SOTA outings by KØMOS and contributors

Category: OE

SOTA (Summits on the Air) trip reports in OE land (Austria) with pictures and videos by K0MOS. Amateur radio mountain topping.

  • A rare SOTA gem

    I just wrapped up a trip in Europe and I could not resist to activate a few summits while I had the chance. Staying in Austria (OE), I was able to activate two nearby and new (for me) associations (HBØ and HB). I also took the opportunity to make a second attempt on HBØ/LI-ØØ4 – Augstenberg. This summit eluded me last year due to extreme winds in excess of 100 km/h (60 mph). We had to turn around shortly before reaching the summit. This time the WX forecast looked more promising.

    As usual, Herbert/OE9HRV organized the activations when I visit his neck of the woods. Arno/OE9AMJ and Ramon/OE9CSH joined the activation and what these guys had in store for me was quite a trip. Weather and time permitting they were planning to continue on a loop with the possibility to activate three more summits for a total of four. The best part…   HBØ/LI-ØØ2 or Naafkopf was one of them. This unique SOTA summit is a rare gem. The border of three countries, Lichtenstein (HBØ), Switzerland (HB) and Austria (OE) meet exactly at the summit and it is therefore worth 30 SOTA points in total. I am not aware of any other SOTA summit which has a similar setting.

    Panorama from the summit station
    Panorama from the summit station

    The complete trip could potentially rake in a total of 58 points on a ~20 km (12.5 mi) loop with 1700+ m (~5600 ft) elevation gain including two new associations for my log. Needless to say that I was motivated :)

    This trip report is focused on the Naafkopf only.

    The route we took in red
    The route we took in red
     Trailhead:  5243 ft / 1598 m
 Summit:     7740 ft / 2359 m (Augstenberg)  
             8432 ft / 2570 m (Naafkopf) 
             6860 ft / 2091 m (Nospitz)
 Elev. gain: 4832 ft / 1473 m (exludes gondola - hiking only)
 Roundtrip:  10.2 mi / 16.4 km(exludes gondola - hiking only)


    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:

    OE9HRV & OE9AMJ
    OE9HRV & OE9AMJ

    We headed south from OE towards the Principality of Liechtenstein (or Liechtenstein for short.) Liechtenstein is a rather small independent country near the Lake of Constance and shares the border with Switzerland and Austria. With an area of just over 160 square kilometers (62 sq mi), it has a population of ~35’000 and a total of eleven SOTA summits – all of them already activated. We started our hike in Malbun, the only ski resort in Lichtenstein.

    Parking/Trailhead

    Larger Map

    Red Tape:
    Nothing comes to mind.

    The Ascent:

    Elevation Profile
    Elevation Profile
    That is where we are going
    That is where we are going

    From Malbun we took the gondola from 5274 ft (1608 m) to the Sareiserjoch at 6526 ft (1990 m).  At the top we were greeted by an Alphorn player – a nice touch to start our day – and we could hear her tunes for quite a while across the valley. The first ~2.5 mi (4 km) follows a trail to the Chalbergrad and continues along a very pronounced ridge towards our first summit. Great views in both directions of the ridge. The last 0.4 mile (0.6 km) before HBØ/LI-ØØ4 – Augstenberg, are kind of steep. The summit is a rocky outcropping on a rather large, sloped and green summit. The obligatory cross at the summit served as a backdrop for our first SOTA summit photo of the day.

    Naafkopf -7
    OE9CSH, OE9AMJ, KØMOS, OE9HRV (l to r)

    On the summit we setup two stations, a CW station for Arno/OE9AMJ and an SSB station for the rest of us. No problem to activate a summit on 40m in Europe :)

    Within 40 minutes we all had our contacts logged and were on our way to the grand prize of the day. Reluctantly we decided to skip Gorfion (OE/VB-241) to allow plenty of operation time on the Naafkopf. In retrospect a wise decision, considering that we reached the car just as the sun went down.

