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My 4th OHFF-activation was to OHFF-0170. It is in Finnish called Haapakeitaan soidensuojelualue, in English Haapakeidas swamp protection area. I was in the northern part of Mustasaarenkeidas which is one part of this huge 5779 ha swamp area. OHFF-0170 was now activated for the first time.

Site map

There were few options where to operate this reference but I decided to go Isojoki county, which is in the OH6 call area. I noticed from the map that there is a protected area which has forest which means that there should be some dry land for operation site plus there was a small parking area and signed nature path into the area. This place was 80km from my home, so it was like one hour drive. Landscape was nice countryside landscape. Ww were travelling through the small villages of Suojoki and Piikkilänkylä on the way, not many houses. There was also commercial summer cottage village just before the operation site.

So swamp it was and also a birding tower plus well-kept wooden path through the large swamp. I set my station up to the place were the wet swamp was starting but just to the drier forest side. Antenna was quite low, 40m dipole end not more than 1,5 meters from the ground and only meter or two off the radio. I started again operation on 40m CW. Bang – huge pileup immediately. Apparently my signal was not so good and pileup was quite rude also. Somehow I was able to manage it, longtime contesting experience helped. 40m CW produced 80 qsos in 36 minutes. 40m SSB was not productive, I couldn’t find clear QRG, so went to 80m CW&SSB for some close-by stations. Then to 30m were I got nice small pileup. Now 20m was also somewhat productive what it has not been in the previous operations. Not too many stations but some: 13 on CW and 16 on SSB. Then I tried again on 40m SSB, only 3 qsos. Then to 40m CW for few more. Finished on 80m SSB but got only one OH. Activity from Finland was not huge.

Before packing I made a short walk to the bird watching tower. On the way back to the car we saw lots of cranes above us. QRM was loud hi. Thanks for 170 qsos to everyone who called.

My 3rd OHFF was probably also the third closest reference to my home. Pinkjärvi (“Pink Lake”) is some 30 minutes drive from Pori city. My radio club activated Pinkjärvi as the new one in August as OH1AB/p (see video). They made a trip to the small island at the lake but I activated OHFF-0237 from so called “double lean-to” called Vuotava. It is possible to drive to park place which is only 100 meters from the lean-to. Lean-to itself is about 20 meters from lakeshore.

What made this operation interesting was that big storm called “Mauri 2018” hit the west coast of Finland on Saturday morning. Fortunately it didn’t make much harm to my operation as my QTH was in the middle of the forest trees. Lean-to had very nice wooden table and bench, so it was the most comfortable OHFF-QTH so far. I put my antenna up between forest and lean-to. The place was not the best possible but as I have quite short coax cable, erecting antenna to lake shore what not an option. Europe is on the forest side so take-off was not the best.

Band hopper antenna

I started again 40m CW, then moved to SSB, then 30m CW, 20m CW and SSB then back to 40m. I also tuned my 40m dipole to 80m and worked some stations on 80m CW and SSB as well. So I will use 80m also in the future with this antenna. Signals from Europe on 40m and 30m were strong. Again I couldn’t get much going on 20m. Total qso count was 117 qsos in 2 hours. Not too bad for this not so optimum site.

OH1NOA

Vuotava double lean-to

Now after 3 references I have 358 qsos in total. It is quite funny that qso counts have been 122-119-117, almost identical.

My second activation was to another OHFF-reference close to my QTH. It is only 10 minutes drive from my radio QTH. Yyteri Beach and its dunes are most likely the most famous beach in Finland. It is extremely popular among the sunbathers during the summer and it has also other interesting history. Eg. The Rolling Stones played there in 1965. Nowadays the large path of it is protected by EU’s Natura2000-programme. The Sand beach shore is one of the most interesting places for birdwatching in Finland (like my first OHFF-0040).

Map of the site

I arrived to Yyteri just before 07z. There is a car park area near the dunes so reaching the actual OHFF-0330 is easy. It is possible to operate just some 50 meters from the car park at the top of the highest dune, Keisarinpankki (“Ceasar’s Bank”) but I decided to carry my equipment closer to the sea. I chose the place where there was only one dune between me and sea. Funny thing is that this is the nudist part of the beach. Of course in late September with +13C, wind and a bit of rain, we were alone there.

The operator Timo OH1NOA

The station went up quickly and I started on 7024 kHz CW. Unfortunately I had some problems with my Bencher keyer. Probably wind blew some sand and made contacts a bit unstable. I needed to clean it several times during the operation when the keyer started to send extra dahs. After 25 minutes and 43 qs and moved to SSB. Not much there, so I went to 10 MHz. When I changed the band from the antenna, I noticed that another half of my dipole was in the “30m position” (ie. shorter). So no wonder that my signal was maybe not as strong as expected. 10 MHz propagation was nice, I even got OH7MFO and OH3GZ which are normally difficult even on 40m because of the short skip. After the first hour at 0815z I had 81 qsos. 10 MHz is very good band for WWFF, hopefully more stations could be QRV there. Then I tried some 20m CW and SSB but they produced only 9 qsos so I returned to 40m SSB. There I got nice short pileup, lots of SPs. SM5CNQ from the other side of the bay was real S9. The final 10 minutes I spent on 40m CW for few more extra qsos. Last 45 minutes produced 41 qsos so my QSO total was 122 qsos.

The set-up

Dunes

Nudist beach

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…