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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…

OH1NOA has been an active Award-chaser lately. Now I have TS-2000 and Windom up in my countryside QTH. During the World Cup (and before) I chased some football special calls and then also World Wide Flora Fauna -stations. I have so far managed to get the following:

FWC
Russia Football 2018 Bronze
Russian Cities Rostov on Don
Russian Cities Samara
Football 2018 Radio Marathon Bronze
Cities Mix 11
Russia Mix 27

WWFF
DXFF10
DXFF20
WWFF10
WWFF44

Es-season on FM has been a bit lame in Finland so far. We had nice strong Russian opening on the 11th of May, a bit worse one a day before, then there was a long silence till the 1st of June. The 1st of June started nicely with 20 minutes opening to UK. Midlands/Wales-area brought to me a couple of new ones such as 96.3 Radio Aire, Capital FM South Wales, Smooth Radio West Midlands, Dee 106.3, Sunshine Radio and Signal 107. Then es cloud switched to Middle-Europe, especially to Czech, Slovak and Poland. From Poland I got several new ones like Radio WAWA, PR Radio Opole, Radio ZET Bydgoszcz, Radio Elka and Radio Żnin FM.

The three days later in the 4th of July after 1520 UTC I noticed Es-warning from Botnia saying that band is open to Sevilla. Before this band had been totally dead in Finland but SW Europe had a huge ES-opening. By my suprise the first station I heard on 88.7 MHz was talking in Portuguese. Wait … A quick stream comparasion and yes, it was RDP Antena 2 from Serra de Montejunto, 3239 kilometres away! I just have had my first Portuguese FM station after 34 years of trying! Next went to 90.20: Rádio Renascença was booming there! And actually FM lowband was full of Portuguese stations. Unfortunately I couldn’t get ID from all of them. 89.70 Antena Livre was playing only music but 91.70 RMF IDed nicely. Huh! Propagation lasted 20 minutes and it was one of the highlights of my 38 year DXing career! ES continued with another UK opening. Now Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Lincs FM and Capital FM Leicestershire were new catches. Then clouds moved to France and then to Italy but not much interesting was heard.

Suprisingly next day at 1706 UTC 88,7 MHz started to talk in Portuguese again! This time it was Rádio Comercial from Lamego-tx. Signal was not so strong as a day before but this station continued alone in the band for 15 minutes! Just few hours earlier I had received QSL-note from Rádio Comercial heard a day before on 90.80 MHz! You can listen to audio from here. It was booming on 90.80 MHz!

It’s been a while since last QSL update here. Unfortunately stations have replied very poorly, but anyhow I have managed to get some verifications:

Love Sport 558 (replacement of Spectrum Radio, which never QSLed)
RNE a Catalunya 738 (f/up to old 2012 report)
RNE1 Canarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerifé) 621
Madagascar World Voice 9570 (snail mail QSL card via KNLS)
Taiwan Chu Yueah, Penghu 1143 (certificate via snail mail)
Voice of Hope Middle East, She’ar Yashuv 1287 (QSL card via snail mail)
Radio Tuvalu, Funafuti 621 (new country, Tuvalu!)
KGUM K-57 Agana, Guam 567
Gold FM 990 (new country, Fidzi!)
Newstalk ZB Wellington 1035
KWIP Dallas TX 880
KGBT Harlingen TX 1530
CJEU Gatineau QC 1670
WDMC Melbourne FL 920
KUFO Portland OR 970
KCLK Asotin WA 1430
KAPL Phoenix OR 1300
KDBM Dillon MT 1490
KNZR Bakersfield CA 1560
CHRN Montréal QC 1610
CKOM Saskatoon SK 650
KXRO Aberdeen WA 1320
KERN Wasco-Greenacres CA 1180
WGIL Galesburg IL 1400
KQMS Redding CA 1670
KMNS Sioux City IA 620
KNML Albuquerque NM 610
VSB2 BBN in Hamilton, Bermuda 1280 (heard in Pori)
WWMI St. Petersburg FL 1380 (heard in Pori)
KRPI Ferndale WA 1550
WEGP Preque Isle ME 1390
KDLG Dillingham AK 670
KRVN Lexington NE 880
KXLE Ellensburg WA 1240
LV6 Radio Nihuil, Mendoza 680
HCVP2 Radio Atalaya, Guayaquil 680
HJD24 La Voz de la Unión 1510
Peak FM 107.40
Radio Nacional de España 93.60
Sirius Rádió 91.10
Radio SI 100.80
Skyline Radio & Soul 102.00
Radio Dalmacija 106.90
Radio Popolare Milano 107.5
FM4 97.40