    Haeding towards Pfälzerhütte
    Haeding towards Pfälzerhütte

    From the summit of Augstenberg (2359 m/7740 ft) we had to descend to the saddle, where the Pfälzerhütte is located at 2108 m/6916ft. A great location for having a beer, assuming you have the time… we decided to continue on to the next summit – a 462 m/1516 ft ascent over 1.8 km/1.1 mi. There is still a well defined trail up the steep slope and only one ‘critical’ spot we had to navigate. Some lingering snow from last weeks nasty weather in combination with the steep terrain slowed us down just a bit about halfway up to the summit. After that it was smooth sailing.

    The Summit:

    Setup on the summit:
    Setup on the summit:

    We reached the small summit around 14:00 local time under blue skies and with very comfortable temperatures. An artificial wall built from rocks, ~40 cm/16 in. in height, is dividing the summit along the border lines and building the base for the dominating summit cross. To make it really easy for us, each section of the wall was clearly marked with the name of the country so we would always know where we are :)

    We followed the same procedure as before; Arno setting up a CW station with his FT-817 and an Alex loop, and Hebert setting up the KX-3 with a 20m J-Pole for the SSB crowd. I got the honor to go first and I chose to start on the Swiss (HB) side of the summit – hoping to activate my 10th SOTA association.

    Arno/OE9AMJ on the summit
    Arno/OE9AMJ on the summit

    We took turns on the radio.  Every 15-20 minutes we announced an operator change so we all had the chance to activate every section (association) of the summit. But announcing a summit change after the first hour stirred up some confusion in the chaser community. Changing the operator and the summit within 30 sec. on the same frequency is not very common. A short explanation of the situation kept everybody’s log in sync.

    Taking turns on the summit worked out great, giving me enough time to talk and share stories with other SOTA operators and to take plenty of pictures and video footage of a perfect day.

    The view towards the east with Arno's Alex loop
    The view towards the east with Arno’s Alex loop

    We saved the best for last. With just 11 SOTA summits, Lichtenstein (HBØ) is a rare opportunity for chasers. We changed our antenna for the 15m band, hoping to get across the Atlantic and catch some stations in the US. The plan worked, NA1RL/Richard in Connecticut copied my signal  and so did K2JB/Jimmy and AE4FZ/Chuck both in NC. The highlight for me however was the contact with YC5YZ on Sumatra Island – my first contact with Indonesia :)

    Following my motto ‘always stop when things are at the top‘ I announced another operator change and handed over the mic to Ramon.

    Ramon/OE9CSH on 20m
    Ramon/OE9CSH on 20m

    The Descent:

    Alpine ibex
    Alpine ibex

    We almost had to detach Herbert from the radio by force… as longs as he has some space left in his logbook, he will not quit. But there was another summit beckoning  from the distance. It was already late in the afternoon and a cool breeze forced us to put on another layer for the descent. Arno led the way down.  A herd of Alpine ibex retreated from us and gave us little chance for a decent photo. At the Pfälzerhütte we turned west towards Alp Gritsch. Arno could not believe that we passed up the chance to have a beer, but chose to press on to activate another summit. Luckily he is a great guy and readily admitted that the chance to activate another HBØ summit does not come along everyday for me. I guess I owe him a beer.

    Tälihöhi with Nospitz in the distance
    Tälihöhi with Nospitz in the distance

    We passed by the Alp towards Tälihöhi, the last ridge we had to get over before heading down to Malbun. The Nospitz can be easily reached by a short ascent from the Tälihöhi. From this ridge it was another 45-50 minutes back to town and to the car. We all started to feel some wear and tear in our bones and joints and reached the car just when the sun went down – perfect timing.

     

    Needless to say that it was an incredible day. The weather cooperated, amazing views, a great hike, special camaraderie and overall perfectly organized by Herbert – a trip I will always remember.

    Here some additional pictures:

    Some video impressions:
    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA8NaYhz1fQ

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

     

     

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

  • Triple Activation: OE/VB-34Ø, OE/VB-366 and OE/VB-4Ø8

    For the last day of my Austrian SOTA activation adventure I contemplated several options. I finally settled on a route suggested by Herbert (OE9HRV), who was an incredible useful source for all my activations here in OE land (check out the other OE trip reports). The route included three peaks, Sünser Spitze (OE/VB-34Ø) – Portlerhorn (OE/VB-366) – Portlerkopf (OE/VB-4Ø8), each awarding 8 points. This seemed to be an adequate finale for my time here. The weather forecast was excellent and I was joined by my wife and brother in law. The only caveat… we had to catch a train at 16:05 local time. To stay within this time-frame, the plan was to hike to the Sünser Spitze first (highest of the three peaks), activate this summit on my HT (VHF) to save some time (setup and break-down of HF equipment) and hike down and along the ridge to the remaining two summits for a VHF and HF activation and still catch the train.

