Sunday, June 10, 2012

PAFF-041 Bargerveen

Zoo on 40m, good conditions on 15m and 20m and even some contacts on 6m

Yesterday I was in the northern part of the Netherlands together with some people who were going to watch soccer all night. As I don't care for that game, I went out to a "most wanted" PAFF that was reasonably close (less than 30 minutes drive): Bargerveen.

PAFF-041 (bordering on DLFF-076)


I had already checked out the area on the map and found an entrance road into the park. I started out on 15m as 10m seemed rather dead - it was already past 19:00 local time.

15m was lively but quickly suffering from quite some QSB. I still worked 41 stations in half an hour. During that time I was pleasantly suprised by a visit from JA and from YB - both putting in a 57.

After 30 minutes I went down to 20m. It was rather crowded with a contest going on (I am not used to activate WFF in the weekends - normally 20m is a lot quieter). I stayed on 20m for 45 minutes, greeting a lot of familiar callsigns. Here I was greeted by another JA station.

Multiband HyEndFed on 15m high pole
As usual I decided to go down to 40m when things slowed down on 20m. However I was not prepared for the state of things on 40m at that time. I think it was due to the contest (Portugal contest?) and some other WFF activities but I could not find a clean frequency in the entire band. Tuning up and down I decided to settle for a noisy but just bareable spot. I got a couple of answers but it was clear to me that it was as dificult for others to copy me as it was for me to copy any station. Normally a WFF activity on 40m generates a pileup but I only copied a handful of stations. What might have contributed to a lower activity level - apart from the crazy QRM - was the fact that a soccer game with the German team had started (normally a lot of German OMs call in on 40m).

After only 7 contacts on 40m (a new record I think) I decided to use my last 15 minutes to try 6m. I saw some spots that indicated I might be able to work a few European stations. Ofcourse you won't come across a lot of hunters but I just discovered this band and I like its unpredictability. A few calls brought me into contact with 5 stations in 10 minutes - ER, 9A and YO.

All in all I was on the air for about 90 minutes in which I logged 103 contacts from 30 DXCCs. One third of the OMs passing by were new contacts to me. The maximum QRB was set to 11.500km by an OM from YB (a new record during a PAFF activation for me). DX came in from the east only. I did not copy any DX from the west (like the usual VE or east coast USA).

Luciano I5FLN, Manuel EA2DT, Axel DL1EBR and Jean-Louis F1NZC came by on two bands.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P

4 comments:

  1. Hallo Lars,

    PAFF-041 Bargerveen is weer goed ge-her-activeerd. En proficiat met je YB station. Toch een leuke afstand en dat met al die drukte.
    Ik zag je nog op het DX-cluster, overigens was dat pienter gedaan. Ik heb nog naar je gezocht, maar ik was pas laat QRV, dus helaas.

    73 de Hans, PE1BVQ

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  2. Hallo Hans,
    Was inderdaad weer een leuke tijdsbesteding. Ik kwam er net achter dat het "green day" was (georganiseerd door WFF) - vandaar die drukte met WFF activaties.
    Nog wel een grappige ervaring met vogelspotters daar. Mensen begrijpen nooit iets van je hobby (15m mast naast je auto...) maar ik had bij hun meer begrip verwacht gezien hun avond-groepsevent op zoek naar speciale zwaluwen. Maar zelfs die parallel hielp niet (ze vonden hun hobby niet zo vreemd).
    Ik was idd om 21.30 vertrokken. Volgende keer beter en/of tot ziens @ einde van de maand.
    Gr, Lars.

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  3. Hallo Lars, je had meer succes dan ik op Schiermonnikoog. De MP-1 antenne die ik gebruik kan niet tegen regen, en dat was er de hele dag. Toch in 2 uur tijd nog 14 QSO's kunnen maken. Geen extreme DX, Rusland op 17m was het verst. Japan kwam op 17 en 15m binnen met S9, maar met een slechte antenne en QRP was ik kansloos. Een verslag op mijn blog volgt later. 73, Bas

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  4. Hallo Bas,
    Jammer dat je eerste WFF activiteit in het water viel. Condities zijn bepalend, waarbij het weer nog wat gecompenseerd kan worden (droog vanuit de auto bijv.) maar met een "lekke antenne" helpt dat ook niet.
    Japan doet het goed daar in het noorden. Dat viel me ook al op toen ik bij Lauwersmeer stond. Toen kon ik QRP een JA werken (antenne was wel iets beter). Misschien de nabijheid van de plas water tussen PA en JA?
    Ik hou je blog in de gaten (zie een video maar die kan ik hier in de trein niet goed bekijken) en hoop dat je de volgende keer meer geluk hebt.
    Gr, Lars.

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