OG60F – The OH1AF/OH1AB/OH1F 60th Anniversary Award
The radio club from Pori, Finland, celebrates its 60th anniversary with the special call sign OG60F and the special award.
Rules:
• work OG60F on any band/mode-combination to earn 1 point/qso
• you get 1 point once from all different band/mode-combinations eg. qsos on 80m CW, 80m SSB, 80m RTTY, 2m SSB and 2m CW are counted as separate band/modes and you earn five (5 points).
• Each different digimode (RTTY, PSK, FT8 and so on) is counted as one common DATA-mode (eg. 80m FT8, 80m PSK, 80m RTTY = 1 point)
• award has four different classes:
o BASIC: 5 points
o BRONZE: 10 points
o SILVER: 15 points
o GOLD: 20 points
• qsos between 1.1.-31.12.2018 are valid
Application:
• to verify the contacts, the applicant must upload her/his qsos to Clublog or LOTW
• the application in should be sent to oh1noa@sral.fi with subject “OG60F Award”
• the application should have the applicant’s email address, award class (classes), callsign and QSL-service used for contacts (Clublog or LOTW)
Award:
• award will be sent by email as a PDF-attachment
• deadline for applications is 31.1.2019
• award is free of charge

OG60F – The OH1AF/OH1AB/OH1F 60th Anniversary Award
Teljän Radioamatöörit ry. juhlistaa 60-vuotisjuhlaansa erikoiskutsulla OG60F ja julkaisemalla erikoisawardin.
Säännöt:
• workkimalla OG60F:n millä tahansa bandilla/modella saat 1 pisteen/qso
• pisteen saa kerran jokaisesta eri bandi/mode-yhdistelmästä eli esimerkiksi 80m CW, 80m SSB, 80m RTTY, 2m SSB ja 2m CW lasketaan eri band/mode-yhdistelmiksi ja antavat viisi (5) pistettä
• jokainen eri digimode (RTTY, PSK, FT8 jne) lasketaan yhdeksi DATA-modeksi (esim. 80m FT8, 80m PSK, 80m RTTY = 1 piste)
• awardi myönnetään neljässä eri luokassa
o BASIC: 5 pistettä
o BRONZE: 10 pistettä
o SILVER: 15 pistettä
o GOLD: 20 pistettä
• yhteydet täytyy pitää 1.1.-31.12.2018 välisenä aikana
Anominen:
• yhteyden varmistamiseksi anojan pitää ladata yhteytensä Clublog- tai LOTW-palveluun
• vapaamuotoinen anomus tehdään osoitteeseen oh1noa@sral otsikolla “OG60F Award”. Anomuksesta pitää käydä ilmi anojan sähköpostiosoite, awardin luokka (luokat), kutsumerkki, jolla yhteys on pidetty ja paikka mihin yhteydet on ladattu (Clublog/LOTW).
Awardi:
• awardi toimitetaan PDF-liitteenä sähköpostilla
• anomus on tehtävä viimeistään 31.1.2019
• awardi on ilmainen
 

Sorry but AIH78 was a bit hectic at times and I didn’t have stamina to write during the last days. But I will do that later.

Some latest QSLs, partially from AIH78:

Antenna 1, Açores 828 (new country, Azores!)
COPE Zamora 1269
SER Radio Galicia 873 via Twitter
COPE Cataluña y Andorra 783
JONR ABC Asahi Hoso, Osaka 1008
JOQR NBC Bunka Hoso, Tokyo 1134
KHVH Honolulu HI 830
KLHT Honolulu HI 1040
WHFA Poynette WI 1240
KOEL Oelwein IA 950
WOZN Madison WI 1670
KCAP Helena MT 950
KGHL Billings MT´780
KATE Albert Lea MN 1450
KOFI Kalispell MT 1180
WMFN Peotone IL 640 (FFF/SFF)
WITY Danville IL 980
KOAC Corvallis OR 550
WDJO Cincinnati OH 1480 (heard in Pori)
CB.. Radio Maria, Santiago 1060
ZP5 Radio Encarnación 760
OAU6O Radio El Sol, Paucarpata 1610 (FFF)
Radio 103 103.70
Radio Argento 95.40
BB Radio Plus 89.70
Radio Néo 95.20
Radio Kiss (CZE) 98.10
Radio Proglas 97.90
Polskie Radio 3 91.50

Radio El Sol sent greetings over radio. They were also at Facebook Live.

