Category Archives: POTA

DD5LP/P – January 27th 2025 – Activation of POTA DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg, DE-0595 SüdostBayen Jakobsweg & DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg (3-Fer).

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Preparation:

Following along from my POTA 3-Fer (which I didn’t realise was a 3-Fer until afterwards) on January 14th, I started checking where multiple POTA entities (parks or trails) crossed or ran together. These spots often seemed to be where large churches with a hostelry were (I guess pilgrims do need sustenance after a day’s walking). A great help in doing this is a website called pota-map-info which maps out the POTA trails and parks (and also SOTA summits) for the German-speaking countries in Europe. This must have been a major undertaking as getting the exact routes of trails and boundaries of parks in a digital mapping format from many different sources is very difficult.

Thanks to this great resource, I was able to quickly see that three trails converged on what is also a SOTA summit (DL/AM-001) at Hoher Peißenberg. In the summer, this could therefore be a good choice for a combined SOTA/POTA activation however in pouring rain/sleet, the attraction to operate from within my car (which in POTA is allowed but not in SOTA) was too great. as a second purpose for this activation was the chance to test out my recently completed portable amplifier box. Normally I operate just 20 watts of SSB from my Xiegu G90 radio but there are times when a little more (such as during the international Lighthouse and Lightship weekend) when closer to 100 watts would be useful. The “pelican-like” plastic case, not only holds the converted Chinese 20-30MHz amplifier but also a band-switchable Low Pass Filter and an Antenna matching unit – the well-known ATU-100. To power all this the case has a 12 AmpHour LifePO4 battery strapped into it and this also provides the power for whichever radio I decide to use with it, whether the G106, G90 or X6200 – all have the needed 5 watts drive to produce at least 60 watts output from the box (more on some bands). This box had been tested in the cellar into a dummy load but not yet in a real activation.

    Following the same process used on recent POTA car activations, the radio gear was set up in the car ready for use, the previous day, even down to the three-magnet base being put on the car rook (but without the HF-PRO2-PLUS-T attached, so that all would be ready for an early (8 am local time, 07:00 UTC) start the following day. As usual, Ernie VK3DET had promised to listen out for me however I expected him to be one of my later contacts as the long path on the 20 metre band to Australia had only been opening around 09:00 UTC of late.  

The Activation

POTA DE-0594 & DE-0595 & DE-0797

After an uneventful drive down to Hoher Pießenberg (a run I have made, many, many times in the past), I was happy to find the car park almost empty and drove over to the parking fee machine and emptied 10 cents coin by 10 cents coin, my weighty and unwanted small change into the machine to pay the €2 fee for up to 3 hours parking.

This summit/site has the luxury of having a publically accessible toilet house where I also left some more of my unwanted small change (this time as a contribution, there is no fee for usage).

With the car now parked looking over the rolling meadows behind the church and looking towards the Ammer Lake, I took the pre-set antenna out of the back seat of the car and extended its telescopic whip to maximum length.

I powered on the new portable amplifier box, ran the ATU, found a free frequency, posted a spot on the POTA site and sent Ernie a message informing him that I was set up and running and would you know it, my first contact was with Ernie VK3DET in Victoria, Australia at 0750 UTC about an hour earlier than expected. He simply returned to my first CQ call as if I was just down the road! He was also working “barefoot” without his amplifier and this was an easy contact and nice to have him first in the log. A few more CQ calls and I slowly got up and past the required 10 contacts for a POTA activation (finishing with 14). There was no real pile-up this time, just hunters getting on and calling me when they saw the POTA spot. Contacts came in from all directions around Europe as you will see from the map and log below.

There were no calls from the US although my signal would be passing over the southern part of the US to get to Australia but looking at the clock difference, there’s an obvious reason why I got no calls from the US – they would all be in bed sleeping!

While there were no park-to-park contacts on this activation, several of the hunters were very happy to hear that they had scored 3 POTA contacts in one.    

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Portable amplifier box
  • 6-metre mast and linked dipole (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Three magnets, car roof antenna mount.
  • 12 Ah LifePO4 battery (in portable amplifier box).
  • 2 Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log (same for all three POTA entities):

DE-0594 Münchner Jakobsweg, DE-0595 SüdostBayerischer Jakobsweg & DE-0797 König Ludwigs Weg

Conclusions:

  • The Portable amplifier worked perfectly, signal reports were higher than usual and no problems (such as RF Ingres) were reported.
  • A contact between DL and VK3 at 07:50 UTC on 20m SSB was a surprise and just goes to show that you can’t trust propagation to behave as you expect and the only option is to get out and try!
  • The pota-map.info site is just what I bemoaned the lack of in my last but one activation report. Thanks to Rob DM1CM for pointing me to this great resource. It’s a shame that it only covers Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria but for me it’s ideal!

