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!

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!