Twelve Degrees?
It was foggy there on the top as heavily as I operated in Odaigahara for SV2007 in end of July. The condition of wind near the edge of south cliff, which was a good location for the radio, was all the time gusty, as the wind as strong as typhoon was coming up from the lower mountain. The cheap thermometer with a compass in a key chain, which had been very closely clinging to my body, was indicating 12 degrees Celsius, but it was certain the actual temperature and sensory one should be far below. While I understood I, absolutely, would not be able to stay in such a place as long as five to six hours, I felt it scary to find myself earnestly looking for the best place to settle in.

I unfolded the chairs and set them up close to the miniature shrine twenty meters away from the 1st class triangulation point. I could withstand the wind to some extent when I sit there, as the blast was coming strongly from bottom of the cliffs, though, of course, I could not hold up if I stood up. I tied the fishing rod to the concrete pillar of miniature shrine, fixed the gSpecified Smallh to the rod with packing tape, and then lifted it to the modest height of three meters by extending the fishing rod. As soon as it was raised, it started swaying back and forth corresponding to the wind strength. I could also see the rig was getting wet from the dense fog within a very short period of time. It was like an environment testing of the rig, but I decided to leave it for a while. I turned on the 707, sitting on a foldable chair. Although I could not see many waterdrops on the outside of the rig, but I could see the drops of waters were coming down one after another on the surface of the rod antenna. I started to send CQs from the 707, wrestling with another self within me who was questioning, gyou really want to do today?h Then I heard the self on the other side mentioned gshould not have brought 707 with me todayh.

Except Rokko, it is all cold
Immediately after I transmitted CQs, I got a response from Nagaoka HR420/2. He was QRV in Tarui Town, Gifu Prefecture, which was on the skirt of Mt. Ibuki. Following that station, I got a call from Ehime CA34/Odaigahara who came for operation to try to make QSOs by the gSpecified Smallh through the repeater temporally placed on the top of Mt. Houei, a peak in the middle of Mt. Fuji, more than 270Km away. He said he had not been successful yet today. I noticed the background was very noisy behind his mic and he actually told me he was in such an extremely bad weather that his rig might go wrong. I thought he must be in the same weather with me. On the other hand, according to the information from Kobe AA805 on the top of Rokko, Hyogo, it was warm and snug, but Iwate B73/2 reported it was also so cold on the top of Gozaisho Mountain in Mie. Aichi AE126, operating at the 1,000m point of Mt. Ibuki, too, told me the temperature was only 14 degrees Celsius there. It seemed, except Rokko, every station located in mountain area today was fighting with the coldness to continue mobile operation.

For Personal Radio (PR-900), I set it up with a 1/2 wave short antenna in preparation for the sudden change into heavy rain. As soon after it was set up, the CQ call came in from Aichi AD162, operating from his home in Okazaki City. Thanks to the height of his antenna and my location, his signal came in very vigorously. That is one of the points attracting us with Personal Radio. Anyway I felt the extreme gdifference of temperatureh, because he was operating in his room.

I was keeping an eye on the gSpecified Smallh but the radio seemed so painful to be going through the severe environment testing: I got down the rod and took it off. I was rather heavily dressed- a thick shirt and a sweat wear, a winter jacket and rain wear. With these, I could somehow defend myself well against the coldness except for the strong winds, but anyway I really felt cold. I was recalling previous night when my XYL told me gwhy donft you carry with you disposal body warmers?h Thinking I should have taken her words, I continued operation with endurance. Kinki CJ86 was the station that I contacted just a year ago on 9th October, as he was pulling over his motorcycle on the roadside in Minoo City and contacted me with 87R. We made a QSO after just a year of interval.

Kyoto KP127, one of the stations that I am always looking forward to enjoying QSO, made a contact with me. He is always getting around for various places for operation and today he was QRV at Tane Mountain (556m). We have once identified each otherfs signal between Maki Mountain in Maizuru City, Kyoto on his side and Shiomino Mori in Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture on my side, which is a beyond-the-mountain propagation.
In the web BB, I had been watching the advance notice of Hyogo AC315 for the place where he would operate for the day and he eventually was QRV on the top of Gyousei Mountain (1,077m) in Hyogo. I studied the visibility between Mt. Gyosei and Mt. Ibuki by gKashmir 3Dh before coming to operation, which was negative, but, as I expected we could communicate without any problem beyond the mountain. He gave me various information about the conditions for radio around his QRV point. He had already tried many spots around the top of the mountain but he reported the conditions were not so good, for he was receiving much noise everywhere. As for gSpecified Smallh, however, the location was good enough for Ehime CA34/Odaigahara to be able to access to the repeater he set up.

Around the summit

1st Class Triangulation Point
Not a few people mistake the
miniature shrine, where I was QRV,
with the summit.
Repeater of "Specified Small"
Under environment testing?
‚o‚q|‚X‚O‚O
Shorter antenna is enough in
higher locations...


From Kompira Mountain
Even around noon, I could hardly see sunlight and still felt the low temperature. Even in such a condition, sightseeing people were coming to the summit passing by my place. gAre you in the Contest?h, someone approached me, but he immediately went away, when I replied, gI am in operation of legal CB.h In most cases of operation on the top of mountain, it is usual that some amateur station comes to me and says something, but those stations who all the way come to the top often have only a handy radio just to enjoy climbing or hiking with a side job of radio operation.
When I was sending CQ at Ch4, I caught in the intervals of QRM some station was calling me with weak signals. As I listened carefully, I found it was Aichi DV65, and he was saying he was operating at some gKompira Mountain in Shima Cityh. Because I had never heard of any high mountain called Mt. Kompira, I supposed he should be calling me from a very gfarh place. Thanking him for calling me from gfarh place, I completed the QSO. After I got back to home, I looked into the map and found the mountain was Kompira Mountain just as high as 99 meters, located in Sakishima, Mie Prefecture. The QSO was, of course, beyond-the-mountain.