    Elevation Profile (click for a larger view)

    Trailhead: 5522 ft / 1683 m
    Summit:   6765 ft / 2062 m
    Elev. gain: 1999 ft / 600 m
    Roundtrip: 5.6 mi / 9 km

    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:
    The shortest route from my temp. QTH was to take L51 west, from the medieval town of Feldkirch towards the Furka-Pass. It’s a small winding road, single lane for the latter part, and going through some beautiful country side. The trail-head is shortly after the Furkajoch.  We parked the car on a gravel  strip on the right side of the road.

    Parking/Trailhead

    View Larger Map

    Red Tape:
    The road (L51) might be closed in winter.
    The gravel strip has room for approx. 10 cars.

    The Ascent:

    At the TH

    The ascent hast no big challenges. Like all the other trails around here, they are well marked with frequent signs leading you in the right direction. The first part led up to an alp over a dirt road. The trail went through a few buildings, which were abandoned for the upcoming winter season. Just an old Pinzgauer was sitting in front of one of the buildings. A short but steep section led us from the alp to a saddle from where we could see all three summits for the first time. From here you have two options to continue – we selected the trail splitting to the right, slightly uphills towards the ridge between the Portlerhorn and the Portlerkopf, to avoid loosing any altitude we already gained. We got great views looking back towards the Furkapass and the surrounding mountains. We reached the top of the ridge right at a small lake with the first summit in the background.

    Lake with Sünser Spitze

    Continuing along the ridge, we reached another signpost before tackling a pretty steep section up to the ridge between the  Sünser Spitze and the Ragazer Blanken.

    The final steps to the summit

    Towards the east we could see the summit-station of the ski-area of Damüls and towards the west we enjoyed the snow-covered Swiss-Alps. At this point we had made most of the elevation gain towards this summit. The rest of the trail followed very closely the top of the ridge before a last steep section left us breathless reaching the summit. I am claiming that the views were responsible for being out of breath – others disagree. Lake Constance was clearly visible to the north-west of us. At the south end of the lake… the town of Bregenz. This was my best bet on getting my contacts quickly on 2m .

    The Summit:

    KØMOS on the summit

    The summit has a sharp drop-off towards the north and the usual wooden cross with the summit register. It was still chilly, mainly due to the stiff breeze from the north. My call on 145.5 MHz was quickly answered by OE9GWI (Gerhard). His spot on SOTAwatch drummed up all the support I needed for this summit, including a contact with a Swiss station (HB9AGH – Ambrosi). It was a nice and unexpected contact with a station in Zürich where I had lived and worked for over 10 years. The activation lasted only 20 minutes and we could move on to the next summit but not before taking some snapshots and  enjoying some warm tea out of the thermos.

    The view towards Switzerland
    Sünser Spitze – Group photo

    We followed the same trail back to the mentioned sign-post, but instead of traversing the ridge we followed the ridge to the Potlerhorn. It took us a little more than an hour to get to the second summit, staying close to my timetable. This time we had to share the summit with two other parties. Not a problem since the summit is basically a hump in the ridge and thus provided enough space for my antenna.

    Getting ready for HF

    Before setting up the HF equipment, I tried the HT on 2M again to see whether I would be possible to get any contacts on this peak as well. The line-of-sight towards Bregenz was clearly blocked by the previously activated Sünser Spitze. Never-theless, OE9HRV (Herbert) answered my call. I could even get in contact again with HB9AGH in Zürich… it took a few tries but after finding the sweet spot on the mountain, we could exchange the necessary info.  All in all I made 15 contacts with stations in England, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Denmark and Switzerland before we moved on to the last summit.

