Mount Everest Award

Today I received my Mount Everest Award by e-mail!

To achieve this award you need to activate summits with the accumulated height of 17696 meters during a 365-day period. This is twice the heigth of Mt Everest.

You can read more about the award here.
List of award holders can be found here.

LA/TM-049 Holtankollen

Another trip to Holtankollen. I would say the snow is almost a meter deep some places and I struggled a lot on my way up. I used 50 minutes today and I normally use 10 - 12 minutes! I started at 80m and worked Hans-Petter (LA6GOA). At 40m I worked 5 stations before my first battery pack went flat. I changed to the other pack and managed 5 more contacts before that one died as well. I normally bring a chemical hand warmer to warm the batteries but I had left it at home today. I also worked Hans-Petter (LA6GOA/P) and Kjell (LA1KHA/M) on 2m before heading home.

Sorry about my sudden qrt!

Thanks to the chasers and to Mike (GW0DSP) for spotting.

3.6MHz: 1 qso
7MHz: 10 qsos
145MHz: 2 qsos

DXCCs: DL, G, GW, LA

Chart_log.exe

I have been playing with a piece of software called Chart_log.exe written by Alain (F6ENO). The program is used to visualise your sota log files, either activator or chaser. I had to change the Regional Settings of my computer to English UK to get it to work.

Nice tool Alain!


The software can be downloaded here

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Aage (LA1ENA) and myself have started playing with SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data to verify the LA/TM summits and if possible find some more. We have already found quit a few new SOTA summits in LA/TM (Telemark County), LA/BU (Buskerud County) and LA/VF (Vestfold County). We will continue the search.

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

LA/TM-049 Holtankollen

Tonight my XYL and myself decided to go for a walk to Holtankollen. Just two contacts but that's OK cause I've already qualified Holtankollen this year. First I talked to Hans-Petter (LA6GOA) and later I had a chat with Kjell (LA1KHA/M). It was -2° and snowing lightly.

145MHz: 2 qsos

DXCCs: LA

60m activity

Today Norwegian Radio Relay League announced that in the new proposed regulations for radio amateurs Norwegians are given permission to work on the 60m band! Hopefully these regulations will be adopted this spring already!

LA/TM-047 Brånaåsen

My second trip to Brånaåsen. This time I brought my skis. I started at 40m and worked 8 stations. On 20m I only manged to work two 9A stations. I couldn't get any contacts on 80m even though I called for a while. On 2m I had one S2S contact with Hans-Petter (LA6GOA/P).

7MHz: 8 qsos
14MHz: 2 qsos
3.6MHz: 0 qsos
145MHz: 1 qso
S2S: LA6GOA/P on Holtankollen LA/TM-049


DXCCs: G, GW, MM, 9A, DL, LA

LA/TM-049 Holtankollen

I was talking to Hans-Petter (LA6GOA) on the radio tonight and he mentioned that he was going to go for a walk. I suggested that we could team up and activate Holtankollen on 2m handies and so we did. Both of us was wearing head torches. Both of us worked 5 local contacts each.

Congratulations to Hans-Petter for qualifying his first summit!

Thanks to all the chasers!

145MHz: 5 qsos
DXCCs: LA

LA/OS-003 Tryvannshøgda

During my trip to Oslo today I got the chance to do a quick detour to activate LA/OS-003 near the famous ski jump Holmenkollen. I was active for only 10 minutes and worked 7 contacts. I used the PAC-12 antenna and received rather poor reports from all the chasers. When packing up the antenna I found out that a screw was missing from one of the joints. That might explain some of the poor performance.

Thanks to the chasers!

