Sunday, May 21, 2023

Looking back at HB0 expedition

The summary 

We started Friday evening May 12 and finished Sunday evening May 14. We logged more than 2200 QSOs with stations in 79 DXCC. That is a lot more than we did in 2018 (1.3x), and a lot more outside EU (6x). 

2216 QSOs, 79 DXCC, 5 bands, 2 modes

The top chasers 

In Europe we have EA2DT and OH1MM sharing the first place on points. OH1MM is the only chaser that worked us in all parks. The third place goes to ON3UA
Outside Europe KD1CT took the first place with KG8P and 4Z4DX sharing the second place. 

If you worked us multiple times you might be eligible for an award. To check if you have an award, fill in your callsign below.

The countries that we came across the most: I (266), DL (253), SP (176), Gx (155), EA (151), W (130), PA (116) and F (99).

The story

We arrived on Friday late afternoon after a smooth trip of around 800km through central EU. There was ample time for a first activity. We chose nature park HBFF-0006 as it was close to our apartment. The area is flat and well clear from the mountain ranges that enclose Liechtenstein. Conditions were above expectation. We logged 690 QSOs from around the planet (more than 20% outside EU) with long pile-ups.

PD7YY on SSB in HBFF-0006


Happy with the result we went out on Saturday morning with high hopes. Conditions during the day were quite different however. We stayed for 3,5 hours in HBFF-0221 and logged 376 QSOs with only a handful outside EU. We moved on to HBFF-0220 where we had to set up stations in between the trees - using a slingshot to get the wires up. Far from ideal we only stayed there for 90 minutes logging 120 QSOs.

Quiet area in HBFF-0221HBFF-0220 in between trees

We went out for a snack before going to our favorite location from 2018: a hill near hotel Sücka.
This time however the weather was quite different from 2018. The hill was wet and muddy and hard to climb. We were in the clouds and it was unpleasant in every way. Still we wanted to use the highest point available dreaming of another evening with long pile-ups. We set up a 40m EFHW wire on an 18m pole and a 20m EFHW wire on a 12m pole.


PE5TT carrying stuff up the hillOperating the 20m station covered from the rain

For some reason the 40m antenna was not behaving with very high SWR. The 20m station was going fine but after trying to fix the antenna in the dark, on the wet and slippery hill, we had to abandon the 40m station. This was a low point in our trip as we knew we could have worked a lot of chasers up there. We brought all the stuff back down when 20m went quiet. Next to the car we built the 40m antenna again and of course it worked.... We stayed for a bit working a bunch of stations on this lower point next to the hill, finishing the evening with 150 QSOs in the log with 22% outside EU thanks to the 20m station.

We took a good rest and woke up to a rainy HB0 on Sunday. We decided to take it easy on the last day, choosing to visit two parks. The first one was HBFF-0478 on a hillside in the south where we operated from the car as it kept on raining throughout. It was never very busy but we managed to log 238 QSOs.

Rain in HBFF-0478The last park on the edge of a woodland

After surveying options for the evening we went out for dinner and afterwards to HBFF-0130. A nature reserve in the lower area of HB0, not too far from the place we had such good conditions on Friday evening. We had to battle some rain while outside of the car - as there was no way to get in by car - but were again greeted with very good conditions logging 642 QSOs although this time mainly on the low bands (only 11% DX).

Looking back at our trip to HB0 in 2018 we had better weather that time but definitely better HF conditions this time. On the next expedition we hope to combine the two :)

QSL info

The QSL cards have been printed and sent out (via the bureau per default for all contacts and direct if you requested this via ClubLog).
All logs are online at WWFF and the logs for HB0/PH0NO/P and HB0/PE5TT/P are also online on LoTW.

Friday, May 5, 2023

HB0 WWFF expedition May 2023

The Plan

We will arrive in HB0 on Friday evening (CET) May 12. If travel is smooth we might be active in the evening. Otherwise we will start on Saturday morning activating our first WWFF park. We expect to change parks twice activating three locations per day on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening CET we will go QRT. All depends on weather conditions as we will have at least one station out in the open.

We will use two radio's in parallel with 100W (CW) to 300W (SSB) output on all bands from 80m up to 6m - depending on band conditions. Antennas include end fed wires and a hexbeam.

