DD5LP/P – April 14 – 16 2026 – Activations of POTA 2-fer DE-0725 Dölauer Heide, DE-0066 UnterSalle NP, POTA 2-fer DE-0712 Volkspark Kleinzschecker, DE-1183 Leipziger Auwald and joint HEMA DL/HSA-003, SOTA DM/SA-033 Petersberg during a visit to the Halle / Leipzig area.

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Preparation:

As part of a trip to Saxony Anhalt and Saxony, I planned a radio activation of Petersberg for one of the days and had some other possible “PLOTA” locations listed, if the time and weather allowed. This was to be a breakaway for my wife and me, and if the opportunity came up where she wanted to spend time in an art gallery or museum, and I could do a quick (car-based) POTA activation at the same time, that would be good.

For equipment, the G90 and HF-PRO would be the PLOTA configuration and for the summit activation, again the G90, but this time with the linked dipole and 6-meter mast (trying out my new auger solution to cut a hole in the ground to support the mast base.

Backup equipment would be the G106 QRP radio with a tripod-mounted RHB-8B 40-10m antenna and radials.

The Activations

14/4/2026 POTA DE-0725 Dölauer Heide & DE-0066 Unters Salle NP

After dropping my wife off at the museum in Halle, this location of a car park, mainly used by people walking their dogs, was about a 20-minute drive away over some horrible city street with potholes and cobbled stones.

After setting up the antenna on the car roof, getting the radio, battery, etc. from the car boot, I started on 20 metres, where I heard special event station EG1912T from Spain commemorating the sinking of the Titanic and praising the many heroes, without whom there would have been no survivors. As he was not getting any calls, I called, and we had a quick QSO. He gave me 59, but I doubt that was a true report. In any case, however, it proved I was getting out. After finding a clear frequency and spotting myself on POTA, I faced a similar situation to the special event station, calling CQ and getting no callers.

I then saw that Mike M9MMM/P was out, I messaged him, and as we could not make contact on 20m, we moved to 40m, where we managed it, but still with some difficulty. The bands were difficult, and while I was “time restricted” I wondered whether I would get the needed 10 contacts to qualify this park.

In the next ten minutes, I only managed 4 more contacts and decided to go back to 20 metres, which, thankfully, by this time had improved, and I got a flow of contacts. As I was considering packing up, I saw another park activator out on 40m, so I switched back, and my last contact in the log was a park-to-park with G6CKK/P in GB-6225.

15/4/2026 HEMA DL/HSA-003 Petersberg & SOTA DM/SA-033 Petersberg

This summit has 145m prominence and hence qualifies in the HEMA scheme (which is for summits with 100-150m prominence). For some reason, it is also in the SOTA scheme, which usually requires a minimum of 150m prominence – whatever – the one summit is in both schemes.

This was the planned radio day trip out, to be preceded by a visit to the “Berg Zoo” in Halle and to be followed by a trip to an art gallery (which was closed for restoration when we arrived, even though it was advertised everywhere as being open).

The visit to the Zoo was well worth it. It is amazing how this Zoo sits within the city of Halle, and it even has a hill in the middle of it providing great views across the city. Well worth a visit for anyone visiting Halle. Also worth getting is the 1-day or 2-day “Halle Card” which includes entrance to all the major museums and galleries, the Zoo, a guided on-foot tour of the centre and use of all buses and trams in the city.

The trip from the Zoo out to Petersberg was over the badly damaged city roads out into the country. On arriving in the village of Petersberg, there is a proper road up to the church and castle ruins; however, Google maps insisted that we take a mud track up to the summit, ot at least as far as we met the real road again.

There are only a couple of small parking spots that might accommodate around 8 cars. Despite the nice sunny day (Wednesday), there were only a couple of other visitors. While my wife sat and took in the views, I set up behind the castle ruins on the summit. My planned action of using the small auger to cut a hole in the ground for the 6 metre mast to sit it failed as the soil was too loose, so the fallback was to the Komunica Power HF-PRO2 antenna again, this time on my SLIK tripod with radials rather than on the car roof. Turning the G90 on, I could tell radio conditions were not good, but I also had the annoying “beep-beep” on receive. This is an internal noise that is audible even with the antenna disconnected. A couple of months ago, a new firmware came out for the Xiegu G90, which I had applied in the hope that the beep-beep would have been fixed, and I never returned the radio to the far earlier firmware version where this did not occur. (This appears to be a problem only on the very early models, as I have – the current G90 with the latest firmware does not have the issue). – After returning home, the firmware has been back-levelled, and the problem has been removed, as have been the data modes, but as I don’t use the radio for data modes, this is not a problem for me. I can now also adjust the receive filters at will, a feature that was removed when the data modes were added.

With the bands in a less-than-encouraging state, I operated on 40 metres and after fighting to get 6 contacts in the log in 25 minutes, I called it a day (HEMA/SOTA only need 4 contacts to qualify a summit). During this activation, my chosen frequency of 7180 kHz got stomped on by two old German boys discussing their illnesses. They even acknowledged that they had been told both by me and my chasers that the frequency was in use and then kept on talking on the frequency – they didn’t care that they were causing QRM. A sad example of bad radio operators. Luckily, the chasers who wanted a contact from me found me later on the next frequency that I spotted myself on.

