Snakes and Ladders November and the fun of Rag Chewing!

 Snakes and Ladders is a monthly activity organized by EUCW. You need to make QSO's with European stations, each QSO lasting at least 5 minutes. Rules are on the EUCW website. 

It's been several years since I participated. I started this month's entry on November 7th and made 58 QSO's. Making a 5 minute QSO isn't always easy. You can either use QRS speeds, for example with a straight key, or give more information in your QSO besides report, name and QTH. I mostly send a full station description in the second over and also give a weather report. Below is a QSO map made with the help of Ian's website.

 

 

Quite shocking to see several Russian stations appearing in eastern Ukraine around Marioepol and Loehansk! Most of the Russian QSO's are early morning 10 meter contacts after calling CQ.

 

75 percent of  the QSO's are shorter than 10 minutes. It is good to see that some CW operators are still interested in rag-chewing. I had two 2-way bug QSO's lasting 16 minutes with Jim SV8ANW and Andreas OE3IAK. Great fun!

Quick activation of Königstuhl DM/BW-114

I am visiting Heidelberg with a good friend, our main goal was to visit the fabulous technical museum in Sinsheim, recommended! On the second day of our stay we walked up to the castle and from there we took the cable car to the summit. At the back of the summit you can find the remains of an old ice cellar. It’s a good spot with some space to put up an antenna and it has a large bench.

I set up 20/30m trapped vertical and made 8 QSO’s in 30 minutes. We had a lot of people passing who were very interested, so we had some explaining to do 😉

Activation of FL/VL-070

We are now close to Bourbon-Lancy, only 8km from Signal de Mont. This evening I left the campsite around 19:00 local time for a 8km bicycle trip.There is a road straight to a parking area close to the summit.

But … I had to walk the last 900 meters along my bicycle because it was simply to steep. At the top of the road there is a picnic area where I set up my station, about 10 meters below the actual summit.

Propagation wasn’t great, it took more than 30 minutes to get 9 QSO’s in the log with my QRP station. Great to work Jim, SV8ANW from Evia Island. We had a 10 minute QSO before I packed up.

The NTC QSO party from Spain, EA/PG4I

A few days before the QSO party we arrived in Llanes on the north coast of Spain. I brought along a small trusdx transceiver (QRP-5W), a palm mini paddle and a loaded vertical for 40 meters with 2 radials on a 12m Spiderbeam pole. 45 minutes before the QSO party I set up my station. Made a first QSO with SM/DL3JJ/P from near Stockholm and almost worked a OZ station but QSB was to strong. Then I did a quick CQ which showed RBN spots from PA, DL, F, G and CT. So things were looking good!

At 19:00 UTC the skies darkened and I needed to take a break because of the rain coming in. Then a first QSO at 19:08 with Dali OK2BVX, 559 reports. In the next 50 minutes I contacted 6 Dutch stations: Frank PA7F, Theo PA3HEN, Rene PA3GPX, Carel PA0CMU, Marcel PA3HEB and Wim PA0VAM. Also worked Andy DK9HE from France and Vanni I5ECW, being my last QSO. The QSOs with Marcel and Wim took a while to complete because of my weak signal. 9 contacts in total, I was surprised that it worked so well!

Evening activation of Everdingerwaard PAFF-0261

Purpose of this activation was to test a loaded 40 meter vertical of 7 meters long with 2 radials on a 10 meter Spiderbeam pole. I also brought a 5-band trusdx transceiver, being curious how it would behave on a band with strong signals.

PAFF-0261 at the river Lek

I was QRV around 18 UTC for 45 minutes and called CQ all of the time with about 5 Watts output. The results: 23 contacts with OM1AX being the best DX at 1050 km. One 2-way QRP QSO with HB9DAX and a park2park QSO with SP2BMX. Experiment successful!

 

Second SOTA activation by bicycle, 2 summits!

