Preparation:

Having just got a new Radioddity HF-010 antenna and after a week of book editing, I decided it was time for me to get a break, do some POTA, contact my friends in VK-Land and test out the antenna, car-mounted using my 3-magnet base.

I decided on Friday afternoon to test out the antenna, roof-mounted on my analyser, so that I could note down what the slider setting on the loading coil needed to be for each band, as I did not intend to take the antenna analyser with me. In short, initial impressions were VERY good apart from its size, on the car roof, it is a MONSTER!

Once I calibrated my settings, I decided to try the antenna out for real with a contact or two on 20m. So (as I had been calibrating with fewer extender rods on 10m), I rebuilt the antenna for 20m and did a quick check on the analyser. It was no longer resonant where it was before. I checked everything I could think of, but was unable to find what had changed. In this state, I could not rely on it for the following day’s early morning activation, so I switched to my usual Komunica HF-PRO2 antenna, which worked fine, and I made two quick contacts up into the UK before packing the car ready for the next day’s early trip. To be fair to the HF-010, it is intended to be ground-mounted on its own tripod with radials, so what I was asking it to do is not in the user manual. Perhaps for the next (non-PLOTA) activation, I’ll take the antenna along and set it up as per the handbook. It is VERY well built and looks like it could be a great antenna.

The Activation

POTA DE-0663 / DE-1058

After arriving at the car park, set-up was prompt, and I had good hopes when I saw an S1 noise level and several stations showing on the G90 bandscope. My “test” QSO, to make sure the station was operating, was with VL4R at 06:33 UTC. He was taking part in the annual “John Moyle Field Day contest” in Australia.

 After that, I could hear several John Moyle field day contest stations and other stations out of VK, including one VK6 station, but they were either chatting with mates (both VK-VK and VK-UK) or when they did call CQ, the pile-up was major! Had there not been the pile-up with a Vanuatu station, I could have made that contact, I think.

I then messaged my friends in the UK and Australia to find what frequency they were on, and we tried several times to make contact, but without success. I could hear them at S2 or S3, but they could not hear me – there was one of the team that said the Kp index was up at 7 following a storm the previous UTC evening. I decided to take a break from 20m, which had by this point bottomed out, and I was just hearing DL, RA, I and SV stations and moved to 40m.

On 40m, it was FULL with European stations (I guess a lot had moved from 20m), but I managed to find a free frequency and logged 9 POTA contacts to add to the VL4R contact to make the needed 10 contacts. SM3NRY was the last contact there, and he said there had been a major Aurora with him last night, which would account for the Kp index of 7. When I then came back to 20m, it was a little better and in the next 40minutes, I could hear all of the stations – Ernie VK3DET at about S3, Jon VK7JON and Mike M9MMM/M at about S2 but none of them could hear me, I suspect I was close to their noise levels, so having 100W rather than 20W (or indeed having the “monster” HF-010 antenna working) today may have made all the difference. 

Well, at least I got out – I would have liked to have tried the new antenna, but while it is inconsistent on the analyser, it can’t be used for an activation.

Photos:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 HF 20W radio.
• Three magnet car roof antenna mount.
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip.
• 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/ DE-1058

Conclusions:

I think today was definitely a day of relative noise levels. The location in the car park, in the park, is not always brilliant. It is next to a caravan park, and when it is a holiday weekend, there can be so much electronic noise coming out of there that I just have to pack up and go elsewhere, but today I can’t complain. I think while the others were fighting higher noise levels, I had a true S1 noise level (compared to S5 or S6 at home). 

73 ’til the next activation!

Preparation:

After a failed attempt at activating summit Berndorfer Buchet (HEMA DL/BY-064) and Bunker Warnamt X (DL-BOTA B/DL-0327) two days earlier (broken co-axial lead to the linked dipole antenna), this activation in my nearby park was to check the repair on the antenna and to try out the little G106 5w radio with the new microphone that I have for it. This would be a “proper” portable activation, not from the car and an early start might just bring a contact with Ernie VK3DET in Australia (although with the low power, it was questionable).

The Activation

POTA DE-0663 / DE-1058

This park is literally 10 minutes (maximum) away from my home and as such serves well for tests. Indeed with another 15 minutes walk, it contains a spot that is a POTA 4-Fer and in range of a Bunker but today, just two POTA references will do.

Set up time was short and as I warily turned ion the radio, I was relieved to hear lost of stations on 20 metres, so at least for receive the antenna is working again. To test getting out, I called a strong station calling CQ but he went back to someone else who was even stronger. I sent a message on our WhatsApp comms-testers group and Ernie was there after agreeing a frequency away from interference at each end of the path, my first contact in the log was indeed Ernie, VK3DET a clear 53/54 with me but Ernie was struggling to hear me and gave me a 33 report. The difference in power levels and my lower background noise level accounts easily for this difference. It was a valid contact and the first in the log, which it turned out was important as it took me another 18 minutes before I got contact number two in the log. Had the contact with Ernie had failed, I could have easily decided something was not working after 20 minutes, packed up and gone home.

