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As I started to collect “World Wide Flora&Fauna“-stations this summer and also started to plan my own OHFF-activation. Earlier this summer I also bought a new rig TS-2000 which is more suitable for portable operation than my old rusty (and heavy) FT-1000D. Then I bought 8 meter long telescope fishing rod from Motonet (local store) which is more than good enough to hold a portable wire antenna. The antenna just needs to be light (heavier antenna cracks the pole!) and my choice was the band hopper dipole for 40m, 30m and 20m. It has the “crocodile clips” and insulators so I need only one dipole wire for three bands. To change the bands I just need to lower the rod and change the clips. Quick and easy. For electricity I bought 60Ah “freetime” battery from Puuilo (local store too). It is very heavy (15kg!) but I wanted to run 100 watts output. With QRP smaller batteries would have been more obvious choices. It is possible to erect antenna pole just as it is, but I decided to get also a metallic fence post base “with the twist”. Bottom of the rod fits nicely to the post and post keeps it nicely still during the set up and operation.

The site of the operation.

My first OHFF-operation was to Bothian Sea National Park (Selkämeren kansallispuisto in Finnish, OHFF-0040) which is a huge national park consisting a good part of Bothian Sea. Fortunately a part of it is on the coast and not far – just 5 minutes by car – from my radio QTH (at my mother’s house while I live in the city center). So I made “a research trip” before the radio operation to site. At first I was thinking a bird watching tower as a possible operation site but then decided to operate from a site close to the water. We could also drive closer and to carry all the equipment (together with my XYL) “only” some 500 meters from the parking site. Actually there are a parts of this nature park where you can operate from car (even here in Pori).

Antenna and the operator

Friday morning was sunny (+13 C) but very windy. Set up of the station didn’t take more than 10 minutes. I started on 40m CW and posted self-spot to DX-Cluster. Then bang! The pileup was ready! On 7024 signals were nicely strong but my signal was probably a bit weaker compared to the shouters. Some 4-5 stations were calling at same time. I managed to work about 50 stations in 25 minutes before moving to SSB. It was a big pleasure to listen to bands without any manmade noise! There is an electric fence (for cows) nearby but I didn’t get any QRM from it. The biggest local QRM was about 5000 Barnacle gooses flying just over me! 40m SSB procuded more qsos, also 30m CW but then 20m CW&SSB were almost dead, so I decided to return to 40m and 30m. I also briefly tried 80m CW as the radio tuned my wire for it but only worked the semi-local OH1IU who had a weak signal, so didn’t waste much of time there. The second hour was much slower as the biggest pileups were done during the first hour (90 qsos) and so I got only 29 qsos on the second hour. After all, OHFF-0040 is not a rare OHFF at all, WWFF database had 3614 qsos before mine! So after two hours the wind was so heavy and cold, and the pileups were light and cold, I called it a day, unpacked the station and headed to my mother’s house for a warm cup of coffee. More OHFF-activity coming!

Pileups…