First PAFF Gold Award issued

Today we issued the first Gold Award to Axel DL1EBR for his achievement of contacting 50 different PAFF nature parks. 

Starting at the end of 2010 Axel contacted 79 different PAFF activities - meeting most of the activators in PA and collecting 49 nature parks in The Netherlands and one on the former Dutch Caribbean Islands.

Congratulations Axel!

PAFF-037 Horsterwold by PA3FYG/P on Monday April 8

I want to activate Horsterwold  PAFF-037 on. Monday April 8.

Start around 10.00 UTC.

Frequency  around 7.144KHz and 14.244 KHz, perhaps later on other bands as well.

73 de Hans PA3FYG/p

WWFF: WorldWide Flora and Fauna

Boosting the Flora & Fauna programs worldwide

PAFF takes part in the WWFF WorldWide Flora & Fauna program. This program was initiated in the summer of 2012 as a followup of the old WFF program and joins at this moment 26 national flora and fauna programs (and growing). 

The program is collecting all historic flora and fauna activation logs to support a future WWFF award program. All PAFF activation logs are already available and can be searched through the WWFF log search at http://logsearch.wwff.co

Any new activity log for a PAFF activity should be sent to paffcoordinator@gmail.com Validated logs will be uploaded to the WWFF Log database. 

If you want to stay informed about activities you can join the WWFF Forum on http://forum.wwff.co

WWFF also has a Twitter account where important updates about the program are posted @wwff44

Busy activation of Deelerwoud by PH0NO

Second activation of PAFF-055 on two bands

A last minute opportunity brought me to PAFF-055 Deelerwoud. It was snowing lightly - nothing to really spoil the late afternoon. I had been to this nature park before in the autumn but activity level was not very high at that time. A good reason for a revisit.

PH0NO / P with an end fed for 20m in the snow

With 2,5 hours of radio time I focused on 20m and 40m. On 20m the first OM to respond was in VE1. So, there were at least some conditions into NA. This was confirmed by another VE OM (this time VE2) and four USA OMs (W1/3/8). In total I logged more than 100 calls in over an hour of radio time on 20m.

When I felt that 20m was slowing down I got out and set up my 40m inverted V.

Full size inverted V for 40m - works very effectively in EU

In the next 70 minutes I logged another 90 calls from all over EU. 

In the more than 2 hours I was on the radio I logged a total of 196 calls from 38 DXCCs. Luciano I5FLN, Max IK1GPG, Jakob OZ7AEI and Vadim R7GA and Alex UR7ET came by on both bands.
DX came in from VE, W, 4X, 7X, and R9.

Thanks all for stopping by.

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

PAFF-031 by PA3FYG/p quickly QRT !!!

This afternoon I was activating PAFF-031 - Speulder- en Sprielderbos.

The weather looked good, about 6 degeees an dry.

Starting at  around 1200 UTC on 40 mtr with heavy QRM, abt. 46 QSOs. After that much better on 20 m.

Best DX N3 station. Worked about 70 stations.

When pile-up was gone about 1345 UTC , I had to break down my station fast, I was attacted by hailstones !!!

In notime the bottom was white. After 1/2 hour I reached the car again, and the sun was shinning again........

PAFF-031 - Speulder- en Sprielderbos by PA3FYG/p

I will activate PAFF-031 - Speulder- en Sprielderbos this afternoon Sunday Dec. 30, starting about 12.00UTC.

Starting nr. 7.144 MHz, 14.244 later. I try 21.244 MHz also but antenna not made for this freq.

Hope to hear you.

73 de Hans PA3FYG