LA/TM-064 Ørnenuten

This day did not start very well as I discovered that I was not able to open sotawatch. I drove to Svanstul where I parked my car. The thermometer in the car showed -15°C. I put on my skis and headed towards the summit. It was a lovely, sunny day but freezing cold!

After rigging up the antenna and radio on the summit I discovered that sotawatch was back online and noticed that Steve GM1INK/P was qrv from GM/SS-018. He answered me after a few calls. I then searched for a usable frequency and found it on 7.160MHz. After my first cqs I heard G0BPU answer me but when I tried to get back to him my FT-817 shut down. I turned it back on but the same happened over and over. My first guess was the power line from my battery pack so I cut the wire and tried a temporary field repair with tape. This did not help at all. I then tried to turn down the power to 2.5W and this worked. I managed to work a few more stations before I shut down my radio. Next time I will bring a 7.2Ah SLAB as it looks like the NiMHs are not usable in cold weather even though I tried to warm them with chemical hand warmers.

Thanks to G4OBK who held the frequency during my TX problems and also updated the chasers via sotawatch.


7MHz: 7 qsos
145MHz: 1 qso

DXCCs: GM, G, DL, LA

Edit:
Parking spot: Svanstul
Road fee: 50 nok (Credit Card only)