PC5Z Holiday Tour

Harm PC5Z was active from the north of The Netherlands this summer - as far across the country as one can get from his QTH in the south west. He activated five nature parks during his one week holiday, quite rightly dubbed “PAFF Holiday Tour 2013”.

PC5Z/P from PAFF-039 - Fochteloerveen

Harm activated PAFF-065, PAFF-061, PAFF-041, PAFF-039 & PAFF-028 using a portable dipole for 20m and an end fed wire for 40m.

PC5Z/P fron PAFF-065 - Zuidlaardermeergebied

Although band conditions were so-so he did manage to log a large number (900) of hunters that week. Expect to hear more from him /P - although probably from ON which is just around the corner from where he lives.

Activations of PAFF-065 and PAFF-058 by PH0NO

End of the year activation rally

The end of the year brought some opportunities to go out and activate new PAFF areas. 

I was out at Zuidlaardermeergebied (PAFF-065) for two hours on December 24. This is one of the new areas that had not been activated before - a good reason to drive up north. As you can read on my blog it was a wet and grey day. The first hour it was not very busy, but I was to my surprise greeted by VK5PAS. The second hour we (PA1AT visited me) did not log more than 5 contacts due to the mistake of staying on the high bands. This makes PAFF-065 worth another visit.

PAFF-058 Strabrecht

Later that week - on December 28 - I was at Strabrecht (PAFF-058), another "new" area. I had a bit more time on my hands and I did not make the mistake of staying on the high bands too long. I started out on 15m, where I logged 20 contacts. 4 DX stations came by (4X, VE2, K3, N3). I then went down to 20m to log just over 40 contacts. DX came in from 4X, R9 and W1. The most interesting contact however was a PAFF <=> PAFF contact with Hans PA3FYG @ PAFF-044. I have made more FF <=> FF contacts before but never within PA.

Wet and muddy again..

When things started to slow down on 20m I went down to 40m using my inverted V. There I logged almost 100 contacts (which makes all the difference compared to the activity at PAFF-065). DX came in from R9 again.
Tony DL1EKO, Luciano I5FLN, Max IK1GPG, Maurizio IZ0ARL, Hans PA3FYG (/P and from home), Alexander UR7ET and Bosko YU3A all made the trip on two of the three bands.

All in all I logged 221 FF contacts in the last week of 2012 and 3.710 in 27 activations (PAFF & FFF) in total in 2012.

Thanks all for stopping by & have a great 2013!

73, PH0NO