Tag Archives: POTA DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica

DD5LP/P 12th March 2025 – DE-0641 Via Romea Germanica

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Preparation:

After the previous day’s “on-the-spare-of-the-moment” activation this one was planned to coincide with Dave G4AKC, being operational on the beach from Cyprus and also hopefully Jon & Helen (VK7JON & VK7XYL) and Ernie VK3DET all from Australia. So, this meant an early start again, to catch the 20 metre, long path propagation into VK but even earlier to try to catch some intra-Europe (actually to be accurate Europe to the most westerly point in Asia) propagation to get from Germany to Cyprus. I had left all the equipment still in the car so my target was to leave home by 7 am local time and be on the air on the POTA trail by 07:30 am local time (06:30 UTC and 08:30 am in Cyprus). l had found on the map a large carpark, right by the trail, near Igling, a village about 15-20 minutes drive from here. So the alarm set and all ready for the next day.

The Activation

POTA DE-0641

The first slight problem was when I got to the car park, it had closed and locked barriers across its two entrances, so I had to search for an alternative location to park. After a few minutes, I found a large field entrance on the road that the pilgrim’s trail runs along the side of and I was able to park there without blocking the entrance. Indeed later another car joined me and a man got out and took his dog for a walk, so this was indeed an acceptable spot used by the locals to park in, it seems.

After attaching the HF-PRO2 antenna to the mount on the roof and the battery to the radio, I got into the back of the car for my “mini-shack” and then received a message from Australia (Ernie) of the frequency where Dave was transmitting. At the same time Ernie told me that there was a major thunderstorm approaching and he would have to unplug all antennas and unless the storm passed quickly, he would not be able to be on-air this morning. at the same time, he said that Jon and Helen were still heading out, but it turned out later that more stormy weather had hit Tasmania and they had to abort their plans as well.

I tuned to the given frequency for Dave and could hear him, not strong but with (at the time) no local noise, it was certainly a good copy. He was already talking to some European stations and I tried to call in between the overs but in the end, it was only when Ernie sent Dave a message that he took a break to listen for me and we made the contact. Unlike my quiet location, Dave’s location on the beach at Pathos was noisy from all of the electrical and electronic devices in the hotels and houses around him.

I was happy to have made the contact with Dave and as it turned out later that Jon & Helen had to cancel, I was left to gather some more contacts to make the needed 10 contacts to “qualify” the trail. These were very hard to get which surprised me. Even switching to 40 metres and 10 metres did not bring in the expected contacts. 40 metres seemed to be totally dead, while on 10 metres I was hearing DX stations from South Korea and Japan, but they were not hearing me. So I went back to 20 metres and searched around for stations that were calling CQ (but not CQ DX) and got a few that way before sitting and calling CQ POTA for quite some time. Eventually, I got the required 10 contacts (in fact 15) so I could pack up and head home just as the rain got worse.

When I got home I checked and there had been a major solar storm when I was out, so it is no wonder that the contacts were difficult to make. This was another test of the radio equipment that I intend to take to Cyprus and all had worked as it should, so hopefully that is the last of the problems.

Photos:

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  • Station.
  • Antenna.

Equipment taken:

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

Log:

POTA DE-0641

Conclusions:

The activation went as well as could be expected given the bad radio conditions. The activation was in total contrast to the previous days, which was is bright sunshine, this one was cold and damp. This was another activation using the same equipment that went without issues so I am now more confident with taking this equipment to Cyprus.

73 ’til 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!