Preparation:

As part of a family day out I wanted to do some radio and I have had this park on my list of “close-by” locations for some time and as my wife wished to visit a Museum just 20 minutes away, this all got planned together with two dog walks for our dog, Bonnie.

Checking the maps, I found that the “Wanderparkplatz” was in the park boundaries and while the other two parking areas in the park shown are off the road next to private businesses, this patch of muddy ground would have to do.

I would operate from the car, as I have done for all of my POTA activations so far and that means the G90 radio on the passenger seat and the Komunica HF-PRO-2 on the three-magnet roof mount.

The plan was to operate for between an hour and 90 minutes while fitting in the drive to and from the spot from the Museum and two dog walks.

This would be the very first activation of this park within the POTA award scheme although it is also in the WWFF scheme, where it has been activated before.

The Activation

POTA DA-0458 (WWFF DLFF-0441)

The walker’s parking spot is just a few hundred metres outside of the small town of Seeshaupt on the Southern end of Lake Starnberg. When I arrived there was no one there so I parked up next to the map of the area and took Boonie for her first walk, down into the forest, across the railway line and then over towards the lake. On our return, another car had joined us in the parking area and the couple with the car were getting ready to start the walk around the lake. It was dry and sunny but still cold, so everyone was wrapped up well.

Now it was time for some radio!

Bonnie was put back in her area at the back of the car and she settled down. The antenna was adjusted for 20 metres and then put on the roof and the radio was set up on the passenger’s seat. To start with there was very little on the band except for two very strong Spanish stations who I heard were returning calls from European stations even though they were calling CQ DX, so the band was obviously not open. I called the stations and with my little 20 watts and loaded whip antenna got them with no problem at all (obviously their antennas were pointed in my direction). Both were running 1 kW output.

I then chose a frequency, checked it was free and then spotted myself on the POTA website and it wasn’t long before I got a stream of calls coming in. There seems to be a lot of people in Europe willing to chase POTA stations but far, far fewer activators active than in the SOTA system for example. I know this is not the situation in the US, so it seems the POTA scheme is still finding its feet in Europe.

With 19 contacts in 29 minutes on 20m, I was happy but also surprised that despite this number of contacts, the majority were more than just signal report exchanges and all exchanged greetings for Christmas and New Year. Contacts were from all around Western Europe, from Italy and Spain in the south to Sweden and the Shetland Islands in the north.

When I decided to move over to forty meters, I only managed three contacts before giving up with all of the QRM but one of those was with a French amateur activating a 10-point SOTA summit in Germany.  I think I was his last contact before he packed up to head back down the mountain.

Before heading back to pick my wife up from the museum Bonnie got her second dog walk of the day.    

All in all, this was a nice use of a couple of hours, in the fresh air and it turned out to be another FIRST-TIME POTA activation for the park.

 Photos:

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POTA DA-0458:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-Pro2 loaded vertical antenna with a three-magnet car roof mount base.
• 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
• 2.5 Ah 3S LiPO battery.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DA-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve

Conclusions:

• Once I finally got some POTA hunters calling me, it was fine although to start with I thought I would be hunting down the needed 10 contacts simply from stations on the 20m band.
• Forty metres was an uneven battle – so many stations on and not enough space. I’m glad that I got so many contacts on 20m and didn’t need to rely on 40m.
• Interestingly the majority of the contacts that I had were longer than the usual callsign and signal report exchanges and several stations waited until I had finished before trying to get through to me again. This was like the bands 10 years ago – a big improvement on more recent experiences. Perhaps there was still a little “Christmas Spirit” around?

73 ’til the next activation!