Day 5 Tuesday 12.12.2017

Today we had our traditional trip to Norway to Kirkenes. We had our annual beer batch from the local Vinmonopolet and then on the way back we bought food from the border village of Näätämö. They have two grocery shops there with main customer base coming from Norway and Murmansk. This year we also had change to visit in Sevetin Baari which is a legendary pub and little shop in Sevettijärvi sami village. It was closed last year but now new entrepreneurs re-opened it. From Sevetin Baari it is 90 km to next pub (in Kaamanen, Inari if Kaamasen Kievari is still open).

So we didn’t watch so much band conditions as our trip took over 6 hours. NA was open again and this time at 1300z we had finally “area propagation” to WA/OR/Northern CA-area. 1240 KEJO Corvallis OR, 1330 KKPZ Portland OR, 1390 KZGD Salem OR, 1450 KBKW Aberdeen WA and 1540 KXPA Bellevue WA were new ones for us. I suppose we will find some more later. Tromså K-index peaked to 6 so propagation was unstable.

Food: Spaghetti with pork sauce

The best beer: Svalbard Spitsbergen Stout (from Svalbard!)

Day 4 Monday 11.12.2017

The effect of new coronal hole hit and Tromssa K-index was from 2 to 4. Propagation was still more or less same: NA started to come in midnight and continued till afternoon. We will see later if there is any good catches in the files. So far only KATE Albert Lea MN 1450 was noticed “live”. Asia seemed a bit more Iran oriented today. JA signals were down.

We had our traditional “pre-Norway sauna” at Jounila, so afternoon was spent 6 km away from the listening position. We had sauna, we watched Shark Tank from TV and dishwasher was doing its job for our dishes.

Food: Pasta carbonara

The best beer: BrewDog Abstrakt AB:22

Day 3 Sunday 10.12.2017

Tromså K-index dropped to 0 and it made some changes to the propagation. NA propagation was a bit more interesting although band closed earlier than on Saturday, around 1300z. 740 KCBS San Francisco CA and 1330 KWKW Los Angeles CA were new catches for us and there is more to come as the digging of those files has not been started yet.

The biggest suprises came from Pacific. I was monitoring carefully 621 for Tuvalu and suprisingly it came up at 0939Z for few minutes! This is the second time when this station has been heard in Finland. Also Radio Tonga was strong today. 1449 V6AH is still in the monitoring list. Asia files we have not much checked yet. Japan seemed to be in a good shape.

Weather: same as on Saturday. We still have some work to do with snow but that work is almost done. The new bird here for us has been Siberian jay. Lots of tits (especially Siberian tit) and squirrels have visited our yard. No reindeers so far this year although there was few nearby when we arrived.

Food: macaroni casserole (thanks Pat’s mom)

The best beer: Hawkshead / Cigar City Tiramisu Imperial Stout

Day 2 Saturday 9.12.2017

The band was open to North America all night but propagation seemed to be still very generic. The morning was more or less same but we still have to check those files. Suprisingly 780 WXME Monticello ME was heard with WBBM: “WXME AM 7-80 Monticello …”. This Maine station was logged for the second time in Finland. In the morning V7AB Radio Majuro was very strong until their sign off at 1130Z. One from the most wanted list was also heard: 990 Gold FM from Fidzi although KIKI Honolulu was making QRM. Havaiji was in a good shape: 1110 KAOI, 1240 KEWE, 1270 KNDI and 1370 KUPA are new ones for us!

In the evening we mostly watched ice hockey (Patrik’s Lukko and Timo’s Ässät both lost their games) and drank some beverages so Asia propagation is unknown. ABC fanfare at 891 was heard and there seems to be some Filipinos (594 DZBB) and Japanese stations in the files.

Weather: we got some new snow and temperature has been around -5 C.

Food: potatoes and beef in tomato sauce

The best beer: Avery Vanilla Bean Stout – Bourbon Barrel