LA/OL-184 Kvitberget

On June 30, I had time to do two activations. The second one was LA/OL-184 Kvitberget. This was my fourth activation of this summit.

I started the activation on 20 meter. In 30 minutes, I had worked all 17 chasers. Also on this summit it had started to rain, right now quite heavely. I therefore decided to go QRT rather than QSYing to another band.

DXCC: CU, DL, F, G, HB9, OE, OK, ON, PA, SP.

LA/OL-181 Feforkampen

On June 30, I had time to do two activations. The first one was LA/OL-181 Feforkampen. This was my third activation of this summit.

I started the activation on 20 meter. In slightly more than 30 minutes, I had worked all 27 chasers. It had started to rain, and therefore I decided to go QRT rather than QSYing to another band.

DXCC: CU, DL, EA, EU, F, G, GM, HB9, OE, OK, ON, SP, S5.

LA/OL-308 Kidliknappen

I visited LA/OL-308 Kidliknappen for the first time on June 29. I parked at N 61 21.42, E 010 11.92. From the parking it was easy to find the summit. The last part of the road was a toll road (fee: NOK 50), and the last part of the road was in a more than terrible condition. Fortunately, the car was not damaged.

At the summit I put up the linked dipole, and started to call on 20 meter. 12 QSOs were logged. Then, I QSYed to 30 meter, and 16 more QSOs were logged.

DXCCs: DL, EA, F, G, GM, HB9, OK, OM, ON, SP.

LA/AH-008 Gåsebrenna

Gåsebrenna was activated for the first time today. As far as I could see, there are no trail leading to the summit. However, that doesn't make it difficult to reach. I parked at N 59 58.241, E 011 28.435. Then it is around 2 km walk to the summit. I followed a forest road until a road cross at N 59 58.714, E 011 28.098, and then picked out the direction and headed for the summit.

The weather was fine; sunshine, little wind, and temperature more than 20C. However, the activation was rather unpleasant. I was accompanied with a tremendous number of gnats!! I managed to stay there for about an hour, but then I had to make a quick return to my car. The gnat attacks were simply too intense.

I brought with me both a linked dipole and the MP-1. The plan was to try to make some comparisons between these antennas. Due to the gnats, this project is postponed...

I used the linked dipole on 20 meter (CW/SSB) and 30 meter (CW). I did also try to call on 12 meter using the MP-1, but the conditions was too poor. The result of the activation was 33 QSOs, among then 2 S2S.

DXCCs: CU, DL, EA, F, G, HA, HB9, OK, OM, ON, PA, S5.

LA/AH-015 Vardehøgda

Today, I visited Vardehøgda. I followed a suggestion from Turistforeningen, and parked at Svangerud, N 60 15.88, E 011 14.32. From Svangerud it is around 2.5 km to walk; first on a forest road, and then on a clearly marked trail. It was very easy to reach the summit.

At the summit, I mounted my MP-1, and start calling on 20 meter. 35 minutes and 28 QSOs later (one of them was a S2S), it was time to investigate other bands. I realized that 12 meter was open. Unfortunately, no QSOs were obtained (even though I was spotted through the RBN). I then QSYed to 30 meter and worked four QSOs. Finally I QSYed to 40 meter and worked two stations, both S2S. Fascinating that such a small antenna works reasonably well on 40 meter :). Before returning to my car, I climbed up in a tower at the summit, and tried to make some QSOs on 2 meter and 70 cm with no success.

DXCCs: CT, EA, DL, F, G, GM, HA, HB9, OH, OK, OM, SP.

LA/AH-016 Holterkollen

Earlier today I visited Holterkollen. Since WWII a lots of cabins have been built in this area. One of the cabins is in fact only 40-50 meters from the summit. Due to all the cabins, a good forest road exists all the way up to the summit (well, except for the last 75-100 meters or so). However, the road is closed for public traffic. Thus, one has to go from a small parking lot near the start of the forest road. The parking is around 260 meter below and 2.5 km away from the summit.

Also today I used my FT-817 and the MP-1 antenna.

I started the activation on 20 meter. The conditions were quite OK, and 22 QSOs were achieved. I then QSYed to 12 meter (which was closed), then to 15 meters (which was open, but with no replies), and then to 30 meter. On 30 meter 10 stations were worked. Afterwards, I made some CQs on 40 meter, which resulted in two QSOs. Finally, I had a nice QSO with LA4PGA on 2 meter. It's not very often I achieve any QSOs on that band!!

On my way back to the car, I met LA1GPA, who was on his way to the summit. This was in fact my first SOTA eye-ball QSO!

DXCCs: CT, DL, EA, EU, F, G, GW, HB9, I, LA, OK, OM, ON, OZ, SP.

LA/OF-002 Tremannsrøset

Tremannsrøset (probably better known as Buråsen) is new summit in Østfold, and I had the opportunity to activate it on April 16. I parked at N 59 21.65, E 011 08.70. As far as I have found out, there are no trails to the summit. Based on some information I found on the net, I chose to walk a forest road to Pommen. From there, it is around a 650 meter long walk to the north. The summit is easily found.

The equipment used was my FT-871 and the MP-1 antenna. As usual, I started on 20 meter, and 14 QSOs were obtained. I then made some calls on 12 meter (both on CW and SSB), but no stations were worked (despite the band was open). Finally I made a call on 30 meter and worked 3 more stations. As usual, no QSOs were obtained neither on 2 meter nor 70 cm (only some invalid repeater QSOs).

DXCCs: DL, EU, F, G, HA, HB9, OE, OM, ON.

PS. If you have time, there are a few geocaches in the area.