DD5LP/P – July 31st 2026 – activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-0663 Lechpark Possinger Au and DE-1058 Lech Zwischen Hirschau & Landsberg

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Preparation:

Just two weeks away from our trip to 5B (Cyprus), I wanted to do a full blown test of the radio equipment that I plan to take with me. I have tried out parts of the set-up previously but this time it would be the 5W Xiegu G106 along with the Parasitic vertical array antenna. This consist of two Chinese 5.6m whips, one with a feed point (known by may as the “red slug” given its bright red colour) the other whip connecting directly to the ground stake, trough a long M10 nut, Both parts have eight three metre long radial wires and the two whips are spaced at a 1/4 wavelength apart. The driven element’s telescopic whip is set to 1/4 wavelength high and the Reflector element to 7% more. With a great deal of help from Rob DM1CM, author and owner of the portable-antennas.com website, I have a chart of lengths and spacings for all of the bands between 20m and 10 metres. However for this outing, I will be concentrating on 20 metres. and as some of my friends in Australia also plan to be on-air, I hope to be able to measure whether the reflector element of the array is actually working, or whether I might as well simply take the 1/4 vertical antenna without the reflector, to Cyprus.

On other activations, I have packed the car the previous day as an early 7 am start was planned before driving to the local POTA park, however as EVERYTHING packs inside a small 25 litre? rucksack, for this activation, pre-packing of the car was not needed.

The Activation

POTA DE-0663 / DE-1058

After parkin the car, it’s only a 5 minute walk to where I set up in the overlapping area of two parks (hence this is a POTA 2fer). I actually timed the complete set up and it took 20 minutes (pull down only took 10 minutes). With the mast and Inverted-V dipole or even the tripod and loaded vertical with the G90 radio, set-up often takes 30 minutes, so this is already an improvement, helped by the fact that radio, ATU and battery are all in a very small belt-bag, so once the antenna is up, its just a matter of plugging in the radio, trimming the antenna match and then getting on air.

This was definitely the case and as soon as I was set up, I was already hearing stations from Australia and the US. After a check with the group via WhatsApp, I found what frequency they were on an a contact with Jon VK7JON operating static mobile from his car on the Tasmanian coast followed. This was with the “complete” antenna (driven element and reflector element) with the antenna pointing west – as I need for the Long Path propagation to Australia. We exchanged 57 (Ed to Jon) and 56 (Jon to Ed) reports.

As signals were so good, this was the ideal opportunity to remove the reflector and see what difference there was on receive and transmit signal strengths and Jon kindly agreed to wait until I unscrewed and laid the reflector on the ground. I’m happy to report there was a noticeable difference and reports were now 5-4 to 5 (Ed to Jon) and 5-3 to 4 (Jon to Ed). Once I re-erect the reflector, signals were back up as before. All of this action took around 5 minutes and so I think the results can be trusted. The full parasitic array has earned it’s trip to Cyprus with us!

Surprisingly, I was also hearing and later managed to work Mike M9MMM/P in the UK. Normally when skip is long he and I don’t get a contact without going to 40 metres. Soon after I also worked Ernie VK3DET with him being a good 5-7 signal and giving me 4-5. All of these contacts were through our group “net” and arranged via the WhatsApp back-channel. The interesting contact came a little later when Peter VK3ACZ came back to my POTA CQ calls and we exchanged 5-4 reports although I think Peter may have been a little generous. Still being early in the morning getting the rest of the needed contacts to qualify the POTA parks took time but at the end of my one hour outing, I had 11 in the log.

This activation / test could not have gone better and I thank the “Comms Testers” group for their support. It is an honour to be able to work VK on 20 metres with just 5 watts of SSB signal, when I know a lot of other amateurs living in the middle of metro noise can only dream of it. Other hams, while realising the advantage of a low noise floor when portable still often doubt that such contacts are possible except perhaps on FT8. It’s always a matter of luck combined with good timing. Unfortunately at the moment that “good timing” requires me to get out of bed earlier than I would like! At least in Cyprus, I gain another hour, as they are at UTC +3 rather than the UTC + 2 that I have here..

