Last new PAFF: Huitebuersterbûtenpolder

Very very poor conditions in Friesland
The last unactivated PAFF area inside the Netherlands is located in the northern province of Friesland. The people speak a different language here, hence the extraordinary name of the area (I can't pronounce it).

Normally this area is out of reach for me, but today I had an appointment in the north not too far from Friesland. I decided to use my available time in the afternoon to try and find a spot in the nature park and complete the PAFF range.

View towards the sea - a pity that it was hazy today

The area consists of low land stretching into the sea, behind a high dike. It is quite an unusual view. I was not very fortunate with the weather as it was a bit hazy - so my view was limited.

I had ordered a replacement for my Spieth mast (refer to my story of the last activation why) but that had not arrived yet so my mast was too short for 40m. Luckily I found an operating spot where I could set up my antenna sloping towards a fence. The antenna was not very high (feeding point less than 1 meter off the ground) but SWR was perfect on 20m and 40m.

No additional damages this time but I did have a challenge in the conditions. They were absolutely lousy. My propagation widget showed poor conditions on all HF bands - and it was right. This meant that I had to call a lot and had trouble to copy stations (vice versa).

In about 90 minutes of air time I worked 89 stations from 24 DXCCs. Maximum QRB was set by an OM from RV9 to 4800km - this was on 40m. On 20m the max QRB was only 3500km into 4Z.
Luciano I5FLN and Sergey RA3PCI made the trip on both bands.

The last challenge this time was my voice that was hoarse due to a cold but it kept on working all the way.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P

Second time PAFF-018 - Utrechtse Heuvelrug

Damaged pole: one band re-activation
With just a little time on my hands while passing PAFF-018 I decided to do a quick re-activation. I found a reasonable spot quite quickly. It was however surrounded by trees.

Zuylensteinse Bos - part of Utrechtse Heuvelrug

For some reason I opted to start with the multiband wire antenna (10-20-40). This meant extending my antenna pole to about 15m. Ofcourse I ended up in the trees with this hard to handle pole. This happend to me once before, losing a piece of wire but this time it was worse: one of the fiber glass segments of my Spieth mast broke. I was left with a considerably shorter pole and therefore did not have the opportunity to activate 40m this time.

One damaged fiber glass segment...

Conditions on 20m were so-so and unsteady. Luciano I5FLN reported both a 55 and a 59+10 in 15 minutes time. Moving around on 20m (avoiding QRM and QRN) I was active for about 70 minutes. In this time I was greeted by 72 OMs from 22 DXCCs. Max QRB was set by a UA9 OM to 5000km.

Quite surprisingly I was greeted by two OMs from Morocco. I haven't heard a station from CN before during a WFF activation and today I heard two...

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating PAFF-034 Leende

Short activation of a new PAFF area

A customer appointment in the morning brought me close to Leende. The nature park borders on Belgium in an area I don't visit normally. With another appointment later in the afternoon I had only about 90 minutes for the activation but PAFF-034 really needed to be activated in my opinion.

The park is quite large and has a few open patches that are convenient for a portable radio station. The northern part of the park is partily accessible by car.

With the limited time available I decided to erect the wire antenna only once. This meant choosing my multi band end fed wire for 10-20-40m and attaching it to my extended Spieth mast of 15m. Luckily there was only a light breeze.

Cloudy but dry weather @ PAFF-034

At noon UTC 10m was rather dead so I started on 20m. After sending a spot to the cluster Luciano I5FLN was (as usual) the first one I could greet. The first 30 minutes on 20m were really busy with more than 60 calls logged.  I had to change frequency once due to QRM. Something that normally happens on 40m.

After 45 minutes the activity level had dropped and I was half way my available time so I changed to 40m. After the first call I was already greeted by Luciano. His spot on the cluster initiated another pileup that lasted 30 minutes. 10 minutes later activity died down so I changed back to 20m to log a few last calls before breaking up and heading north. The QRM level on 40m was very acceptable this time, allowing me to operate on one and the same frequency all the time.

In the 80 minutes of activity (lost about 10 minutes finding and changing frequencies) I logged 118 calls from 28 DXCCs. This includes 7 stations outside EU. It was too early for N-America so all DX is from the east (UA9 and UN). Max QRB was set by a RV9 station on 5000km distance.

The time of this activation is different from most of my other activations (earlier). This must be the reason why more than one third of all logged calls is from OMs I have not met before.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating PAFF-016 - Sallandse Heuvelrug

Weak conditions on higher bands, good conditions and QRM on 40m

A gap in my schedule allowed for a short detour into PAFF-016. The weather was not too good for a field day with drizzle throughout the afternoon but there was no wind - a good thing for my fiber glass antenna pole.

PAFF-016 is a reasonably large park with a lot of trees but also some clear areas. I found a suitable site quite quickly in the southern part of the park. Looking at the cluster I saw that the higher bands were very quiet so I installed my 12m long multi band end fed wire on my 15m pole focusing on 20m and 40m.