Contacts were difficult to get on both 20m and 40m today. Of course part of it was the lower power level, however some contacts were giving me 58 and 59 reports, so I was getting out. I think part of the problem was the early hour, where some hams are still in bed and those who are up are running power and causing QRM. I had to move frequency four times because of stations splattering over the frequency I was on, meaning, hearing calling stations who were not strong, became difficult. However after a hour and ten minutes, in a damp and still cold field, I had 12 contacts in the log and packed up to go home. Both the antenna and the radio worked well, so this “test” activation of the two overlapping parks was a success.

Photos:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-106 QRP radio with ABREE microphone.
• SOTABeams Linked dipole antenna.
• Lambdahalba 6m mini mast and screw-in base.
• 2 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 battery (not used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/ DE-1058

Conclusions:

The contact into VIC, Australia, and the 2-Fer to 2-Fer P2P contact into France were the highlights of this activation. Getting contacts was hard work but the action was to check that the radio and antenna are now working as they should and that was proved.

73 ’til the next activation!

Preparation:

This activation was to be a POTA activation using the special event callsign DL0DOG, as this day, Tuesday 26th August, is the actual International Dog Day, although the special event call sign runs all month. I chose my local park for this action as I knew I could set up easily out of sight of most, but 100% within the park boundaries.

To give me a better chance of some DX contacts (hopefully also into the US, so that the IDD award chasers in the US would have a chance of getting a European “Dog station”). I would take my 10 metre mast, rather than the normal 6m one. This also means the need to take my surveyor’s tripod to support it. Luckily, the distance from where I park my car to where I would set up is only about 70 metres. As I also wanted to try 17 & 15m, the recently repaired linked dipole would be the antenna of choice and at 10m above ground, it ought to perform well. I would also take my 20/15/10m wire beam in case the higher bands were open.

Of course, as always, there would need to be backup, and in this case, that was an off-centre fed dipole and my HF-PRO2 loaded vertical, both of which were to stay in the car unless needed.

The day prior, I monitored the bands and was happy to see good conditions up to 15 metres with contacts into the US and Oceania. An early start was needed to be on-air by 0600 UTC, and I also booked slots with the other SES operators to use the DL0DOG call sign.

As usual, all radio gear was packed into the car on the Monday evening for the Tuesday activation, and only my pack-up would need to be added the following morning.

UPDATE: At the start of September 2025 a new park DE-1058 was added to POTA which overlapped where I operated for this activation. Under POTA rules, previous activations may be claimed even when they took place before the park was added.

The Activation

On arrival and after unloading the equipment that I would take to the site, I was surprised by the heavy morning dew on the grass and by the time I got to the site, my shoes, socks, and the bottom of my jeans were all soaking wet. OK, I wasn’t going to stop because of this, and soon the sun would come out and dry me off, right? The sun only came out nearly two hours later.

I set everything up only to find that my 10m mast was bending terribly just with the weight of the thin coax and dipole T-piece, and in trying to straighten it, one of the clips on the Dipole T-piece broke, so I changed to my usual 6m mast.

As usual, I had let my friends in Australia know that I would be out, and the first two contacts in the log were Ernie VK3DET and Jon VK7JON/M, both at a reasonable strength on 20 metres. Ernie and I tried 17 and 15 metres – nothing. I could hear a few VK stations in a net on 17m, but nothing at all apart from FT8 on 15 metres. So all contacts in this activation were made on 20m.

It appears that there is a problem (again) between the various DXCluster sites, where posting to one (in my case, using a smartphone app) DOES NOT propagate the spot to all of the others. As the IDD chasers may be watching their favourite cluster or the one on the hamlog.online landing page, this lack of transfer of spots between the sites meant my spots were not being seen.

The QRM got so bad on 20m that I could not hold a frequency; other stations simply, without even asking, started calling CQ on the frequency I had been on for 15 or 30 minutes. Others just ran carriers on and off for over 30 minutes. That wasn’t just tuning their antenna. Another Rusky nattering with his mate actually mentioned International Dog Day, so he knew he had started up on the frequency I was using. A real pain. Then later skip went short, making it even worse. In the end, I decided to pack up and run my remaining planned 40m and a late 20m IDD activations from home.

Photos:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna (not used).
• 10m DX-Wire mini-mast (erected but subsequently taken down).
• Surveyor’s tripod.
• Aerial-59 UL-440 off-centre fed dipole (not used).
• 20/15/10m wire beam (not used).
• Lambdahalbe 6m mast.
• Linked Dipole antenna.
• 8Ah LifePO4 Battery.
• 2 x 4 Ah LifePO4 batteries (one used).
• Small headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0663/DE-1058

Conclusions:

The quality of ham radio operators is deteriorating – the use of DQRM during a contest is one thing, but to crush a low-powered portable special event station is totally unacceptable.

73 ’til the next activation!