Recharge Day in Mangfall Alps, SOTA DL/MF-061 and MF-062

April 27th, 2021.

It was a long, relaxed and gorgeous SOTA tour in the Mangfall Mountains together with Andy, DL2DVE, which will be remembered for a long time.  Spontaneously the day before we decided to activate the two summits MF-061 and MF-062 on this sunny but cool day.  One of these beautiful mountains (or even both) will sooner or later fall victim to P150. So we wanted to take the chance to put our names on the "Activator Roll of Honour" 😀 for both summits before that happens.

We started from the Tunnelberg (Sudelfeldstraße) at around 7:00 UTC and arrived at the Riesenkopf, DL/MF-061, 1337m via the long nice north trail at 9:30 UTC. There were a few walkers up there. While Andy was enjoying himself with the public work to educate all the curious folks about SOTA and ham radio, I quickly installed my station on the edge and got on the air.

View of the Wendelstein, DL/MF-079 from my operating spot on the Riesenkopf, DL/MF-061. 

I quickly scoured 30m and 40m bands and was on 20m when Andy finally started tuning his TRX on 20m. Well, I had to move (that was the deal with Andy) and decided to explore the 17m band, where I even succeeded to gather 4 QSOs. As soon as Andy changed to 30m I had one last run on 20m and QRTed with 40 QSOs in my log. The propagation was OK, the 40m band was weak. I stowed my station in the backpack, signed into the summit book, and rushed to Andy, who was still working through the last chasers on the opposite side of the mountain. We both got over 60 CW QSOs on 40/30/20/17m in 40 minutes of operating time.  Not bad at all!

View to the north from the Riesenkopf, DL/MF-061 through Andy's multiband GPA.

Walkers slowly flooded the summit, it was right time to leave this one and approach the next one, Rehleitenkopf, DL/MF-062, 1338m through the Riesenkopfalm (1176m). When we reached the summit an hour later, the question arose whether we should have lunch or go on the air first. We opted for the second option. We started CQing around 12:15 UTC and a short CW party started over. The propagation conditions worsened compared to noon. So there was no DX. After 40 minutes of operation we starved to death and took a long lunch break.  I only had 27 QSOs on my log 😐 when I chose to QRT .  

My operating spot on the Rehleitenkopf, DL/MF-062 on this hazy late afternoon. 
A mandatory entry in the summit book was also a must.  

We prepared our meal quickly but with love, made ourselves comfortable on the sunny mountain top and enjoyed the delicious food, fresh-smelling coffee and the great view... And we were alone on the summit the whole time!  ✌ The summit was ours! After lunch, as a tribute to the SOTA community 😀, Andy had one final run on 40m to collect the last of the chasers. Altogether we logged around 55 QSOs in CW on 40/30/20/17m from DL/MF-062. 

Enjoy, relax and recharge...  

Finally, we packed up and descended to the parking spot at the Tunnelberg, past the Hirschnagel and Riesenkopf. We arrived at the parking lot at 16:00(+) UTC, completely mentally relaxed and deeply satisfied with the tour. We finished this SOTA expedition with a solid number of QSOs in CW, two unique activated summits, 8 SOTA activator points and a little over 1000 altitude meters for each of us. What a recharge day and a gorgeous tour!  

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

GoGreen (Re)Activation of DLFF-0706

The original plan was to activate something new and unique far from home. And the plan had to be changed the day before. Therefore, a long story short, the best choice under new circumstances was to reactivate the DLFF-0706 and GMA DA/AV-384.

I operated from the same spot as last year.  This time I threw the EFHW antenna over a tree branch instead of using a rod. It gave me a few feet more height compared to. I made myself comfortable in front of a great view of Lake Egglburg and looked forward to a nice pile-up.  My QRP signal went on the air on 20m at ~ 9:30 UTC.

GoGreen reactivation of DLFF-0706 and DA/AV-384.

I tell you it was a tough job! Bad propagation conditions in combination with deep QSB led to a QSO number just over 100 within 2 hours of the actual operating time.  The 20m band was fairy open, I got NA, Asian Russia and a nice run series to Scandinavia and Spain in the log. And that was it!  Running 30m was a tedious undertaking.  The 40m band was probably in its worst shape I can remember?!  So the job was to scrub all sorts of QSOs. The running rate was low and I had enough time to empty my coffee thermos between CQ calls. I was happy to have passed the 100 QSO mark to claim this QSO collecting action as a paramount GoGreen activation requiring a minimum of 100 QSOs. I succeeded, but I wasn't that happy 😬.  Well, a lot of new hunters / callsigns that I haven't worked yet from this nature reserve were a good accomplishment on 20m. 

