours. I QRTed at 12:00 UTC and we made our way to Andy, where we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying coffee and ice cream, talking about outdoor ham radio activities and making future plans, etc. The Sunday's activity resulted in 116 QSOs on 20m/40m made with QRP.
DD1LD/P in action on the Wiegenberg, DA/AV-209
while activating the Schwaben Castle, DL-05240.
The requirements for the Activator Award "11 (Two Towers)" in gold have so far been met. I needed a few more QSOs to apply for the Chaser Award. In the late evening I logged RA1L/M CQing from the Kronshtadt Fortress and Fort Menshikov on 40m and should therefore also qualify for the Chaser Award in gold.
The logs have been submitted. And again, the WCW-2020 was fun!
Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:
- Date: June 21th, 2020
- Equipment: QRP + EFHW
- Operating time: ~ 2 hours
- QSOs in total: 116 (w/o dupes)
- Unique calls: 105
- CW QSO: 28
- SSB QSO: 88
- 40m QSO: 64
- 20m QSO: 52
- DXCC worked: 26
- DX: North Amerika
- WCA/COTA objects: 1x NEW ONE
- WCA/COTA reference: WCA DL-05240 (Schloß Schwaben)
- WCA/COTA-valid QSO: 116
- GMA: 1x unique
- GMA reference: DA/AV-209 (Wiegenberg)
- GMA points: 5
Mni tnx all chasers es activators fer QSO!
73 es 11 de Dzianis, DD1LD/P
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