Photos:

  • 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.
  • View around the site.
  • The radio “pack”
  • The vertical Array antenna

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 HF 5W radio.
  • Parasitic vertical array consisting of a quarter wave vertical and a reflector element.
  • 2 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/ DE-1058

Conclusions:

With the results from this activation, I think I now have a lightweight, small HF station suitable to be taken on the trip to Cyprus in a couple of weeks time. I do have one change noted however and that is to add protection to the end of the ground stakes so they don’t push holes into their bags. 

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – July 16th 2026 – Activation of POTA DE-1058 Lech zwischen Hirshau & Landsberg, DE-0968 Romantischestraße NHT, DE-0791 Lech Erlebnisweg NHT, DE-0663 Lechpark Pössinger AAU Nature Recreation Area and DL-BOTA (Bunkers on the air) B/DL-1193 Landsberger Scholßberggarage atombunker.

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Preparation:

This POTA “4-fer” is a nearby location (within the same Maidenhead locator square as my home), however, it is only accessible on foot or by bicycle, not a PLOTA by any means! It also happens to be within the allowed 1 km radius of the Atom Bunker in Landsberg am Lech (B/DL-1193 in the Bunkers on the Air scheme).

To activate this point a fairly long walk from the nearest car park is needed – about 20 minutes, even taking the short-cut tracks that I found checking hiking maps. My usual 14-15 kilo heavy rucksack with my G90 fibreglass mast antennas and battery, while do-able is not the best option, especially when I have been working on aa lightweight ~ 4 kilo pack that I will take to Cyprus with me in August. This therefore would be a good opportunity to test out this QRP solution.

Despite earlier weather reports saying this week would be hot and sunny, Tuesday and Wednesday brought thunderstorms and even hail, so the planned activation on Thursday would depend upon what the weather would turn out to be. I set my alarm to 6 am (0600 UTC) with the hope of catching the long path on 20 metres into Australia.

The Activation

BOTA B/DL-1193, POTA DE-1058, 0968, 0791 & 0663

Rising at 6 am, the sky still looked overcast and given the downpour over the last two days there was a good chance that the tracks down into the park may be unpassable. Despite that, I decided to try – at worst this would act as a “reccie” for a second attempt.

Arriving at the car park behind the caravan camping grounds, I parked up and then grabbed my small rucksack and headed back up the road, to where the track was supposed to start. When I got there, I saw that the track had had a wooden barrier built across it, but it was obvious people had simply walked around the end of it, so I did the same. A little further down the track, there were red and white tapes strung between the trees. Obviously someone did not want this track to be used. Whatever, I clambered around the tree to join the track at the other side. Interesting, from this point there was a worse-looking track heading straight up the bank to near the car park, which then became the (shorter) route that I took on my return journey. The rest of my route was, as on my map, and I soon arrived at the area where, on one side, there is a cycle parking spot and at the other a Kneipp basin (a small area of water with stones in the bottom of it, which people walk over to improve their feet and ankles). Just past the cycle parking area, there was a grassy area going off towards the river, which suited me perfectly (apart from the high, wet grass). Luckily, this had not turned into a bog from all of the recent rain.

After setting up the equipment, I tuned around 20m to see how it was performing, and the first station I found was Jon VK7JON/M – one of the Australian friends that I often talk with and had hoped to contact. He was not a strong signal, though – S2 at best, and he runs 100W from his static mobile location while I was only running 5w. I called him – no reply. I messaged him, and we tried again – nothing – I could hear him, but he could not hear me. He then had Mike VK7MD/M call me, but Mike was even weaker at S1, so that did not work either. Even Ernie VK3DET with his high power and beam was not audible to me. This was to be the story of this activation. The band, whether 20m or 40m, which I tried as I needed contacts for the POTA activation, was very difficult. It was not that the bands were noisy, rather that the signals were simply not travelling as they usually do. I even received a report on 40 metres of 1-1 from a station in Munich! Then in contrast I got a 5-9 report from Central Switzerland, so today was a strage one for conditions. Of course, initially I worried that something might be wrong with my radio or antenna with those low reports (even for QRP) but then the good reports told me that in fact it was simply radio conditions that were bad today.

Once I had the needed 10 contacts (including one P2P with another 4-fer POTA location in France), I needed to pack up and head back to the car as my wife needed it. The walk back was fine as I knew the route. Of course it was no where as easy as the trip in as this time it was up-hill.

