Terril Ste-Barde et Tonne ON-029

Terril Ste-Barde et Tonne, ON/ON-029 - 230m ASL - 50 39 32 N 5 33 29 E - NGI 42/1-2 - 1 SOTA point

Sunday 30th June 2019

So this was our debut on the radio in Belgium. The hill was actually situated within the city of Liege and within easy walking distance of our city centre accommodation. However, with the LX day-passes secured for the following day, I was mindful not to disrupt domestic bliss by staying out too long at teatime. So we used the car and drove up to the parking spot on a residential road at the top end of town.

Tom M1EYP & Jimmy M0HGY

From here it was a zigzag path up through the woods with the summit accessed by a choice of steep gravelly ramps. The area at the summit was rather small, and so I set the Bandhopper 4 linked dipole in a way that 80m would not be available. 40m was the strategy anyway.

Jimmy ON/M0HGY/P was delighted to make two QSOs on 2m FM - one DL station and one ON, both of whom had excellent command of English. He then fielded a sizeable pile-up on 40m SSB. By this stage, I’d qualified myself on 40m CW.

Man-made coal tip, now naturalised hill! Jimmy M0HGY Jimmy on 2m FM

During the evening we all went out into Liege and enjoyed a super evening at Chez Sam restaurant/bar. Sat outside beside the vibrant city streets, we indulged in various tapas and lovely Jupiler beer. Now we were looking forward to a multi summit extravaganza the following day.

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Op
16:35z	G3RMD	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:35z	OK2PDT	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:36z	EA2DT	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:39z	S52CU	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:47z	G0HIO	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:49z	ON4MPA	144MHz	FM	ON/M0HGY/P
16:49z	EI6FR	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:52z	DL0ZDD	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:55z	G4WSB	7MHz	CW	ON/M1EYP/P
16:58z	DC6ST	144MHz	FM	ON/M0HGY/P
17:01z	GW4VPX	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:02z	G0HIO	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:03z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:03z	IK2LEY	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:04z	G3RMD	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:05z	G4OBK	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:05z	HB9CEX	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:06z	OK2PDT	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:07z	G8ADD	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P
17:08z	OK2XVI	7MHz	SSB	ON/M0HGY/P

Tuesday 2nd July 2019

30m GP radials Hard work squeezing 4 x 7.5m radials in on this tiny summit!

I had to get up early in order to shift my car from a city centre car park before charging started for the day. Knowing that the rest of the clan would be having a lie-in, I grasped the opportunity to do a Cloud-style pointless repeat activation of an easy local summit! This summit was only 5 minutes drive from the accommodation, then 10 minutes walk, so this would not even be the last visit during this holiday!

Working conditions... Miserable as usual

I just about squeezed the 30m GP into the small summit area. The band was pretty dead but I managed six QSOs on FT8 and double figures on CW. In the end I finished with 35 QSOs on 30m CW to add to the six on FT8. It was a nice surprise to be called and worker by SOTA’s President and Founder John G3WGV.

Before After Before After

Later that day, Liam and I both agreed it was high time to get ourselves into a Turkish barber and get rid of our beards!

Time	Call	Band	Mode	S2S
05:26z	UX2MF	10MHz	CW
05:37z	SV2OXS	10MHz	CW
05:47z	EW4TT	10MHz	FT8
05:48z	HF9D	10MHz	FT8
05:52z	S56IPS	10MHz	FT8
05:58z	OK5CW	10MHz	FT8
06:02z	RU3OZ	10MHz	FT8
06:04z	LA8RTA	10MHz	FT8
06:17z	I/ON5LC/P	10MHz	CW
06:27z	SP9AMH	10MHz	CW
06:28z	F6HBR	10MHz	CW
06:30z	YO2BP	10MHz	CW
06:30z	US5XD	10MHz	CW
06:35z	F5UKL/P	10MHz	CW	F/PE-192
06:39z	SM7FCU	10MHz	CW
06:41z	OK2PDT	10MHz	CW
06:48z	OM3FR	10MHz	CW
06:49z	HA5AZC	10MHz	CW
06:49z	HB9CLT	10MHz	CW
06:54z	SP9WZJ	10MHz	CW
07:03z	HB9CBR/P	10MHz	CW
07:09z	SP7CXV	10MHz	CW
07:19z	G4AFI	10MHz	CW
07:20z	IX1IHR	10MHz	CW
07:21z	OE1WIU/P	10MHz	CW
07:24z	YU/S53OM/P	10MHz	CW	YU/ZS-101
07:26z	G3WGV	10MHz	CW
07:28z	IZ8XXE	10MHz	CW
07:29z	HA6VH	10MHz	CW
07:33z	YO2CJX	10MHz	CW
07:36z	F/EA2TW	10MHz	CW
07:39z	SM5CLE	10MHz	CW
07:40z	EA2IF	10MHz	CW
07:42z	SA0AQT	10MHz	CW
07:45z	UR5XBH	10MHz	CW
07:45z	IS0LYN	10MHz	CW
07:51z	IU8ACV	10MHz	CW
07:51z	EA1DR	10MHz	CW
07:52z	SP9Z	10MHz	CW
07:53z	F6DRA	10MHz	CW
07:53z	DM5BB	10MHz	CW

Thursday 4th July 2019

Last day of holiday. Got up at 5am local in order to bag one last ON activation, albeit a “pointless” repeat. Set up 20m GP which is a better sized antenna for the small summit, but it was rather too early for the band when I started at 0400z! I finished with 25 QSOs on 20m CW. 9H and 7X were nice catches, albeit unspectacular. I know I was early, but even so, the band seemed quite late in opening. The final contact was a 2m FM handheld-to-handheld with a Jimmy ON/M0HGY who was down at the apartment in Liege.

Time	Call	Band	Mode
04:18z	RA1CF	14MHz	CW
04:34z	R3LB	14MHz	CW
04:49z	9H1BM	14MHz	CW
04:56z	UR4EZ	14MHz	CW
04:59z	RU4W/3	14MHz	CW
05:13z	LZ2AF/2	14MHz	CW
05:16z	YL2AG	14MHz	CW
05:20z	UY0CA	14MHz	CW
05:21z	YU1MI	14MHz	CW
05:32z	R9LM	14MHz	CW
05:35z	7X2KF	14MHz	CW
05:36z	SA4BLM	14MHz	CW
05:37z	RA3AOS	14MHz	CW
05:39z	EW6RU	14MHz	CW
05:40z	ES1QD	14MHz	CW
05:41z	9A2UN	14MHz	CW
05:51z	UV2IB	14MHz	CW
05:53z	RI1OM	14MHz	CW
05:59z	LZ1MG	14MHz	CW
06:03z	UW2WF	14MHz	CW
06:04z	RN4W	14MHz	CW
06:05z	UA4C	14MHz	CW
06:06z	UT4WT	14MHz	CW
06:08z	RU6LC	14MHz	CW
06:09z	R2WN	14MHz	CW
06:25z	ON/M0HGY	144MHz	FM

Some wrap-up stats from our Benelux trip, totted up to kill some time as we sailed back on the Pride of Hull:

Total QSOs: 306

M1EYP: 216

M0HGY: 90

PA: 46

LX: 91

ON: 169

New activator uniques: 11 each

Activations:

M1EYP 13

M0HGY 11

QSOs:

40m CW: 128

40m SSB: 92

30m CW: 50

30m FT8: 6

20m CW: 25

2m FM: 5