Drizzle @ PAFF-016

Starting on 20m it turned out that conditions were indeed quite poor. I spoke to 40 OMs in 45 minutes.
On 40m the situation was quite familiar: good conditions but lots of QRM and QRN. I worked 80 stations in just over one hour. At the end the interference was so strong I had to change frequency a number of times.
When the QRN started to annoy me just a bit too much I went back to 20m to work another 20 stations in the last 20 minutes of my activation.

All in all a nice activation that only lacked a bit of sunshine. I worked 140 stations from 29 DXCCs in just under 2,5 hours. The DX traffic was limited to 6 stations outside of EU. Maximum QRB was into W1.

Both Luciano I5FLN and Carlo IZ0IJC came by on both bands.

One little problem surfaced during this activation: my logging software did not record the time stamps. I only found this out one hour from that start. In the mean time I have been able to update the log through email or eqsl.

Thanks all for giving ur reports.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Revisiting PAFF-032

With some unexpected time on my hands and near Lelystad (just a few kilometers away from the Oostvaardersplassen) I decided to do a re-activation. I found an open spot just next to the stretch of water of the IJsselmeer. My idea was to use this ideal operating position to do some DX-ing. However conditions were rather poor on the higher bands.

Looking over a lake

Starting on 15m I made 20 contacts in 30 minutes. As the band was rather quiet I went down to 20m. This band was not as busy as it usually is. I made 47 contacts in 40 minutes. Then I went over to 40m and found a reasonably quiet spot but was seriously hampered by QRN that came by every few minutes and gave me an S8-9 wall of sound. In 90 minutes I made 105 contacts. Max QRB this time 7000km into South Carolina.


Near the end of the activation I was visited by the Dutch police. It turned out that the guy checking me out was a local ham operator curious about what I was doing there in the middle of nowhere with a 12m high antenna...

Attracted some attention

Even though I had activated this area only a month earlier I made in total 170 contacts. This included some 65 OMs I have not contacted before on any WFF activation. Of course Luciano I5FLN came by on all three bands. He was the only one this time.

Tnx to all passing by.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating PAFF-032 Oostvaarderplassen

Nice conditions on higher band, terrible QRM on 40m

Today I was able to head over to the Oostvaardersplassen. This area was activated once before by Hans PA3FYG. He did not manage to reach any WFF hunters though (and only a handful of OMs) - a good reason to activate this area again.

I reached the area by 14:30 local time and had to leave it (according to the park regulations) by 17:00. The wind was quite strong. This limited the potential operating spots (one of which is ideally located on a high dike). I chose a low spot on the south side of the park. When I arrived there it turned out that this spot had recently been cleared of surrounding trees. For a change I had an unobstructed path in all directions.

Clear view to all directions from PAFF-032

I started on 15m. It was relatively calm with only a couple of European stations calling in. Moving onto 20m the pileup built up as usual. I worked over 100 OMs in one hour with a number of DX stations from Asiatic Russia and North America.

As 20m was quieting down I moved to 40m to find this band crowded all the way up till 7.200. Finding an operating frequency posed a challenge. Each time I found a good spot I was either greeted by QRM quite quickly (e.g. some DL stations with better TX than RX capabilities starting a local round) or noticed from the reactions of OMs calling in that QRM was high on their end. After 40 minutes of activation, changing frequency 5 times, I called it a day.

The temporary shack

I was a bit frustrated by the 40m experience but all in all it was a nice activation with sunny weather and good radio conditions. I made 141 contacts with OMs from 31 DXCCs in 2 hours radio time. Both Luciano I5FLN and Massimo IK1GPG found their way to PAFF-032 on all three bands.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating PAFF-030 Twickel

Single band activation (40m antenna ended up in the tree)

With some time on my hands I headed over to the last unactivated WFF area within one hour drive from where I live: Twickel. The nature reserve consists of various patches of land - mainly covered by trees.

I found an acceptable spot where I could set up the antenna free from tree branches.

Operating spot at Twickel

I started on 20m where activity levels were high - as were the signals. When I started it was still quite early in the afternoon, so I heard a lot more Asiatic Russia (9 in total) than in the last couple of activations.

After about two hours signals started to drop on 20m and I decided to install the 40m wire antenna. This meant extending the antenna pole and getting it up in between the trees again. This turned out to be too great a challenge. I somehow got the antenna wire stuck in between some tree branches. Trying to get the wire out it broke... so much for the 40m activity.

20m antenna just free from branches

All in all I was happy with the result though: 138 QSOs with OMs from 29 different DXCCs. The maximum distance was set by an OM from VE5. I got a lot of new callsigns in my log: 30% of all logged calls were new. This is much higher than in the last couple of activations - and I can't figure out why.

Thanks all for passing by.
Lars, PH0NO/P