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

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!