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