I got a call from Aichi HD01 operating in Tsushima City in Aichi Prefecture. He was using an ICB-87H which had a short helical antenna. As he also had a ICB-87R, he told me he wanted to try a comparison between 87H and 87R: I watched the S-meter of my ICB-707 when he sent a signal from the 87R and the result was that it was better by 3 in strength compared with 87H. It was just as we would expect from 87R. Also the impression of modulation was far better. I also received a call from Nagoya MY825, a mobile in Minato-ku, Nagoya City. I had several times of QSOs with him before, but I felt special thanks to him this time, for he was QRV on this kind of particular occasion.

When it was past 1:00, less and less stations could be heard. I could once hear the signal coming in from Aichi DI209/MM, a maritime mobile in Ise Bay, but I could not catch a good timing to call him for I had QSOs with other stations. Aichi AE114/9, Mt. Heko, was also the station that I had been losing the timing, but finally we could have a QSO after he found the chance to call me. He told me it was extremely windy there, too, and he said, to my surprise, he was operating from the inside of a hut to avoid mighty winds. It seemed it was because we were both on the top of the mountains that I could make a QSO with him inside the house.

After all, is it affected by the weather condition?

Around forty past one ofclock, I got a call again from Ehime CA34/Odaigahara. According to him the situation of radio propagation about the gSpecified Smallh was still no good, and, to our regret, he could not have accessed to the Houei Mountain repeater yet. During SV2007, I had the same kind of situation when I tried access to the repeater on the summit of Mt. Fuji: I could not make any link with the repeater while it was heavily foggy and covered with thick clouds, but I could make a connection as soon as it cleared up. I wonder if, after all, the small power of 10mW in UHF is greatly affected by a weather condition.

Eventually, I was continuing operation on the top until past two ofclock. It was still covered with fogs around me on the summit of the mountain, though it was little better than in the morning by getting 20 meters more visibility.
Thanks to all stations for QSO.


Mt. Ibuki...still in the fog.

Fogs are...
actually thick than they appear.
The only grace
that soothed me.
From 1,000m elevation point
On the way back home, I looked
back the summit. Around 3:00, it
was still completely covered.


Main Equipment
Rigs: ICB-707, PR-900 (+ 1/2 wave sleeve), DJ-R20D (2)
Others: Fishing rod (5.4m), Batteries (6.6Ah, 3.2Ah (2), 5/8 wave 3-stack Co-linear, Foldable chairs (3)

(Left: Out-of-focus is not because of fogs, but my poor skill.)
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@




Ibuki Mountain Operation

Die Hard
In the film of gLive Free or Die Hardh, released this summer, Warlock, a mogul of hackers, was using a CB radio, which was the synonym for glow techh (a word used in the film) among those hackers who were on the cutting edge of digital age, saying he would be using it as an ginsuranceh to stay in touch with the world to the last minute of its end even when the microchips went completely belly up and useless. Toward end of the film, John McClane was trying a contact with Warlock by calling from the CB radio installed in a truck as he was tracking down the criminal group, in request for relaying his message to the back-up unit of FBI Cyber Division, at the cryptic but nonsense? frequency of 66.6 MHz.
Does that mean glow techh is reliable to the last minute?
CB radio might be the representative of glow techh in this age, however, it was really a die-hard machine during this time of operation.


Meet with Aichi AE126
It was an operation after some time of interval, though I was on the air several times from my neighbor. The original plan this time was to operate in Odaigahara, but I gave up moving there since I needed to change the schedule of next day to go on a business trip from early morning. So I moved to the top of Ibuki Mountain (1,377m) for operation for shorter traveling time.
Around 8:00 I arrived at the parking lot in front of the entering gate of the Ibukiyama Drive Way at the foot of Mt. Ibuki, and met with Aichi AE126 there, who was also planning to operate in Mt. Ibuki at the elevation point of 1,000m. With coffee he gave me, we spent some time talking about the year-end party that we were expecting in late November, and the food of Swine meat Nabe to be served in the party. As we have conversation, I saw the sky was dull in gray clouds when I looked up toward the mountains.

It became extremely foggy as heavily as I could somehow see the back of the second car ahead of me, when I came to the higher places in the Drive Way after passing through 1,000m elevation point. I wondered what the weather and temperature would be there on the top, as I pulled up in the densely foggy parking and started out for walk with 42L of sack. It was already past 8:40, but I could see very few people in the parking area. I recalled, when I was paying the toll at the entering gate of the Drive Way, the guy kindly asked me if it was OK for me to go to the top, though I would not be able to see anything from the top this day because of thick fogs.

QSO Stations List@@Previous Report@@TOP@


The way to the top
As I walked to the top, I could see the flowers of Ryuno Giku? were in bloom in clusters. When I came here last time in August of 2003, I did not yet know of any web site related to CB activities and recklessly walked up the same trail for operation without making any notice of QRV on the web BB. Of course at that time, no station happened to be QRV to contact me, and my last hope was to make a QSO with my son in lower grades of elementary school. But he was not familiar enough with the operation of the ICB-87R I left for him, which in the result made me have totally no QSO. It was end of summer at that time, and I could still see various flowers in bloom.