Preparation:

Yet another “fill-in” activation after dropping my wife off at her Physio rehab centre. Since the last activation, I have found that the HF-PRO2 antenna on the smaller (1-magnet) roof mount on 40m works better (SWR 1.4:1) than on my normal larger (3-magnet feet) roof mount (SWR 2:1). SWR values on 20 metres is similar on both mounts – I presume the available ground plane of the car roof is just sufficient on 40m when using the smaller mount. So, in these activations, I planned to use the single magnet base (but took the larger one “just in case”). Apart from that, the radio was the G90 as usual, but again I took the X6200 as backup.

As usual, all radio gear was loaded and ready for operation in the car the day before, for these two PLOTA activations.

The Activations

POTA DE-0375 Sheridan Park

After dropping my wife off, the run up into the city of Augsburg was uneventful and took less than 30 minutes. The exact location that I had scouted out online (a parking spot for sharing cars) was in the middle of being re-built so I found an alternative location to park, in the turnaround at the end of Otto-Shalk-Strasse.

After setting up the antenna on the car roof, I messaged Ernie VK3DET in Australia, who had kindly agreed to take a listen for me, and, as it was 30 minutes earlier than I had expected, there was a good chance that I could make a long path 20m contact with my 20 watts of sideband and loaded whip configuration. It wasn’t to be …

When I turned the radio on, I could hear nothing – not even static noise. At first, I thought that I was in an RF blackout (actually, that came some 18 hours later along with a G4 major solar storm). When I texted Ernie, he said he was hearing some of the well-known Spanish stations, so not only was the band not closed and it appeared the long path was still open.

I changed radios from the G90 to the X6200 – same situation – I was hearing exactly nothing on 20m and 40m. I had tested the antenna mount after repairing it a few days earlier, but despite that, I decided to change back to the three-magnet abse, and as soon as I attached the coax feeder from that, I started hearing a band full of stations. The obvious conclusion was that the coax cable had broken again, perhaps this time the braid rather than the centre core. However, later, when I tested at home, there was DC connectivity along the core and braid between the plug and the socket and no short between the two. So why this suddenly stopped working remains a mystery at the moment.

For this activation, I was happy to work with the base that was working and stuck to 20 metres rather than going to 40 metres. Contacts were made all around Europe, but no further afield; the nearness of houses at the side of the park may have been part of the reason for this. In summer, I could have set up in the park, but with temps down around -5°C, this activation stayed located in the car.

Contacts were hard to get, not only because of the location but also because of the high-powered stations on the band taking part in the “World-Wide-Award”. Calling this activity an “Award” rather than a contest (which it obviously is) allows it to take place every day, not just on the weekends, and to take place on the WARC bands where contests are not permitted. After all of the problems, I eventually got my needed 10 contacts in just over an hour, helped greatly by Don (G0RQL) calling three times under different call signs.

POTA DE-0374 Wittelsbacher Park & DE-0597 Augsburger Jakobsweg

After lunch at a German restaurant at the main (Riegle) Brewery (to be recommended as a friendly, well-run restaurant), I headed out to the next POTA location. Or at least I would have, had Google Maps not decided to play up in the car. I set off anyway in the direction I thought I should be going (wrong! Once the navigation program started working, I had to double back on my route, and it turned out the next POTA location was only a few minutes’ drive from the restaurant and railway station).

This location was as I had expected, although distances between the recycling “igloos” and the entry to the famous Rosenauberg bunker (which is not in BOTA-DL by the way, but very few bunkers in Bavaria have been included. Bunkers on the Air is apparently mainly a northern German scheme).

I still had the three-magnet base on the roof from the last activation, so the setup was very quick, which was good as I had limited time to gather the needed 10 contacts before having to head off to collect my wife from the outpatients physio centre. Don helped once again with THREE calls under different call signs. I put out several CQs but had to keep moving because of QRM from those taking part in this WWA contest month. The best contact from this 2-fer was with W1OW in MA, USA. In fact, he was also the only non-UK caller to this activation!

Photos:

DE-0375

DE-0374 & DE-0597

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Xiegu X6200 radio
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
• 3-magnet car roof mount and single magnet mount.
• 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0375

POTA DE-0374/DE-0597

Conclusions:

It’s good to get these two semi-local parks off my to-do list, but the problem with the single magnet base mount needs to be investigated further. Of course, an intermittent fault is hard to find and given that I have an absolutely new single-magnet antenna mount, perhaps I should not waste my time and simply throw the faulty one away?

73 ’til the next activation!