- [SUMMARY / VIDEOS / PICS] –
Roman, DL3TU and I (DL2COM) have arrived safely back at our homes and are very happy about how everything worked out in the end, and thankful for all the callers from around the world. Despite changing conditions and heavy fading on many signals, we experienced far better propagation than expected considering the huge flare that happened last Thursday. We were mentally prepared for the worst. Little did we know.
The WX situation also generally developed in our favor as the forecast with only a tight window of opportunity remained a moving target until the last moment. While we had to struggle with strong and cold winds (especially on Monday) it was mostly sunny or just a bit overcast. No rain.
10m was super hot on Sunday with nice JA pileups and strong signals to NA and then slowed down a bit on Monday which is why Roman decided to give 12m a shot knowing that many operators might also appreciate this band. The homebrew Hentenna was just superb and could even withstand the wind load in spite of its head-heavy design. 20,17 and 15m on the DXpeak vertical antenna (highly recommended design for portable ops) presented decent QSO rates until we were graced with an intense pileup on 20m and then a crazy opening to JA, our target area, on 17m just before we were forced to QRT a little earlier than expected due to wind gusts picking up heavily. This resulted in a ripped antenna wire (due to a broken mini carabiner and hence missing strain relief) mid-JA-pileup which could be fixed but then ripped again just minutes later. With our hands tied during the antenna repair stunt we could only watch one of our shelters get blown off the mountain and flying to the nearby village (where it will be found for sure). It felt especially hard to leave some callers behind but the situation got worse and at some point we decided that safety needed to remain a priority.
With 1200 QSOs in our combined logs from about 12h of total operating time we would like to thank everyone again for calling and also for remaining patient when we had to QRX. A big thank you also to our host Philipp from the mountain shelter who was an outstanding helper in finding solutions, his great food and always lending a hand without hesitation, including starting his Polaris ATV to give us and our luggage a ride back into the village (lift was closed due to the wind). This was so much fun. I am sure it won’t be the last time we operate from an HB0 mountain!
- [OCTOBER 7] –
The guys sent DX-WORLD some excellent snowy pictures of their activity in Liechtenstein. They say it’s been a fantastic day despite the mega solar flare that happened a few days ago. They have about 800 QSOs in the logs (out of which 400 are on 10m) . Tomorrow (Oct 7th) they have another 1/2 day of operating until approx 12:30 utc QRT. There’s often good openings to JA/AS and NA on the high bands.
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- [OCTOBER 3] –
The weather hasn’t been great lately but finally the long-awaited window opens up. DL2COM and DL3TU are heading to HB0-land on Saturday, October 5th. Weather permitting, they’ll be QRV field day style on October 6th and 7th from Sareiser Joch (~ 2000m a.s.l.) – not the Augstenberg summit as announced previously due to much easier logistics at Sareiser Joch. If there’s any change to plans at short notice, they will update. More details also available here
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- [AUGUST 26] –
Leo, DL2COM and Roman, DL3TU inform DX-World that they will be active (CW only) from the Principality of Liechtenstein end of September or early October 2024.
Weather permitting they will operate Field Day style for two days from the summit of Augstenberg (2359 meters A.S.L.) using 50-100 watts and directional antennas. The location has been carefully chosen to allow a good take off to JA/VK/ZL, the target areas. Both ops say they are happy to log as many callers as possible but will focus on the JA/VK/ZL during UTC morning.
Updates, such as the exact dates, will be published on their QRZ.com pages and here on DX-World. QSL via their home callsigns, LoTW, direct or bureau.
