HBY-018 Sattlersbuckl (on Sattlersbuckl)

Posted on 03/06/2026 by VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

Preparation:

As a time fill-in while my car was at its annual service, I planned an activation. This time, it was not going to be an activation from the car/loan car, rather a “real” portable activation, involving a walk of some distance with all required radio equipment on my back.

It’s a while since I have done a HEMA activation, and also some time since I have climbed Sattlersbuckl and since two POTA trails go over the summit, this seemed like a good choice.

It used to be that if I activated a SOTA summit, I would often have over 25 contacts in an hour; the SOTA scheme was that well supported. HEMA has never been well supported by chasers outside of the UK, and in Germany, I believe I may be the ONLY activator. So to have the advantage of posting to the POTA site meant (I hoped) that I should have more than enough callers for this location.

I have activated all three entities here before, in the case of the POTA trails from more than one other location.

Given the planning between dropping off the car for its service, and also bringing my wife to a thermal spa, my radio gear and food, etc., all needed to be packed into, or onto my 40-litre backpack. This was to be transferred from my car to the loan/rental car at the dealer’s. As the weather was not certain to be sunny or dry, as a fallback, I had also scouted out a location where I could do a “PLOTA” activation, at least on the two POTA trails.

The Activation

HEMA DL/HBY-018, POTA DE-0858 & 0953

After dropping my car off at the dealers followed by my wife at the spa, I drove south in the loaner Ford Puma Electric Car (I am not a fan of E-autos after this experience – not that anything “bad” happened but these cars have no “soul” but so many things controlling what you can do, that it almost feels like you are not driving the car!). In any case, the weather was “mixed”, but I decided to stick to the original plan, and after getting to my usual parking spot, just outside of Apfeltrang, I started the steep walk up to Sattlersbuckl.

This track up often holds surprises, and today, I saw a young deer come out onto the track in front of me, but as soon as it saw me, it shot off back into the bushes. It all happened to quickly for me to grab any photos, unfortunately.

On arriving at my operating spot, I put up the mast and linked dipole, set to 40 metres, spotted myself and tried calling CQ. Not only were the radio conditions disappointing, but there was also lots of QRM, causing me to change frequency twice. I had got a couple of contacts on 40 metres but only semi-local in continental Europe. This being lunchtime, I had not even considered 20 metres, but given the problems on 40 metres, I decided to give 20 metres a try and managed then to get a couple of good contacts into the UK. By my timing, I could have stayed another 30 minutes or so; however, as I then felt a few drops of rain, I decided the best decision would be to pack everything up again (which takes about 20 minutes in any case), and start off back down the hill to the car. The end result from some very disappointing radio conditions was 15 contacts ( one a duplicate on 40 & 20m and one P2P – I tried for a second P2P, but the conditions were simply not good enough.

Arriving at the car, I was 30 minutes ahead of my planned schedule; the rain clouds had disappeared, and the sun was out again.

The one technical issue I had this time was an old one – with the sunshine, I was unable to see the screen of my Smartphone, so I will need to look at some kind of screen for it. It did, at one point, pop up a message about high temperature, so I was probably close to it shutting itself down.

Photos:

Track to summit
Trail signs
Track to summit
Approaching site
Trail signs
Location reached
Mast Base installed
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
Antenna
Station

DL/HBY-018 / DE-0858 / DE-0963

Equipment taken:

Xiegu G-90 radio.
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna, tripod and radial wires (not used).
Linked dipole antenna.
6 metre fibreglass pole.
Screw-in Sun Umbrella base
Single magnet mount (not used).
8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (not used).
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.

Contacts Map

LOGS:

POTA DE-0858 / DE-0963

HEMA DL/HBY-018

Conclusions:

I was surprised that conditions were so bad after a period of good propagation – the bands seemed to be “diluted”, and contacts that were achieved were at a lower signal strength and with heavy QSB. I had wondered if this was an issue with my equipment, but others were making the same comments so this was just a “bad radio day”. I did achieve the needed number of contacts, got some good exercise, and we got home just as the heavy rain started. So all in all, this was a good day.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 13th 2026 – Activation of POTA – DE-1106 Gennachauser Moor F&F Reserve

Posted on 13/05/2026 by VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

Preparation:

This was a park that I have not yet activated. It is located near Kaufbeuren, and while there was a glass and jewellery exhibition taking place, this was an opportunity to combine a POTA activation with my wife visiting the exhibition.

As there is no parking within this park, this would be a “proper” Park activation, with a 350m walk from the nearest parking possibility (at the Mooshutte restaurant) and setting up my mast and dipole to operate under, sitting on the ground. Looking at the aerial views on Google maps, there seemed to be a cleared area in the forest, just off the track, so that would be my target (hoping the picture was not too old and the area had been reforested in the meantime!)

