Lifjellet, LA/RL-010

Lifjellet (or actually a summit close to it) was activated in the evening on July 12. It is relatively easily reached from Hommersåk, a small village in Sandenes municipality. Most of the hike is on a road; only the last 80-90 meters of climbing is quite steep.

This evening I was accompanied with am infinite number of flies and - even worse - gnats, which made the activation unpleasant. In addition, the center of the coax between the antenna tuner and the transceiver was (partly) broken. I first tried calls on 20 meter SSB and 40 meter SSB without noticing the coax problems. After, QSYing to 30 meter I realizing that something was terrible wrong. However, by holding the paddle between the knees and using one hand for the coax connection, it was possible to work 6 QSOs before the gnat attacks were too intense.

DXCCs: 5S, 9A, G, HB9, I.

Mastravarden, LA/RL-022

Today, Mastravarden was activated. It is the highest peak on Mosterøy island, which in fact is also an island valid for IOTA. Mosterøy is easely reached within a 20 minute drive from Stavanger. At Haugvaldstad (a kilometer or so from the Utstein Kloster Hotel), it is a parking place, from which Stavanger Turistforening has put red sticks into the ground which leads to the summit. The distance from the parking place to the summit is most likely slighly more than one kilometer. The view from the summit is really tremendeous.

At the summit it is a guestbook, and 100 visits to the summit qualifies to an award. An award can also be avhieved by being at the summit at 04:45 am at least 5 times within a year (for watching the dawn).

I started to work at 30 meter. It was quite much QRM, but 12 stations from 7 DXCC contries were worked. Next, I QSYed first to 14.285 MHz, then to 7.118 MHz (both SSB), and finally to 2 meter FM, but nothing was worked.

DXCCs: 9A, DL, EI, GW, HA, HB9, ON.