My operating spot in front of a great view of Lake Egglburg.

(Un)fortunately I was expected somewhere else and had to QRT and leave at 12:30 PM UTC. The bike ride through the Ebersberg forest was awesome as always! In the late afternoon I enjoyed some other more joyful and relaxing outdoor activities 😈. There were many WWFF and COTA activations on this sunny Sunday.  I was wondering how they were doing?! Let's see their feedback... 

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: April 25th, 2021
• Equipment: QRP (5W) + EFHW
• Operating time: ~2 hours
• Participation time: ~3 hours
• QSOs: 104 in total with 20m – 51%, 30m – 19%, 40m – 30%
• DXCC worked: 29 
• Top countries worked: UR, OH and SP 
• Continents worked: 3
• DX: KD1, RA0
• GMA reference: DA/AV-384, Kirchberg
• GMA activator points: 5
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0706, Vogelfreistätte Egglburger See.
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 102 (w/o dupes)
• Unique callsigns: 90
• WWFF activator points: 2
• GoGreen: yes, paramount activation
• Cycled distance: ~40 km

Mni tnx all chasers and activators fer QSO!

73, 77 de Dzianis, DD1LD/P 

GoGreen (Re)Activation of DLFF-0755

Our 4 year old Kirian just got a brand new mountain bike and wanted to go for a long ride with his father. This was music in my ears 😎. The distance to the bird nature reserve DLFF-0755 from our QTH and back would be a little over 20km, so I thought this would be a nice ride for the boy (actually he made this distance last year). I recently invested in some new equipment and made some changes to the mobile radio station, so it would be a good opportunity to test the setup before the GoGreen season begins. My pervious GoGreen activations of the DLFF-0755 reserve can be found HERE. 

Late in the morning, we arrived at the DLFF-0755 at the Ismaning reservoir, a large artificial lake close to Ismaning used as a source of water supply. I carefully chosen a location near a farmers road so as not to disturb the bird breeding, since some species of birds were already engaged into. For the sake of the birds, I couldn't use large trees in the middle of the reserve to stretch the antenna as high as possible, and this time too I had to use a 10m long pole. 

Pheasant roosters like royal guards patrolled their area in front of us. 

My goal was to get 100 QSOs at least. The start was quite tough due to the very poor propagation conditions on 20 and 30m. So, I had to spend most of the time on 40m.  The logbook slowly filled with QSOs so that I had enough time to watch the wildlife around us - a couple of pheasant roosters like royal guards patrolled their area in front of us, a couple of roe deer watched us curiously from a safe distance. The running rate improved noticeably in the afternoon when new waves of chasers called in. As I just passed the 170 QSO mark, the first big drops of an unannounced rain shower pattered around 😡. We were not prepared for it and had no choice but to pack and head home. Around 70% of the QSOs were on 40m, the CW to SSB ratio was ~50/50. Well, I'll probably have to focus on high bands next time to reach new chasers. The log has been submitted to both WWFF and GoGreen XOTA programs. 

The modified set-up with FT-857 and light ZS6BKW dipole worked perfectly, however, I see some room for improvement. I might need to consider some alternative options, especially for the aerial.  The homemade dipole works fine but still needs an antenna tuner to cover all of the bands.

Kirian was still full of energy when we returned. It's probably time for his first 30 km bike ride to the next XOTA. Let’s see...

Short summary and statistics for DD1LD/P:

• Date: April 11th, 2021 
• GoGreen distance: 20 km by bike
• Equipment: 50W + homemade ZS6BKW
• Participation time: 3.5 hours
• Operation time: 2.5 hours
• DXCC worked: 31
• Top countries worked:  DL, SP, I, OH
• Continents worked: 3 (EU, NA, AS)
• DX: NA
• WWFF areas: 1x reactivated
• WWFF reference: DLFF-0755
• WWFF-valid QSOs: 171
• Unique callsigns: 160
• WWFF activator points: 3 (+)
• P2P: some 
• Notes: 70% of QSOs on 40m, CW/SSB ~ 50/50. 

Mni tnx all chasers and activators fer QSO!

73, 77 de Dzianis, DD1LD/P