With DM/SR-075 already activated I was able to leave Losheim after a 7.00am breakfast and head straight over to Luxembourg, where the price of E10 unleaded petrol was slightly cheaper. The Ford Puma was filled at €1.51 per litre, whereas in Germany the price was between €1.72 and €1.83 at the places I had passed.
11. LX/LX-005 Preventbusch (QRV 0756z-0809z)
12. DM/RP-466 Hohe Piesport (QRV 1028z-1110z)
13. DM/RP-412 Hohe Haardter Hochwald (QRV 1257z-1332z)
11. LX/LX-005 Preventbusch
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| Car Parked by the comms mast on LX/LX-005 |
Within minutes of arriving at the parking place for LX/LX-005 it started to rain. I set up as quickly as I could and made 20 CW contacts on 40m before packing up. It was a shame not to do justice operating again in Luxembourg, however I did re-complete the country. The last time I visited for SOTA there wasn't an LX-005. But after a prominence re-assessment, LX/LX-002 was deleted and LX/LX-005 replaced it.
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| LX/G4OBK/P roadside station in the rain |
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| Mast on summit - no interference on the 40m band 150m away from it |
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| Decathlon stool in use again |
I made my way back into Germany, it took about 75 minutes to reach the parking place for:
12. DM/RP-466 Hohe Piesport
The summit is named after the nearby town of Piesport which lies on the other side of the Mosel, 1.5 Km from the summit.
When I arrived at the parking place it was raining. I passed the time for 30 minutes before the rain stopped. Luc ON7DQ had uploaded his GPX track into the SOTA Mapping Project website and had told me about a shelter well inside the activation zone, which I intended to use as the showers were persisting. Just 23 minutes walk time and I reached the shelter - a 50m ascent over a distance of 1.7 Km. The unpaved road is for farm traffic only:
When I reached the shelter there was a tie off point for my pole within the reach of my coax cable. Shortly after starting up my operation three friendly German hikers arrived, who were very interested in what I was doing. One of them even gave me a spicy German sausage, which I enjoyed after explaining what SOTA was about!
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| Two of the walkers (left) and Phil DL/G4OBK/P on the right |
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| Shelter with tie post for pole |
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| Elecraft KX3 on the air |
I enjoyed interacting with the walkers, they spoke excellent english. I had spoken to so few people over the previous three days, apart from hotel staff. The hikers told me their route was of around 12 Km, and this lunch stop for them was around half way round.
I used all three bands (20/30/40m) to make 35 contacts around Europe all told, before moving on.
13. DM/RP-412 Hohe Haardter Hochwald
By early afternoon the rain had stopped. There was a parking layby for DM/RP-412 which looked like a piece of the old road.
I crossed over the main road, leaving the forest track on a slightly overgrown, but easy to negotiate but wet track into woodland. It was only 1 Km to the summit with 125m ascent - twenty minutes walk. The activation followed the same pattern as the previous one - this time I got 40 contacts on 20/30/40m before finishing.
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| 5m Travel Pole fastened to tree supporting link dipole |
My final one night stay in the DM/RP area, before a three nighter in Weisbaden, DM/HE Hessen Region, was near the village of Udersdorf - an excellent gasthaus managed by welcoming hosts, Wilfred and Paula. There was complementary coffee on arrival, a 250 ml bottle of Rose wine to drink whilst I was submitting my log into the SOTA Database in my room, and a dinner of spare ribs with Weiss beer to look forward to later.....
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| Gasthaus Paula at Udersdorf |
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