After packing up and eating our pack-up lunch, we set off back down into Halle to find the Gallery closed!

16/4/2026 POTA DE-0712 Volkspark Kleinzschocker & DE-1183 Leipziger Auwald

This “PLOTA” activation took place during our day trip out to Leipzig (about a 50-minute drive from Halle). While my wife was at a light show presentation of a South American artist’s work, I fought my way through the Leipzig city streets, which are in an even worse condition than those in Halle, with the additional “fun” that roads were simply closed with no signposted diversion!

The location is indeed a park within the city and is well used. I has wondered if I would get a spot in the car park, but all was OK, and no one came up to ask what I was doing (which I don’t mind, but in this case, I had limited time). The bands had not improved a lot since the previous two days, but the G90 and HF-PRO2 managed 14 contacts in the time I had in a combination of 40 metres and 20 metres. The “star” of the activation was the last contact in the log with K2UPD, who was a true 5-9 into the park.

After going back to pick up my wife, we drove into the centre to take a river boat cruise from the “Stadthafen”, which is actually a building site. The planned marina is over 2 years behind schedule and has at least another year to go before it will be completed. Despite parking issues and then finding where the boat was going to be, the trip along the canals and rivers of Leipzig was probably the star event of our whole trip. These canals and rivers were cleared of all the junk dropped into them starting about 10 years ago, and now are clean enough to swim in, but they are mostly used by the Leipzig residents to canoe around the city. Those visiting Leipzig, I definitely recommend the (cheap) canal boat tours.

After this, we went further into the centre and viewed the two main churches and marketplaces before calling it a day.

Photos:

POTA DE-0725/DE-0066

  • View around site
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  • View around site
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  • View around site
  • Park entry sign
  • Park map
  • Park info board
  • Antenna
  • Station

HEMA DL/HSA-003 & SOTA DM/SA-033

  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • View around summit
  • Station

POTA DE-0712/DE-1183

  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Xiegu G106 radio (not used)
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • SLIK tripod with radials
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
  • 6 metre mast, auger and linked-dipole (build fail).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA DE-0725/DE-0066

HEMA DL/HSA-003 & SOTA DM/SA-033

POTA DE-0712/DE-1183

Conclusions:

The auger to cut a hole for the mast to sit in is not a viable solution; the (large) screw-in sun umbrella base will still be needed to support the 6m mast.

The Komunica Power HF-PRO2 performed well on a tripod or the car roof.

The G90 radio is far better with the firmware back-levelled.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – April 6th 2026 – PLOTA activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-00968 Romatische Strasse NHT and DE-0858 Via Sancti Martini NHT

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Preparation:

This was a repeat of an activation tried the previous Friday which failed with no contacts being made due to bad propagation and too many “Alligator” Contest stations on the bands plus I found a nasty problem in my new 30W amplifier box that I had built, that on speech peaks, the relay board which controls the low pass filter board, would change bands. This only affected 40 metres but was very annoying. Having tried ferrites on all DC leads, I added a “Mantle Sperre” on the antenna lead, and this was to be tested along with a “buck/boost” box to keep the available voltage to the amplifier at 13.8V, as it had been dropping drastically on speech peaks previously. The danger is that such a box can create QRM for the receiver on the HF bands.

As usual, the equipment was set up in the back seat of the car, and the three-magnet antenna base was put on the roof of the car the day before the activation, so that I could leave at 7 am the following day.

The Activation

POTA DE-00968 / DE-0858

This is a new location for me, which is just 15-20 minutes away from home, as well as being a little way away from buildings. It also has a nice grassy area that could be useful in future for a “real” park activation, away from the car.

After arriving at the car park, the setup was prompt, and I had good hopes as the Kp Index of 5 from last time had dropped to 1. Mike (M9MMM/P) was also out, and Ernie in Victoria, Australia, had also agreed to be in the shack. Mike and I agreed we would try 40m first, which we did, but conditions between us at the time (05:30 UTC) were not good. We managed a contact; however, with an exchange of 4-3 in both directions. The main thing for me was that the clattering relays and switching LPF bands had stopped, so that modification appears to have worked.

As Ernie was waiting, and the band seemed to be more active, we moved up to 20 metres. 20 metres was only just opening long path to VK at 0600 UTC, but I managed a contact with Ernie, VK3DET, at 0600 UTC, with him being 5-5, and he gave me a (perhaps generous) 3-3. An hour later, Ernie came up to almost 5-9 before dropping down again to me, but improving with Mike in the UK. This is normal on 20 metres.

When I spotted myself on the POTA site and put out several CQs on 20m, I got no response. The problem being (perhaps) that I could not hear someone relatively close to me on the same frequency, and hence blocking others from hearing me. This is one of the difficulties of operating QRP on 20m from Central Europe. That be as it may, a move back to 40m was fruitful, and at the end of the activation, I had 18 completed QSOs in the log.

