Exploring POTA NL-UT part 1: NL-0269 and NL-0280

After doing a POTA activation close to my hometown last Saturday as a test, I am going to try and activate all of the POTA sites in the province of Utrecht. There are 34 of which I have done six already. The goal is to do these activations by bicycle and train or by hiking.

The landscape in the province of Utrecht is littered with fortresses dating from the end of the 19th century and the first world war. Some of these are POTA sites. I left around 10 o'clock in the morning and after an hour of biking arrived at NL-0269: Werk aan de Waalse Wetering. This fortress was part of a 200 km long defense line coming from the south to defend the western part of The Netherlands and the cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam. It dates from around 1875.  

 

Luckily the entrance gate was open and I set up my QRP station on the lower slope at the back of the fortress with great views at the surrounding landscape. I wanted to make this a quick one and made 11 CW QSO's in 11 minutes in 40 meters, best DX: SM5ELV from the middle of Sweden.

From this site it is only a 4 km ride to NL-0280: Werk aan de Groeneweg. It's a massive earthwork from the first world war with around 50 bunkers and hundred of meters of trenches. I set up my station on top of one of the slopes. Starting at 40 meters with 12 contacts I moved to 30 meters next and made 2 park-to-park QSO's with OH2BNC/P and M0UDB. Then another 9 contacts on 20 meters with a nice DX QSO with a Russian station at 2300 km. A total of 23 QSO's in 40 minutes time.

It took another hour to arrive home at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after biking a total of 40 km. 8 POTA sites done, 26 to go!