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 

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