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – January 23rd 2025 – Activation of POTA DE-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve.

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Preparation:

This activation was planned to coincide with my wife’s visit to the Penzberg Museum as a birthday treat. This would be another “family outing” with my wife getting her GlasArt exhibition visit and our dog getting a different walk. After my activation, we would meet up again and head to a favourite restaurant of ours, nearby, for lunch. This also needed to be a from-the-car simple activation with interspersed dog walks. The equipment therefore would be the ever-reliable Xiegu G90 and the Komunica HF-PRO2 antenna on a magnetic mount on the car roof. I planned to operate just on 20 metres which had been open of late, however, the time I would be by Fohensee Lake in the Osterseen Park would be too late for long path DX (or so I thought)…

The Activation

POTA DE-0458

The weather was not particularly nice—cold and raining on and off. The location, a carpark right on FohenSee not far from Iffledorf, was half iced over, making both driving and walking a little “interesting.” The lake itself was fully frozen over from side to side!

On arrival, I paid my €2 for 2 hours, although I probably could have not paid with no one to be seen for miles, but I felt the contribution was justified even if it only gets collected from the machine in spring. The first priority was the dog’s walk from which several of the pictures were taken. With temperatures around 0-2°C, I operated from within the car, this time from the back seat, as I could lay everything out there at home before leaving! 

After the walk, I connected the antenna to the magnetic base which I had on the roof since leaving home and started searching 20 metres for contacts – It was around 10:40 am local time (09:40 UTC) and I was surprised to hear a ZL2 station on 14.317 MHz chatting happily to a couple of UK stations. He was obviously not looking for contacts but I was surprised to hear his signal so late on the band with such a simple antenna.

At this point, I found another “strange” call sign – ZA/OE8NDR who was calling CQ without a response, so I called him and we had a quick chat Fritz, was visiting Albania. This may have been the first time I have worked Albania – at least when portable.

Mike, “2E0YYY” was also out at the southern end of the Pennines in the UK on a small GMA summit called “Merryton Low” which is a GMA scheme summit but as Mike was not only fighting the cold but also some very high winds, he was operating from his car and so could not claim to be on the summit for the award. Merryton Low however is within the Peak District National Park, which in POTA is GB-0048. so with an easy contact with Mike, I had my first P2P of the day in the log (as Mike doesn’t take part in POTA however, the contact will not count for additional points). Mike and my mate, Ernie VK3DET, was also listening to the band however he could not hear me and I could not hear him. which at, now past 10:00 UTC, did not surprise me.

When I finished talking with Mike, I spotted myself on the pota.app website and a steady flow of contacts followed. One of those was DK5UR who was also out, not in one, but in two overlapping POTA parks, so this was a P2P-2Fer contact. Once my callers dried up, I needed to plan Bonnie’s second walk in the park before returning to the Museum, so I checked for other activators and managed further contacts with EA2CCG and PD3RL both of whom were in overlapping parks and so these were two more P2P-2Fer contacts!

All in All, I managed 13 contacts in 22 minutes and this gave me enough time to pack everything up carefully before returning to the Museum and onwards to our restaurant for lunch. This turned into a nice day out despite very average weather conditions.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • 6-metre mast and linked dipole (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Three magnet car roof antenna mount.
  • 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet (used) and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well. The simple car set-up worked out well and fits into plans where others’ needs have to be considered.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – Activation of POTA DE-0456 Taubenberg/SOTA DL/MF-082 Schwarzer Berg and SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg.

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Preparation:

These two summits are included in the around 45 summits that will disappear from the SOTA award Scheme on January 1st 2025. These two summits are the start of my “OLH” (One Last Hurrah) action. I hope to activate 2 or 3 more before the end of the year.

It just so happens that Schwarzer Berg DL/MF-082 is Taubengerg and Taubenberg has its own POTA park definition – so this location at least will not be lost for portable operators. Several other summits which are being removed from SOTA are already in the HEMA system and hence will “live on” within that scheme.