Photos:

  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • View around the site.
  • Antenna
  • Station
  • Amplifier in all its “glory”.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu X6200 radio plus amplifier.
  • Three magnet car roof antenna mount.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0968 / DE-0858

Conclusions:

The test was to see if the RF Ingress had been stopped. In that way, the activation was a success. I did, however, also do a comparison with my G90 radio and at the same power level, the G90 got better reports. I put this down to the speech compressor in the G90 outclassing by a mile the one in the X-6200. I will look into adapting the RF Speech clipper module, which I have used with my little G106 radio, to be usable with the X6200 and see if that helps – I believe it will.

I also tested with and without the buck convertor and I am still not sure if it (or something else) creates QRM on receive. On transmit, it keeps the battery voltage constant. LifePO4 batteries, it seems, have a high internal resistance and hence under higher current draw, drop the voltage.

On arriving home and putting the LiFePO4 battery on charge, it refused to charge. This seems to have been a cable issue, which, when resolved, meant the battery could now be charged. This bad connection “could” have reduced the voltage and hence available power from the radios during the activation.

 73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – March 21th 2026 – PLOTA activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-0663 Lechpark Possinger Au and DE-1058 Lech Zwischen Hirschau & Landsberg

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Preparation:

Having just got a new Radioddity HF-010 antenna and after a week of book editing, I decided it was time for me to get a break, do some POTA, contact my friends in VK-Land and test out the antenna, car-mounted using my 3-magnet base.

I decided on Friday afternoon to test out the antenna, roof-mounted on my analyser, so that I could note down what the slider setting on the loading coil needed to be for each band, as I did not intend to take the antenna analyser with me. In short, initial impressions were VERY good apart from its size, on the car roof, it is a MONSTER!

Once I calibrated my settings, I decided to try the antenna out for real with a contact or two on 20m. So (as I had been calibrating with fewer extender rods on 10m), I rebuilt the antenna for 20m and did a quick check on the analyser. It was no longer resonant where it was before. I checked everything I could think of, but was unable to find what had changed. In this state, I could not rely on it for the following day’s early morning activation, so I switched to my usual Komunica HF-PRO2 antenna, which worked fine, and I made two quick contacts up into the UK before packing the car ready for the next day’s early trip. To be fair to the HF-010, it is intended to be ground-mounted on its own tripod with radials, so what I was asking it to do is not in the user manual. Perhaps for the next (non-PLOTA) activation, I’ll take the antenna along and set it up as per the handbook. It is VERY well built and looks like it could be a great antenna.

The Activation

POTA DE-0663 / DE-1058

After arriving at the car park, set-up was prompt, and I had good hopes when I saw an S1 noise level and several stations showing on the G90 bandscope. My “test” QSO, to make sure the station was operating, was with VL4R at 06:33 UTC. He was taking part in the annual “John Moyle Field Day contest” in Australia.

 After that, I could hear several John Moyle field day contest stations and other stations out of VK, including one VK6 station, but they were either chatting with mates (both VK-VK and VK-UK) or when they did call CQ, the pile-up was major! Had there not been the pile-up with a Vanuatu station, I could have made that contact, I think.

I then messaged my friends in the UK and Australia to find what frequency they were on, and we tried several times to make contact, but without success. I could hear them at S2 or S3, but they could not hear me – there was one of the team that said the Kp index was up at 7 following a storm the previous UTC evening. I decided to take a break from 20m, which had by this point bottomed out, and I was just hearing DL, RA, I and SV stations and moved to 40m.

On 40m, it was FULL with European stations (I guess a lot had moved from 20m), but I managed to find a free frequency and logged 9 POTA contacts to add to the VL4R contact to make the needed 10 contacts. SM3NRY was the last contact there, and he said there had been a major Aurora with him last night, which would account for the Kp index of 7. When I then came back to 20m, it was a little better and in the next 40minutes, I could hear all of the stations – Ernie VK3DET at about S3, Jon VK7JON and Mike M9MMM/M at about S2 but none of them could hear me, I suspect I was close to their noise levels, so having 100W rather than 20W (or indeed having the “monster” HF-010 antenna working) today may have made all the difference. 

Well, at least I got out – I would have liked to have tried the new antenna, but while it is inconsistent on the analyser, it can’t be used for an activation.

Photos:

  • Station
  • Antenna
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 HF 20W radio.
  • Three magnet car roof antenna mount.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/ DE-1058

Conclusions:

I think today was definitely a day of relative noise levels. The location in the car park, in the park, is not always brilliant. It is next to a caravan park, and when it is a holiday weekend, there can be so much electronic noise coming out of there that I just have to pack up and go elsewhere, but today I can’t complain. I think while the others were fighting higher noise levels, I had a true S1 noise level (compared to S5 or S6 at home). 

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – March 11th 2026 – Activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-0663 Lechpark Possinger Au and DE-1058 Lech Zwischen Hirschau & Landsberg

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Preparation:

After a failed attempt at activating summit Berndorfer Buchet (HEMA DL/BY-064) and Bunker Warnamt X (DL-BOTA B/DL-0327) two days earlier (broken co-axial lead to the linked dipole antenna), this activation in my nearby park was to check the repair on the antenna and to try out the little G106 5w radio with the new microphone that I have for it. This would be a “proper” portable activation, not from the car and an early start might just bring a contact with Ernie VK3DET in Australia (although with the low power, it was questionable).

