My first park for this day was NL-0091: Rijntakken. I have activated this park before, but not the Utrecht side of the park. It's a 10 km bicycle ride to the ferry across the river and then to a small marina at the river Nederrijn. Arrived around 11 local time and found a bench close to the river. Propagation was excellent on 40 meters: 20 QSO's in 11 minutes with 12 different countries.
The next park involved a climb to the highest point of Utrecht: Amerongse Berg, NL-0200. For my activation I selected an open space inside the forest at the lonely oak. This tree was planted in the 18th century and is at a 61 meter high spot. I was expecting some nice propagation at this height but only 12 contacts on 40 meters, most stations with a radius of 500 km.
After having a quick lunch I drove to NL-0198: Landgoed Broekhuizen.
This landscape park of 6 hectares has some large grassy fields, perfect for setting up a station. I had a nice view of the 18th century caste from my chair. It was now around 3 o'clock in the afternoon so I started on 20 meters, hoping for some high band propagation. Sadly, only one QSO with OH6MML. So I moved to 40 meters again and worked 13 stations in 20 minutes. Next I tried 30 meters and with some effort made a QSO with F5JKK and I2CZQ.
Not a very good day for good propagation I guess, but 3 new NL-UT parks! I arrived home at around 5 o'clock in the afternoon after having biked 60 km.
