It’s May 1st, 2021 and I’m sitting in the beautiful white snow at the summit of Mt. Rekkingenuten LA/HL-081 5183ft ready for my very first QO-100 SOTA activation. It’s -10 degrees C, and the sun is shining from a blue sky and there is hardly any wind at the summit.

I mounted my dual feed ( Ice Cone Feed and modified LNB ) on the arm of my 45cm camping dish, and connected the 12V DC power to the Bias Tee and then connected the 75 ohm coax to one of my Yaesu FT-818nd radios serving as the QO-100 RX.

The lower beacon from the QO-100 satellite was easy to find, and I just had to adjust the antenna a few cm up and down and sideways to find the maximum signal level. I then connected the coax to the Yaesu FT-818nd radio serving as the QO-100 TX to the KUHNE 2424B Up-Converter, and I was able to monitor my own voice with a good 5 and 9 signal.

I then started to call “CQ SOTA CQ SOTA this is LA9XGA/P LA9XGA/P” on the QO-100 bird from my portable setup for the very first time, and I could realy feel my heart pounding. Would I get any answer, or would my KUHNE 2424B Up-Converter drift totaly of frequency in the very cold temperature?

One hour later my log shows a total of 37 contacts, and the KUHNE 2424B Up-Converter was “stable as a rock”. What a great experience this was, and just a few days later I was on my way to another SOTA summit and a new QO-100 portable operation.

May 13th, 2021 I unexpectedly reached QO-100 DX Club’s front page, and this was an great honour for me. I hope my portable QO-100 activities can inspire others to bring their QO-100 gear into the field.