The Activation

POTA DE-0663 / DE-1058

This park is literally 10 minutes (maximum) away from my home and as such serves well for tests. Indeed with another 15 minutes walk, it contains a spot that is a POTA 4-Fer and in range of a Bunker but today, just two POTA references will do.

Set up time was short and as I warily turned ion the radio, I was relieved to hear lost of stations on 20 metres, so at least for receive the antenna is working again. To test getting out, I called a strong station calling CQ but he went back to someone else who was even stronger. I sent a message on our WhatsApp comms-testers group and Ernie was there after agreeing a frequency away from interference at each end of the path, my first contact in the log was indeed Ernie, VK3DET a clear 53/54 with me but Ernie was struggling to hear me and gave me a 33 report. The difference in power levels and my lower background noise level accounts easily for this difference. It was a valid contact and the first in the log, which it turned out was important as it took me another 18 minutes before I got contact number two in the log. Had the contact with Ernie had failed, I could have easily decided something was not working after 20 minutes, packed up and gone home.

Contacts were difficult to get on both 20m and 40m today. Of course part of it was the lower power level, however some contacts were giving me 58 and 59 reports, so I was getting out. I think part of the problem was the early hour, where some hams are still in bed and those who are up are running power and causing QRM. I had to move frequency four times because of stations splattering over the frequency I was on, meaning, hearing calling stations who were not strong, became difficult. However after a hour and ten minutes, in a damp and still cold field, I had 12 contacts in the log and packed up to go home. Both the antenna and the radio worked well, so this “test” activation of the two overlapping parks was a success.

Photos:

  • Station
  • Operating
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • Antenna
  • Horses in neighbouring Field

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 QRP radio with ABREE microphone.
  • SOTABeams Linked dipole antenna.
  • Lambdahalba 6m mini mast and screw-in base.
  • 2 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/ DE-1058

Conclusions:

The contact into VIC, Australia, and the 2-Fer to 2-Fer P2P contact into France were the highlights of this activation. Getting contacts was hard work but the action was to check that the radio and antenna are now working as they should and that was proved.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – March 6th 2026 – Activation of DE-0858 Via Sancti Martini NHT and B/DL-1193 Landsberg am Lech Schlossgarage-Atombunker

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Preparation:

Seeing that a bunker that I proposed had been added to the German Bunkers on the Air scheme, I wanted to get to it and activate it as the first operator. Initially, I had planned to combine this one to overlap with a POTA 4-fer in a park south of Landsberg, which would need a “real” portable operation, as the point is on a section of footpath through the wildlife park. I could only get there in a few days, so instead, I decided to “just” activate the bunker, but as I looked at the combined POTA/BOTA map at pota-map.info, I could see there were several areas in Landsberg where both a POTA and the BOTA activation would be possible. As I thought, I might have a hard time getting the needed 15 bunker chaser contacts for qualifying the Bunker, I decided that having the POTA hunters around as well would be a good idea.

When my wife told me she would need to do some shopping in the town centre the next day, the plan was formed. I would drop her off in the centre and then drive up to my spot for 60 to 90 minutes to get the bunker qualified. To keep this simple, I would use the reliable G90 and magnetic-base-mounted HF-PRO2 for the activation.

The Activation

POTA BOTA B/DL-1193 & POTA DE-0858

After dropping my wife off, the run to the planned off-road parking spot took about 5 minutes. As I had not unpacked the radio gear previously, the unpacking from the rucksack and setting up the antenna took another 10 minutes.

I had decided to start on 20 metres and tuning around, there was nothing special, just the usual strong Italian and russian hams. So I checked if the preferred BOTA 20m frequency of 14.310 was free; it was, so I spotted myself in WW-BOTA and put out a CQ. I was surprised by at least six stations coming back to my first call. It seems that Bunkers has gone Bonkers since the last time I activated, just a month ago! I had 20 contacts without a break in callers over 15-20 minutes, finishing with Don G0RQL from Devon, who I often talk to, whether it is SOTA, HEMA, POTA or now BOTA! Manual EA2DT was also in the log, someone else that I know as a chaser across multiple portable award schemes.

Once the pileup finally calmed down and after a couple of CQs with no replies, I decided to give POTA a go. After spotting on the POTA cluster, I got no calls on 20m. It seems that one of my BOTA contacts spotted me on POTA, as I was announcing that I was both near a Bunker and on a POTA trail. So, of the rush of calls, I cannot tell who was calling because of BOTA and who because of POTA!

As I had plenty of time, I decided to put out a POTA call on 40m. That was also hard work, with just four more contacts getting into the log.

I could not complain, with 28 contacts in the log, it was far more than I had expected and going by the reports I received, the simple 20W G90 and the HF20 loaded whip antenna continue to perform well.

Once at the planned location, partway into the forest on an ice-covered road, the setup was quick, with just the antenna needing to be put on the 3-magnet mount on the car roof, with the coil set to the newly calibrated value for 20m. I had intended to start on 20 metres and then head to 40 metres, as I got so many contacts on 20m, the 40m action never happened.