7MHz: 7 qsos

DXCCs: G, DL, GM, HB9

http://www.pacificantenna.com/

LA/TM-049 Holtankollen

Another trip to Holtankollen, my local equivalent to The Cloud. I brought my doublet today to try some 80m activity. Started at 20m with no luck at all. QSYed to 7.125MHz and did 11 contacts in 11 minutes. Then I tried some calls on 3.657.5MHz and got 2 contacts, SM6CMU and LA9IAA. Back on 14.285MHZ I managed to work EI7CC. I monitored 145.550MHz FM while packing up my gear and was called by Kjell (LA1KHA/M) and Hans-Petter (LA6GOA/M).

Photo shows the tower which I've now learned is some sort of trig point, not a fire watch tower.

Thanks to all the chasers!

145MHz: 2 qsos
14MHz: 1 qso
7MHz: 11 qsos
3.6MHz: 2 qsos

DXCCs: GW, G, DL, GM, ON, OE, SM, EI, LA

LA/TM-032 Ramsås

Hans-Petter (LA6GOA) and I took a trip to Ramsås today. I brought my 2*13,4m doublet to try some 80m activation. We started at 7.125MHZ and had 12 contacts before the frequency turned rather quiet. We QSYed to 3.657.5MHz and called CQ sota and CQ 80 for a while with no answers.

We were also monitoring 145.550MHz FM and could hear Kjell (LA1KHA/M) trying to call us. He was not able to hear my answer so I called him from my cell phone. He had been listening for us on 80m but could not hear us at all! I looked at my gear and found out that on side of the 300 ohm feeder had jumped off the balun terminal and shorted to ground. That's probably why 40m went quiet and that we couldn't get any contacts on 80m :-(

After fixing the problem both LA6GOA and myself had a quick chat with Kjell om 7.125MHz before packing up our gear. We signed the visitor book before heading home.

Thanks to all the chasers!

7MHz: 13 qsos

DXCCs: G, HB9, DL, ON, GW, OK, LA

LA/TM-013 Vestre Vealøs

Sissel, my XYL joined me on my trip to Vestre Vealøs today. We walked the path from the old ski jump. At the summit it was about -5° and very windy. I had alerted for 14MHz and 7MHz but chose to only work 40m due to the wind. After 13 contacts I aborted the activation even though I heard more chasers calling. Sorry to those who didn't manage to work me.

On our way back we stopped for a break. We lit a fire and had hot dogs for lunch!

7MHz: 13 qsos

DXCCs: G, DL, ON, HB9, OK, GM

LA/TM-015 Geitebuvarden

This morning I headed towards Geitebuvarden again. I started to call cq on 14.285MHz after self spotting on sotawatch. After some time with no answers I QSYed to 7.127.5MHZ. I had 22 contacts on 40m before going back to 20m but still no answers.

I did my activation on the highest point before I walked the 400m to the wooden cairn where the video was taken.

BTW: This activation gave me the extra points I needed to reach my 100 activation points.

14MHz: 0 qsos
7MHz: 22 qsos
DXCCs: G, GW, DL, 9A, OE, OK, S5, PA, EI

International SOTA day / weekend?

Sean M0GIA has suggested having an International SOTA day or weekend. I think this is a great idea. You can read more about it on the sotawatch reflector:

Reflector :: International SOTA day / weekend?

LA/TM-010 Skrehelle

Another trip to Skrehelle. Today the sun was shining and while there was -7° when I left home I guess there was about -4° at the summit. I knew Lutz was active on DM/RP-073 and I chased him on 40m before starting my own activation.

I self spotted on 14.300MHz but another station started to call on the frequency so I moved to 14.297.5MHz. After 13 contacts on 20m I took a short break to drink my hot Swedish Blueberry Soup (Blåbærsoppa) and moved to 7.055MHz. I had 16 contacts on 40m before I moved to 18.161MHz. I had no contacts on this band.

14MHz: 13 qsos
7MHz: 17 qsos
18MHz: 0 qsos
S2S: 1 qso (Thanks Lutz!)

DXCCs: DL, S5, F, OE, HA, I, G, EA8, 9A, UR, OH, ON, LA