Today was activity contest day again – this time the destination was the Tischberg (OE/NO-200) at 1063 m above sea level, in JN78io. Tischberg – OE/NO-200
After a week of coughing and a runny nose it was finally time for some radio again. I was accompanied by Tobias, OE5OBI, who kindly volunteered as a porter. 😉
As usual I started on the 2 m band. Conditions were not exceptional, but perfectly decent. In the end there were just over 40 QSOs in the log – enough to be happy with for a start.
After that I moved briefly to 70 cm. The yield there was rather modest with just five QSOs, so I decided to try something new. I asked Christian, OE5BCG, whether we could give 6 m a go.
About 15 minutes of rebuilding later the Hentenna was finally up. At first I was puzzled by a strange signal in the waterfall – until I spotted the mistake: the connector was not properly tightened. As soon as that was fixed, Christian was already audible on 50.150 MHz: 59 – that worked really well!
I briefly told him about the modifications I had made to my IC-705 for contest operation, then I went hunting for more stations.
I heard a station from 9A and another one from S5. Unfortunately my 10 watts were probably a little too little power to get through. Then a very faint M0 station became audible. The signal kept improving and eventually I was able to identify M0RDX. Sadly no QSO came about here either.
So I started calling CQ myself. For what felt like ten minutes I called CQ on 50.160 MHz and also spotted myself for SOTA – but at first: no answer.
Then I briefly heard Jörg, DG0JMB. Unfortunately he could not copy me either. And then suddenly: 59+60 – G8BCG!
Wonderful!
My first Sporadic-E QSO from a summit. I was genuinely amazed at how well it worked. Naturally I had to tell OE5BCG right away: his callsign namesake was on the air!
Shortly afterwards I heard in the speaker: “… what a nice prefix …”
That is when I knew: Christian was in the log as well.
What a lovely birthday present! 🎂📻
A really successful activity contest with plenty of nice QSOs, a small technical adventure and, for me, a very special highlight on 6 m.
Thanks for a great day!
73
Michael
