COTA @ DE-00113 Festung Ehrenbreitstein

Ehrenbreitstein is as local as a COTA activation gets — ten minutes on the cable car from home. The plateau is huge, the sightlines are clean across the Rhine valley, and the Prussian ramparts make an unexpectedly good antenna support.

Set up in the southern corner of the courtyard, clear of tourist paths, wire sloping down toward the river. Twenty metres was open and stayed open for two hours.

Twenty-four QSOs, mostly SSB with a handful of FT8 to fill gaps. Packed up as the sun went behind the Hunsrück and the cable car queue started to build for the evening descent.