The weather and my health stopped my first two attempts to do these activations so I was determined to complete these activations once and for all. The weather looked good (as much as we can trust weather forecasts) until midday when rain was forecast. Checking the Activation Zone for DL/MF-082 the spot where I normally park my car near the St Benno chapel, is well within limits and as this will no doubt become the POTA-preferred location, I decided I could save myself the extra walk up to the observation tower where I normally set up. This also meant that I could use my 10-metre mast and surveyor’s tripod to maximise my chance of a contact with Ernie VK3DET via 20-metre long-path propagation when I arrived. (Band conditions had not been good for the last few days following CMEs and a minor G1 storm hitting the earth’s atmosphere). 

To get to Schwarzer Berg as early as possible, the car was packed the night before with the usual G90 backpack, now with the 12Ah LifePO4 battery plus the Aerial-51 OCF dipole, 10m mast and surveyor’s tripod.

The Activations

POTA DE-0456 / SOTA DL/MF-082

After rising at 06:30 am, I left home at the planned 07:30 CET, taking the cross-country route rather than the autobahn over Munich as the pre-Christmas traffic was already affecting that route. Unfortunately, only about 30 minutes away from home, the country road was closed by the Police and Fire Brigade following a road accident. Often in the country, parallel to the road there is a tarmac route used by farmers, cyclists and pedestrians and this was the case here and traffic was diverted around the completely blocked 2-lane road, first in one direction and then the other. This cost me about 20 minutes extra on top of the planned time but could not be helped and thankfully it looked like there was no one injured, just broken parts of the two cars all over the road.

I had heard in advance that, for the first time in over 20 years, the Taubenberg Park had been logged and to expect a messy (officially auto-useable) track up to the parking spot. This report was not wrong, however apart from all the logs pilled up at the side of the road awaiting collection, the road surface was not a lot worse than usual with potholes remaining the main danger although oncoming traffic was also a worry. On the way up I was lucky, on the way down later however, I had to clear the single-track road twice to allow cars coming up the track to get through.

I wish I had thought of setting up near the chapel on my earlier activations as it has a nice (fairly fat) area of grass which is unrestricted and larger than by the observation tower. Setting up the antenna took longer than hoped as it collapsed on itself twice before I finally got it erected. This has always been a problem with the DX-Wire/SotaBeams 10m travel mast. The whole set-up was, however, in place and operational almost at my planned time. I messaged Ernie VK3DET and he was ready and suggested a frequency which was clear with him but not with me, so we found another and tried again. I called Ernie and he could not hear anything – he then fired up his station with an amplifier and 3-element beam and I could hear him – probably about S2 but with zero noise level, S2 is fine but of course, it was clear, for once we were not going to make it, as I would be emitting a signal many, many, dBs less from my 20w and a dipole. We tried another time before calling it a day. 20m was short with inter-Europe contacts being easy but DX unobtainium.

Skip was definitely short as after I finished with Ernie and spotted myself on SOTA, I got a big pile-up from stations all around Europe, Scandinavia and the UK. 28 contacts in as many minutes including one S2S and the RSGB National Radio Centre GB3RS. Then I switched to POTA and in 23 minutes, made 22 contacts – one being Don G0RQL, so he got added to the end of the SOTA log as well.

SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg

I had taken the shortest (small roads) route from Bad Tölz to Schwarzer Berg, but I decided to take the main roads to get back to Bad Tölz (where Buchberg is located) expecting it to take less time but the same road is used to come down from the Autobahn to the Tegensee tourist area which meant it was busy and this route took longer than planned. On arrival at my usual parking spot, I found trees stacked awaiting collection, so I had to find another sport further along the road before walking back and then up to the Holy Cross on Buchberg. This time, as it is quite a steep climb, I decided just to take the G90’s 40L rucksack and operate using the loaded vertical on its photo tripod. 

Once I had all the equipment set up I was surprised to find that received signals on 20m were now stronger from this, lower summit with a smaller, less efficient antenna. One spot and a couple of CQ calls brought in 12 contacts (including one S2S contact) in 12 minutes. By noon the temperature had dropped somewhat so I decided to call it a day and just as I finished packing up, the first raindrops started. So, good timing.

The journey home was thankfully, uneventful.  

Photos:

Taubenberg/Schwarzer Berg

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Buchberg

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio & 12 Ah  LifePO4 battery.
  • Aerial-51 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna (used only at first activation).
  • Ten-metre mast (used only at first activation).
  • Surveyor’s tripod (used only at first activation).
  • Six-metre mast (not used).
  • Screw-in Sun umbrella foot (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (used only at second activation).
  • Photo tripod with radials (used only at second activation).
  • 2Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

SOTA DL/MF-082 Schwarzer Berg

POTA DE-0456 Taubenberg

SOTA DL/BE-093 Buchberg

Conclusions:

  • The activations both went well, considering the limited time available.

