Preparation:

As I was travelling to the “Ham Radio” in Friedrichshafen, I looked around for a POTA park in the area to activate and found the ONLY one anywhere in the area was Riedlepark, right in the centre of the town. I was amazed that there are not any other POTA-certified parks in the area. Perhaps more will be added soon?

I would have very limited time available, so I Alerted about a week before to activate on Friday lunchtime as I had other commitments at the Ham radio show during the day I would have to go without lunch to be able to activate.

Looking at the official Baden Wurttemburg government mapping system, I could find the limits of the park and the car park by the children’s home is fully within the park boundaries, so I decided, given the limited time, that is where I would activate from. To avoid carrying a lot of equipment, I decided to just take the small QRP Xiegu G106 radio and my Komunica Power HF-PRO2 loaded vertical antenna.

For a SOTA activation with the number of chasers around Europe, this would be more than sufficient and even with a weak signal, I would be almost guaranteed the needed 4 SOTA contacts for any summit as long as I could put out a spot. For POTA, at least in Germany, the story is different. There are far fewer chasers and added to that 10 contacts are needed. I would need to work hard to get the points but I had hoped that with the density of radio amateurs around Friedrichshafen for the largest meeting of radio hams in Europe – I would be fine on ground wave. this was not the case and as you will read below, it was a hard battle to get the 10 contacts in the time I had available.

In any case, the small radio pack and antenna and mag mount were packed into the car along with the needed computer/recording set up and clothes needed for my short two-day trip and I left on Friday morning at 06:30 am local time.

The Activation

POTA DA-0156

After having a busy morning at the Hamfest, I broke away at around 12:15, headed back to the car and drove to the park. Well, at least that was the plan. It seems that the GPS didn’t know that some of the roads in the area are now one way and the result was another 15 minutes added to what should have been a 7-8 minute drive from the Messe where Ham Radio is held.

At least when I got to the site there was plenty of space, so I went and bought a parking permit from the machine which would allow me to stay until 13:33 at the very latest. That should be more than enough time – right? …

I thought my best chance would be on 40 metres but despite hearing and calling a few stations and spotting myself in the POTA app – I got no contacts. I was starting to think that perhaps 4-5 watts was simply not going to “cut it” with the vertical antenna.

 Luckily I decided to switch to 20m and there I was able to call other stations and get contacts into the log. I did spot and call CQ for some time and I guess of the 10 needed contacts that I managed to squeeze in my available time, I think 3, perhaps 4 were actual POTO “chasers” two were SOTA activators and the remainder were all simply stations calling CQ on the 20m band.

I had to fight for most of the contacts and there was a big gap after the fifth contact when I thought I would not get any more contacts. As I hoped this would be another “First activation” of a park, I really need to get the full 10 contacts. Thankfully with about 4 minutes to go before my parking permit ran out, I closed off the tenth contact.

Then it was time to quickly pack up and head back to the show, where my teammates were just about start another round of interviews with dealers and associations.

Another FIRST POTA activation (despite some competition).

 Photos:

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POTA DA-0156:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-106 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
• 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 2.5 Ah 3S LiPO battery.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA-0156 RiedlePark, Friedrichshafen

 

Conclusions:

• I have been spoilt with years of SOTA activations. The infrastructure in place for SOTA to have chasers call you is simply not there or does not work as well for the newer schemes like HEMA and POTA.
• If the reports I got back were true (which I believe they were), the little G106 and the HF-PRO2 are a combination that works well on 20m, but not so well on 40m. Despite that at the show I bought a Komunica Power HF-Explorer-Mini as a smaller loaded vertical to use with the G106 radio. We’ll see how well (or not) that smaller and lighter combination works over the summer.

73 ’til the next activation!