I did announce that my location was also a Bunker, and when a Bunker chaser actually called me, I asked him to spot me on the WWBOTA site, as I could not.

Photos:

DE-0858 / B/DL-1193

  • Location & antenna
  • Around the location
  • Around the location
  • Around the location

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 6 metre fibreglass pole (not used).
  • 3-magnet car roof mount
  • Single magnet mount (not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Contacts Map

LOG: POTA DE-0858 / BOTA B/DL-1193

Conclusions:

I was surprised at getting so many contacts for Bunkers. For a short-notice activation, the “standard” setup worked reliably again. The weather was fine for a “real” portable activation today; however, the available time was not

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – February 10th 2026 – Activation of DE-1067 Moränelandschaft zwischen Ammer and stannberger sees plus DL-BOTA Bunker B/DL-0327 Warnamt X

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Preparation:

Again, a limited-time “fill-in” activation while my wife had an appointment with her orthopaedic specialist in Weilheim at the southern end of Ammersee. Checking the few local bunker sites that are currently in the DL-BOTA site, I came across Warnamt X, not too far away and a location that I know, as we recently went to an art exhibition there – the buildings above the civil defence bunker now house an artist’s commune.

Although the bunker is excluded from the POTA park DE-1067, the fact that one may activate within one kilometre of the bunker made a combined activation of POTA and DL-BOTA possible by parking just off the access road to the commune.

So that was the plan, with, as usual, all radio gear loaded and ready for operation in the car the day before, I was ready for this combined BLOTA/PLOTA activation. I also packed my Xiegu X-6200 radio and a second magnetic antenna mount as backups. I added an alert on both POTA and DL-BOTA for the activation.

The Activation

POTA DE-1067 & BOTA B/DL-0327

After dropping my wife off, the run to the planned off-road parking spot took about 20 minutes, mainly because of traffic stuck behind two slow-moving tractors. We had planned that my wife’s appointment would take about an hour and she would stay in a local cafe for 30 minutes afterwards, giving me 90 minutes for the trip to, radio activation and trip from the location.

Once at the planned location, partway into the forest on an ice-covered road, the setup was quick, with just the antenna needing to be put on the 3-magnet mount on the car roof, with the coil set to the newly calibrated value for 20m. I had intended to start on 20 metres and then head to 40 metres, as I got so many contacts on 20m, the 40m action never happened.

I did announce that my location was also a Bunker, and when a Bunker chaser actually called me, I asked him to spot me on the WWBOTA site, as I could not.

After spotting myself on POTA (BOTA spotting did not work from my phone for some reason), I had 75 contacts in almost exactly an hour, and all on one frequency on 20m. The radio and antenna worked perfectly, and the level of QRM was nowhere near as high as it had been in previous activations – perhaps the fact that the “WWA” award scheme month-on-air has finished was a big help. The high number of contacts did not include any DX contacts but lots of contacts from locations closer to me than I normally would get, so it seems that after recent heavy solar activity, the skip distance was short. As you will see from the contacts map, coverage was 360 degrees over all of Europe.

I had to end the activation as I had run out of time, but hopefully I will have given some Bunker operators this ATNO location (this was its first activation in the scheme).

Photos:

DE-1067 / B/DL-0327

  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • View around site.
  • Antenna.
  • Station.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Xiegu X6200 radio (not used)
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 6 metre fibreglass pole (not used).
  • 3-magnet car roof mount
  • Single magnet mount (not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

Contacts Map

POTA DE-1067

DL-BOTA B/DL-0327

Conclusions:

I was surprised at getting so many contacts in just an hour, but happy that the “standard” setup is now working reliably again. Hopefully, the weather conditions will improve soon, so that I can get out and operate “real” portable, away from the car, again.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – January 19th 2026 – Activation of DE-0375 Sheridan Park and 2-fer POTA DE-0374 Wittelsbacher Park (With DL-BOTA B/DL-1191 Rosenauberg Bunker) & DE-0597 Augsburger Jakobsweg

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Preparation:

Yet another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off at her Physio rehab centre. Since the last activation, I have found that the HF-PRO2 antenna on the smaller (1-magnet) roof mount on 40m works better (SWR 1.4:1) than on my normal larger (3-magnet feet) roof mount (SWR 2:1). SWR values on 20 metres is similar on both mounts – I presume the available ground plane of the car roof is just sufficient on 40m when using the smaller mount. So, in these activations, I planned to use the single magnet base (but took the larger one “just in case”). Apart from that, the radio was the G90 as usual, but again I took the X6200 as backup.

As usual, all radio gear was loaded and ready for operation in the car the day before, for these two PLOTA activations.

The Activations

POTA DE-0375 Sheridan Park

After dropping my wife off, the run up into the city of Augsburg was uneventful and took less than 30 minutes. The exact location that I had scouted out online (a parking spot for sharing cars) was in the middle of being re-built so I found an alternative location to park, in the turnaround at the end of Otto-Shalk-Strasse.

