The sun is disappearing and the temperature is getting low. Winter is coming, you already know. For those who’ve read our blog you’re well informed that the conditions at our beacon station becomes a little too rough during the winter to get any work done. Luckily, this year our 3 year project of renovations and maintenance has finally reached the end – at least for now. Surely we have more ambitions in the coming years, but let’s have a look at what we’ve completed, and what remains.
Done!
The station building is now completely done. By that we mean that the floor, roof, walls, and even the facade! We’re also very satisfied with the two wooden patios added to the north and west facing sides of the cabin, which looks to be a huge favorite among the trekking visitors of the summit.
More pictures from this years (and previous) work is available in our photo gallery
Let’s not forget about the radios. In terms of radio, we’ve been able to restore beacon transmission on the 70cm and 4m bands. LA2UHF and LA2VHF/4 are still going strong, and we hope they will continue to do so well into 2026. We’ve also been able to get Radio Revolt with their “UKEsender” broadcasting live on FM for the whole month of October. UKA is over for now, so thanks for listening!
Another big addition to the cabin is the new mast, which now houses (most) of the antennas originating from the cabin. To isolate the cables exiting the cabin, all cables go through a solid metal cabinet on the outside, to make sure no snow or rain is able to pass inside. This was done using flexible tubing between the cabinet and the inside, which makes it easy to add (and remove) antennas and cabling in the future.
Not Done …yet
For the coming year we wish to be able to get a proper lamp installed in the entry hallway – it’s too dark in there. Also, we’d like to get a bulletin-board mounted on the outer wall for the locals to post their community messages, plus another light on the fascade for the southern side of the cabin.
Oh, and the radios! We are still two beacons short, on the 6 meter and 2 meter band. The 2 meter band was the most desired to get up and running out of the four, but unfortunately we havent had the time to arrange for it returning this year. For the project we’ve been mainly 3-4 people doing the work this year, so the issue was mainly the lack of time before the student festival UKA, and the winter kicked in. We’re have benched the beacons, and are aware that the remaining beacons needs some TLC; the 2m has a faulty power supply and missing antenna, and the 6m needs some more serious work as the PA section is burned up.
We weren’t satisfied with the final results so it was shelved for now.
With a more robust assortment of cameras, we hope to be able to track the conditions at the mountain summit during the winter. Hopefully there won’t be any major damage, but this time we don’t have to wait until June to figure it out!
Historical Retrospective
During our 100th anniversary in 2023 we also published a book about our club. The project was led by Amanda LB2RH, and featured a lot of history and everything intersting about our club, including the beacon station at Vassfjellet. For this chapter it was somewhat hard to find the minutiae for everything Vassfjellet, but as luck would have it, Jan Roger Johannsen, a local historian, has gathered quite a lot of information this summer for his website Tidsarkivet.no. Mainly about the mountain and the summit, but a very detailed retrospective about our current shack as well. A must to read for all Radiots in LA1K.
Credit: Strandene / Tidsarkivet
Bacon?
If you’re wondering if “Bacon” is just a typo for “Beacon” – then you’d be correct. As is tradition in ARK, a typo can never be left alone and is now an in-joke among the Vassfjellet crew. We’d wish we came up with the inside joke, but it looks like MIT and probabaly a lot of other HAMs over the years thought of it first.
Goodbye for now! From: LB0VG, The Crow, LB5PI, LB7JJ and everyone who helped!
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