    Off to the last summit

    Again it was easy to find the way to the last summit. We just followed the trail along the ridge connecting the two summits. The down-climb to the saddle was quite steep and we encountered several more hikers coming up. From the saddle to the summit, the trail was clearly less traveled than before. It followed the ridge-line very closely, sometimes crossing over to the other side only to cross again a little later. Both sides of the ridge  drop off sharply and if you suffer from fear of heights you shouldnt look down too much. It was only 3/4 of a mile to the last summit

    Antenna on Portlerkopf

    but I started to feel the impact on my knees. I was setting up the antenna for the last time on this trip and thought it might be appropriate to fly the Austrian flag I got from OE9HRV. This time I had no luck on 2m, but Herbert (OE9HRV) was already waiting for me on 20m. Within no-time I had 15 contacts with stations in Austria, Germany, England, Poland, Lithuania, Spain and even Canada (VE1WT) – making this my longest distance contact of the day (approx. 5400 km or 3400 mi).

    The Descent:
    It’s only a short distance from the last summit to the trail-head;  approximately another 3/4 of a mile. We had to backtrack on the same trail for a while until we could get down from the steep ridge. Needless to say that we missed the train by about five minutes – but in Europe, with its highly developed public transportation system, there is always another train.

    Some video impressions:

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

  • OE/VB-494 (Hochälpele) – 1464 M / 4803 ft

    After yesterdays activation of the ‘Galinakopf’ (OE/VB-287) under perfect conditions, I selected a less challenging summit for this Sunday. The dart I threw at the map landed closest to ‘Hochälpele’ or OE/VB-494 – a summit close to the previously activated ‘Geißkopf’. The ‘Hochälpele ’ is also part of the ‘Bödele‘, the landmark mountain of Dornbirn, the largest city in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). The weather forecast was promising and called for a sunny day.

    Trailhead: 3800 ft / 1158m
    Summit:   4803 ft / 1464 m
    Elev. gain: 1010 ft / 308 m
    Roundtrip: 3.0 mi / 4.8 km

    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:
    Take the ‘Bödele-Strasse’ (or L48 ) from Dornbirn or take the Bus line 38 (Dornbirn -Bödele – Schwarzenberg – Bezau) which leaves every 30 minutes, starting at the Dornbirn Railway Station. Park or get out of the Bus at the ‘Bödele Passhöhe‘. The trail starts about 100 yards (100 m) south of the parking lot.

    Parking/Trailhead

    Red Tape:
    This area is a very popular local recreation area and finding a parking spot might be difficult, specially on week-ends and/or during sunny weather. Since it was a Sunday and a sunny day after several days of the rain and fog that is typical for the region at that time of the year… you can imagine the number of cars and people. It was a real zoo up there. The parking fee depends on how long you are staying at the lot, if I remember correctly it is about 1 Euro per hour. The parking lot has exactly one machine where you can pay your parking-fee… I waited approx. 20 minutes in single file to get to the machine when I came back from the summit. The good news… it accepts bills as well as coins.

    The Ascent:
    The ascent has no challenges. Just follow all the other people… no, seriously, the trail is hard to miss and is mostly moderate in steepness. The only challenge was the fact that it was incredibly muddy due to the heavy rain-falls we experienced over the last week. The first part leads through a few vacation homes (beautiful old Chalets), then by a Restaurant (in case you need some fuel before attempting the ascent). From there the trail is over grassy (muddy) terrain along a small ski-lift all the way to a ridge. At this point I made most of the elevation gain for this trip and I followed the south-easterly ridge all the way to the summit. The only challenge was to avoid the deep mud-puddles, which was sometimes difficult with all the foot-traffic.

    The Summit:

    View from the summit


    At the summit – you guessed it – is another restaurant and a ‘Gipfelkreuz‘, a wooden cross. To find a good spot for setting up an antenna is not so easy. For one, there were a lot of people up there and the other ‘problem’ is that the summit is an elongated ridge which drops off steeply in both directions. So in order to get good propagation in all direction, I was looking for a spot very close to the top of the ridge which also coincides with the trail. I tuned the antenna for 10m, hoping for similar results than on the days before. But it was wishful thinking … my CQ calls did not get out well. I was wearing headphones to cancel out some of the noise on the summit (and from the nearby restaurant when I suddenly heard Alpenhorn sounds through my headphones. “I am having a sunstroke” I thought but the sun was not shining that hard and I was wearing a hat… I took the headphones off and turned my head, that’s when I realized that somebody set up their Alpenhorn about 6 feet (~1.8m) behind me… and he was puffing his lungs out. I am as fond of Alpenhorn sounds as the next guy but this was a bit much… as polite as possible I asked him whether it would be possible to move his instrument to another, more distant location. I tried to explain to him what I was doing… maybe he had not realized in light of my ~20 mast/antenna with all the guy-lines and counterpoise? I could not even finish my sentence when he got red all over the face and started lecturing me that this was a free country and that I cannot force him to move – yikes. It was pretty obvious that there was no way that sane arguments could convince this guy to stop or move. His wife/partner/companion tried to mediate the situation and coax him into moving, being obviously careful not to further upset him. In the end, I  turned back to my radio and head-phones, ignoring his further rants.

    What seems funny to me is, that no matter the country and culture, people always try to justify their unconsidered and/or rude actions with the argument that we are in a free country – go figure.

    The first contact with FR/DJ7RJ (Willie) was certainly the highlight. A DX contact of more than 5500 mi (~9000 km) on 5 W. Apart from that, band seemed to favor east-Europe and I made most of my very few contacts with Russia. After my fifth contact I packed up, feeling a little disappointed about this mountain.

    The Descent:
    I went down the same slippery/muddy route to the parking-lot… waiting patiently in-line to pay the fees and get ‘my’ car.

    Some video impressions (no Alpenhorn sounds though):
    Since the trip felt more like traveling on an interstate, I have only very limited footage.
     httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvEYUOcWy3g

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

  • OE/VB-287 (Galinakopf) – 2198 m / 7211 ft

    As I am writing this (November, 25th, 2011), I learned with great sadness that OE9GWI is now a silent key. Even-though I never met Gerhard personally, I had the pleasure working him on all my SOTA activations in Austria. He chased and spotted me on every activation – including this one. He was not only active in the the SOTA program but was also a fellow Buddipole user – I am sorry I could not share this trip report with him – I am sure he would have liked a report from a summit in his ‘back-yard’.
     

    The rather nasty weather (for a Coloradoan anyway) gave me two days off from my activations. During these days, I exchanged a few e-mails with a local HAM – OE9HRV, Herbert – who was my first contact on the ‘Pfänder‘ (on my first activation in Austria). He not only knows his ‘Ländle’ but is also a very busy SOTA activator. He advised me on summits, routes and other local considerations and invited me for a joint activation of the ‘Galinakopf‘ for the next day. I accepted of course – no better way to activate a summit than with local knowledge. This summit is rather interesting and is part of the ‘Rätikon range‘ of the Eastern Alps. Since the border between Austria and the Principality of Liechtenstein goes right across the summit, it carries two SOTA designations – one for Austria (OE/VB-287) and one for Leichtenstein (HBØ/LI-ØØ7). According to the rules, you can activate this summit from both sides and claim the points twice. Since Liechtenstein is a rather small country (160 square kilometers or 62 sq mi and a population of about 35’000) it has only a few SOTA summits (11) and finding an SOTA activator in HBØ is therefore a rare opportunity for chasers everywhere. Unfortunately I did not research whether my radio-license is valid in Liechtenstein and therefore chose to activate the summit from the Austrian side only – just to be sure not to violate any rules/laws.

    Trailhead: 5145 ft / 1568 m
    Summit:   7211 ft / 2198 m
    Elev. gain: 3271 ft / 997 m
    Roundtrip: 9.3 mi / 14.9 km

    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:
    Herbert (OE9HRV) provided full service and picked me up at my temporary QTH in Dornbirn. First we headed west into Switzerland and took E43 (N13) south until the exit of Buchs (SG). We continued to Sevelen where we crossed the bridge over the Rhein which brought us into Vaduz (Liechtenstein) and continued towards Malbun via Triesenberg und Steg. We drove in pretty thick fog until we reached Triesenberg at about 3000 ft or 1000 m AMSL. The views above the fog were just breathtaking and Herbert made a short detour to Gaflei to show me around. Just click on the pictures below to get a larger version and a better idea how it looked like.

