LA/OS-003 Tryvannshøgda

 

Now, it has been many months without any SOTA activations. Fun to be back on a summit. LA/OLS-003 must be the most easy “winter-bonus friendly” summit in LA.

Today, I had a short activation before work. I started around 07:00 UTC on 40 meter SSB. Ten minutes later, only one QSO was in the log. Was it a little early for the SSB chasers, perhaps? Anyway, I QSYed to CW on 40 meter, and 18 stations from 10 DXCCs were logged in a relatively short time. It was then time to go QRT, and then go to work.

DXCC: DL, EA, F, G, OK, ON, SM, SP, SV, 9A.

LB/OL-002 Larvehei

I took a little hike to a nearby summit from my cabin. It’s within walking distance. However, it doesn’t fulfill the primary-factor requirement for neither SOTA nor HEMA. Fortunately, it can be activated under the Global Mountain Activity (GMA) program.

The weather could definitely have been better; it was a cold wind, cloudy, and a little fog from time to time. I tried to call on 40 meter CW. One QSO came in the log. I then tried 40 meter SSB with no success. The conds weren’t good enough for QRP SSB on 40 meter. I the QSYed to 30 meter, and 5 QSOs were logged. When all chasers were worked on 30, I went QRT. It was still quite cold, so I didn’t try to make any calls on 20 meter. Hopefully next time…

DXCC: DL, OK.

LA/OL-067 Blåhøe

I have for some time wanted to activate LA/OL-067 Blåhøe (called so in Vågå, Jetta is its name in Dovre). Pictures I’ve seen show a magnificent view of the valley and nearby mountains. Today, I had a chance. However, the weather did not collaborate. It was foggy, more or less no visibility, cold (temperature around 1 C), and a freezing and icing wind (after my 40-45 minutes long activation, it was 2-4 mm ice around the antenna wire). So, I really need to come back on a nice summer day.

The antenna was quickly erected, and I was soon QRV. The conds on 20 meter was quite good. Total 23 QSOs, 10 on CW, 13 on SSB. Due to the cold and unpleasant weather, I did not try any other HF band. However, I had brought with me a vertical dipole for 2 meter with a hope to achieve a QSO or two on that band. But it ended as usual, no replies. SOTA activations on VHF or higher in LA is waste of time.

DXCC: DL, EA, F, HB9, IS, OE, OK, S5, UA0, YO.

LB/OS-001 Grønliåsen

 

On September 7, I participated in the first hour of the 2 meter activation test. The conds were not great, and my 50 Watts and a 3 el yagi was insufficient. Nevertheless it was fun to be out and participate. I ended up with 6 QSOs, all from LA.

LA/RL-102 Rossåsen

 

Also this year I had the opportunity to activate a summit on our family vacation in Rogaland. I had to choose the easiest summit from Sandnes, which most probably is Rossåsen. It was almost “same procedure as last year”.  I parked at N 58.7800 E 005.8127, and walked the few hundred meters up to the summit. There, I discovered that my linked dipole had broken. Instead of trying to fix it, I used a wire-GP for 20 meter, which – together with the HB-1B – worked very well. I ended up with 24 QSOs from 11 DXCCs in the log, all CW.

DXCC: DL, EA, EI, F, G, HB9, S5, SP, UA, W, YU.

LA/OL-184 Kvitberget

Kvitberget was the last activation this weekend, and in fact my 11th visit on this summit. The weather had improved, and the temperature was 23C, ant it was a very pleasant stay at the summit. Moreover, the conditions were still excellent. 40 stations from 14 DXCCs (12 CW, 28 SSB) were logged. Among them were 12 S2S and 3 FF-areas. All QSOs on 20 meter.

DXCC: DL, EA, EI, F, G, HB9, LA, OE, OK, OM, ON, UA0, Z3, 9A.

LA/OL-181 Feforkampen

This was the first summit on the second day, and my 11th visit on the summit. The weather was partly cloudy and a few rain drops, and the temperature of 20C. Excellent conditions, and 22 stations from 13 DXCCs were logged (7 CW, 15 SSB), 3 S2S. All on 20 meter.

DXCC: CT, DL, EA, F, G, HB9, I, LA, OK, ON, SP, UR, W.