Preparation:

Having spotted some new POTA parks in my area, I wanted to get my name on them as “First activator”, this was the park that I had planned to do on Tuesday, but as my wife had her physiotherapy appointment in the village rescheduled, the activation of DE-1060 Ammerseegebeit Bird Sanctuary was also rescheduled to Friday. Unfortunately, the day before (Thursday), the new park was activated by another ham. Oh well, you lose some, you win some!

The same radio gear used for Tuesday’s alternative activation would be used again and was packed into the car in time for this late afternoon activation.

The Activation

POTA DE-1060 / DE-0594

The trip to Schondorf on Ammersee was only about 30 minutes from home, despite some road closures. After I dropped my wife off, I had to get to the hoped-for location quickly, as her appointment was only 40 minutes long in total, so this would need to be a short activation. But, what could go wrong ….

I had intended to operate on 40m as that would normally give me plenty of contacts in the short time available. I had already set up the “station” in the back of the car, so after parking, I just needed to extend and attach the HF-PRO-2 antenna on the mag-mount on the top of the car, plug in the battery and off we go … or so I thought.

As always, I ran the tuner to do the final match on the antenna all looked fine. I then tuned the band to find what was a free frequency and put out a call to ask if the frequency was in use, but horror of horrors, there was very little RF being indicated on the radio’s RF output scale. I changed:

• Microphone cable
• Power cable
• Battery
• ran the built-in antenna analyser and tuner (no problems indicated)
• checked the loading coil on the vertical antenna on the magnetic mount on the car roof.
• did a complete system reset and check of all power level settings in the radio TWICE

The only other variables were the radio itself and the coax to goes to the magnetic base. which I could not change out, as it is connected to the base. It comes back into the car simply through the door edge, so it can have been damaged there, in the PL259 plug or in the base.

I was getting full 20W output for perhaps a second and then low output. This can sometimes be caused by a bad SWR shutting the radio down. While the tuner and built-in antenna analyser use low power, they might not get the issue that occurs when 20W is used on a (possibly) faulty coaxial cable.

With some moving of the coax, I managed to get a reliable contact, and now, under time pressure, I worked hard to get the needed 10 contacts to qualify the park & trail. I achieved this in just over 30 minutes.

On arriving home, the radio was tested and it was fine. Today (Saturday), I have tested the three-magnet magnetic roof mount. Inch by inch from the mount back, especially around where it would have been trapped in the door rubber – nothing! But when I got back to the PL259 plug …. Moving it around, broke contact, and it was the braid connection, not the core, which broke at some angles. Taking the plug apart, I found this was a plug where the braid is connected through a crimp method, putting contacts through the rubber insulation. REALLY! This is an expensive radio accessory, and they cheap-skate on the connectors? That plug and a couple of inches of coax were cut off and thrown away, and a REAL PL259, solder-on plug was added to the cable. All tests show good now, but to be sure, on the next activation, where I want to do a “PLOTA”, I’ll take a second (single magnet) antenna base along as well.

Photos:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu G-90 radio.
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical antenna.
• 3-magnet car roof mount.
• 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• 2 x 4Ah Eremit LifePO4 batteries (one used).
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-1060 / DE-0594

Conclusions:

You can NEVER rely on equipment that has rarely given problems working “when it matters,” and the ability to substitute parts on-site during the activation is always a good thing.

73 ’til the next activation!