    The view from Gaflei

    There is a skiing area just shortly before arriving in Malbun with the necessary parking lots to accommodate all the cars in winter. That is were we parked the car at 9:30 and walked back down a few hundred yards to to the trail-head.

    Parking/Trailhead

    View Larger Map

    Red Tape:
    Make sure to carry your passport when traveling in this border region. You will slip in and out countries several times a day.

    The Ascent:

    OE9HRV – Herbert is ready to roll

    The first section of the 9.3 mi or 14.9 km hike is quite steep over a well maintained forest road and gets your heart pumping for sure. Very soon we had to stop and take off some layers of clothing in order not to overheat. After ~1.2 miles or about 2 kilometers we reached  a wooden bench where we stopped for a drink of water and to catch our breath. This is where I heard DL9MDI calling me on the local 2m repeater we were monitoring. DL9MDI (Fred) had been helping me out prior to the trip and so far we only communicated via e-mail and SKYPE. It was a nice surprise and we chatted shortly… he wished us good luck and we were back on the trail. The trail gave away some of the elevation gains (~250 ft / 80 m) on our way towards our target. The trail lead into a large valley where we could finally see the summit.

    View into the valley
    Grenzstein Austria / Liechtenstein

    We continued the hike parallel to a ridge (connecting the Gamsgrat, Ochsenkopf and Scheienkopf and finally the Galinakopf), which also represents the border of Austria/Liechtenstein, at moderate elevation gain. That changed quite a bit after finally reaching it. We followed the ridge/border to the north, heading directly towards the Galinakopf. The last mile (or 1.6 km) was very steep but offered excellent views to the west and south. The thick fog over the valley reminded me of a calm ocean, something you hardly see here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. After reaching the summit, we spent the first few minutes taking pictures and videos, before setting up the equipment.

    View from the ridge

    The Summit:

    Silver-thistle along the way

    There is a big wooden cross at the very top with a register. The north side of the mountain is a big, steep and grassy slope – certainly a dangerous avalanche area in winter. The remaining sides are steep cliffs which should give me a nice take-off angle for my vertical Buddipole antenna. Herbert was setting up his double bazooka (for 40m) and J-pol (for 10m) antennas on an insanely tall fiberglass mast. I was setting up my vertical Buddipole close to the abyss.

    Our 'antenna-farm' on the summit

    Within a few minutes, we had our rigs going, Herbert his ICOM 706MK2G on a LIFEPO4 (12 Ah) and I my Yaesu FT-817ND with my foldable solar panel. Within minutes I experienced a pile-up using Herbert’s rig with 100 W on 40m,  something I had never experienced in previous WØ activations. I had my hands full answering the stations – the foreign call-signs did not make it any easier for me. After the first wave was over, I left Hebert take over his own rig and retreated to my 5 W rig.

    OE9HRV is heating up the air-waves

    Normally I operate on 20m but shortly before I left for Europe I talked to Chris (W6HFP) from Buddipole by phone who recommended to try the 10m band. So I tuned the antenna to 28.385 Mhz for the first time ever – not sure what to expect. My second CQ call was answered by VE2JCW – that’s over 6000 km (or close to 4000 miles). I was stunned and excited at the same time since I never expected such distances on just 5W. But it got even better… the next two QSOs were with N4EX and

    Working on 40m (Photo by OE9HRV)

    WA2USA (two very active SOTA chasers in the US), both over 7000 km (or ~4500 miles) afar. It does not get better than that. It turned out to be a perfect day in every respect. With the day progressing, the light got better as well and offered lots of opportunities to take pictures of the 360 degrees of unobstructed mountain views with the thick  fog still hanging in the valley well below us – not really a motivator to leave this slice of heaven.