73 until the next activation (s)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – November 21st 2024 – Activation of POTA DE-0888 Staffelwald bei Irsee Nature Reserve.

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Preparation:

This is a park that I recently got added to the POTA system – I had planned to activate it the previous week but plans changed and I could not add this to the list of my “First Activator” parks – but that’s OK. At the same time as proposing this Natura 2000 park, I also proposed the Crescentia Pilgrims nature trail walk, which at 77 km long, I consider a long trail. Unfortunately under regulations brought in, by POTA Germany at the start of November 2024, the minimum length of any new trail to be added to the scheme is 150 km – so just the major European trails which either start or pass through Germany will be accepted. So be it – it’s a shame as I believe a trail even a “short” one of 77 km gives many more opportunities for activation than a park. The location I chose on the park’s edge was also on the Crescentia trail, as you will see from the photos, so this would have been a “2-fer” for POTA hunters.

This activation was planned to coincide with another Museum for my wife, this time “Kunsthaus” in Kaufbeuren. As with the last activation I also needed to have the dog along and as such, I needed an easy (work from the car) spot with good dog walking trails. I found this on the very southernmost part of the park’s border on the outskirts of the village called Ölmuhlhang. At least that is what it is called on Google Maps. In my “Navi” however, I could not find it and signposts were not indicated until I got to my parking spot. The village is known as Kleinkemnat and only a very small part of it is called Ölmuhlhang. In any case, this location was only 6 minutes drive from the centre of Kaufbeueren so a very practical solution for a “family outing”.

The equipment would again be the ever-reliable Xiegu G90 and the Komunica HF-PRO2 antenna on a magnetic mount on the car roof. I planned to operate on 10 and 20 metres.

The Activation

POTA DE-0888

The weather was not nice—around freezing. The trip to Kaufbeueren went quicker than expected. At least it did until we got into the town to find the main road closed completely and the diversion very badly signposted. Luckily guessing where the diversion was “supposed” to go, we got back to the part of the main road that we recognised after the section that was closed. After dropping my wife off near the “Kunsthaus” Museum, I carried on along the roads that I felt were heading in the correct direction, hoping to see a signpost to Ölmuhlhang but not seeing one until the point where I recognised the car park from my check of the area using Google street view, the day before.

This was a simple, free car park, that might hold perhaps 6 or 7 cars, but for my purpose it was fine. So I parked up and decided that after the drive from home, the first priority was the dog’s walk during which, following the Crescentia trail, took us down into the forest, over a small bridge over a stream and up to a nice secluded grassy area, which would be fine for a “real” portable (i.e. not from the car) operation, when the weather is warmer. the trail is marked by crosses – one was at the car park and the next could be seen at the top of the next rise but we decided to turn around at this point to return to the car and set up for operation. Several of the pictures below were taken from this trail.  

Once the radio and antenna were set up, after my disappointment last time starting on 10m, I decided to start on 20m and it paid dividends with lots of hunters. This time there were no park-to-park contacts in the log and the skip on 20m was short apart from a contact with a station in the Azores, all contacts were in Europe. Initially, calls were slow coming in but after a while, I had a pile-up that lasted about 25 minutes. Following this I decided to give 10 metres a go – it was a waste of time. I could not raise any calls and the only stations I could hear on the band were the usual high-power Russian ones. I decided that as I had 24 contacts in the log, this time I would take the time to pack everything up correctly and take the dog for another walk – this time along the track that marks the edge of the park and after that it was time to return to pick up my wife and head home for lunch.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • 6-metre mast and linked dipole (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Three magnets, car roof antenna mount.
  • 12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet (used) and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0888 Staffelwald bei Irsee

Conclusions:

  • A nice trip out with a good number of contacts in a short time. Again, the simple car set-up worked out well.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – November 13th 2024 – Activation of POTA DE-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve.

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Preparation:

This activation was planned to coincide with my wife’s visit to the Buchheim Museum in Bernreid on Lake Starnberg. So, in addition to fitting her schedule, I also needed to have our dog along. Hence, this would be a simple activation from the car, interspersed with dog walks. The equipment therefore would be the ever-reliable Xiegu G90 and the Komunica HF-PRO2 antenna on a magnetic mount on the car roof. I planned to operate just on 10 metres which had been open of late, however, the propagation gods were not with me …

The Activation

POTA DE-0458

The weather was not particularly nice—cold and a little foggy. However, the location I found within the park, a carpark right on FohenSee on the outskirts of Iffledorf, was a nice spot despite the weather. In the tourist season, I suspect this will be a bustling spot with a caravan park, restaurant, and a narrow access road, but in November, I had the whole area to myself.