The strange technical issue was that at one point I was hearing what I presume was Radio China right across the band. Weak but there behind other signals. Given that it was there over the complete band, I can only think that they are transmitting on a frequency that is mixing to make the IF frequency of this radio, with a very strong signal (they use Europe-based transmitters as well as those in the Far East) that it was breaking through.

Photos:

  • Following the trail(s)
  • View of River Lech
  • Wooden artwork along the trail
  • Following the trail(s)
  • Small waterfall
  • Wooden artwork along the trail
  • Following the trail(s)
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • Station
  • Antenna

B/DL-1193 / DE-1058 / DE-0968 / DE-0791 / DE-0663

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • “Red Slug” ground mounted quarter-wave vertical.
  • 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Contacts Map

LOG:

Conclusions:

I was surprised that conditions were so bad but happy that the weather stayed dry. The lightweight pack is far easier to carry than the usual kit, however, had anything failed, I had little back-up possibility, whereas with the larger pack, I have several spares. Two antennas mast/tripod, even extra batteries.

For what it is, the cheap G106 rather competes above its weight, as does the simple quarter-wave antenna made with a 5.6m telescopic whip, the “slug” feed point and its ground stake. I am happy to take this small kit to Cyprus, with some spares in a second bag, which will stay in the apartment unless needed, so keeping the carried weight down.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – June 15th 2026 – Activation of POTA – DE-1254 Luitpolpark Schwabmünchen

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Preparation:

Despite the nice weather, for convenience, this activation of a new-to-me park would be a PLOTA rather than out on the ground. While my wife was at a thermal Spa, I would drive the roughly 30 minutes to this park and activate it from my car, parked in the car park within the park area. Reading online, it seems that this parking area filled quickly, but I was hoping that being on a weekday, it would not be a problem, and indeed that was the case. On a public holiday or at the weekend, that could be different, as this park has a lot of different sports and other attractions (including a beer garden) in it. The police are reported to be very unhappy if visitors park in the nearby streets when the car park is full.

I was surprised to see on the POTA Map site how small this (town) park was. I had always thought that unless they have some special historical meaning, small town parks were not allowed in the POTA system. Perhaps the rules in Germany have changed from the original global rules? We now have cycling trails and lakes in the DL scheme, so I think there is an effort to widen the scheme (possibly to avoid other schemes being set up for the entities not covered by POTA? LLOTA comes to mind).

The Activation

POTA DE-1254

Apart from a small delay firstly behind a large lorry and then a farm tractor on the country roads that lead from the Thermal Spa to the park, the run up was without incident. Indeed, the first closed road I came to was close to the park and diverted traffic was sent down the road I needed with the parking area on it.

On arrival at the parking area within the park, it was almost empty, with perhaps 5 cars in it; it could easily hold 60. So I parked where I could see I would have no problems with tree branches in the way when I put the loaded whip on the car roof and then checked my phone for other members of our little Comms testers (UK-EU/VK group) – It was 10;30 am local time, so I wasn’t expecting any contacts into Australia today, but Ernie VK3DET kindly took a listen for me in any case. He could hear nothing and indeed could see nothing at all on his radio’s waterfall. The 20-metre long-path propagation had certainly ended a couple of hours earlier.

I had up to 90 minutes of activation time planned, so before continuing, I took a swift walk around the park, as you will see from the pictures. This is a compact park, with lots included in its area. As I was already on 20 metres, I spotted myself and called CQ POTA, and a few contacts came in. They were just within Europe, except for one – K2UPD – Peter in Jamesville, New York State, USA. I have worked him before, and he must have a fantastic station as he comes through, and more importantly hears stations in Europe when others do not. His information on qrz.com is limited. I would have liked to learn what he has for antennas. I suppose he could have been operating a remote station in Europe, but he did not say so, and of course he would need a different call sign if that was the case.

Once the calls ended to my CQs on 20 metres I switched to 40 metres where I could see there were a few other POTA activators out and first tried those for P2P contacts before trying again to get callers to my CQ calls. I ended up with 13 logged contacts across 20 & 40 metres and decided to finish and pack everything up, so I could leisurly return to collect my wife. As it turned out, this was a good decision as several kilometres of road were limited to a speed of 30 km/h as the road markings were being re-painted.

All worked out well on the return journey and I had a new park in my list of activated parks.

