The
contest weekend exceeded all our expectations:
1. There was more snow than
ever before in our long time contest history. Please have a look at the
photographs. They look almost white with something others than white.
2. The weather forecast on
Thursday promised snow storm with heavy snow for the Thuringian forest. We
had serious doubts that we could reach our QTH in 792m a.s.l. or to be able
to return home. However, we were lucky. Only the arrival on Friday was a bit
challenging. No snow, no winds on Saturday and Sunday; just beautiful cold
winter weather because the bad weather went to the south of Germany. No idea
how our competitors managed the conditions.
3. Results were much better
than expected with more QSO's on most bands compared to last year. Great
fun.
The meteorological spring
already started on 1st March. It seams that the weather does not know
that fact. We experienced true winter. But this is the real good thing
about the German VHF/UHF/SHF contest trophy. We have contests on all
four seasons giving the right challenge for teams and equipments.
Business as usual, we
always start loading the vans and cars on Friday. But only in March we
also go to the contest QTH on Friday because of larger distance but more
important because we know that we need to move a lot of snow to be able
to open the door to the contest area grounds on the Wetzstein mountain.
Traffic was terrible on the motorways. Therefore we used other roads and
arrived with some delay 7.30 pm.
Most important items on the
mandatory equipment list were snow shovels which we used extensively
till 11 pm to clear the door and some foot paths. After that exercise we
enjoyed some beers and Thuringian sausages in the mountain hut.
We welcomed a snow clearing
vehicle on Saturday morning at 8am and after 90 minutes of work we had
enough space cleared for our antennas and the vans.
At 14 UTC all bands from
1.3 GHz to 10 GHz were ready and with short delay 144 MHz and 432 MHz
followed. 24 GHz and 47 GHz were used on Sunday morning only. All
equipment was up and running without any problems.
There are many large trees
at the Wetzstein QTH with a lot of snow and therefore not ideal for
microwaves. We used a sled to carry our 24GHz and 47GHz equipment on the
highest point to avoid the trees. This helped us to make two contacts
each on booth bands.
We were ready to take the
final picture just three hours after contest. After we arrived at home
we watched TV and realized our good luck with the weather. There was a
total snow chaos in southern Germany. There is no doubt, sometimes in
future the weather will win the competition against DL0GTH.
