Preparation:

This was to be a quick activation during a visit to Munich. It had to be fitted in between two short dig walks and so a park that I had previously researched in the outskirts of Munich fitted well. This would be another POTA activation from inside the car parked in a parking area within the park’s boundaries.

As such, the equipment was well defined – Komunica HF-PRO2-PLUS-T on my three magnet roof mount on top of the car and the Xiegu G90 as the radio. I wondered about trying for some DX on 10m but given the 40 minutes available for the activation, I decided to stick with 40 & 20 metres to make my minimum of 10 contacts.

The Activation

POTA DE-0282

The parking spot is just outside of Neuried with easy access into the forest.

Once I arrived I took Bonnie (the dog) for her first walk, down into the forest, and found a kindergarten in the forest. There was no one there as this was a Sunday but it seems this kindergarten has been set up where it is with the aim of educating young children about nature. After walking back to the car Bonnie happily hopped back into her area at the back of the car and now it was time for some radio!

The antenna was adjusted for 40 metres and then put on the roof and the radio was set up on the passenger’s seat. Immediately it was clear there was some kind of contest on as the band was FULL of stations and even picking odd “in-between”  frequency, the splatter was horrible from the obviously over-driven radios and amplifiers operating on the band. I found the best frequency I could, put out a spot on POTA and started calling CQ.

It was hard work, but after 10 minutes I had 5 contacts in the log but then the calls dried up. So it was time to switch to 20m where, again the contest was in full flow, however on 20m contesters are not supposed to operate above 14.300 MHz so I was able to find a spot between others who had moved this far up the band. After another spot on the POTA list, my first CQ brought back a pile-up of callers, who I worked through one by one, logging a total of a further 19 contacts in the next 20 minutes.

It was now time to pack the radio gear up, take Bonnie for her second walk in the other direction into the forest and then head to pick my wife up before heading home.

All in all, with nice sunny weather this was a good use of the time available and while I got no far DX, there were many good reports on 20m for the simple set-up from all around Europe.

 Photos:

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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.
• 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0282 Forstenrieder State Forest

 

Conclusions:

• I hate operating on a weekend because of the unnecessary QRM caused by “wanna-be” contesters. The main groups are fine, they do not over-drive audio or amplifiers, it’s the inexperience of newbies taking part that creates most problems as far as I have seen.
• Forty metres was more of a battle than 20m and generally, I received better reports on 20m than on 40m, meaning (perhaps) that the antenna works better on 20m (where less loading coil is used) than on 40 metres.
• Overall, however, I am happy with how well the (time-limited) activation went.

73 ’til the next activation!