Photos:

  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • Park signs.
  • A walk through the park.
  • A walk through the park.
  • A walk through the park.
  • A walk through the park.
  • A walk in the park.
  • Beer Garden.
  • Beer Garden.
  • Beer Garden.
  • Art (for kids).
  • Station.
  • Antenna.

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G90.
  • Three magnet roof mount.
  • 80-10m Linked dipole and 6 metre mast (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip band tripod.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-1254

Conclusions:

A nice way to fill in 90 minutes, using a known good set-up, but next time should be a “REAL” Portable operation again …!

 73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – June 2nd 2026 – Activation of POTA DE-0858 Via Sancti Martini NHT and DE-0963 Wandertrilogie Allgäu – Wiesengänger NHT and HEMA DL/HBY-018 Sattlersbuckl (on Sattlersbuckl)

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Preparation:

As a time fill-in while my car was at its annual service, I planned an activation. This time, it was not going to be an activation from the car/loan car, rather a “real” portable activation, involving a walk of some distance with all required radio equipment on my back.

It’s a while since I have done a HEMA activation, and also some time since I have climbed Sattlersbuckl and since two POTA trails go over the summit, this seemed like a good choice.

It used to be that if I activated a SOTA summit, I would often have over 25 contacts in an hour; the SOTA scheme was that well supported. HEMA has never been well supported by chasers outside of the UK, and in Germany, I believe I may be the ONLY activator. So to have the advantage of posting to the POTA site meant (I hoped) that I should have more than enough callers for this location.

I have activated all three entities here before, in the case of the POTA trails from more than one other location.

Given the planning between dropping off the car for its service, and also bringing my wife to a thermal spa, my radio gear and food, etc., all needed to be packed into, or onto my 40-litre backpack. This was to be transferred from my car to the loan/rental car at the dealer’s. As the weather was not certain to be sunny or dry, as a fallback, I had also scouted out a location where I could do a “PLOTA” activation, at least on the two POTA trails.

The Activation

HEMA DL/HBY-018, POTA DE-0858 & 0953

After dropping my car off at the dealers followed by my wife at the spa, I drove south in the loaner Ford Puma Electric Car (I am not a fan of E-autos after this experience – not that anything “bad” happened but these cars have no “soul” but so many things controlling what you can do, that it almost feels like you are not driving the car!). In any case, the weather was “mixed”, but I decided to stick to the original plan, and after getting to my usual parking spot, just outside of Apfeltrang, I started the steep walk up to Sattlersbuckl.

This track up often holds surprises, and today, I saw a young deer come out onto the track in front of me, but as soon as it saw me, it shot off back into the bushes. It all happened to quickly for me to grab any photos, unfortunately.

On arriving at my operating spot, I put up the mast and linked dipole, set to 40 metres, spotted myself and tried calling CQ. Not only were the radio conditions disappointing, but there was also lots of QRM, causing me to change frequency twice. I had got a couple of contacts on 40 metres but only semi-local in continental Europe. This being lunchtime, I had not even considered 20 metres, but given the problems on 40 metres, I decided to give 20 metres a try and managed then to get a couple of good contacts into the UK. By my timing, I could have stayed another 30 minutes or so; however, as I then felt a few drops of rain, I decided the best decision would be to pack everything up again (which takes about 20 minutes in any case), and start off back down the hill to the car. The end result from some very disappointing radio conditions was 15 contacts ( one a duplicate on 40 & 20m and one P2P – I tried for a second P2P, but the conditions were simply not good enough.

Arriving at the car, I was 30 minutes ahead of my planned schedule; the rain clouds had disappeared, and the sun was out again.

The one technical issue I had this time was an old one – with the sunshine, I was unable to see the screen of my Smartphone, so I will need to look at some kind of screen for it. It did, at one point, pop up a message about high temperature, so I was probably close to it shutting itself down.

Photos:

  • Track to summit
  • Trail signs
  • Track to summit
  • Approaching site
  • Trail signs
  • Location reached
  • Mast Base installed
  • 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
  • Station

DL/HBY-018 / DE-0858 / DE-0963

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna, tripod and radial wires (not used).
  • Linked dipole antenna.
  • 6 metre fibreglass pole.
  • Screw-in Sun Umbrella base
  • Single magnet mount (not used).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Contacts Map

LOGS:

POTA DE-0858 / DE-0963

HEMA DL/HBY-018

Conclusions:

I was surprised that conditions were so bad after a period of good propagation – the bands seemed to be “diluted”, and contacts that were achieved were at a lower signal strength and with heavy QSB. I had wondered if this was an issue with my equipment, but others were making the same comments so this was just a “bad radio day”. I did achieve the needed number of contacts, got some good exercise, and we got home just as the heavy rain started. So all in all, this was a good day.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 19th 2026 – Activation in Rottenbuch of DE-1059, DE-0968, DE-0797, DE-0641 & DE-0594 5-fer POTA

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Preparation:

Having seen that I had been awarded the Rover Warthog (5 parks in a day) award for my activations 3 months ago, I started looking into the Rover Awards. Given that they also work with locations that are in multiple POTA entities, getting to the next (Rhino – 10 parks in a day) should also be possible. For that attempt (using the fewest “PLOTA” stops), I need POTA sites with multiple codes. Looking at the maps for Bavaria, I found two spots near the village of Rottenbuch that have FIVE POTA entities in one spot. As I had not activated in Rottenbuch before (but driven through it many, many times to HEMA and SOTA activations), this activation was to be a test for a later attempt to get the Rhino, and possibly even higher Rover awards. As the forecast said that Tuesday morning, at least, was going to be dry, I decided on May 19th and as usual, loaded the radio gear into the car for an early start.

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg DE-0641 Via Romea NHT DE-0797 KönigLudwigweg DE-0968 Romantische Straße DE-1059 Ammer von Alpenrand zum Vogelfrei Ammersee Südufer

The 40-minute drive down started earlier than planned, as I was ready and the weather was fine. I had programmed both possible locations into Google Maps, and when we approached Rottenbuch, before entering the village, the GPS navi told me to turn off the main road. I thought I must have selected the wrong option, as indeed one option was in that direction. I carried on along the route I had seen on the map. My first possible location was near the sewage works, behind the town hall. When I got to what I expected to be a drivable track, it turned out to be a pedestrian/cycle way and had been changed to this sometime, many years ago. It would, of course, have been possible to park in the village square and walk into the spot with my portable radio gear, but rather than do that, I decided to check out my second PLOTA spot, which indeed took me down the road on the outskirts of the village that the GPS had chosen previously. Off this road is a track to the sewage works from the other side. Continuing on to the second location (driving around pot holes on a road that was only wide enough for one car, but was a proper tarmacced road, I eventually found somewhere to park, next to a holy cross and direction signs for the various tracks. So that is where I parked.

I had intended to start on 20 metres as usual; however, when I turned the radio on, it was still on 40 metres from the last activation, and there was a strong signal from an IOTA station. I re-adjusted the antenna for 40m and called and worked them. Rather than switch then to 20 metres, I had a tune around and found a nice band with not too much atmospheric or man-made noise. Having spotted myself on the POTA cluster, I received 11 calls in 12 minutes. Once the calls dried up, I decided to go back to 20 metres, but got no calls on that band. That is despite hearing several VK stations easily and one HS0 (Thailand) station. Before packing up, I found and worked a Youth Sports special event station, TC19TC from Turkey.

Photos:

  • Trail signs
  • View around spot.
  • View around spot.
  • View around spot.
  • View around spot.
  • View around spot.
  • Holy Cross
  • 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-0594/DE-0641/DE-0797/DE-0968/DE-1059

Conclusions:

This was a successful activation and a lovely RF quiet location. Setting up, operating, and shutting down from the PLOTA configuration makes it ideal as part of my “RHINO” attempt. All equipment worked well. Next time, I may check out the other location (same park and trails) for comparison.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 13th 2026 – Activation of POTA – DE-1106 Gennachauser Moor F&F Reserve

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Preparation:

This was a park that I have not yet activated. It is located near Kaufbeuren, and while there was a glass and jewellery exhibition taking place, this was an opportunity to combine a POTA activation with my wife visiting the exhibition.

As there is no parking within this park, this would be a “proper” Park activation, with a 350m walk from the nearest parking possibility (at the Mooshutte restaurant) and setting up my mast and dipole to operate under, sitting on the ground. Looking at the aerial views on Google maps, there seemed to be a cleared area in the forest, just off the track, so that would be my target (hoping the picture was not too old and the area had been reforested in the meantime!)