    The Descent:

    Heading down (Photo by OE9HRV)

    After spending four hours on the summit, it began to get colder and we still had quite a hike in front of us. At 16:30 we started to pack up our gear and headed down. Not paying attention, we made a unplanned detour on very steep ground just a few meters below the summit. After climbing back up, we started to pay closer attention to the trail and finally made it back to the car after a two hour hike. Herbert dropped me off at my QTH – just in time to have a shower and make my dinner appointment. It was an exceptional day… a great hike and amazing conditions for a SOTA activation – Thanks Herbert!

     Some video impressions:

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiEe9nKAneM

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

  • OE/VB-5Ø4 (Geißkopf) – 1198 m / 3930 ft

    The weather forecast for today was not too good. Therefore I was looking for another SOTA peak nearby. The ‘Geißkopf’,or OE/VB-5Ø4, fit the bill. The ‘Geißkopf’ is part of the ‘Bödele‘, the landmark mountain of Dornbirn, the largest city in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). There is a great public transportation system which can get you up there. Since SOTA rules demand that I get to the summit human powered (at least the last 150 ft of elvation), I started out well before the ‘Bödele Pass – 3789 ft / 1155 m‘. Even-though there is a bus stop at the pass, that might not result in the required elevation gain from here. Three bus stops (Dornbirn Langwies) before the pass seemed to be a good fit and served as my trail-head. From here it is possible to hike through the woods for the most part and avoid the busy road. Due to the foggy weather, I have only limited pictures/videos.

    Trailhead: 3030 ft / 924 m
    Summit:   3930 ft / 1198 m
    Elev. gain: 1447 ft / 441 m
    Roundtrip: 4.2 mi / 6.7 km

    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:
    As mentioned earlier you have choices, take a car or take public transportation.

    Just follow the signs

    Take the ‘Bödele-Strasse’ (or L48 ) from Dornbirn or take the Bus line 38 (Dornbirn -Bödele – Schwarzenberg – Bezau) which leaves every 30 minutes, starting at the Dornbirn Railway Station. Park or get out of the Bus at ‘Dornbirn Langwies‘. The trail you are looking for is just a few feet behind the bus-stop – leading south and finally parallels the road.

    Parking/Trailhead

    View Larger Map

    Red Tape:
    This area is a popular local recreation area and finding a parking spot might be difficult, specially on week-ends and/or sunny weather.

    The Ascent:
    There is not a lot to report. It’s a very moderate trail leading directly to the Bödele-Pass (yes, there is a Restaurant). Cross the road to the parking lot. On the north side starts the trail down through a moor and then up through some settlements to the Geißkopf (which you can see from the parking lot). There are no challenges along the way, its a well established trail and there are no doubts when it comes to navigating the area.

    The Summit:
    There is a wooden cross at the highest point (as on most summits in this area) with a wooden bench. Nice for a picnic or to setup your radio. Since the weather was kind of foggy/cloudy (hard to say where the fog stopped and the clouds started) nobody else claimed the summit or the bench. Setting up the antenna for 20 m was easy with the soft, grassy ground (for the pegs) and the available topography. There is enough space for several antennas, in case you are looking for joint activation. Shortly after the antenna was

    Perfect SWR

    up and tuned, the fog rolled in heavily, resulting in chilly temperatures. The scarce sun-rays could not penetrate the fog anymore. My first QSO was DH3RB (Ruediker), a station at the Danish/German border, using a Buddipole configuration as well. Apparently he had seen some of my Youtube videos before and was quite excited to catch me on the air. The remaining QSO’s were with stations in Austria, Greece, England, Bulgaria, Finland and Spain. After 16 QSOs in ~30 minutes, I was happy go pack up my gear due to the chilly temperatures. I am not used to this kind of cold in high humidity.

    The Descent:
    It was a quick descent down the same trail, through the moor and to a nearby parking lot where I had a pick-up shuttle, getting me down to the valley for a nice glass (or two) of ‘Glühwein‘ and cookies.

    Some video impressions:

    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nLgDlCQtbM

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

  • OE/VB-512 (Pfänder) – 1064 m / 3491 ft

    I visited Europe for a couple of weeks and took my radio equipment with me to do some SOTA activations. The next few trip-reports summarize my Austrian SOTA activations. BTW, clicking onto a picture included in this trip-report will show you a larger version.