After setting up the antenna on the car roof, I messaged Ernie VK3DET in Australia, who had kindly agreed to take a listen for me, and, as it was 30 minutes earlier than I had expected, there was a good chance that I could make a long path 20m contact with my 20 watts of sideband and loaded whip configuration. It wasn’t to be …

When I turned the radio on, I could hear nothing – not even static noise. At first, I thought that I was in an RF blackout (actually, that came some 18 hours later along with a G4 major solar storm). When I texted Ernie, he said he was hearing some of the well-known Spanish stations, so not only was the band not closed and it appeared the long path was still open.

I changed radios from the G90 to the X6200 – same situation – I was hearing exactly nothing on 20m and 40m. I had tested the antenna mount after repairing it a few days earlier, but despite that, I decided to change back to the three-magnet abse, and as soon as I attached the coax feeder from that, I started hearing a band full of stations. The obvious conclusion was that the coax cable had broken again, perhaps this time the braid rather than the centre core. However, later, when I tested at home, there was DC connectivity along the core and braid between the plug and the socket and no short between the two. So why this suddenly stopped working remains a mystery at the moment.

For this activation, I was happy to work with the base that was working and stuck to 20 metres rather than going to 40 metres. Contacts were made all around Europe, but no further afield; the nearness of houses at the side of the park may have been part of the reason for this. In summer, I could have set up in the park, but with temps down around -5°C, this activation stayed located in the car.

Contacts were hard to get, not only because of the location but also because of the high-powered stations on the band taking part in the “World-Wide-Award”. Calling this activity an “Award” rather than a contest (which it obviously is) allows it to take place every day, not just on the weekends, and to take place on the WARC bands where contests are not permitted. After all of the problems, I eventually got my needed 10 contacts in just over an hour, helped greatly by Don (G0RQL) calling three times under different call signs.

POTA DE-0374 Wittelsbacher Park & DE-0597 Augsburger Jakobsweg

After lunch at a German restaurant at the main (Riegle) Brewery (to be recommended as a friendly, well-run restaurant), I headed out to the next POTA location. Or at least I would have, had Google Maps not decided to play up in the car. I set off anyway in the direction I thought I should be going (wrong! Once the navigation program started working, I had to double back on my route, and it turned out the next POTA location was only a few minutes’ drive from the restaurant and railway station).

This location was as I had expected, although distances between the recycling “igloos” and the entry to the famous Rosenauberg bunker which, I added as a missing BOTA-DL Bunker later, so far very few bunkers in Bavaria have been included on Bunkers on the Air.

I still had the three-magnet base on the roof from the last activation, so the setup was very quick, which was good as I had limited time to gather the needed 10 contacts before having to head off to collect my wife from the outpatients physio centre. Don helped once again with THREE calls under different call signs. I put out several CQs but had to keep moving because of QRM from those taking part in this WWA contest month. The best contact from this 2-fer was with W1OW in MA, USA. In fact, he was also the only non-UK caller to this activation!

Photos:

DE-0375

  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Views around the park.
  • Park Sign
  • Views around the park.
  • Location & Antenna
  • Station.

DE-0374 & DE-0597 & B/DL-1191

  • Park Entrance
  • Park Views.
  • Spot the Gray Squirrel…
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Park Views.
  • Entrance to B/DL-1191 Rosenauberg Bunker
  • Antenna

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Xiegu X6200 radio
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0375

POTA DE-0374/DE-0597

Conclusions:

It’s good to get these two semi-local parks off my to-do list, but the problem with the single magnet base mount needs to be investigated further. Of course, an intermittent fault is hard to find and given that I have an absolutely new single-magnet antenna mount, perhaps I should not waste my time and simply throw the faulty one away?

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – January 13th 2026 – Activation of DE-1136 Haspelmoor and 4-fer POTA (near Konigsbrunn) – DE-0466 0942 0968 1056 and DE-00905

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Preparation:

This was another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off at her Physio rehab centre. A week earlier, I had tried to activate Haspelmoor, made one contact and then the radio failed on me, first with high VSWR on speech peaks and then with a “COMMUNICATION LOST” error between the head unit and body of the radio, even though they are bolted together, and no firmware upgrade has been performed on one half and not the other.

On getting home, the radio worked perfectly, and I was unable to recreate the issues. This activation, therefore, was to see if I could find the fault under EXACTLY the same circumstances (I packed a second radio as backup in case the problems reoccurred).

I had several hours for the activation and a chance to get lunch at the only open restaurant in the area (Tuesday’s most restaurants are closed). As it turned out, I had plenty of time to also activate the “4-fer” that I had activated in December, as it was on the route back to my wife’s physical rehabilitation centre. We have just come out of 2 weeks of sub-zero temperatures, but the ground is still frozen and partially ice-covered, so this meant that the activations would again be “PLOTA” activations from within the car, only stepping out to attach or adjust the HF-PRO2 antenna.

As usual, all radio gear was put ready in the car the day before, for this PLOTA.

The Activations

POTA DE-1136 Haspelmoor Flora and Fauna reserve

After dropping my wife off, having driven the route the previous week, it was a clear run down to the same parking spot next to a strange metal (artistic sculpture?) construction as last time in the forested Haspelmoor.