After dropping my wife off at the Museum, it was a 20-minute drive down to my activation spot.

On arrival, I paid my €2 for 2 hours, although I probably could have not bothered with no one to be seen for miles, but I felt the contribution was justified even if it only gets collected from the machine next spring. The first priority was the dog’s walk from which several of the pictures were taken. Had I wanted to set up away from the car, there is a nice lawned area with picnic tables and benches but in this case, I was limited for time and with temperatures around 0°C, I preferred to operate from the car! 

After the walk, I set up the radio and antenna and started searching 10 metres for contacts – I was somewhat disappointed and after spotting myself, getting only 2 contacts on 10m and seeing that most activators were on 20m, I decided to switch band and initially went hunting the Park-to-Park contacts. I “bagged” five in a row and after the fifth a chaser F5PYI called me to QSY 5 down to have a QSO, which I did and then stayed on this new frequency, spotting and calling CQ, this brought in 19 chasers contacts but the operation on 10 metres had taken some time and hence I had to pull the plug before heading back to the museum.

All in All, I managed 26 contacts in an hour, which is quite good and shows that the number of POTA chasers on a weekday (this was a Wednesday) is increasing, almost to the level of SOTA chasers.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • 6-metre mast and linked dipole (not used).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
  • Three magnets, car roof antenna mount.
  • 12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet (used) and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0458 Osterseen Nature Reserve

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well. It didn’t start well but later I had to apologise to callers as I had to pack up and leave to collect my wife from the Museum. I had only one DX call but plenty of European activity on 20m. The simple car set-up worked out well.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – October 21st 2024 – Activation of POTA DE-0663 Lechpark Pössinger Au.

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Preparation:

This activation was planned for Sunday the 20th of October to coincide with the “Support your parks” weekend and to test out my 2-element wire beam with its elements now extended to cover 40 metres.

The weather was not as forecast, in fact, Sunday was a cold and wet day where the grass never dried out from the heavy morning dew in it.

Monday’s weather however looked better, so the cancelled activation became a postponed one and took place on Monday the 21st of October.

The Activation

POTA DE-0663

This is my closest park, a 15-minute drive away from home and while the park covers a large area along the side of the River Lech and encompasses an animal park, there are many locations where an activation is possible. I have found a field within the park, where deer often graze and is close to the road named “Pössinger Au”. As you can see from the picture below, (indicated by the red arrow) the area is bounded by trees but there is more than enough room for my antenna and is rarely visited by the general public. The Brown arrow is, in fact, part of the POTA nature trail DE-0791 LechErlebnisWeg, so operating from where the brown arrow points would be a POTA “2-Fer”. However, space there is restricted and in good weather a lot of people walk through there – so it is not a good spot to test a large antenna! 

After arriving and setting up the antenna on 40m, I put the Antenna analyser on the antenna to find there was no dip at the expected (and tested the week before) 7.1MHz. The antenna was switched to point West and I wondered if I had a bad connection in the manual switch, so I lowered the mast, switched from West to North and tried again – the same problem occurred. Repeat and try – North to east – and now there was the expected dip near 7.1 MHz – perhaps it’s just one connection on the switch that has a problem? I lowered the mast again, switched to South, raised and tested, no dip. Odd, but East works so I lowered and tested again and this time even East did not have the expected dip. This has to be a common component that has failed, perhaps intermittently. I realised I had another feeder coax with me so I changed that out and “Bingo” all directions were now showing resonance around 7.1MHz. My conclusion – it must be the RG-174 coax cable that has failed in either the BNC or PL-259 plug, but in fact, when tested after returning home, the cable was fine and it was the BNC socket that had a bad centre connection  – possibly as a 75 Ohm BNC plug had been pushed into the 50 Ohm socket, widening the grips on the centre pin. I re-tensioned those and the complete run checked out.

But, back to the activation. I had previously seen in a model that with my wire beam at only 7 metres AGL, the radiation pattern is close to omnidirectional rather than beam-like and that proved to be the case with my six 40-metre contacts coming from all points of the compass from where I was located. At least the antenna works on 40m, even if it brings no advantage over a dipole.   

It was time to test the antenna on 10 metres, so I lowered the antenna and removed the link at the end of the 10m section on all 4 elements, switched the antenna direction to West and started calling CQ.