A relatively early departure at 8 am local was planned, and as usual, all equipment (about 14 KG of a 400L rucksack with radio, battery, mast, screw-in umbrella base, backup antenna and of course pack-up and water) was loaded into the car.

The Activation

POTA DE-1106

The day started cold, colder than the previous day, with just 2°C (and this in May!). The run down was uneventful, and I arrived at the parking spot, after dropping my wife off, at around 0700 UTC. By 0720, I was at the site and setting everything up. I had hoped that with starting a little earlier than I normally do, there would be the possibility of contacts into VK. Although Ernie, VK3DET, kindly tried, there was no DX propagation on 20 metres. Apparently, the VK stations that had been heard had disappeared 30-45 minutes before I finished setting up.

After working a few Spanish stations (including two in the Azores) and having a P2P with a German activator on holiday in Sweden on 20 metres, I decided to switch to 40 metres, and thankfully, there was more activity on that band. I first went to see if I could get a P2P contact with two other activators who were spotted at pota.app. Here, I found the major difference between POTA and other schemes, such as SOTA and HEMA. In those schemes, the “chasers” will always pause and let a Summit-to-Summit contact take place as a mark of respect to both activators. In POTA, that is not the case; the “hunters” only care about getting their contact with the activator and block the frequency until they do. Even when they clearly hear another activator calling “park-to-park”, they just keep calling on top of him or her. So I left those two possible P2P contacts, found a free frequency, spotted myself and called CQ POTA. It wasn’t long before I got a run of callers. Once that run dried up, I went back to the two other activators and, with perseverance, managed to make those two P2P contacts.

My smartphone gave problems with typing on the on-screen keyboard, which did not bring up on screen what I had typed. I had this issue on the last activation, and I put it down to the fact that the safety glass on the phone had a crack in it. That has been replaced in the meantime. When testing this again after I got home, the phone worked perfectly, so my thought now is that it was the cold. The temperature never reached 10°C during the activation and was most likely around 5°C for most of the time.

While changing from 20 metres to 40 metres, where I had to lower the mast to reach and reconnect the links, the mast collapsed in on itself, breaking one of the supports on the dipole T-piece. This had to work with just one support for the rest of the activation. After getting home, the repair was completed, and a third support was added.

Photos:

  • Start of track from Road.
  • Small pond en-route to the site.
  • Track sign, near to site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • View around the site
  • Station

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G90.
  • Umbrella screw-in base.
  • 80-10m Linked dipole and 6 metre mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip band tripod (not used – just backup).
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.
  • Painter’s plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.

Log:

POTA DE-1106

Conclusions:

It was nice to get out on a “real” park activation again (not just from the car in a Park’s car park, but it’s really sad that so many POTA hunters behave as if they were in a contest and don’t care about weaker stations. POTA hunters could, and should, relax more and enjoy the contacts while considering others. It’s ONLY A HOBBY after all!

 73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 4th 2026 – PLOTA activation of POTA – DE-0963 Wandertrilogie Allgau near Bad Worishöfen

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Preparation:

This was another short activation, planned to coincide with taking my wife to the thermal Spa in Bad Worishöfen. Looking at the maps, I found a location where this POTA trail followed a small country road before disappearing off across the fields again. As you will see in the photos, I parked near where the trail leaves the road, and a sign indicates the trail’s direction.

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 start my activation as soon as I got on-site as some friends in the UK and in Australia promised to listen for me, despite that the expected start time of 08:30 UTC (10:30 local) was somewhat late for 20 metres long path propagation.

The Activation

POTA DE-0963

The day started cold, so I was glad I had planned a PLOTA (activation from the car), but within 45 minutes of operating, I had to open the car windows as it was getting hot! I started on 20 metres but, as expected, the band had closed perhaps 30 minutes earlier for DX. I was, however, able to work both Dave G4AKC – bicycle mobile and Mike M9MMM portable on 20 metres between QSB dips in their signals. Most of my contacts were on 20 metres; however, when I saw there were some POTA activators on 40 metres, I switched over there, where I worked Mike again, as well as ON8ON/P who was activating a brand new POTA park in Belgium. With variable radio conditions, getting the needed 10 contacts to qualify the trail took time. I managed it, including three P2P contacts and had time to pack everything tidily away before going to pick up my wife.

The smartphone problem that I had on my previous (Bunker) activation did not occur again, as I found the issue, which was that the protector glass on the phone had cracked, and so it was putting pressure where I was not pressing. Removing the protective glass stopped the problem, but I have to be very careful not to drop the phone until I can fit a new protective glass.

Photos:

  • Trail Signpost
  • Views around the site
  • Views around the site
  • Views around the site
  • Views around the site
  • Views around the site
  • Views around the site
  • Antenna
  • Station

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G90.
  • 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-0693

Conclusions:

A nice PLOTA where only the propagation could have been a little better, but at least I had no technical issues this time out.

 73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 2nd 2026 – Activation of DL_BOTA B/DL-1194 Weingut II Bunker

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Preparation:

A bunker that I proposed about 2 months ago had been authorised in the May updates of DL Bunkers on the Air, so with the wish to be the first activator of this bunker, I scouted out the 1 km activation area. Most of the area is still under military control and only opens to the public once or twice a year to visit this World War II bunker. However, the activation area also goes into the industrial area of Landsberg am Lech, and I found a place there on the map where I could park and operate from, inside the car. As usual, the normal configuration (G90 plus HF-PRO2) were loaded into the car the day before the activation.

Up until now, I had combined my DL-BOTA activations with POTA ones. This would be my first “pure-Bunker” activation.

The Activation

BOTA B/DL-1194

The activation spot is a 14-minute drive away from my home, so it’s not a long drive. I did want to get started early for some possible long path contacts into VK & ZL, so I left home at 05:30 UTC (7:30 am local) and was set up and on-air by 05:50 UTC. The first station I heard when tuning around on 20m was NP2OJ maritime mobile in the Caribbean. He was strong, but unfortunately, he did not hear me calling him. It would have been a great contact to start the log with, but despite the 20m band being open for at least 4 hours from Europe to Australia/New Zealand, I was not able to get any contacts “down under” today. Being a Saturday, even the VKs and ZLs that I was hearing at a true 59 signal level were not open to me, as other high-power stations with beams would always get in first. My little 20w SSB and loaded whip station was definitely getting signals down there, but I was simply being swamped by others. This is the advantage of having skeds with friends in VK. Unfortunately, none were available on this day. Radio conditions had been very difficult for DX over the last few days, so the temptation for portable low-power stations to go out on this Saturday was greatly reduced. It’s a shame as the 20m band was certainly performing very well.

I spotted myself on both the WW-BOTA cluster and the DX cluster, but had great difficulties getting any callers on 20m or 40m, so many of my contacts were “hunt & pounce” – i.e. look for others calling CQ and call them as “a contact is a contact”, it doesn’t have to be with someone hunting bunkers. In the Bunker scheme it is more difficult to qualify a site as it needs to have 15 contacts, not the 10 for POTA or 4 for SOTA, GMA or HEMA. Initially, I tried calling CQ and also searching on 20 & 40m, and I slowly got some contacts in the log. My rescue was when the POTA activators appeared to have got to their sites a little later, I was able to hunt them and build up my contacts score – ending with 16 contacts, just one more than the minimum needed. Out of those contacts, I think 3 or possibly 4 were Bunker hunters, 3 were special Event stations, and five were POTA activators.

The activation did not run without its problems, though. Possibly as the car had heated up in the 2.5 hours of operation, but at one point, in the middle of a CQ call, all power disappeared, and after disconnecting and reconnecting the power leads to the LifePO4 battery, the radio had reset itself to factory defaults. This power outage, luckily, only happened once. I also had to restart my smartphone a few times as one of the spotting programs (presumably the WW-BOTA one, as I hadn’t used that before) caused the screen to stop taking any presses of on-screen functions, and the only action was to turn off and restart the phone. This happened three times at least.

Photos:

  • 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.
  • Station
  • Antenna

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.

Log

Conclusions:

I was surprised at the lack of Bunker hunters, especially as this was a Saturday activation. It’s also disappointing to hear so many stations breaking their licence conditions and using more power than they need to complete a contact. If all were limited to a lower power level, more contacts would take place. The radio waves get everywhere in the world (depending upon frequency and propagation conditions) whether sent with 1W or 1 kW. It’s only that the quieter signals cannot be heard because of the high-power stations that not only ruin the frequency that they are on, but also the frequencies at each side of the frequency!

