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Fieldradio 2025

This page was last updated : 29-Dec-25 13:26:34

28 December 2025

The 28th of December, stared with blue sky, sun and a nice temperatur of aprx 7 dgr C. Because the XYL was having a high tea with friends, I decided to pack my go-bag and get out in the field for some QSO's. I took my shopping bike and drove to my favorite /P location near my town.

  

At 13:45 localtime, after a half a hour out there, I noticed that the temperature was changing, and fog was rolling in from all sides.

  

In less then 10 minutes visibility changed. The picture below was taken at 13:53 localtime. 

The pictures below were taken at 13:55 and 13:56 localtime. 

  

At one point I was in the open field and in less then 30 minutes visibility was to less then 50 meters.

But still a nice place to be /P.

 

Normaly I don't make selfies, but the XYL asked to send her one. 

This time I also took the K1 with me for listening. I still suck at morsecode, but maybe that a good new years resolution to start training again. 

 

When I started, it was 7 dgrC and had to open my jacked for temperature regulation (I did dress for cold, and almost regretted it).
But when the temperature dropped to 0.1 dgrC, I was happy that I did tress for wet cold. 

My grandfather said: when you are dressed for cold and experience warmth, it's easier to remove some layers, but then when you are dressed for warmth and experience cold, you are fucked. 

He defiantly was right about that. 

Fog aside, I made a nice bunch of QSO's out there. Some Pota's, some FloraFauna's, some special event calls but no ragchews this time.

After almost 3 hours in the field it was time to go home, unpack the equipment and re-charge the battery, and of course add the QSO's to my logbook : https://www.ph2lb.nl/blog/index.php?page=logbook  

 

6 August 2025

The friendship between OM Wijnand PD5WL and me goes back many years, and although we don't live near each other, we regularly experiment with antennas, techniques, etc. Sometimes we meet on location, but often we exchange ideas and perspectives via chat or email. 

Because we were both in the last week of our (construction) vacation and hadn't been out and about yet this year, Wijnand suggested doing a FF/POTA here in my region instead of simply making connections in the field. For that we chose PAFF-0127 (Wierdenseveld) which is "kind of" near to my city (still a 25 minute ride with the car).  

So we checked the weather forecast and decided that Wednesday would be the best option

That location is great. Good parking opportunities and lots of information about the area

 

  

For our activation we walked to the lookout tower which also had a picnic table.

And a stunning view around (panorama taken from the lookout tower). 

But making the connections wasn't easy. OM Wijnand PD5WL wanted to make FT8 contacts on 10 and 20m with his FT817 and a telescope V-dipole, both of which we've had good experiences with. However, (ICT) problems with his setup threw a wrench in the works, as the radio wasn't being controlled properly. While it worked at home, it was a real improvisation here. My main goal was to make SSB contacts on 40m with my K2 (something impossible at home due to the local QRM), but that day the 40m band was extremely erratic. Hardly any CW stations could be heard on the Morse code segment, and even the FT8 segment bounced back and forth between 59 and 52. Nevertheless, we managed to make some nice, somewhat longer SSB QSOs, including a few FF2FF and POTA2POTA contacts. Certainly not 44 contacts in the log, but we did get a few hours of pure enjoyment out of it. We enjoyed the location and will definitely visit again.

 

 

2 January 2025

I got for the first time on the air for the new year and spend a view hours out in the field with my Elecraft K2 and my DIY DG1JAN 10/12/15/17/20/m verticale endfed at my favorite spot. 
It was nice  weather with a sun and low temperature (aprx 5 dgrC). But nothing good clothing can't handle. 

Had a few World Wide Award 2025 (WWA) and a nice long rag chew with OM Don KU4WE (see : https://ph2lb.nl/blog/index.php?page=logbook ) 

OM Edwin PD1ED who works nearby, took some time to visit me in the field and took some pictures. 

And then the sun sank below the horizon and temperatures dropped to just above 1 dgr C. So it was time to go home. 

 

 

 

 

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