SOTA activation of the highest mountain in Northern Germany
I had had my eye on the highest SOTA summit in Northern Germany for quite a while. The Bungsberg, DM/ND-009, in the Holstein Switzerland region, at a height of 167 meters, only earns a single point in the statistics, but it is the mountain with a SOTA reference closest to my QTH.
On the weekend of the 11th and 12th of July 2026 I had the opportunity to be near the Bungsberg. On Friday evening I drove to a campsite right on the shore of the large Plöner See and set up my tent there for the coming two nights. The temperature was pleasantly cozy and I enjoyed the view of the lake from my tent. As a test, I called CQ several times on the nearby repeater DB0PC - unfortunately without any answer.
I didn’t think much of it. But when I hiked around the Kellersee the following day and kept calling CQ on the repeater without any answer, I slowly started to worry about the SOTA activation planned for the next day. Apparently there wasn’t much going on with amateur radio here.
As I sat in front of the tent in the evening, looking out over the lake, I switched on my Icom ID-52 handheld radio once more and called CQ on the repeater. This time I was lucky. Michael, DG2BBF, who was spending a few days with his family at the Timmendorfer Strand beach, answered my call. After a few minutes another operator from the area joined in, who advised me to check in at 10 a.m. the next morning on 145.350 in the local Sunday net of the amateur radio club. There I would surely get the QSOs I needed.
On Sunday, after breakfast, I set off for the Bungsberg. A little below the summit I parked my scooter and walked the last 600 meters on foot. Next to the tower I found a geocache that I had failed to find almost exactly ten years earlier and could now finally make up for.
Shortly before 10 a.m. I set up my equipment next to the summit stone of the Bungsberg. The mountain itself is heavily wooded and hardly recognizable as a mountain in the hilly landscape. The view from the summit was very nice nonetheless. I extended my 4-meter-long fiberglass mast, attached the wire antenna from Lambdahalbe and connected it to the Icom handheld radio. As a test, I called CQ on 145.500 and after maybe five minutes I already had my first two QSOs in the bag. Astonishingly, one of them was a contact with an operator on Sylt - which is not exactly just around the corner from the Bungsberg (about 170 kilometers as the crow flies).
As planned, I joined the very small Sunday net of the local amateur radio club and soon had the four QSOs required for a successful activation together. Michael, DG2BBF, checked in from a beach dune in Timmendorf with his handheld radio and several other very pleasant QSOs came about, so that after maybe an hour I had 10 QSOs in the log.
QSO number 11, however, made me curious. OZ1BSM, Michael from Denmark, about 120 kilometers away, called in in English, and I had a very nice QSO with him. QSO number 12 was the finale and the highlight of the day. Paul from Scotland, MM8PYW, answered my CQ SOTA. He came in absolutely noise-free at 5 and 9, and so did I on his end. We exchanged locators and it turned out that we were 872 kilometers apart. And that with 5 watts QRP on 2 meter FM! I had never experienced that before.
That was the crowning conclusion of a very successful SOTA activation. I had so many pleasant conversations that will stay in my memory for a long time. I have been on many higher mountain summits with a more spectacular view than the Bungsberg. But the indescribable feeling of contentment that I felt here, I had only experienced like this during the activation of the Triglav in Slovenia.