A relatively early departure at 8 am local was planned, and as usual, all equipment (about 14 KG of a 400L rucksack with radio, battery, mast, screw-in umbrella base, backup antenna and of course pack-up and water) was loaded into the car.

The Activation

POTA DE-1106

The day started cold, colder than the previous day, with just 2°C (and this in May!). The run down was uneventful, and I arrived at the parking spot, after dropping my wife off, at around 0700 UTC. By 0720, I was at the site and setting everything up. I had hoped that with starting a little earlier than I normally do, there would be the possibility of contacts into VK. Although Ernie, VK3DET, kindly tried, there was no DX propagation on 20 metres. Apparently, the VK stations that had been heard had disappeared 30-45 minutes before I finished setting up.

After working a few Spanish stations (including two in the Azores) and having a P2P with a German activator on holiday in Sweden on 20 metres, I decided to switch to 40 metres, and thankfully, there was more activity on that band. I first went to see if I could get a P2P contact with two other activators who were spotted at pota.app. Here, I found the major difference between POTA and other schemes, such as SOTA and HEMA. In those schemes, the “chasers” will always pause and let a Summit-to-Summit contact take place as a mark of respect to both activators. In POTA, that is not the case; the “hunters” only care about getting their contact with the activator and block the frequency until they do. Even when they clearly hear another activator calling “park-to-park”, they just keep calling on top of him or her. So I left those two possible P2P contacts, found a free frequency, spotted myself and called CQ POTA. It wasn’t long before I got a run of callers. Once that run dried up, I went back to the two other activators and, with perseverance, managed to make those two P2P contacts.

My smartphone gave problems with typing on the on-screen keyboard, which did not bring up on screen what I had typed. I had this issue on the last activation, and I put it down to the fact that the safety glass on the phone had a crack in it. That has been replaced in the meantime. When testing this again after I got home, the phone worked perfectly, so my thought now is that it was the cold. The temperature never reached 10°C during the activation and was most likely around 5°C for most of the time.

While changing from 20 metres to 40 metres, where I had to lower the mast to reach and reconnect the links, the mast collapsed in on itself, breaking one of the supports on the dipole T-piece. This had to work with just one support for the rest of the activation. After getting home, the repair was completed, and a third support was added.

Photos:

Start of track from Road.
Small pond en-route to the site.
Track sign, near to site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
View around the site
Station

Equipment taken:

Xiegu G90.
Umbrella screw-in base.
80-10m Linked dipole and 6 metre mast.
Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip band tripod (not used – just backup).
8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
Lightweight headphones.
Smartphone for spotting.
Painter’s plastic sheet and gardener’s kneeling pad.

Log:

POTA DE-1106

Conclusions:

It was nice to get out on a “real” park activation again (not just from the car in a Park’s car park, but it’s really sad that so many POTA hunters behave as if they were in a contest and don’t care about weaker stations. POTA hunters could, and should, relax more and enjoy the contacts while considering others. It’s ONLY A HOBBY after all!

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – May 4th 2026 – PLOTA activation of POTA – DE-0963 Wandertrilogie Allgau near Bad Worishöfen

Posted on 04/05/2026 by VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

Preparation:

This was another short activation, planned to coincide with taking my wife to the thermal Spa in Bad Worishöfen. Looking at the maps, I found a location where this POTA trail followed a small country road before disappearing off across the fields again. As you will see in the photos, I parked near where the trail leaves the road, and a sign indicates the trail’s direction.

As usual, the equipment was set up in the back seat of the car, and the three-magnet antenna base was put on the roof of the car the day before the activation, so that I could start my activation as soon as I got on-site as some friends in the UK and in Australia promised to listen for me, despite that the expected start time of 08:30 UTC (10:30 local) was somewhat late for 20 metres long path propagation.

The Activation

POTA DE-0963

The day started cold, so I was glad I had planned a PLOTA (activation from the car), but within 45 minutes of operating, I had to open the car windows as it was getting hot! I started on 20 metres but, as expected, the band had closed perhaps 30 minutes earlier for DX. I was, however, able to work both Dave G4AKC – bicycle mobile and Mike M9MMM portable on 20 metres between QSB dips in their signals. Most of my contacts were on 20 metres; however, when I saw there were some POTA activators on 40 metres, I switched over there, where I worked Mike again, as well as ON8ON/P who was activating a brand new POTA park in Belgium. With variable radio conditions, getting the needed 10 contacts to qualify the trail took time. I managed it, including three P2P contacts and had time to pack everything tidily away before going to pick up my wife.

The smartphone problem that I had on my previous (Bunker) activation did not occur again, as I found the issue, which was that the protector glass on the phone had cracked, and so it was putting pressure where I was not pressing. Removing the protective glass stopped the problem, but I have to be very careful not to drop the phone until I can fit a new protective glass.

Photos: