After leaving the hotel in Wiesbaden on the penultimate day of my tour, I had three more activations planned in the Hessen region. I soon found that Motorway 66 going west was closed due to extensive roadworks going west, and there were no diversion signs. The Satnav wasn't much help, but eventually I got into the grid lock on the minor road heading out of the city in the direction of DM/HE-044. I had planned an easy day visiting three summits in the DM/HE area, however I finished the 3rd summit earlier than I anticipated, so after eating my ham and cheese sandwich lunch (picked from the hotel breakfast table 😁) I studied the map and then added a long drive south of Mainz into the DM/RP, which proved to be a good decision.
22. DM/HE-044 Kalte Herberge
23. DM/HE-045 Hohe Wurzel
24. DM/HE-059 Hohe Kanzel
(Long drive south)
(25). DM/RP-272 Donnersberg
22. DM/HE-044 Kalte Herberge
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| Parking for DM/HE-044 |
As you can see from the photo there was a large empty car park in woodland to access DM/HE-044. I made my way up a track for 10 minutes into the activation zone. The wood had been cut, leaving some tall pine trees at the side of the track.
Just a 600m walk with 50m ascent to activate a 6 point summit, easy! 40m CW (29) / SSB (21) was used to make the 50 quick QSOs in good propagation conditions, before making off for DM/HE-045.
23. DM/HE-045 Hohe Wurzel
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| Shelter on Hohe Wurzel - 5m pole with inverted vee link dipole |
Hohe Wurzel was another easy to access summit with a shelter, just a five minute walk from the car to reach it. There was a light shower so I set up inside the shelter and tied of my 5m pole into a nearby tree. 40m SSB/CW and 30m CW was used and the tally included four S2S contacts with M0GQC/P, OK/SQ9MDF/P, HB9EVF/P and DL/HB9BIN/P in the 38 minutes I was operating.
24. DM/HE-059 Hohe Kanzel
It took a little longer to reach DM/HE-059, but not much longer. I parked my car at the end of Nachtigallenweg in the estate shown as "Wildpark" on Locus map. I walked a straight track on to some felled woodland to reach the summit:
Just 40m CW/SSB was used to make 35 contacts with the usual EU stations in SP/ON/OK/HB9/DL/G/PA/I/F/S5/EA2/GW/LA. After going QRT at 10:40z I returned to the car where I had my lunch and contemplated what to do with my afternoon, as there was plenty of time remaining to go somewhere else...
25. DM/RP-272 Donnersberg
I must have been driving for well over an hour on Autobahn 63, arriving at the car park for DM/RP-272 at around 1245z. The car park was within the activation zone, but after such as easy day I decided to walk 1 Km to the actual summit, which had an operating bench adjacent to it...
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| DL/G4OBKs Meindl fabric boot at the trig point on DM/RP-272 |
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| My bench seat for the 33 QSO activation |
The 40m SSB rate was poor on this summit, maybe it was the time of day. I only made three contacts using voice with G0FEX, HB9DDZ and 2E0ESY before the callers dried up. The other 30 contacts were on 40m and 30m CW during my 30 minute session. I then drove back to Wies baden, deciding to try a Pizza Hut out for my evening meal. It was a very dissapointing meal. The Lasagne I chose was nothing like the real thing. I won't be returning to Pizza Hut again I said to myself, wishing I had opted to pay a little more for my main meal and eat in the Italian restaurant not far from the hotel where I had eaten on the first night of three in Wiesbaden. I was leaving the next day for my Ryanair flight back to Stansted at Hahn airport, but before that on Tuesday morning there would be time to squeeze in two final six point activations in the DM/RP area before I handed my car back to the rental company and headed through security.
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