My second takeaway is that at the moment, if I want to activate a Bunker, I should make sure that it is also within a POTA park, to be sure of getting enough contacts in the log. This used to be the case for POTA, where SOTA was the fallback scheme to get contacts at a combined location (many POTA trails run over the smaller SOTA summits).

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – April 30th 2026 – Activation in Schongau of DE-0641, DE-0791, DE-0858 & DE-1058 4-fer POTA

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Preparation:

This was to be another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off at a specialist appointment. Originally, I had planned to do a “real” portable (as not from the car) activation on a HEMA summit, where two POTA trails pass through, but, checking my estimated time to get to and set up the station, the whole action would be too long, so I switched to a 4-fer POTA in the same town as where the doctor was. As it turned out, I was very happy that I did, as while it was a sunny day with temperatures up to 25°C, the wind was icy – taking the “real feel” temperature down to sub-zero!

As usual, the radio gear was loaded onto the back seat of the car, and the magnetic antenna mount sat on the roof of the car, the day before, so that we would have a straightforward departure from home.

The Activation

POTA DE-0641 Via Romea NHT DE-0791 Lech Erlebnisweg DE-0858 Via Sancti Martini NHT DE-1058 Lech Zwischen Hirschau and Landsberg

After dropping my wife off, the run down to the spot by the river should have taken around 6 minutes, but it took closer to 20 minutes after I took one wrong turn. In any case, I got to view the old town of Schongau as I drove around to get back to where I had made a turn about 10 metres too early!

The previous couple of days, radio conditions had been quite good. This was not to be the case today. Finding contacts on both 20 & 40 metres was hard, and once I found them, the signals were weak. I would have worried about a radio or antenna problem; however, on tuning around, I heard others reporting the same issues, so this was the Ionosphere rather than an equipment problem. As this was a time-limited activation, I was a little worried, but I managed the minimum 10 contacts in the time I had available.

As well as two park-to-park contacts, I also managed two cross-scheme contacts to one Bunkers activation and one catles activation, both in Belgium.

I saw some POTA stations spotted that I would normally be able to get P2Ps with easily, but today, they were down in the noise and unworkable!

I think I should be grateful that I made the contacts that I did, but I rarely see such low reports (in both directions) in my POTA activation log.

Photos:

  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • (Cycling) track sign
  • Walking trails map
  • 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-0641/DE-0791/DE-0858/DE-1058

Conclusions:

Despite the bad radio conditions (and the icy wind when I was not in the car), this activation was worthwhile. No DX but still enough POTA activators and chasers to allow me to qualify this “4-fer” location.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – April 27th 2026 – PLOTA activation of POTA – DE-0597 Augsburger Jakobsweg near Bad Worishöfen

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Preparation:

The last time I tried this activation, the radio/antenna/cable failed on me, so this was another attempt. At least I knew where I would be parking. As with several PLOTA’s of late, this was to be a combined family trip, with my wife going to the Therme (spa) for two hours while I made some radio contacts in POTA.

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-0597

I’m glad to report that this time all went to plan. It was already 10 am local time when I got started, so too late for any long path DX. This would be a casual activation in sunny weather for a change. I would try out spotting and calling on 17 & 15 metres but get no callers, so 20 & 40m were, as usual, the “money bands”.

I started off with a P2P and hunted some others during the activation. Unfortunately, of the four P2P contacts, POTA is only acknowledging one, although the other stations have entered their logs. I suspect it is that their logs do not contain their call with and without “/P”, which mine do, in case I get logged with or without the “/P”. This is done by using the operator and club call fields in the submission. Really, the POTA P2P logic SHOULD match the calls without the extension, and then such problems would not happen.

In any case, the standard G90 radio with the Komunica PRO-2 antenna on the car roof was used. This time, with the firmware on the G90 set back to before when the data modes were added, and with the change, extra load was put on the SDR chip, causing it to emit annoying beeps when signals are low.

all in all, this was a laid back activation with plenty of time at the end to pack all the radio gear away into the boot, go and buy some snacks from a supermarket and then pick up my wife.

Photos:

  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • View around site
  • Path signs
  • Small religious cross
  • Station
  • Antenna

Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G90.
  • 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-0597

Conclusions:

A nice day out in nice weather and a few nice conversations while qualifying the trail.

 73 ’til the next activation!