Preparation:

As my wife, wished to go to the thermal baths for a longer period, I looked for a park that I had not yet activated, further away and came across one, which in fact, had an easy to access on foot point that was not only in my new park but also on the crossing point of three trails, making this a “4-fer”.In preparation for an S2S test from DL-VK early on Saturday morning (the actual event is on the 17th of October), this Thursday midday provided an opportunity to test out all the equipment planned for Saturday. The Saturday activation is likely to only be on 20 metres and while 20m long path at dawn can be very productive, 20m at lunchtime is normally not. the middle of the day is better for 40m, so as well as testing the 2-element parasitic vertical array, to avoid the need to set up a second antenna for 40m (the array only covers 20-10m), I would use the 40m loading coil in the driven element and remove the reflector.

In case of rain, I also packed as backup my three magnet car roof mount and the Komunica Power HF PRO2 antenna as the parking area is at least in the park and on two of the three trails.

The Activation

POTA DE-0564, 0594, 0963, 0964

After dropping my wife off at the spa, I took a casual drive south into the Allgau Alpen foothills where this park is located. I had expected that overall I would have more than enough time to drive down set-up, operate, pack up and return. As it turned out I arrived back just minutes before the agreed pick-up time for my wife. the drive down and back were longer due to a road closure and diversion, however the bigger delay was in getting contacts once I had set everything up. Twenty metres, as expected was not at its best and add to that some military QRM (OTHR?) and deep QSB and contacts that would normally have been easy became difficult. Calling for P2P contacts I was repeatedly QRMed by home stations – who will definitely have heard me by their strength with me. It seems the protocol followed in SOTA of allowing S2S portable stations to call in ahead of just chaser calls, is NOT followed in POTA and it’s a free for all between QRP portable stations with limited antennas and home stations with high power and large antennas.

In the end I achieved 11 contacts of those seven on 20m with one P2P and 5 on 40m with three P2P contacts. Having 4 park numbers to give out (as needed in a P2P exchange) in less than great conditions made several contacts even on 40m a lot longer than normal. I would have liked to have stayed on and given more chasers the 4-parks however I had to staop to have enough time to pack up and get back to collect my wife. Also while initialy it was sunny, there was a point where rain clouds came over before clearing and these seemed to be returning, so taking everything into account, I operated as long as I could have.

The conclusion on the equipment – everything is working fine ready for Saturday’s EU-VK S2S test event.

Photos: