After all the recent rain it was nice to wake up to sunshine streaming into the house. Looking out the window I could see there was a frost too, it was going to be a nice day!
Bit of slow morning as it was Valentines Day, so breakfast in bed for XYL. Decided to head out to my local park for a few hours and the XYL and radio hounds would meet me later.
Got my kit packed, sunglasses on and headed off. The walk is only short but was nice to feel the sun on face. The track down to the park still had frozen puddles but bits of the mud were melting and walking was a bit tricky as I kept slipping.
Once on my usual pitch, I took a bearing to make sure the antenna would be orienteered to get good DX to Europe, then I got the mast and antenna set up. I have started having it as in inverted L, with the tuner fastened to the mast about 1 meter off the ground. It’s been working well and I’m happy with it.
Rolled out a bivi bag and got my sit mat out so I was not sitting on the damp ground and got the radio setup. I had a look at the spots for POTA and saw Morten LB0FI on 20m so decided to try and hunt him, it took me a couple of attempts but got through. Great way to start with a P2P!
I did want to start on 40m and get some UK contacts but there was a contest on and 5 watts will never break through a contest so I started on 20m.
I found a free frequency, got a spot up and called CQ. First was Luis EA4TL closely followed by Juha OG6GAZ. Finland with 5 watts, very happy.
Got a few more in the log then suddenly I heard VE something….. I called back for the VE station and Stuart VE9CF came booming and gave me a 59, wow Canada on 5 watts. Then quite faintly in noise I heard a W1 calling, was he really calling me? Yes, he was! Wiliam W1OW. OMG WOW, 2 North America contacts on 5 watts. Who says QRP will not get you anywhere.
After this got 11 in the log on 20m, some familiar calls and some new.
I had my handheld on the 2m calling frequency and heard Robert M7VTO calling CQ POTA on 2M, so I grabbed the handhold and called back. He was activating GB-2736 Bishop Wood and Cawood Common Nature Reserve which was a few miles from me as the crow files. I have activated that park twice before.
Decided to try some other bands but had no joy expect on 10m where I worked Dana YO3DYL.
The XYL and radio hounds turned up so I halted operations to great them. Whilst the dogs had a run around, we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed the view. I had brought my paddle with me to try and hunt a CW POTA activator and was feeling confident with sun on my face so had a quick look on the spots and found Andreas DJ0MA calling CQ so in tried to reply to him and he responded to me! Wow what a radio day, CW P2P and 2 NA contacts with 5 watts. Time to call it a day before I use all my luck up.
Got all the kit packed away and had a nice walk home the XYL and the hounds
| Operation Details |
| Park: https://pota.app/#/park/GB-0021 Grid square: IO93lt WAB square: SE63 |
| Working Conditions |
| Icom IC-705 Icom AH-705 Sotabeams tactical mini Sotabeams EFLW Ham2K Polo |
| Operation Totals |
| 22 QSOs 11 DXCC Entities 3 P2P 3 Band and 2 modes 20m – 1 CW, 18 SSB 10m – 1 SSB 2m – 2 FM |