My first caller was VE3RNH from Canada and then in quick succession another ten calls from the US or Canada, including one Park-to-Park. There was also a call from Mike R2BRJ in Moscow off the back of the beam. Ten metres was certainly “open” and with a mixture of 59, 58 and 55 reports the wire antenna with 20 watts was certainly working well.

Looking at the POTA cluster, there were several operators out in Europe on 20m – so I again lowered the mast, reset the 10m links and removed the 20m ones.  While tuning around, I came across YB7ONC from Indonesia, but even with my antenna switched in his direction I could not get a response from him. I was not alone however, he only seemed to return to very strong stations, so perhaps he has a high local QRM? In any case, it was nice to at least receive a signal from Indonesia. After this, I found a free frequency, spotted myself on the POTA cluster and waited for any calls. Unfortunately, I suspect the number of stations on the band was the problem and no one could hear me for the noise. I then saw a recent post on the cluster for another POTA operator IT9KHP in Sicily, whom I called and we had a 59 / 59 Park-to-Park QSO with no problem whatsoever.

Time was passing and while the 12Ah LifePO4 battery showed no signs of reducing its voltage I decided that I had done enough testing and given a lot of North American POTA chasers a new park and it was time to pack up and head home for tea.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • 7-metre mast and screw-in sun umbrella base.
  • 2-element wire beam.
  • 12 Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet (used) and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0663 Lechpark Pössinger Au

 

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well. It served the purpose of testing the antenna and its expansion to cover 40 metres however, my conclusion is to remove the 40m extensions and keep this as a 5-Band 10-20m antenna.

73 ’til the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G8GLM/P – September 24th & 26th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Country Park and UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC Bunker.

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Preparation:

Linked with my visit to the UK to visit my brother & sister and to attend the national Hamfest in Newark, I wanted to do some radio activations using my new Xiegu X6200 transceiver. As I left Germany, it was not clear which SOTA, HEMA, POTA, COTA or UKBOTA sites I might get to activate. I had planned to activate Bardon Hill – a SOTA summit (G/CE-004) on the way from the airport to where I would be staying but the weather was terrible with many roads in the UK closed because of flooding and as the access to Bardon Hill starts with a trek over a field, on the way driving there, I decided to cancel and concentrate on getting safely to my destination.

The Activations

POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Park  & UKBOTA bunker B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

I had the opportunity on Tuesday to combine the activation of a POTA park near Nottingham, which for some reason, no one had yet activated, with taking my sister to visit a friend. Cotgrove Park has a housing estate in the middle of it but also some tributaries of the River Trent, near to one of those I found an area of grass large enough to set up the linked dipole and operated on 20 & 40m from a bench. There was some interest from passersby – mainly from their dogs – this seems to be a favourite dog walking park. Initially, I was only able to get contacts by search and pounce of strong stations but then after calling CQ for some time, I managed to get a flow of contacts ending up with 11 (one more than needed for a POTA activation). I then had to curtail operations as I needed to pick up my sister from a friend’s house where I had dropped her off earlier. The drive back to the other side of Nottingham was horrible. flowing traffic had changed into crawling traffic around the Nottingham ring road but at least I could chalk up an activation. I had started to think that my bringing the radio gear had been a waste of time. 

On Thursday I went to a point within a kilometre of a UKBunkers site about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. My originally planned set-up point was in a car park shown on Google Maps, which turned out to be a private one with locked gates at a (closed) sports centre, so I went further down the riverside and found a parking spot just before the Ferry Boat Inn at Stoke Bardolph. During my visit to the UK a year ago, I tried to get to one of two bunkers near where we were staying in the Lake District. The first was inaccessible as the fields were both overgrown and flooded, the second I managed to get to and operated from the top of the entrance but conditions were not kind to me and I got no contacts from there. This year, I checked the rules more carefully to find that I only needed to be within one kilometre of the bunker and could therefore activate from the road, from inside the car. The result however was not a lot better than the year before, with only two completed contacts.

Photos:

POTA GB-2021 – Cotgrave Country Park

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UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu X-6200 radio.
  • Linked Dipole (used for POTA activation)
  • Six-metre mast (used for POTA activation).
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical, tripod and radials (Used for UKBOTA activation).
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA GB-2021 Cotgrove Country Park.

 

UKBOTA B/G-0655 Burton Joyce ROC

 

Conclusions:

  • The activations could have gone better – whether that was conditions, lack of chasers or just not a big enough signal from the 8w X6200 (my normal G90 is a 20w radio) I am not sure. I question whether the extra effort of taking the radio gear was worthwhile (especially with the recent cases in the Middle East of exploding amateur radio transceivers making airport security more careful). I was the first activator of the POTA park, just beating another ham who activated the following day. 

