DD5LP/P – February 10th 2026 – Activation of DE-1067 Moränelandschaft zwischen Ammer and stannberger sees plus DL-BOTA Bunker B/DL-0327 Warnamt X

Preparation:

Again, a limited-time “fill-in” activation while my wife had an appointment with her orthopaedic specialist in Weilheim at the southern end of Ammersee. Checking the few local bunker sites that are currently in the DL-BOTA site, I came across Warnamt X, not too far away and a location that I know, as we recently went to an art exhibition there – the buildings above the civil defence bunker now house an artist’s commune.

Although the bunker is excluded from the POTA park DE-1067, the fact that one may activate within one kilometre of the bunker made a combined activation of POTA and DL-BOTA possible by parking just off the access road to the commune.

So that was the plan, with, as usual, all radio gear loaded and ready for operation in the car the day before, I was ready for this combined BLOTA/PLOTA activation. I also packed my Xiegu X-6200 radio and a second magnetic antenna mount as backups. I added an alert on both POTA and DL-BOTA for the activation.

The Activation

POTA DE-1067 & BOTA B/DL-0327

After dropping my wife off, the run to the planned off-road parking spot took about 20 minutes, mainly because of traffic stuck behind two slow-moving tractors. We had planned that my wife’s appointment would take about an hour and she would stay in a local cafe for 30 minutes afterwards, giving me 90 minutes for the trip to, radio activation and trip from the location.

Once at the planned location, partway into the forest on an ice-covered road, the setup was quick, with just the antenna needing to be put on the 3-magnet mount on the car roof, with the coil set to the newly calibrated value for 20m. I had intended to start on 20 metres and then head to 40 metres, as I got so many contacts on 20m, the 40m action never happened.

I did announce that my location was also a Bunker, and when a Bunker chaser actually called me, I asked him to spot me on the WWBOTA site, as I could not.

After spotting myself on POTA (BOTA spotting did not work from my phone for some reason), I had 75 contacts in almost exactly an hour, and all on one frequency on 20m. The radio and antenna worked perfectly, and the level of QRM was nowhere near as high as it had been in previous activations – perhaps the fact that the “WWA” award scheme month-on-air has finished was a big help. The high number of contacts did not include any DX contacts but lots of contacts from locations closer to me than I normally would get, so it seems that after recent heavy solar activity, the skip distance was short. As you will see from the contacts map, coverage was 360 degrees over all of Europe.

I had to end the activation as I had run out of time, but hopefully I will have given some Bunker operators this ATNO location (this was its first activation in the scheme).

Photos:

DE-1067 / B/DL-0327

Equipment taken:

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

Logs:

Contacts Map

POTA DE-1067

DL-BOTA B/DL-0327

Conclusions:

I was surprised at getting so many contacts in just an hour, but happy that the “standard” setup is now working reliably again. Hopefully, the weather conditions will improve soon, so that I can get out and operate “real” portable, away from the car, again.

73 ’til the next activation!

DD5LP/P – September 29th 2025 – Activation of 2-fer POTA – DE-1067 Moränenlandschaft zwischen Ammersee und Starnberger See and DE-1061 Ammerseeufer und Leitenwälder

Preparation:

The first of the two parks in the title is a brand-new park, taken over from WWFF into POTA, I believe. The second is one that I activated as the first activator on September 9th. The new park is very large, and I managed to find a spot where the two parks border with each other, making this a 2-fer. Given the current weather, the fact that that point was in the middle of a parking area made this another PLOTA (operation from the car) activation opportunity.

So the same equipment as used for the last few activations was packed into the car, and the just over 30-minute drive to the planned spot started.

The Activation

POTA DE-1061 / DE-1067

The drive started in heavy rain; however, upon arrival in the (empty) parking area, the rain stopped, only to restart as I set off home, having completed the activation. The entry to the parking area is not well sign-posted; indeed, one entrance to it has been completely closed. Being close to the banks of Lake Ammer, I’m sure this parking spot will be full in the summer months, but on a cold, rainy autumn day, I had it all to myself.

After mounting the HF-PRO2 on the magnetic mount on the roof and connecting up to the battery, the station was ready to go, so I tuned around the band first of all, to get a contact in the log book and test the equipment before searching for a free frequency to start calling CQ POTA on. That first strong station that I found was SM/LB9JE in another POTA park, so I was able to start the log with a P2P contact and happy that the equipment was working well, I went and found a free frequency, spotted myself on the POTA cluster, and 14 contacts came in quick succession. The 15th contact with I0XVZ/QRP, however, did not go to plan. Halfway through the contact, the power output dropped from the usual 20 watts to under 1 watt. The same problem that I experienced in the last activation. Unfortunately, swapping the microphone cable around end-to-end did not fix the issue. I could have simply packed up at this point, as I had more than the required 10 contacts, but I wanted to at least finish the contact with the Italian station. Amazingly, with 800 mW, he was still hearing me, and we finished the QSO almost as if nothing had happened! I was then called by SP8DPY, and that QSO was also completed with under 1 watt of RF from me.

One thing I hadn’t tried the previous time this problem happened was to change to a carrier-based mode and check what the output was. I switched to FM and … still just one watt output, so that proves the issue is not in the audio chain. Switching between and trying different modes, however, fixed the issue (unfortunately, I don’t have a logical reason as to why). At least I was fully operational again.

I was tempted at this point to call it a day, but looking at the POTA Cluster, I could see other activators had just come up, and I finished the activation with three more Park-to-Park contacts (at 20 watts).

Photos:

Equipment taken:

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

Log:

POTA DE-1061/ DE-1067

Conclusions:

The problem from the last activation has returned. This time, it did not take long to fix it; however, I am not happy with this fix, as it looks like this may happen again at any time. In future, I may have to take a spare radio along if I can’t find a solution for this.

73 ’til the next activation!