What a beautiful day for a hike!

Saturday August 15th was our last full day in Switzerland and I hoped to squeeze one more activation. The night before I had planned to activate a local summit Niesen (HB/BB-087) but rain forced me to cancel last minute.

Leading up to our travels I had emailed a local SOTA activator Stefan HB9HCS with some questions. I saw that he had recently activated a summit I was researching, (Stockhorn HB/BE-103). Stefan was very friendly and answered all of my questions about operating in his area. I had questions about common frequencies and was slightly nervous about breaching any local operating ‘culture’. When I had decided to activate Burgfeldstand as part of my schedule, not only was he full of helpful information about getting to the summit, but he offered to join me for the activation. What a delight!

My bus ride from Interlaken to the Beatenburg cable car station was packed with paragliders. Next time my wife gives me a hard time about my hobbies I will remind her that at least I’m not jumping off of cliffs with a parachute (although that does sound fun). Stefan met me in the parking lot and after some pleasantries and a big hug, our adventure began!

The cable car we rode took us to a peak named Niederhorn which featured a restaurant and some great views to observe paraglider launches. I learned on this trip that the Swiss love to put a restaurant at the top of their mountains :-). My activation on Tuesday at Schilthorn also happened to feature a fancy revolving restaurant that looked more like James Bond villain lair.

We set off on our hike to the actual summit on this mountain ridge, Burgfeldstand. While Stefan and I enjoyed conversation getting to know each other, it was hard to concentrate without being distracted by the beautiful Swiss Alps surrounding us. Below us was Lake Thun and across the lake from us a town called Spiez which features many structures over 1200 years old! I tried to take as many photos as I could, but honestly these will never replicate what it is like to see in person.

After a relatively easy climb, we reached the summit and decided to set up. Stefan had been to this summit already this year so he was activating for fun. My first 2M FM contact was with Manuel, HB9DQM summit to summit. His callsign seemed oddly familiar to me but I couldn’t quite decide how.. until Stefan reminded me that Manuel is the creator of the very popular SOTA ATLAS site SOTL.AS. He also recently developed a small USB-C charging board for the popular Elecraft KX2 radio. I’m going to have to get one of those!

We had a lovely time making contacts and chatting with a few curious hikers passing by. Activating with a new friend truly made this outing a delightful one. I have learned that the small group of Summits on the Air community are truly some of the nicest people you can meet in amateur radio.

I had to pack up to meet my family in Interlaken, who had decided to go zip lining and play at a ropes course in town. Stefan graciously offered me a ride back into town so I wouldn’t have to walk from the bus station to where my family was headed. Thank you again to Stefan for his hospitality and friendship. I hope to be back again soon to activate in this beautiful country.

CLICK HERE TO REVIEW MY OTHER SWISS ACTIVATION ON SCHILTHORN