I started on 20 metres, catching one P2P contact into Wales where the activator was in a 3-fer POTA location. Following this a spot in POTA and calling CQ brought in 7 strong calls but thene the well known military digital QRM (OTHR) started wiping out the top of the band. Trying to find a clear frequency on 20m to QSY to was impossible as there was a contest on (normally contests are only allowed on weekends and this was a Wednesday). It turned out later that the increased contest activity were participants in the WWA “World Wide Award” which was running every day in January. It seems that by calling it an “award” rather than a contest, the organisers decided they could run it on weekdays aswell. It certainly has increased activity on the HF bands, but of course, for low-power portable stations, this is very bad news.

So to get away from both of these types of interference, I decided to move to 40 metres. Up to this point, the radio had operated perfectly, so I was starting to think the testing purpose of the activation might come to nothing. Conditions on 40 metres were not good; in this case, the atmospheric noise was high, and it took over ten minutes to just get 2 contacts. However, at this point, I started to see the High SWR on speech peaks problem again and had an idea. I changed the setting on the loading coil on the antenna just a little, to move it away from my calibrated position and then, while the base SWR after running the AATU sat a little higher, I no longer got the sudden high SWR peaks that I had been seeing.

I decided to switch back to 20 metres to get a few more contacts before driving to the restaurant for lunch. Dour more contacts followed in the next 10 minutes before I went QRT.

Regarding the high SWR on 40 metres, at the time, I wasn’t sure why this was happening. Perhaps the antenna’s adjustable coil was wearing out (I have had the antenna at least 8 years) – Perhaps the 3-magnet base?? At least I had a temporary fix for the time being. Later, at home, I think I may have the answer … The calibrations that I made with the antenna were with it on top of our Peugeot car. In the meantime, we have changed to a similarly sized Citroen car, and the actual “ground plane area” and type of steel, the magnetic mount is sat on, could easily give a different ground plane to the antenna. On the higher bands, the ground plane has a lesser effect than on the lower bands, such as 40 metres. It could be that I just need to recalibrate the antenna scale settings on the new car’s roof!

POTA DE-0466 Augsburg Statswald/DE-0942 Via Julia NHT/DE-0968 Romantische strasse/DE-1056 Lechauen

After lunch at a really old-fashioned German restaurant, I saw that I still had nearly three hours of free time before I would need to pick up my wife, so I decided to activate this convenient “4-fer” location on my way back in the direction of the Reha.

This activation took place early afternoon, not usually a good time for 20 metres contacts but I managed quite a few with the contact of the day being with VA1SEA in Nova scotia, Canada. Apart from that, all contacts were around Europe. The biggest problem with this location was that, being directly on a main road, the ignition and engine controller interference from passing cars and trucks on the wet road was horrendous, but as you’ll see from the map extract below, this “had” to be the location to get all 4 parks in one:

After 14 contacts on 20 metres, I switched to 40 metres, remembering to offset the setting on the loading coil. However, the QRM on 40 metres was even worse than on 20 metres, and I managed only three more contacts, all German stations. The main thing was that my quick fix of off-tuning the antenna worked again.

Once the QRM got too much, I decided to pack up and even had time to do some food shopping before picking up my wife and driving home.

Photos:

DE-1136

  • Strange construction at parking spot.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • “A walk in the park”.
  • “A walk in the park”.
  • “A walk in the park”.
  • “A walk in the park”.
  • “A walk in the park”.
  • Antenna
  • Station

DE-0466, 0942, 0968, 1056

  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Park Trail views.
  • Antenna
  • Station

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Xiegu X6200 radio (not used)
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-1136

POTA DE-0466/DE-0942/DE-0968/DE-1056

Conclusions:

Overall, these two activations went well, and if I have indeed now found the reason for the earlier problems, it was worth doing the activations. That contact into Canada out of nowhere was the “icing on the cake” and VA1SEA must have a fantastic station set-up!

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – December 30th 2025 – Activation of 4-fer POTA (near Konigsbrunn) – DE-0466 0942 0968 1056 and DE-00905 Paar & Ecknach (near Mering)

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Preparation:

This was another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off at her Physio rehab centre. I had several hours for these activations, even with a chance to get lunch in between the two locations, so I was to take them at a slow pace. The sub-zero temperatures meant that they would be “PLOTA” activations from within the car, only stepping out to attach or adjust the HF-PRO2 antenna.

As usual, all radio gear was put ready in the car for this PLOTA.

The Activations

POTA DE-0466 Augsburg Statswald/DE-0942 Via Julia NHT/DE-0968 Romantische strasse/DE-1056 Lechauen

After dropping the wife off, this first location was only about a 10-minute drive. Having checked maps, I had found this POTA 4-fer, although the parking was a little restricted (more a pull-in than an actual parking area, but used by locals to start jogging from, take their dogs for a walk, etc.).

The setup time was short as usual, and since it was around 10 am local (0900 UTC), I expected the long path on 20m to have closed, which turned out to be the case. My best DX was probably Mike in the UK with his new M9MMM/P call sign. I did, however, manage to establish two P2P contacts in this first session, so that was a plus. Indeed, one station (M8VZT) was in three UK POTA entities, so this was a 4-fer to 3-fer P2P contact.

