SOTA activation FL/VO-066 Le Rondfaing

A SOTA activation in the Vogese montains on midsummer day

When we found out the location of this year’s meeting of adult educators, it was obvious to search the SOTA database. Lo and behold, according to the digital map, “Le Rondfaing” was less than 3 km away from our conference venue, and the 160 m difference in altitude should also be manageable.

My friend and colleague Norbert spontaneously decided to come along to experience first-hand what I find so fascinating about this hobby. After 45 minutes we reached “Le Rondfaing” and were rewarded with a wonderful panoramic view.

The station was quickly set up – but my good old 10 m fiberglass mast lost 2 m in height due to breakage. After all, it is almost 15 years old and has been subjected to a lot of wear and tear. But a height of 8 m was sufficient for the central suspension of my 40/20/10m dipole. The radio operation started with my reply to the CQ call from Ingo, DH5ST/P, who was on DM/HE-044 (Kalte Herberge). A nice surprise to start with S2S right away.

During the QSO, several interested hikers gathered, who were informed by Norbert in the very best adult education manner about what the funny guy was doing. That was a great help! As it turned out, the summit is also a kind of main crossroads for several paths. I would take this into account when reactivating and certainly not set off without Norbert.

After the QSO with Ingo I sent a spot and in the next 20 minutes I was able to log a dozen more QSOs. Many thanks to all of you! And Norbert may have caught the radio virus. Let’s wait and see.