 From my home town it's a long way to ON/ON-28, Terril Waterschei (199 m). I stayed overnight in Lommel with friends and arrived 11 in the morning the next day close to the summit at the Genk soccer stadium, where I parked my bicycle. From there it is about a one hour hike to the summit, the last bit very steep...

It's quite a challenge putting up an antenna here. There's not much room and being very windy I did not want to extend the mast to it's full length. Also, no way to attach the radials...

Great views from up here! I could make 20 QSO's in about 30 minutes. Great to work K4DY, he gave me a 529 report.

After staying overnight in Genk, I arrived at D'n Observant (170 m) around 11 the next morning. This is a very touristy spot, lot's of hikers, bikers and runners. I could ride my bicycle all the way up to the top.

27 QSO's in the log after one hour, all from the east for some reason. Maybe because I set up my vertical at the eastern side of the summit?

From here it's only a 30 minute ride to the train station of Maastricht, where I took the train home. It's been a great 3 days, biking and hiking brings something special doing SOTA!

First mobile radio bicycle trip

I took my mobile radio setup out for a 30 minute ride along the river. On the bicycle rack a loaded vertical for 20 meters is installed, 2.6 meters long.

The rig is a (tr)uSDR working on 3 lithium-ion batteries. Have been using a Palm mini paddle attached to a metal plate with magnets.

Operating CW this way wasn't easy, lots of errors. The paddles were up to high and would move around, the magnets are just not strong enough. Also, could not keep my right hand at the handle bar, so driving was very slow... Taking notes was difficult as you can see from my handwriting 😆

After a long CQ I got a reply from UW5FA and a 579 report, not bad! Below is a screenshot from the reversebeacon network. Good coverage! 

Several more tries will be needed for a setup that will work. Stay tuned!

PAFF-0234, Lingezegen

On my way from the SOTA activation to a family visit I passed Lingezegen, a large park between Arnhem and Nijmegen. I found a nice spot at a picknick bench surrounded by hedges.

After 30 minutes into the activation the skies darkened and temperatures dropped seriously. Propagation wasn't great also. I tried another 30 minutes and then packed up, it got to cold. Plenty of P2P QSO's with OK7DA/P, OH2NBC/P, HB9CBR/P, DL4FDM/P and F6KEX/P, all on 30 meters. One nice DX QSO with NK2S on 20. Only 28 QSO's in the log but great fun!

First SOTA close to home

From my home town it is a nice bicycle trip along the river Rhine towards Arnhem, a 50 km ride. From the outskirts of Arnhem it is less then one hour to Signaal Imbosch, the highest point in the national park Veluwezoom at 101 meters.

Close to the summit my path got blocked by a couple of dangerous looking Scottish highlanders, but they were quite relaxed and I saw several bikers passing them.

The last stretch I had to push my bike through the sand and up a steep path. The summit marker was easy to find and was enough space between the trees to put up my 20/30m vertical.

Good propagation and 61 QSO'S in the log after one hour. It may have helped that my activation was both valid for SOTA and WWFF. Equipment: QMX mini and a 30 Watt amplifier. Have been using a Palm mini paddle.

2 PAFF activations on one day: Mariënwaerdt and Loevestein

It's March 20 and another sunny day with above normal temperatures. This will be my first attempt to activate 2 parks on one day by bicycle. From Culemborg it's only a 10 minute ride to the Zeedijk. From here a couple of paths run across the water to nature reserve of Mariënwaerdt (PAFF-0266, new area). Walking along my bike I arrived at a large pasture where I set up my station.

It took some effort to make the required 44 contacts but I had a nice QSO with KD1CT on 30 meters and a P2P QSO with OK3DM.

From the Zeedijk it is a 30 km trip to Loevestein, PAFF-0135. I found a great spot along the river Waal with a direct view of the 14th century castle. 

Propagation was better here and being close to the river also helped. I made a nice DX QSO with KG8P in Michigan and two P2P QSO's. The final contact was a rag-chew with Stew GW0ETF who was camping on an island at the Welsh coast, Ramsey island EU-124. Around 5 o'clock in the afternoon I arrived home, tired but satisfied.