Activating PAFF-035 - Kootwijk

Weak conditions especially on the higher bands

On my way home I passed Kootwijk and decided to try an activation of the nature parc. I found a reasonable spot on the northern edge of the park in due course.

Setup at Kootwijk

When I started it was still light outside (16:00 local time) so I tried the higher bands first. 17m was rather quiet with 7 contacts in 15 minutes. 4 of those called in from outside EU (EC8, VE3 and K2, K7).

20m was more lively with 17 contacts in 15 minutes but signals were weakening quickly except for Spain and Portugal. One DX station called in from VE5.

40m provided the most activity this time. The reason for that must have been the early sunset (with Dec 23 being almost the shortest day here). Still, activity levels were not very high and signals not as strong as they can be on 40m - mostly around 57/58. 28 OMs called in on this band in just under half an hour.

In total I made 52 contacts with OMs from 22 different DXCCs. Maximum distance was 7800km into Washington state.


Tnx all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating PAFF-040 - Duinen Vogelenzang

 A very windy activation near the sea

Today I was near the sea shore, near a Dune nature reserve known as Vogelenzang (PAFF-040). This area has not been activated before. To me that constitutes a good reason to spend some time there on the radio - apart from the fact that it is a very beautiful area to be in.

The two main challenges today were so-so conditions and a very strong wind.

Challenging wind..

I started out on 10m hoping to catch some DX but that did not work at all. Some European stations tried to call in but conditions weren't good for Europe. On 15m there was more activity with good conditions into Spain and Portugal. VE1 was the DX station on this band.

On 20m condtions were okay for a while throughout Europe until QSB started kicking in. The maximum distance was set by an OM from VE5. Asiatic Russia was present this time with one station only.

I finished the activation on 40m but that was quite a challenge. I had to extend my antenna pole to cater for the longer wire which therefore took even more pounding from the strong wind. The angle under which the wire antenna was blown did not enhance the quality of the antenna (judging from the signals and the SWR). At one point the wire was blown off the pole altogether - leaving me wondering for a few seconds why all the signals went down to S1...

In the two hours of operating I made 133 contacts with OMs from 32 DXCC. A lot of familiar callsigns by now but also a number (34) of OMs I have not had the pleasure of meeting before. Luciano I5FLN was the only hunter who visited on all bands.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P

Activating PAFF-031 - Speulder- en Sprielderbos

With two hours of spare time near PAFF-031 I decided to try and find an operating spot. PAFF-031 is very challenging for a radio station as it is a dense forrest. From the picture you can see that I found a little bit of space in between the trees.

Operating in between the trees

Conditions weren't really impressive. The fact that the antenna was in between the trees will not have contributed. I was active on 15m, 20m and 40m. Most activity was on 20m this time.

In two hours I have made 121 contacts with OMs of 29 DXCCs. For some reason there were no stations from Asiatic Russia - normally a number of OM's call in. One real DX came by in the shape of VE5, making for 6700km of maximum distance - and a new Canadian state for me.

Thanks all for stopping by.
Lars, PH0NO/P

A busy activation of PAFF-044 (Arkemheen)

DX on 15m, regular traffic on 20m and crazy pileups on 40m

With some unexpected free time on my hands I headed over to PAFF-044 (Arkemheen) on November 18. Arkemheen was one of the few unactivated WFF areas in PA-land left and the last one relatively close to my QTH.

After studying the map I found a nice operating spot near a water pumping station. I was hoping to set up my antenna directly on the water's edge. Theory and my experience tells me that this helps getting ur signal across the globe (I noticed this for example in June when I activated PAFF-014). However the water I was hoping to use was hidden behind a dike that was only accessible by bicycle. So I set up my station directly behind the dike. I had beautiful views from my operating position that got even more special when the sun set and fog came in.

Setup at Arkemheen

I started out at 15:00 local time - a good time for the higher bands. I decided to start on 15m hoping on some DX passing by. Of course I was greeted first by Luciano I5FLN. In the following hour I worked 80 stations including DX from North America (up to Arizona) and Puerto Rico - max QRB 8800km.

After an hour I decided to go down to 20m - usually the busiest place for WFF. There was quite some activity, so no time to get bored. I worked 79 stations in one hour. Luciano was again the first OM to pass by. Conditions were okay - good enough for strong signals from stations throughout Europe. Apart from a booming visit by W1YY/7 (Washington state, 7800km) and only 2 stations from Assiatic Russia there was no DX to be found.

Sunset and fog at Arkemheen (PH0NO/P on the right)

It was just past 17:00 local time and it was getting darker - so, time to move lower once again. I went to 40m to find out conditions were very good on this band. Starting at 17:20 I worked almost 100 stations in one hour. After a couple of minutes the traffic was so crazy that I had to call by numbers - a new experience. Apart from a couple of OMs that don't grasp the concept of numbers or simply don't listen this worked very well. When I had to close down my station to head home, there were still stations calling. Crazy. Really.
And Luciano? Of course he came by on 40m as well. Other duties kept him from being the first one this time though.

The stats for this activation: 242 stations (254 contacts) from 38 DXCC entities in 3 hours of activity with a maximum distance of 8700 km into Arizona.

