ZUGSPITZE 2015

[VK5ZT]

Hi all

Sorry to sidetrack here from the FN page but I wanted maximum exposure for this....

The team in Friedrichshafen are hauling all the microwave gear up onto Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze on Wed 1 July.
This presents an interesting opportunity. The decks on Zugspitze are scanned by a web cam continuously about once every thirty seconds roughly. The team should be in view of the camera most of the day. We will try to be conspicuous. Its not live action, more like a series of photos.

Here's the link... http://zugspitze.panomax.de/#
We should be visible from about 0700 UTC depending on delays.

Also note that the video is added to a rolling archive which means it can be revisited for a time.

Dial up that page and have a look at the crew at work with a load of gear! Note that you can modify the scan speed (or stop it).

Cheers

Tim VK5ZT

[VK5KX]

Can't see you Tim, been looking for 30mins.

Peter

[VK5PJ]

not a single can of fosters in sight, or a ham size dish for that matter, plenty of com's dishes.

[VK3DXE]

There's an Aussie flag near the comms dishes. Maybe they're setting up there?

[VK6ADF]

Gee what a popular place. No wonder with the spectacular scenery.

[VK3QI]

Now operators visible on site.

Tine showing on website 15:15

Looks like they are aiming at Munchen.

Cheers

Peter VK3QI

[VK5ZD]

The initial lack of visibility on the webcam was due mainly to our local organiser Wolfgang (OE4WOG) who, being Austrian, wanted to set up the gear on the Austrian side of the peak, which also happens to be about as far from the webcam as you can get. Late in the afternoon (around 1300UTC) we move some of the gear to the German side close to the webcam (where we had the Aussie flag on display).

The blue arrow shows the location on the Austrian side, red the setup on the German side. I'm the one sitting down (red arrow) working DJ7GK on 23cm (about 250km away) using Dave's gear (VK5KK - light blue shirt with his back to the webcam). Just by the way, the view from up here is absolutely spectacular

[VK5ZT]

Hi all

Well, as I have discovered since being here....the best laid plans never happen, not rarely, never!

Dave and Alan arrived about an hour ahead of Iain and I. They promptly set up operations about as far from the webcam as you can get without falling off the platform. They were behind a tower (huge rf source on 2M) on the furthest platform you can see, behind the Munchen Haus. Having spread gear all over the deck they were reluctant to move.

To at least show our presence, I lashed the aussie flag to the rail and periodically some of us gathered in the vicinity. My wife reported seeing 5ZD and I wandering around. Meanwhile Dave and Alan worked a number of pre-arranged skeds across Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

There was also another surprising issue for us....the Austrians are not that keen on the Germans. Frequencies were referred to by those I met in cycles/sec rather than Hertz (a German) and our Austrian associate did not want to operate in Germany. The Zugspitze deck is bisected by the border so Alan and co. were in Austria whereas my flag was in Germany. I guess this is a legacy of centuries of invasion and subjugation!

Overall, A herding cat analogy comes to mind!! Eventually, when I was sure all they were doing was listening to white noise, we managed to move some kit into the camera field of view around 3 PM local. Surprisingly we were immediately greeted by responses to calls and spent some busy time working stations on vhf and microwave bands. All day we were questioned by passing tourists, some of whom were hams. As some would have seen it is a very busy place and not as big as it looks on the webcam.

All in all, a long and slightly frustrating day as I would have liked more of the exercise to have been on camera. Considering that things have not always turned out as expected on this trip, I should not have been surprised! This is not intended to detract from some of the achievements but merely a statement of fact.

More to come on the other topic page as the contest looms.....

Cheers Tim VK5ZT

[VK3ALB]

An excellent overview of politics, radio and spectacular scenery. You're lucky to have such good weather for the trip.