LA/OL-085 Prestkampen

I had the opportunity to activate Prestkampen on September 30. As usual, I parked at Gammeldalen, around 2.6 km away from and some 300 meters below the summit.

This year, I used my HB-1B and a linked dipole (BandHopper III). I had my family with me, and thus it had to be a relatively short activation (SOTA is boring for non-HAMs…). Nevertheless, the activation resulted in 15 QSOs from 8 DXCCs in a relatively short time.

DXCCs: DL, F, OE, ON, SM, SP, UA, 9A.

LA/OL-085 Prestkampen

On October 2 I once again visited LA/OL-085 Prestkampen. It was slightly more than 4 years since the last time. I parked at Gamledalen (the last part is toll road, fee NOK 40).

It was very windy. A strong gale simply made it impossible for me alone to erect any pole and dipole. I thus used my MP-1 instead.

The schools have their autumn vacation this week, and many people were hiking. Prestkampen is the highest summit in this area, and thus a popular destination. On the summit itself, it was in periods crowded. I started the activation in one of these periods, and it was therefore most convenient to start with CW on 20 meter. In a short time, 16 QSOs (and among them 3 S2S) were in the log. Since it so far has only been made CW QSOs from the summit (in the SOTA program), I decided to also offer SSB for the chasers. However, after an initial spotting and 10 minutes of calling, no QSO was made! I have no idea why. The most likely reason is perhaps due to the heavy wind. This could have added to much noise to the signal. I then QSYed to 30 meter, and worked 6 more QSOs before I went QRT. The wind made it simply too cold to stay at the summit any longer! So therefore, non-CW QSOs are still to be made!

DXCCs: DL, EA, F, G, HB9, OE, OK, OM, PA, W.