VHF SOTA Activation of Szurok-hegy HA/EM-019

 

Equipment used: Anytone AT-D878UV II Plus | SRH-770 | 4W

VHF SOTA Failed Activation of Trzy Korony SP/PI-002

I reached the summit with altitude 981m ASL at 8:15 in the morning on Sunday February 13, 2022. One hour after sunrise. It was very windy on the top.

I was calling CQ mainly on 145.500 and also on 145.525, 145.550 and 145.575 for about 30 minutes but received no replies. I have also spotted myself to SOTA cluster of course. It was a disappointment to me. This has not happened to me yet and I did not expect that from this summit as I know there are many poland stations in the radio range. 

On the other hand I made QSO via VHF repeater OM0OVT which is exactly 100 km away. So at least I knew the radio was working properly.

I used Anytone 878 II+ with RH770 telescopic antenna. It was a mistake not to bring HF with me.

See you on the air, 73

Dievčenská skala 660m KN08GO58

VHF SOTA Activation of Šimonka OM/PO-023

 

I made just few contacts on 2m because of very strong wind on the summit.

HF SOTA Activation of Bodoň OM/PO-065

 I made only 9 contacts because of snow shower.

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-891 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | 20m EFHW for 40-10m | 20W | hand MIC

Skipper wire antenna for CB 27 MHz

I have received wire antenna for CB 27 MHz today. It is made by Skipper from Kittsee in Austria. It is the end fed tuned antenna lambda 0,625 with coil. The length is 6,94m. The antenna is very well made, tuned and tested. Look at pmr-dx.cz for some more info (in slovak language) and photos. Another article about the antenna used on the summit is here.

I'm looking forward to the first portable with it.

Thank you Skipper :)

HF SOTA Activation of Bogota OM/KE-018

 It took me 2 hours to reach the summit.

I made 16 contacts on 20m. It took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to return back to the car. 

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-891 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | 20m EFHW for 40-10m @2-4m abv gnd | 20W | Yaesu hand mic

HF SOTA Activation of Holička OM/KE-035

It took me 2 hours to reach the summit.

I made 13 contacts on 20m and 20 contacts on 40m in 25 minutes. It took me 1 hour to descent from the summit. 

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-891 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | 20m EFHW for 40-10m @2-4m abv gnd | 20W | Heil-6 Proset + hand PTT

SOTA Activation of OM/KE-020 after 9 years

This summit was not activated for almost 9 years. It was activated for the last time in March 2013 by me and Ivan OM0AM and Peter OM8AKX. We were active on 80, 40, 20 and 2m that time and made 42 contacts together.

Even though this SOTA is very close to my base location (25 km by car), this summit area is not very tourist attractive.

There are no marked hiking trails leading to the mountain top..

The forest looks the same everywhere and the orientation is a little bit difficult to maintain the correct heading to the mountain top.

The summit consists of a main and two secondary summits. The SOTA summit is marked as that south summit. I don't know why..

There is not open panorama view from the top but the forest is sparse here so some little view to the distance is visible..

I made 14 contacts on 20m in 6 minutes including 2x S2S. There was no space for me on 40m because of contest, so I tried several CQs on 15m with no answer. The band seemed to be little bit opened as I could copy some stations on other 15m frequencies.

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-891 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | EFHW 40-10 @3m abv gnd | 20W

Christmas Day 2021 walk with handheld

May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day walk to Kojsovska hola 1246 m ASL located approx. 20 km NW from my base location.

WX on the moutaintop windy, abt -8 °C. I made few quick contacts on PMR and 2m. The wind made me feel uncomfortable and was lowering the feels like temperature quite significantly. This summit is windless very rarely.

VHF SOTA Activation of Roháčka OM/PO-029

Summit Roháčka OM/PO-029:

I was working from this place which is about 5 minutes from the summit. It is much better for installing the antenna.

I made these contacts:

SOTA-SOTA QSO:

SP9OZI SP/BZ-048 QRB 93 km

SQ9TEN/P SP/BZ-030 QRB 88 km

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-2980 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | 4m mast | Diamond NR22L antenna | PWR 10W and 30W

HF SOTA Activation of Kloptaň OM/KE-006

I worked on 20m and made 9 contacts. There were many stations on 40m so I was not able to find any not used frequency there. I tried also 17m because I had ATU with me but after spotting myself on SotaWatch and several calls I did not copy any station on 17. The weather was windy and not quite warm even though it was sunny. It took me 3 hours to reach the summit and 1,5 hours to descent. It is 12 km hike to the summit and back with 750 m of ascent.

HF SOTA Activation of Tri chotáre and Čierna hora

I used these activations to tune and test my new HF portable wire antenna EFHW for 40/20/15/10m.

It is working simply perfect.

It is 15 km hike with 800m of ascent/descent

Equipment used: Yaesu FT-891 | 7 Ah LiFePO4 battery | EFHW for 40-10m @3m abv gnd | 20W

Log from OM/PO-061 Tri chotáre:

Log from OM/PO-027 Čierna hora:

Bachuren OM/PO-024 VHF/HF SOTA Activation 9/2021

It was one beautiful sunny and warm autumn Sunday. It took me 1,5 hrs to reach the top of summit. The summit is overgrown with trees. I made couple 2m contacts from there. Then I moved to nearby meadow where I made the HF activation on 20m band. I was very surprised when ZL station called me back. I used dipole antenna and about 50W of power. The antenna was only 2m above the ground near the tree.

This is the top of summit:

and the nearby meadow where I installed the HF station on 20m..

180° view above the summit to the north

Slubica OM/KE-007 HF/VHF SOTA Activation 9/2021

I reached the top of the summit  after 1,5 hours. I used a shortcut off the hiking trail. This summit is often used by paragliders for takeoffs and there about 15 people when I came. So I decided to move little bit away from that area. I found nice high stand for hunters in a meadow. It was empty so I used it as my hamshack for about 1 hour. I used 20m dipole and made some contacts:

Since I had tuner with me I was able to tune 20m dipole on 17m. I did not bring 17m dipole with me. I checked 17m band but did not hear not a single station. It seemed like completely closed. But I called some CQs and spotted myself. Then I made nice DX contact with K4DY in the North Carolina. Wow!  My power was 30W the whole time. While I was packing the HF equipment I heard from handheld SP9KUC calling CQ SOTA on 2m. So I changed the antenna to telescopic and called him back. Our QSO distance was pretty nice 117 km.