I went today (27th of March) with my faithful SOTA companion, Hawk the dog, to activate ON-021, Plantis de Mesnil. It’s not difficult to find or a long walk from the road, it’s quite an easy activation. However the bands were quiet when I listened into 40m and 20m but I decided that 40m would probably be a bit better as there seemed a little more activity.

I have recently got a Palm paddle but I’m afraid I’m not so good with it making quite a few mistakes (I’m still transitioning from a straight key to the paddle). People seemed to understand and do their best plus sitting on the ground my leg kept falling asleep.

Using my YouKits HB-1B and the SOTABeams bandspringer I made four contacts. I would have liked to make more but the bands did seem quiet to me, maybe it was the location? Still I managed to activate the summit.

It was a really nice warm spring day. A local forest guard came along and asked lots of questions, he seemed quite interested in what I was up to. He wished me good luck and went on his way as up to that point I only had one contact. All contacts were in CW and on 7.018,00 5w :

• IK1NAP Gio  –  559
• DF7XR Fritz  –  559
• F8FXA Fred   –  599
• EI3IK Brian   –  449

We also visited Givet for a short walk on the way home. Were Hawk shows he’s a dog that likes to rock.

Monday is my day off, yes I get to start the week with a day off! I have been interested in portable work for sometime now and was out and about several times last year experimenting. Myself and my son (ON3TCP) went out recently to a local wood where we set up and contacted several stations  on SSB, one being 5B4VL on 18.126,00 which is not bad with a Yaesu FT817 and a SOTA Beams Band Springer. I have several portable rigs, the FT817, a YouKits HB-1B and two MFJ Cubs (which I put together myself from kits) for the 40m and 80m bands.

This day started out quite sunny as I packed the car after walking the dog in the morning. This was my first SOTA activation and I thought it best to find a summit close to where I live and not too difficult to get to. I had investigated ON-021 Plantis de Mesnil but there are currently road works on the road leading to it and a diversion in place so it was off to La Croix Scaille. I took my dog, Hawk who is a Malamute with me for company but he just made a small depression in the ground and lay it all afternoon. We were not very early leaving either but I thought that did not matter too much as we had just an hours drive through the Belgian and French countryside to get there.

After arriving I decided to have a look around, climb the tower which is open now to the public (last time I visited it was closed). It’s quite a view from on top and the structure sways slightly in the wind 🙂 The is a magnificent view from the top and gives access to several repeaters on VHF and UHF in Belgium (ideal for announcing your presence).

After coming back down I set up on a pic knick table next to the tower using my SOTA beams Band Springer and the FT 817 but after calling for quite sometime on 40m and 20m I had not contacts in spite the 20m band being open to the States. So I got out my HB-1B and switched to CW. The first time I called CQ SOTA in CW I got a reply from LZ3SM, just proves the point about the superiority of CW really. So hear is the list of contacts all made using CW, all times UTC:

1. 13:15 LZ3SM 14.040 received 559
2. 13:20 OH3GZ 14.040 received 599
3. 14:15 DL7MA 7.033 received 559
4. 14:30 G4ZIB 7.033 received 559
5. 14:33 DJ2MX 7.033 received 559

By about 3:45 in the afternoon local time I was getting cold as the sun had disappeared to be replaced by clouds. My hand was a little cold on the key too making things difficult so I decided it was time to pack up and head home. I was really pleased with the afternoon, it was fun and even the dog enjoyed himself. During our time there we saw a few people and a bus load of kids on as chool trip, have no idea what they thought of the crazy guy tapping away on a Morse key with a large antenna next to him 🙂 Here are a few photos of the day.