Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour - Day 7

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

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

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... 

DL/G4OBKs Meindl fabric boot at the trig point on DM/RP-272

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. 

Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour - Day 6

Day 6 after breakfast saw me leaving Hotel Toskana on the outskirts of Wiesbaden for these four summits:

18. DM/HE-097 Steinkopf

19. DM/HE-003 Großer Feldberg

20. DM/HE-547 Nickel

21. DM/HE-151 Staufen

One advantage of staying in a corporate type of hotel, catering for business people, is there are a lot of breakfast choices, and its easy to make up a ham and cheese sandwich for your lunch and slip it into your walking trouser thigh pocket before you leave the restaurant.... this is what I did for Day 6 and 7 as I had used up my supply of vacuum packed Lidl sandwiches bought on Day 2 of the tour. 

18. DM/HE-097 Steinkopf

It took around 90 minutes to reach the DM/HE-097 parking place, on the road outside the Forsthaus Winterstein Restaurant.  From there woodland tracks and a mountain bike trail leads to the summit. I walked up on the woodland tracks and came down on the mountain bike trails keeping an attentive watch backwards in case any cyclists were coming up behind me. There are GPX files for both tracks in the SMP and SOTLAS:

I set up in a sparse area of woodland away from the TV transmitter on the summit. 

There's nothng much else to say about what was another typical woodland summit in this part of Germany. Thirty contacts made, I packed up and went to the next summit.

 

19. DM/HE-003 Großer Feldberg

The only 10 point summit of my tour. After the long drive to my first summit the other three summits were much closer to each other. I thought Großer Feldberg would be a drive-on summit.  It was Sunday and the roads around and leading to the summit were choked with cyclists, motorbikers and motorists like myself.  The summit is served by public transport. I got to the car park on the top and it was solid, no space. A brass band was playing and there was a hotel, restaurants and several communications towers:

I turned the car round and went back down the hill where there were plenty of echeloned parking places alongside the hill road. It took less than 10 minutes to walk from there to a seat and fixing post on the summit, where I set up my station and made 51 contacts:

The nearby rocks and viewpoint attracted a lot of tourists, no one bothered me, operating with my headphones on. I never went over to see what the attraction was. Returning to the car, I had my lunch and then drove 18 Km to the parking place for Nickel DM/HE-547. 

20. DM/HE-547 Nickel

An easy 20 minutes walk up in a felled forest, with lots of log piles waiting for collection. Nothing worth photographing. There were a few passing walkers and cyclists, 35 QSOs made, all in Europe. 

21. DM/HE-151 Staufen

A pleasant 25 minutes walk up in woodland from a housing estate (155m ascent). The viewpoint, which was well populated with people sitting in the sun, is not within the activation zone. I continued and stopped short of the top at a Foresters Cabin, which I was able to use as my antenna fixing point, with the steps up to the door being my seat:

Foresters Cabin in AZ on DM/HE-151 Staufen

On my way down near the viewpoint where all the people were, this unique looking scooter was parked. I hadn't see one like it before:

I headed back to my hotel in Wiesbaden, calling for some fast food at a Burger King on the way. The Hotel Toskana didn't serve evening meals, only breakfast, and the excellent Italian restaurant I used near to the hotel on the Saturday was closed on Sundays.

Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour - Day 5

Day 5 and by the evening I would be in the DM/HE Hesse area, staying in the largest city in the Hesse region, Weisbaden. Before that I was to activate four more summits in the DM/RP area including meeting up with Joerg DO1DJJ for joint activations on DM/RP-002 and DM/RP-001. 

14. DM/RP-002 Ernst Berg

15. DM/RP-001 Hohe Acht

16. DM/RP-470 Karmelenberg  

17. DM/RP-193 Kandrich

14. DM/RP-002 Ernst Berg

My Gasthaus in Udersdorf was only 18 Km from the parking place for DM/RP-002. Joerg DO1DJJ arrived on time for our 20 minute walk through the woodland to the six point summit. There were no other people present amongst the trees. 

Joerg made a short video of me operating on 40m CW:

Joerg set up about 20 metres away from me and used the 15m and 2m bands for his activation.

Joerg DO1DJJ oparating with his Yaesu FT-897 with internal battery

I went on the 40m band and finally 30m, to finish with 44 contacts. We packed up and made our way to DM/RP-001, around 35 Km to the east of DM/RP-002.

15. DM/RP-001 Hohe Acht

After driving near to the Nurburgring motor racing circuit we arrived at the parking area for Hohe Acht. We were on the summit within 20 minutes again, this time the walk was less than 1 Km with an ascent of 125m. I set up my station on a picnic table and Joerg set up round the back of the Emperor William (Kaiser Bill) observation tower on the summit.  Here is a picture of me and the tower, which was built in 1909:

We both had successful activations, with several people coming up to the tower and climbing it while we were there. 

