Activation of PAFF-0079 Broekvelden, Vettenbroek and Polder Stein

From my home town I boarded a direct train to Gouda Goverwelle, taking my folding bike with me. From there it's a 10 minute ride to PAFF-0079, another area with large pastures and plenty of lakes. Right in the middle of the park there is a parking spot 2 pick-nick tables, a great spot for a QRP operation.

I arrived at 11 o'clock local time, already late for 80 and 60 meters. Not a single RBN spot on those bands. 40 meters was a lot better. Propagation not great, all contacts were short distance, but plenty of hunters. 30 meters also went fine, in the meantime I had my log filled with 30 QSO's. I could complete the 44 after moving to 20 meters.

 Two P2P contacts with LZ2AF on 20 and DD1LD/p on 40 meters. Nice to work Enno CT7BTL from Portugal on 20 and Frank PA7F on 40 meters. Both with loud signals.

Activation of PAFF-0109 Oostelijke Vechtplassen

 Another sunny day with temperatures reaching 10 degrees! I took the train to the suburbs of Utrecht. From there it is a long walk amongst high rise buildings until I finally reached the countryside. The landscape North of Utrecht consists of forest patches, lakes created by turf diggers and large pastures. I set up my station on one of these pastures.

 Total operating time was 75 minutes with 47 QSO's. I had to switch between 40, 30 and 20 meters several times to keep stations from coming in. A nice DX QSO on 20m with KG8P and 2 park to park QSO's with OH8NW/p on 20 and F6EOC on 40 meters. This was another QRP operation with about 5 Watts output.

Activation of PAFF-0048, Ooypolder en Millingerwaard

 We were expecting a some nice weather this week with temperatures up to 10 degrees, so time to dust off my backpack and do a short WWFF activation. At 10:30 on the morning I took the train to the city of Nijmegen. From the train station it's a short walk to the river Waal and the activation zone, PAFF-0048. I found a nice spot close to the water with views to the bridge and the city in the distance. 

I had a good start on 40 meters with more than 20 contacts in the log in a short time. Then on to 30 and 20 meters. Propagation on 20 seemed very good, QSO's with 4Z4DX, AE1T en WK2S with only 5 Watts output. 48 QSO's in the log after one hour! My antenna was 14 meters of wire attached to a 7 meter Spiderbeam pole with 2 ground radials of 5 meter long.