    For my first activation, I was looking for a summit with easy access. I wanted to make sure I have everything with me before heading into the mountains. I found the perfect SOTA summit for my requirements during my time in Austria/Vorarlberg. OE/VB-512 was just a few miles from my temporary QTH and there even is a gondola going from Bregenz (the capital of Vorarlberg) to the very top. Bregenz is delightfully located on the shore of Lake Constance (one of Europes largest lakes) and is probably most famous for it’s summer music festival that features an opera on a open-air /floating stage. Even James Bond could not resist to visit the opera in his quest to rescue the world, in his movie ‘Quantum of Solace‘.

    I decided to take the gondola – which leaves close to the lake shore – and take a short detour downhills in order to satisfy SOTA rules, instead of hiking all the way up.

    Trailhead: 1374 ft / 419 m
    Summit:   3491 ft / 1064 m
    Elev. gain: 2117 ft / 645 m
    Roundtrip: 5.5 mi / 8.9 km

    Compare this summit with my other activated summits

    How to get there:
    Goto the harbour in Bregenz. There is a roundabout with a sign directing you to the base station of the Gondola. If you arrive by train, it’s a short 15 minute walk from the train-station.

    Parking/Trailhead

    View Larger Map

    Red Tape:
    The Pfänder cable car operates daily from 8 AM to 7 PM. It is closed however for an annual audit, so make sure you check their website or call ahead. There is a fee of about € 11.00 for a round-trip. You can check their rates on their website also.

    The Ascent:
    Since I took the easy way up, there is not a lot to report. The ride to the top lasts about six minutes in a large gondola with panoramic views. Make sure to get the to the window (lake facing) quickly to get the best view on your ride up the mountain.

    View from the Summit

    The summit:
    First of all I had to hike downhills for a while to be in line with SOTA regulations. After coming back up to the gondola station, it is a another few minutes to the very top of the Pfänder. This is not a good location for setting up the radio equipment due to its size and popularity with all the tourists/visitors. It does however provide stunning views across Lake Constance, the Swiss, Austrian, German and Lichtenstein alps (assuming clear weather). Even-though it was a week-day, it was very crowded and I started to miss the solitude of the Rocky Mountains.

    My Buddipole competing with the Radiotower

    The summit is quite large, providing several restaurants within a few minutes of walking and a huge radio tower!!! I started to setup my equipment about 60 m from the tower and was wondering whether all the RF flying around would even give me a chance to get out. My back-up plan was an activation on 2m and I had my little HT programmed with the Pfänder repeater frequencies to announce my presence. Unfortunately I was not able to open the repeater, which seemed strange to me at such a short distance (I learned later that the repeater was out of order). It took me unusually long  to get the antenna and radio up and ready. For the first time I carried a small antenna analyzer (IP30) with me to get the antenna resonant… but no matter what I tried I could not even get close to an SWR acceptable for transmission – at least that is what the analyzer indicated. I finally ignored the analyzer and hooked up my FT-817, which was quite happy with the antenna. I guess the RF cloud from the radio tower overwhelmed the IP30.

    KØMOS/OE calling CQ on 20m

    My first response to my CQ SOTA on 20m came from OE9HRV (Herbert) and my second contact was OE9GWI (Gerhard), both residents of Bregenz – a whopping 3 miles from my current location. As is turns out, both of them are very active SOTA activators / chasers. Both contacts turned into very reliable chasers during my time in Austria and Herbert was a very knowledgeable source for all SOTA summits ‘im Ländle‘ Vorarlberg. He even invited me to a very memorable activation of the Galinakopf (OE/VB-287) – report/video will follow. The remaining contacts were to Austria (no surprise), England, Greece, Spain and Canada (VE1WT) – 3413 mi / 5493 km on 20m with 5W into my Buddipole – not bad for the first day. I was quite happy with the results and the activation. Since the sun was slowly setting, I was packing up to take more photographs and to catch the last gondola.

    The view to the east
    Another view from the summit

    The Descent:
    The descent in the gondola was certainly a treat – great views across the lake and Bregenz for six minutes :)

    Some video impressions:
    httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN4Bl-6NyGw

    If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

     

    ATTENTION !! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!