Joerg DO1DJJ and Phil G4OBK on DM/RP-001 Hohe Acht

It had been great to have had Joerg's company mid way through my tour of the region. Returning to the car park we bade our farewells and I headed off to another summit, DM/RP-408, this however was not to be activated by me today...

16. DM/RP-470 Karmelenberg

DM/RP-408 Hochsimmer was listed as my next summit, however when I reached the parking place at 50.365N 7.216E, north of Ettringen, it was pouring with rain. I didn't fancy the 4 Km 170m ascent in the rain, so I drove away in the direction of Koblenz, to reach the easy access summit of DM/RP-470, which had a church on the top. It took just 15 minutes walk to reach the top from an official car park:

Parking for DM/RP-470 Karmelenberg

A picnic table and bench had again being supplied for the activators:

It was threatening to rain, so after 17 QSOs on 40m I packed up the station and headed to the last summit of the day. 

17.  DM/RP-193 Kandrich

After deciding to leave DM/RP-408 I had to find another summit in the direction of Wiesbaden where I was staying for the last three nights of my tour. DM/RP-193 (6 points) looked ideal. Kandrich is located within a wind farm and I parked at the start of a forestry track 2.2 km from the summit. I hadn't planned my route in advance and once I got nearer the summit I realised I could have parked at the Waldgastatte Emmerichshutte Restaurant which was much closer to the summit:

I wasted 20 minutes walking to the restaurant but as this was my last summit in the day it wasn't an issue. I set up around 100m from one of the turbines in a QRM free location. The best DX worked of the tour was here - this was a contact with Galih, YC2VOC who has been appearing in EU Activators log regularly this year:

Rain wasn't threatening and it was pleasant operating in the late afternoon sunshine. I made 25 contacts before calling ceased on 40m SSB. One of the last stations worked was the very active Leszek, who was OK/SQ9MDF/P today, operating from OK/KR-005.  

Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour - Day 4

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

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. 

LX/G4OBK/P roadside station in the rain

Mast on summit - no interference on the 40m band 150m away from it

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!

Two of the walkers (left) and Phil DL/G4OBK/P on the right

Shelter with tie post for pole

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.

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.....

Gasthaus Paula at Udersdorf

Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour - Day 3

11th May 2023 was a day spent mostly driving with little walking. Traffic was fairly quiet with only one umleitung due to road works. So I had free time in the afternoon, allowing five summits to be activated when my itinerary said I would visit only four:

6.  DM/SR-006 Trautzberg (QRV 0634z-0700z)

7.  DM/SR-012 Schaumberg (QRV 0814z-0851z

8.  DM/RP-171 Roster Kopf (QRV 0957z-1023z)

9.  DM/RP-449 Teufelskopf (QRV 1128z-1148z)

10. DM/SR-075 Langensteinchen (QRV 1305z-1336z)

A breakfast bag got me away from Grafendhron at a early hour and I headed towards the state of Saarland - said to be the most religous region in Germany.  I had stocked up on the necessary items needed at Lidl the previous afternoon to get me through several days activations - bottled water, fruit, pre-packed sandwiches and energy bars. It is amazing how long the Lidl vacuum packed sandwiches remain fresh, there must be something in the bread... The weather again wasn't so good so they would not bake too much in the car. I had enough for two days activations. 

6. DM/SR-006 Trautzberg was a relatively small scale wind farm and a drive on summit with permitted access. I parked on a wide mouthed junction and walked 100m to a tie off point for my antenna. There was no noticable interference from the windmills on the 40m band:

7. DM/SR-012 Schaumberg was next - a "fully furnished" summit with cafe's, toilets, educational stuff for schoolchildren and other things. The summit is served by public transport. I parked a little way down the hill on a large free car park. After a short walk I found a large bench seat out of the way from people, where I could operate. The head gardener still found me and enquired what I was doing. There was no problem and he continued with his work. 

Nick, G4OOE was again the first contact on 40m CW, followed by Tonnie PA9CW.  

There was only one S2S contact amongst the 51 40m band contacts - with Fabio HB9/IK2LEY/P who was operating from HB/TI-158. 

8. DM/RP-171 Roster Kopf

This was another woodland summit which provided me with a picnic table and bench after a short walk from the car park into the woods. I can't remember much more about the summit to be truthful... For a change I started on 30m and also added 20m and 40m. All contacts on this summit were in CW. Avoiding operation in SSB was deliberate - Rene DL/OT6V/P and Rudy DL/ON5VR/P had activated this summit earlier in the day on that mode.  

Chasers calls were soon drying up though, so band hopping proved necessary - It's always worth a band change or two in such circumstances. I only made 25 contacts before going QRT after no further replies to my CQ calls.  

9. DM/RP-449 Teufelskopf

There was an even more substantial bench and table on Teufelskopf along with an open fronted chapel in the middle of what was a large wood:

Again Rene and Rudy had been here using SSB earlier in the day so I concentrated on CW only using the 30m and 40m bands.