Mike told me he had worked DX on 15 metres, so once the calls dried up on 20 metres, I moved to 15 metres, where indeed I heard VU2DKI at over S9, but despite trying several times to call him, I could not break the major pile-up that he had going. I also heard a VK6 station on 15m, but too weak to really be able to work. after spotting anf calling on 15m for a while, I decided I was wasting my time as no one was coming back and stations that I could hear on the band were dealing with kw plus stations calling them, so my little 20w signal with a loaded whip as antenna, while certainly arriving at the other station, it was being crushed by the high power stations.

I switched to 40 metres at around 1015 UTC, but my spot on POTA and CQ call only returned two callers. Wanting to try 10 metres before I packed up, I switched bands and, as luck would have it, heard Daryl M3ZDZ on 17m as I switched through. I stopped, changed the antenna setting and then we had an enjoyable chat for 10 minutes. On eventually getting onto 10 metres, I had the same result as on 15 metres – so much DQRM and pile-ups on the band meant that the DX stations I could hear, I could not work.

By this time, I decided it was time to pack up and head for lunch. On checking the map, the restaurant that I had chosen (one of the few in the area who are open on a Tuesday) was closed for the Christmas break, but it seems Google Maps had just been updated the day before. Searching for another restaurant that was shown as open, that turned out to be a kiosk that was only open in summer! In the end, I always had the fallback of the local McDonald’s, which, while difficult to reach in the middle of the industrial area in Mering, was at least open. After a “meal” there, I headed to my second POTA location at the other end of the town.

POTA DE-0905 Paar und Ecknach Natura 2000 park

The access to the parking spot located in Mering in this park needed to drive through a residential area between two main railway lines (I would not like to live in those apartments but I suspect they were at the lower-priced living grade).

I was lucky, one spot was available in the parking area, and I was set up in no time. I started again on 20 metres, and again my first entry in the log was when I called M8VZT as he was still in his 3-fer POTA location. 55 rather than the earlier 59 signal could mean my new location was not as good as the earlier one, or simply that band conditions on 20m had changed. The band suffered QSB on signals from both locations. After 60 quickly obtained contacts on 20m, I switched to 40m to pick up two more P2P contacts, but my spotted CQ call on 40m brought no calls. So I decided to pack up and head back to pick up my wife, arriving 15 minutes early, but after two good activations, reducing the number of parks I have not activated in the area yet.

Photos:

DE-0466, 0942, 0968, 1056

  • Trail signs
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Park details
  • Park details
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Antenna
  • Station

DE-0905

  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Views around site
  • Antenna
  • Station

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0466/DE-0942/DE-0968/DE-1056

POTA DE-0905

Conclusions:

The trouble getting contacts on 15 & 10 metres was disappointing, as the propagation was there. It was purely the disadvantage of only running enough power to make the contact (as required in all amateur radio licences) and the limited antenna, which stopped contacts. Even with a better antenna, I suspect those KW stations will remain a problem for everyone else. Crocodiles.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – November 18th 2025 – Activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-0979 OberesIsartal FF reserve and DE-0595 Südostbayern Jakobsweb

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Preparation:

This was another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off. I had a little more time for this one, but with radio conditions not having been very good for a couple of days, my expectations were not high.

As usual, all radio gear was put ready in the car for this PLOTA.

The Activation

POTA DE-0595 / DE-0979

After driving about 35 minutes along some roads varying in quality (Google Maps insists on taking the shortest route, without considering a slightly longer route on larger roads might be the choice the driver would prefer…) I arrived at the parking area, which I had searched out a couple of days earlier, nicely in the Oberes Isartal park, that I had not activated previously, at a spot where the South East Bavaria portion of the Jakobsweg passed through, so this was a nice “2-fer” for POTA hunters.

Set up time was short as usual, and as this was fairly early in the day, although 20 metres was a little noisy, the band was open to VK with a couple of the well-known “nets” coming in strongly. This activation consisted of spotting and calling on 20 metres to get some contacts from all around Europe, and a search and pounce operation, when I saw that VK2USH was spotted on POTA. It took a lot of calls, but eventually the pile-up quietened down and I got my contact. It’s a shame that POTA Hunters do not have the courtesy to tell the station when another park is calling (something that SOTA chasers do all the time). I guess those in POTA are a different crowd.

Once the calls dried up on 20 metres, I moved to 40 metres, where I also sat calling two French POTA activations for some time before I got those P2P contacts in the log.

Photos:

  • Billboard for rafting on the Isar
  • Park signs
  • Park signs
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • The location.
  • Station.
  • Antenna

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount (single not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0595/ DE-0979

Conclusions:

The Park-to-Park contact into NSW, Australia, was the jewel in this activation. I have made Summit-to-summit contacts into VK2 before, but using a better antenna system. I have also worked home and portable (static mobile) stations in several Australian states from POTA activations, but this P2P contact was a nice bonus in this activation.

73 ’til the next activation!