It was January when Victor GI4ONL and I worked out that the best way to rendevous for a joint SOTA Tour taking in Ham Radio 2024 at Friedrichshafen would be to fly via Luxair to Luxembourg. Victor could fly from Dublin and I could fly from Manchester. We both had a few hours to pass before we met up and departed - for me at the start of the tour and for Victor at the end. Choosing the days when Dublin and Manchester flights coincided meant we would travel on the Wednesday before the show, 26th June, and fly back nine days later on July 5th. This meant that the bulk of the activating would take place after Friedrichshafen Ham Radio.
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| Embarkation on the small Luxair Turboprop plane at Manchester Airport |
I caught the train to Manchester Airport from York. It was an early train at 07:15am. Dave G3TQQ gave me a lift to get the train, which I was very grateful for. As I've grown old I've got wiser when it comes to lugging a 20 Kg suitcase and rucksack up stairs between railway station platforms and at airports. I now look for and use the lifts. For security reasons the new scanners are not currently in use at Manchester, so all the electronics and my two lithium batteries had to come out of the rucksack to be placed in trays. There were no questions asked. The flight was 90 minutes long and all passengers were offered a free sandwich and drink (soft, hot or alcohol) during the flight. This was a cut above Ryanair or EasyJet for sure. I arrived at Luxembourg and had a three hour wait until Victor's flight came in at 18:20.
On this tour we activated 28 summits in 9 days, including two days spent at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen. For the purposes of this blog I will split these summit reports into several sections. On each summit we operated on the 10m band. Between us we qualified for the 2024 10m Challenge on 21 out of the 28 summits we activated.
When we picked up the hire car at Luxembourg Airport Victor Mitchell GI4ONL signed up for an Opel Mokka with his own personal number plate!
Day 1 and Day 2 (26/27 June 2024)
After leaving Luxembourg Airport at around 1700z we wanted to activate one summit before reaching our Gasthaus 100km from Luxembourg Airport at Saarbrucken. The only summit possible en-route was one that I activated in 2023, which was DM/SR-075 Langensteinchen, a drive on summit in woodland near the town of Weiten. The information from my original activation there is here . It was quite late in the day as we only started operating at 18:20z, so we drew a blank on the 10m band and used the 20m, 30m and 40m as alternative bands.
By the time we reached Saarbrucken at dusk we were hungry, but after hunting for somewhere to get a dinner, we gave up. Every restaurant was closed, so after a beer in our Gasthaus we retired for the night hungry, until breakfast....
On day 2 we had over 400km to drive to reach Tettnang, a town close to Friedrichshafen where we were staying on the Friday and Saturday for Ham Radio. By limiting activation times to around 30 minutes each we were able to activate three summits en-route to Tettnang.
DM/BW-067 Brandenkopf
This is a drive-on summit in a massive forest that took some getting to from Zell am Harmersbach via tarmac roads. The restaurant below the summit tower remained closed in June 2024, although building work was taking place, so maybe it will open soon.
If there is a bench or table on the summit we take our turns on who is able to use it. I operated just around the corner beyond the fine stone tower in the photo where there is a picnic table and bench. Victor headed off into the woodland some distance away so we were both able to operate on 10 meters at the same time using different modes 400 kHz apart. DL/G4ONL/P was successful and worked DD2TC on 10m CW via ground wave. I drew a blank, so instead made 8 quick QSOs on 20m in 6 minutes before going QRT. We now had an 85km drive to Wandbuhl as we headed in the direction of southern Germany.
DM/BW-041 Wandbuhl
This is the parking place for Wandbuhl at 48.175N 8.804E. We ate our lunchtime sandwiches and fruit before walking the 1.5km up the hill. Victor went to the summit and I took a right turn down a track and found a clear area within the woodland to operate.
I had a lot more luck on 10m this time and worked DJ5AV and HB9CGA. The rest of my contacts were on 20m.
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| The clearing in the forest where I was able to make 10 QSOs in 17 minutes Our 3rd and final summit was only 18 km away by road from DM/BW-041. DM/BW-228 Hummelsberg The road to the summit was being re-surfaced so it was closed to airfield traffic, but fortunately for us the road workers had created a diversionary route on a driveable loose surface track that took us close to the official car park at 48.112N 8.760E:  Victor walked up from there to the highest point and I walked up the grass track on the edge of the airfield permitted limit and set my station up there, around 500m north east of the car park. The activation zone area here is enormous. There was a convenient line of posts for tying my 6m pole against. Here is the place I chose - just within the permitted access limit:  It was very nice lying down in the grass to operate. On 10m SSB this time I worked Philiip ZS6FY followed by Herbert DL/OE9HRV/P who was activating DL/AL-144. With a thunderstorm threatening I packed up and got back to the car just in time before a heavy downpour. From there we drove to the Gasthaus we stayed at in Tettnang, which was a further 125km. Victor stayed there in 2023 which was useful as we drove straight up to the car park right outside the place. In the evening we had arranged to meet up with SOTA MT Member Andy MM0FMF and Paul M0SNA/W6PNG. We had a great evening talking all things SOTA over our meal and drinks in the China Sloss Restaurant. We had a really good day all told, 450 km driven, three summits activated, good company, a great chinese meal and three beers each.... Left to right: Andy MM0FMF, Victor GI4ONL, Phil G4OBK, Paul M0SNA/W6PNG  |
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