10. DM/SR-075 Langensteinchen

A 4 point summit in the woodland with a shelter and table - this was a good thing, as it had now started raining. I used SSB and CW on this final summit - and found my friends Rene and Rudy operating on 40m from DM/RP-158 Erbeskopf, where I was active from the previous day. I didn't take a photo on DM/SR-075, so I copied this photo from SOTLAS, acknowledging the owner, DL3NM:

Photo courtesy of DL3NM

I can confirm that there were no restrictions to vehicles in reaching the junction where the shelter was located.  This was also the same place as from where Luc ON7DQ operated, when he visited in 2018. 

My evening destination was to the Seehotel near Losheim. An excellent place, to stay, serving good food and a splendid Weiss beer.  This was a marked improvement to the Landhaus in Grafendrhon, where I had spent the previous two nights.

Rheinland-Saarland-Hessen SOTA Tour Day 2

My first full day in Germany, the plan for today was to activate two drive on summits and two I had to climb, before returning for my second night at Landhaus Grafendhron:

1. DM/RP-158    Erbeskopf (Drive on)

2. DM/RP-150    Kinheimer Berg (Drive on)

3. DM/RP-436    Rothenburg 1 (2.3 km 140m ascent one way)

4. DM/RP-452    Wehlener Wold (2.7 km 220m ascent one way)

As the Landhaus served breakfast from 8am, which was too late a start for me, I had opted for a "breakfast bag" on both days.  This consisted of sandwiches, fruit and an energy bar. As I had no dinner the previous night during my journey from the airport to DM/RP-187, most of my breakfast bag was consumed that evening, leaving me little for the next day. Driving between the summits in the countryside meant I did not pass though any towns with supermarkets, so by the middle of the day I was running short on food, and by the time I was walking to Wehlener Wold, energy.

2. DM/RP-158 Erbeskopf

The summit is located on the edge of Hunsruck-Hochwald National Park, and is also a counter for POTA as DA-0026.  The hill forms part of a radar station operated by the German Military. I obtained a permit to operate on HF from there on a specific day, 10th May 2023. A car park is provided and I walked 100m to this shelter, which was fortunate, as it was starting to rain:

Link Inverted vee dipole on 5m pole

Viewing tower on the summit of Erbeskopf near the shelter

My first contact was with Nick G4OOE in Scarborough at 06:07 UTC on 40m CW. I was off to an early start and only stayed on the air for 12 minutes, finishing with an SSB contact with QRP Chaser Mariusz, SP9AMH. Leszek OK/SQ9MDF/P was worked as an S2S on OK/OL-018. Condx on 40m at that time in a morning can be variable, and many chasers I assumed were having breakfast or were still in bed. By 0620z on SSB there were no more callers so I moved on.  Out of the 27 summits activated on this tour this was the only one where I was unable to bungee my pole to some sort of support - I used a 3 point guying ring. 

3. DM/RP-150    Kinheimer Berg

I tried to find a better place to operate in a field on the edge of the woodland but couldn't find anywhere suitable, so I returned to the roadside layby on the road that runs over the summit. An uninspiring summit that produced 45 QSOs however, mostly on 40m CW/SSB. There were zero S2S contacts. 

Layby activation of DM/RP-150 - so the Decathlon 3 legged stool was deployed again

4. DM/RP-436    Rothenburg 1

Vehicles were not permissable on the track leading to Rothenburg 1.  I parked just off the main road, which was busy. The Mosel river lies close by, and there is a impressively engineered motorway bridge with an enormous span way above the valley, just north east of the summit:

I left the track after 2.1 km to walk through the woodland to the summit and saw my first ever wild boar!  It ran straight across my forward view around 20m away. I must have frightened the beast, and I never saw it again. We don't have any Wild Boar in the UK so I was pleased to see one in the wild. 

I operated within the woodland, at the trig point, tieing off my pole to a tree. I stayed on 40m. The first contact was with Victor GI4ONL and I was active for 20 minutes, before packing up and moving on. 

5. DM/RP-452    Wehlener Wold

From Pletten village to the summit of Wehlener Wold in the woodland

For my 4th and final summit today I had to walk further than anticipated. The tarmac road up the hill was restricted to farmer traffic, so I parked in the village of Platten in a residential street and walked up into the forest, passing on the way, this historical wine press:

Wine Press near Platten on the hairpin bend at 49.947N 6.956E

Continuing on to the summit, the tarmac road melded into a forest track. I left this to join a slightly overgrown path that took me to another forestry track running across what was a non-descript two point summit:

The track running over the summit of DM/RP-452 Wehlener Wold

Contacts on 40m CW/SSB dried up again after 20 minutes. I was quite hungry by now and had run out of water. I was back at my car though by 1330 UTC, but decided I had done enough for the day with the four summits, so I went in search of food and drink using the SATNAV POI function to take me to a Lidl supermarket in nearby Wittlich, where I sat on my Decathlon stool in the car park and consumed pastries, cake and coca cola before returning to my room in the Landhaus at Grafendrhon.