Qrp
SOTA @ DM/RP-115 Hunsrückhöhenweg
Rain, then sun, then conversations across half a continent on twenty metres. Best DX was a W4 through a hole in the cloud.
QRP and the Patient Listener
Five watts is enough. The trick is not the power — it’s the person at the other end.
POTA @ DA-0088 Laacher See
A volcanic caldera lake. End-fed wire slung into a young birch. Good afternoon, good coffee, good propagation.
SOTA @ DM/RP-078 Hohe Acht
The highest peak of the Eifel. Windy enough to steal a logbook page, cold enough that the coffee turned slushy.
COTA @ DE-00042 Burg Eltz
A medieval castle perched above a forest stream. Set up in the visitor meadow with a wire in a sycamore and worked eighteen stations between …
COTA @ DE-00113 Festung Ehrenbreitstein
A Prussian fortress overlooking the Deutsches Eck. Operated from the ramparts with a clean shot across the Rhine.
POTA @ DA-0015 Mosel Valley
A cold, sunlit afternoon between the vineyards. The wire was in an apple tree and the contacts came steadily.
Icom IC-705
All-mode, all-band QRP portable transceiver. Backpack-friendly, big colour touchscreen, built-in D-STAR and GPS. The daily driver.
End-fed Half-wave 40-10
Twenty metres of wire on a Kevlar winder with a 49:1 UnUn. The field workhorse — multiband, light, and forgiving of imperfect sky hooks.