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Looking back at 2021, apparently the pandemic took a toll on our SOTA activity, having activated 23 summits, a fraction of the more prolific numbers of the past.
By far, the best summits of the year had to be YO/EC-137 (Bâtca Tătărcii) and YO/EC-004 (Toroiaga) in May, on which we had our eyes for quite some time, but YO/EC-005 (Toaca), YO/EC-065 (Pietrosu), YO/EC-080 (Scăricica) and YO/EC-104 (Lespezi) were noteworthy as well. First off, August was pretty hot. Still, after a long hiatus, we started doing SOTA activations again. We began in July with only two (best one was on Magura Domesnic, great scenery!), but we did even more in August. Andrei, having some time off, activated a few summits alone (13 in total), while I managed only 5.
Last activation in August was Cearcanul - you can read more about it, see the pics and the GPS track here. On the 16th we participated in the 6th Stage of YO VHF/UHF Marathon and got the ODX with a confirmed contact at 677 kilometers (in 2m). On the 29th we participated in the YO HF DX contest with poor results. The extended team (working on two rigs) was YO8AZQ, YO8TLC, YO8SST (rig1, 7MHz, SSB and CW) and YO8AGA, YO8SSQ, YO8SBR (rig2, 14MHz, SSB only). Contest site was set in a copse on the outskirts of Suceava. We've found a better route to the top, much easier and probably quicker. Also, we've found out that the hill is actually named Zigreva. Chicera Neagra is a different hill, nearby, but lower and thus not a valid SOTA summit. The GPS track - http://www.wandermap.net/en/route/3611955-chicera-neagra-v2-ec-572/ . A short video taken during the activation. Since June 2019, we started to participate in the national VHF/UHF contest. It's a new and exciting ham activity for us. As per usual, the whole thing was Andrei's idea. He did the research and gradually made better antennas and improved our overall set-up. I did the log sheets :D Yay! For the 3rd round of the YO VHF/UHF Marathon (in June) we've operated while on a SOTA trip, so we weren't exactly prepared for the contest. The number of QSO's clearly reflects that, but it was enough to spark our interest and formulate a better plan for the next month's round. In July we were ready to give it another go. This time we dedicated the day for the contest, no SOTA or mushroom picking. Andrei made a brand new 5 element Yagi antenna based on a design by DK7ZB. For the location we chose a hill some 20km outside the city. Shade and ease of access were the main requirements in choosing the spot. We used the FT-857D with 40W from a LiFePo4 battery. We were three operators this time, YO8SSQ, YO8AGA and YO8SBR, all /P, and we passed the mic from one another between contacts. It went OK, managing about 10 contacts each. Longest QRB for me was 487km (check the QSO map here). Come August, Andrei and I participated in the 5th round of the YO USW Marathon. For this round Andrei built a new antenna, this time a 6 el. Yagi with better gain. We chose a different, higher and more open spot, but still near the site we used in July. Besides the antenna, the rest of the equipment remained unchanged. We made more contacts this time, Andrei "bagging" 18, one more than myself. My longest QRB (at the moment unconfirmed) was 676km (check the contacts map for YO8SBR/P). I personally expected more contacts with YO stations, but for some reason that wasn't the case. Even though there were some stations from Poland working in the contest, we couldn't hear them at all. Also, too bad Ukraine is absent from these contests, I'd expect some nice contacts with them. In all rounds we worked mainly on 2m (144MHz) and only made minimal contacts on 70cm. Hopefully September's round will find us in good health and good weather. Can't wait! :D Here are some useful links: 1. The YO (Romanian) Ultra Short Wave "headquarters" - http://uus.ro 2. Online EDI generator - http://ok2kjt.net/edi/ 3. EDI Map Visualizer for logs - http://www.opencontest.org/edi/ 4. An interesting article about troposcatter / USW propagation - https://www.qsl.net/oz1rh/troposcatter99/troposcatter99.htm 5. More info on troposcatter (PDF) - https://www.comtechsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Troposcatter-Introduction-Nov-2013.pdf 6. Earth Curve Calculator ... for fun - https://dizzib.github.io/earth/curve-calc/?d0=100&h0=2&unit=metric 7. Tropospheric Ducting Forecast - http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html . Just published a new short activity report for Hasmasul Negru.
Big Thanks! to our chasers on 2 and 40m: YO3IXW/P YO6BZL YO6CFB YO6OZN YO8AZQ/P YO8SST/P YO8SFF/P SV2HJW You can read about our muddy adventures here. Chasers: Thanks for waiting and sorry for being late, muddy conditions and a flat tire hampered our progress.
Check the activity report and video here.
Many thanks to our chasers:
I (YO8SBR) look at mountain hiking in the temperate region, Romania - especially for SOTA - as a two season business. One season with liquid precipitation and the other with solid precipitation. I'll try to list the pros and cons of each:
My main concerns with summer trips are ticks and lightning strikes, then dogs and sunburn and then rain itself. In winter most of these problems disappear, but are replaced by others like freezing temperatures and extra equipment to carry. Still, as I put everything in balance, I prefer winter SOTA expeditions on Romanian ground (could be a very different story when talking about other regions, as altitude and position on globe can have a big impact on temperatures and weather).
As for the bears, in Romania they sometimes don't hibernate at all, so you can bump into them in any season. I think spring is the worst, because that's when they are the hungriest. Making noise constantly while on trails should alert and rid of most if not all bears. For extra protection you should carry bear spray - we don't. So far we've encountered bears twice. One time Andrei was walking silently in a creek and when he climbed the bank he met face to face with a bear (~20 meters between them). Both were startled and the bear decided to leave in a hurry, luckily not in my direction). The other time we heard a bear cub "screaming" and then saw the bear mother and another cub eating something on the ground at 100m range (in a meadow next to the forest). They didn't see us at first, but we made some noise and the mother stood on her hind legs to get a better look at us, sniffed the air and then ran into the forest with her cubs. The same day we saw another huge bear with two cubs walking casually on the road, but we were in the car at the time so... it doesn't count. Huge dogs in big numbers can also be a problem. We often encounter groups of 2-3 big shepherd's dogs, but we've seen 8 or more in some cases. Sometimes lifting a stick over your head can work, but sometimes it makes them angrier. Shouting also works, but not always. We try to avoid their territory and calm them using passive actions, but when things get ugly we use a pepper spray (used it twice so far). The dogs retreat - looks like it's enough to spray one and they all retreat - and the effect of the pepper lasts only a short while (1-2 minutes, as observed) and without any long term damage, but the dogs lose interest. I wouldn't rely on the shepherds to save you. They are nowhere to be seen most of the time, but sometimes they can even be aggressive (it happened a few times already). |
AuthorHi, we're a team of hams from Romania. We're into SOTA and other activities. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
September 2020
CategoriesCheck these too!SOTA (main website)
SOTA Watch (cluster) SOTA Maps (summit list) SOTA Reflector (forum) SOTA Suceava Grup (RO) jlog (free log app) ADIF 2 CSV (ON6ZQ.be) |
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