73 until the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – July 24th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg & SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg.

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Preparation:

This is the second preservation/nature trail I have submitted for inclusion in the POTA award system and it was also accepted.  This trail is very interesting, starting as it does at the spot where King Ludwig was found drowned on Lake Starnberg and finishing near his world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle (think of the well-known Disneyland castle – that was a copy of this real-life one). Along its route, it entails a ferry trip across Ammersee a visit to the UNESCO-listed Weichkirche church and at least one SOTA summit. The route runs right past the seat that I use to activate the DL/AM-001 SOTA summit.   

One reason for this activation was to be the first to activate from the trail and to do that one does not have to walk the 6-day long trail but rather just set up somewhere along its route. Although I have already activated the SOTA Peißenberg summit this year and hence won’t get any points for it, I chose to do the combined activation as then I could call on two groups of chasers for contacts and my second reason for the activation would benefit from having as many contacts as possible. The second reason was to test out equipment prior to its use during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August. I had found on previous ILLW activations, that the signal from my 20w radio was getting stomped on by other stations, so (as well as using the two-element wire beam this time), this year would have some more power on board, specifically 50-70w RMS (over 100w PEP) depending upon the band in use. I have worked at trying to get a Chinese amplifier to work reliably for a couple of months but with the MOSFETs blowing regularly it did not look promising and I decided to buy a commercial HF amplifier. Now those designed for ham bands are expensive, however, those designed for the CB bands are a lot cheaper and can be modified to work across the complete HF spectrum (3-30 MHz).  I bought an RM-Italy KL-203P unit. The missing component in a 27MHz amplifier is protection against harmonic emissions. In an amplifier designed for amateur radio use, switched low-pass filters are used to block any harmonic signals. As I had, from my work with the Chinese amplifier a switchable LPF board I cased this up and cabled it to follow the amplifier and precede the ATU-100 tuner. While the LPF box uses Butterworth filters, it can operate on transmit and receive.  So, as you can see, the station for the ILLW event is made of several, cabled together units and this combination needed to be tested in a portable operation before relying upon them for my ILLW station. This activation would be that equipment test.

Map where POTA nature trail and SOTA summit meet.

The Activation

POTA DE-0797 / SOTA DL/AM-001

Originally planned for Tuesday but rescheduled to Wednesday as some strapping components were delivered later than promised by Amazon and so I would have had no chance to do a dry run from the home station – that test took place on Tuesday with a contact with Leif LA9BM in Norway. He commented that the G106 with my RF Clipper speech processor and the amplifier and other components after if, while OK, the audio sounded a little deep and muffled. This report was also received later during the activation and the adjustment to the speech processor is an outstanding action to be completed.

As regards the activation itself, I had the alarm set for 6 am, was on the road by 7 am and set up and running at 8 am (all local times – UTC+2).

A quick tune of 20m showed a couple of US stations booming in. First in the log was Ernie VK3DET and we exchanged the same report on signal strength with Ernie running 100w, that seems a good start. It took a while to get the needed 4 contacts to qualify the summit. I put this down to the crowded part of the 20m band where I was operating. I could have moved to another frequency on 20 metres but rather I decided to change to 40 metres, as another test of the equipment. On 40 metres I had no problems finding the extra 6 contacts needed to qualify a POTA trail, indeed I had 18 contacts in 35 minutes and then, as the skies were darkening again, I decided to call it a day with the new combination of units working well together. Three further callers commented on the audio being a little difficult to read, so this confirmed what I already thought to be the case and that will get looked at while at home.

When I got home, I calculated that I had drained 2 Ah from the 8 Ah battery in just over 35 minutes so I will need to take a spare battery (or two) along for the (longer) ILLW activation next month.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-106 radio.
  • DF4ZS Mini-RF-Clipper speech processor.
  • RM-Italy KL-203 P amplifier.
  • Switch LPF filters box.
  • ATU-100 tuner.
  • Aerial-59 OCF UL-404 dipole antenna.
  • Six metre mast.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (not used).
  • 5-band linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 8Ah LifePO4 battery.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA DE-0797 König Ludwig Weg.

SOTA DL/AM-001 Peißenberg

Contacts Map

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well, I was the first activator of this POTA trail, and the radio equipment performed well. The battery drain level will need to be watched at the higher power levels and the speech processor needs to be adjusted.