Thanks everyone for calling in!
Lars, PH0NO/P

A long activation of Nunspeet - PAFF-033

Using three different bands for short and long distance QSOs

Wednesday October 26 I had planned an activation of PAFF-033. The difference with other activations up till now was that I had quite a bit of time on my hands and that I knew a few days ahead that I would use this time for an activation.

Using Google Maps I had already checked out the area for a good operating spot. I had found a few spots and it turned out that the first one I went for was good enough. The area is mainly covered by a dense forest, which is not the best condition for a radio operation. I found a bit of space, just enough to keep the antenna free from the trees on the northern part of the park.

I was visited twice by park attendants. This surprised me somewhat as the park is not a high profile park at all. The first one did not understand what I was doing but decided it would not be harmful for the park. The second one turned out to be an inactive HAM.. small world.

Station set-up @ PAFF-033

Conditions

The previous days I had had a lot of fun on 10 meters (my favourite band) so I decided to start there and see how many hunters would be present there. As I hoped, there were a number of DX stations calling in (US, Canada, Brazil and I stumbled upon PJ5) - 10m is great for DX. PY1SX set the maximum QRB for the day (9600km).

For Europe the conditions on 10m weren't that great so after one and a half hours (and only 33 contacts) I went down to 20m. This is a very busy place for WFF. I worked 192 stations in just over 2 hours. As always most of the OM's were from Russia (EU and Asiatic), Italy and Ukraine. A few DX stations came by as well - JH8, UA0, UA9, VE6, UN9 and 4Z. 

Quite a few of the WFF hunters have become familiar callsigns, some are in my log for all my 6 activations.

When 20m started to get slow, around 18:30 local time, I decided to give 40m a try. It was a challenge to find a quiet spot but when I did I worked 69 stations in one hour. 40m nicely closes the skip gap 20m and 10m leave behind (between 250 - 700km).

At 20:00 I closed down the station and headed back home. By that time I had greeted 288 OMs (some came by on more than one band - some even on all three - hi Luciano :) from 43 different DXCC entities.

Thanks all for stopping by and calling in. See you at the next activation.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating Terletse Heide - PAFF-042

With another small gap in my agenda  I was able to head over to the WFF park Terletse Heide on Tuesday late afternoon. The area comprises of an airfield (mainly used by glider planes) and surrounding fields. It is a rather small nature park in between Veluwezoom (PAFF-019) and De Hoge Veluwe (PAFF-005). The area is surrounded by a low fence and trees with the official entrance on the east side of the park via the airfield main building (Terlet entrance).

With the limited time I had available I decided to enter the area from the west and look for a low profile corner of the park. I found a spot that was reasonably free of trees within the park's perimeter.
I took a chair this time, which made the operation a lot more comfortable than previous operations where I was on foot and sat on a rock or fallen tree.

There was no activity at the airfield that day (as far as I could see) and I was able to operate for 2,5 hours without seeing another soul. The weather started out rather grey but soon improved with quite some sunshine until the sun set around 17h CET.

Conditions on 20m were good this day. The advantage clearly being good signal reports on both ends (frequently 9+10dB or more) and a few DX contacts. The disadvantage was the amount of QRM from neighbouring stations.

I started out on a frequency that turned out to be near to a DXpedition RX frequency (I learned this later from I5FLN, Luciano, who was so kind to post a spot on the cluster already at the beginning of my activation). When I moved up 10kHz the amount of QRM was manageable.

My power cable was not functioning properly due to a loose fuse contact. This caused the radio to shut down a number of times at the start of the activation. Somehow I managed to fix this after half an hour or so.

During the 2,5 hours of operation there were quite a number of stations visiting (227 in total), from 35 DXCC entities with DX from the US and Canada as well as quite surprisingly (to me) one ham from the east coast of China (8800km) - my first contact with a Chinese station!

All in all it was a pleasant experience once again. Thanks to all the hunters for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P 

Activating Utrechtse Heuvelrug - PAFF-018

Yesterday I had some spare time (abt 2 hours) while passing the PAFF-018 area ("Utrechtse Heuvelrug"). I could not find a perfect spot quickly, so settled for a quiet spot in between some trees (refer to picture). I was able to keep the antenna free from the leaves.

Using my FT-897d at 70w output I started on 20m just after 15h CET. Thankfully I was put on the cluster soon after I started (thanks Rocco, IK6GQC!). This saves a lot of breath repeating callsign and location information.

Conditions were okay with distances limited to the usual 4000km. After less than an hour signals started to drop.

As I was using a multiband end fed wire, I decided to go down to 40m. It turned out to be a zoo from 7050-7200. I found a relatively quiet spot but still had to deal with massive QRM.

Bill, M0DXT, was so kind to put my new frequency on the cluster (tnx Bill!). This lead to a handful of contacts but the QRM made me decide to call it a day after a total operation of 90 minutes. In this time I was greeted by 92 operators of 21 DXCC entities. The maximum distance was 3800km into Asiatic Russia.

Tnx all for passsing by.
Lars, PH0NO/P