73 until the next activation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD5LP/P – July 10th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0791 Lech Erlebenis Weg Plus DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica & HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz.

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Preparation:

I had submitted a preservation trail for POTA consideration while others exist in the system.  This one runs along the banks of the River Lech from Landsberg am Lech down to Fussen on the Austrian border. There are lots of beautiful spots along its length and the initial section from Landsberg runs through the POTA DE-0663 Possinger Au nature reserve further along its length, close to Schwangau, it goes over the HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz summit making it a location where points can be earned for both systems. In addition, another longer trail “Via Romea Germanica” also passes through this point and is in the POTA system as Trail DE-0641. Today I decided to combine both trails’ activation with a HEMA activation close to the Rosenau Cross summit on both trails.

The Activation

POTA DE-0791&0641 (2-FER) / HEMA DL/HBY-040

With the threat of bad weather later in the week (indeed it actually arrived later in the day), I decided to perform this first activation of the new POTA entity early in the morning, hoping to make some long-path contacts into Australia. So an early start was planned and I arrived on the summit/trail around 0600 UTC. I sent a quick message to Ernie VK3DET in Australia and he was the first into the log. After Ernie however, contacts were more difficult to find despite being spotted on both the HEMA and POTA systems.

The contacts eventually came however with five stations from Spain, one from Portugal. One from Serbia, a second from Australia (VK2) (a missed contact into VK4 would have made 3 contacts into VK however the VK4 station was battling local S8 noise so my 20 watts was not enough for him to hear me. He could tell I was there but not strong enough to work). An Italian and a French station rounded out the 11 contacts.

I would have stayed longer but as I could see black clouds approaching and more and more flying bugs had found me in their field, I decided to pack up and head home.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Seven metre mast.
  • Screw-in-ground mast base.
  • 2-element switchable direction, wire beam.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical (not used).
  • 5-band linked dipole antenna (not used).
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painter’s sheet and seat pad.
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Logs:

POTA DE-0791 Lech Erlebinis weg & DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica.

HEMA DL/HBY-040 Rosenau Kreuz

Conclusions:

  • The activation went fairly well although conditions were variable. It was good to be the first activator for another POTA entity (and a POTA 2-Fer as well!). I was hoping to take my 70-watt portable HF amplifier along to give a little more “UMPH” but it wasn’t ready – maybe next time.

73 until the next activation!

DD5LP/P – June 28th 2024 – First ever activation of POTA DE-0766 Seewald Landscape Reserve.

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Preparation:

While preparing my trip to Ham Radio Friedrichshafen this year I saw a second POTA park defined in Friedrichshafen, other than the one I activated in 2023. As I normally activate both SOTA summits near “FN” when I am there, I decided instead to activate this new POTA and the closest SOTA location over the weekend. The weather forecast was for mixed sunny and rainy weather, so I could fit these activations in around the weather and the actions that I had planned at the HAM RADIO event. I added the location of one of the park’s car parking areas into my GPS in the car to simplify finding the location.

The Activation

POTA DE-0766

After arriving at Ham Radio and completing my first trip around the halls, I decided on a morning activation before lunch. The radio gear was already in the back of the car so it was a short 10 minute drive from HAM RADIO at the Neue Messe to this new park.  

I was hoping for a quick activation and operation from the car using a loaded vertical on a magnetic mount on the roof. The band of choice was 20m as higher bands had not been working well. Mode would be SSB as usual and with 20w from the G90 radio, I found a frequency and started calling and then spotted myself on the POTA spots list. The band was a little noisy atmospherically and as time went on, noisy from other stations. Add into this QSB and this was not the simplest of activations especially when in a rush. The chasers thankfully were there and after 11 contacts and when the QRM from a station that had fired up 1 KHz away from where I was got unbearable, I closed down, packed up and headed back to the show.

Photos:

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Equipment taken:

  • Xiegu G-90 radio.
  • Three magnet car roof mount.
  • Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded multiband vertical.
  • 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery.
  • 4 Ah 3S LiHV battery (not used).
  • Plastic painters sheet and seat pad (not used).
  • Lightweight headphones.
  • Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

DE-0766 Seewald Landscape Reserve

 

 

Conclusions:

  • The activation went well for a rushed activation of a park. Initially, I was not sure if indeed I was the first to activate as one of the other 13,000 hams at the show could have activated first however as it turned out I was.
  • I would have preferred to have done a “proper” portable activation well inside the park however a PLOTA was all that was possible in the available time.

73 ’til the next activation!