We have the following park candidates pre-selected: HBFF-0006, 0124, 0220, 0221, 0222, 0478 and 0479. We don't know if we can access all the locations we selected, so it won't be possible to give a definite location planning. To give chasers an idea of where we are active from while we are there, we will post to the WWFF cluster and agenda and to the YNOMY twitter feed (assuming we have cell coverage). We will also iterate between HB0/PE5TT/P and HB0/PH0NO/P as the main call when changing location. Our third call HB0Y/PD7YY/P will be used as a "bonus call" regardless of location.

It might be possible for us to be active from our apartment in the town of Ruggell. If we are active from there, we will be using the calls without /P - to signify we are not in a park at that time.


Award

As we did in previous activities we will make an award available for chasers. The award will come in three levels based on the points scored: bronze (top 33%), silver (top 20%) and gold (top 10%). There will be a separate league for EU and non-EU chasers. 

Points can be acquired working the three different calls (PD7YY/PE5TT/PH0NO) on different bands and modes. Each unique call/band/mode combination is a point (note that we can only use PD7YY on 3 bands). On top of that you can get bonus points for each WWFF nature reserve you worked us in. 

Awards will be made available after processing all log info after the activity and will be downloadable from this website (we will post a download form here when the awards are available).


QSL

QSLs will be send to all contacts through the bureau by default. The logs will be available through Clublog but only after processing when we are back in PA. There you can request a direct card if you wish. 

Note that we will design the QSL after the activity, so allow some time for designing and printing.




Thursday, April 27, 2023

Soon: another HB0 trip

It was 2019 that we last went on a foreign trip with the team - to GJ. We have done some special events and WWFF team activities in PA since then, but we concluded with the whole covid thingy fading out it was time to plan a trip to another DXCC again.

Spinning the globe around we scanned for interesting places. 3Y has had so much attention lately it felt too much as a hype and we don't like cold weather anyway. We are still dreaming of an exotic island someday (running a couple of FT8 bots and drinking cocktails on the beach) but with only a weekend to spare, we circled back to a place we have been before: HB0.

In 2018 we were in HB0 for the first time and had a lot of fun together with the HBFF manager HB9TZA. Especially the late night activities on the Friday with an opening to JA on 40m and Sunday with an endless pile-up remain good memories. We logged almost 1700 QSOs and 55 DXCC that time. There weren't that many DX contacts among them but we hope that will be different this time with the sun waking up.

This year we will travel on Friday May 12 and hope to maybe do some small activity in the evening if travel is smooth. We will then be active the whole weekend and drive back north on Monday May 15. 

As usual with our activities we will make a special award and QSL card available.  

A real "bush activity" from HB0 in 2018


Friday, November 11, 2022

YNOMY celebrating 10 years of WWFF

On Saturday November 19, YNOMY& friends will be out portable activating two nature reserves in PA: PAFF-0221 and PAFF-0180.

Together with PF5X we will be on the air during the day with three stations on CW and SSB on all bands that are open from 80m up to 6m.




Tuesday, March 22, 2022

YNOMY active during PAFF weekend

YNOMY is looking forward to a day out on Saturday April 9 activating two new PAFF nature parks - PAFF-0225 and 0226. 

We will be using the calls PA225FF and PA226FF and will be joined by Enno PF5X (3 radio's / 4 operators).



Saturday, August 15, 2020

Processing all 75FREE QSLs

It took a while for the fourteen thousand 75FREE QSL cards to be printed but at the beginning of August the boxes arrived. As you can imagine they form a considerable weight together.

The printer we worked with was able to print the QSO details based on our log data - very convenient. This saves us the time we spent after previous operations when we used printed stickers. Applying a dozen stickers is not an issue but when you have to process thousands of cards it take a lot of time.



We have dropped off all the bureau cards at the Dutch QSL bureau and sent off most of the direct cards. The last few will be sent this week.

We hope you appreciate the card and look forward to working you from our next activity.

Monday, June 1, 2020

75 FREE event - top chasers and awards

The P*75FREE event has ended. It was fun to organise. COVID-19 limited us in team events but the activity level was high - much higher than 5 years ago. Sporadic E in late May helped to increase the fun.

We logged 25.000 QSOs with 13.000 different stations in 137 DXCC. This has resulted in more than 400 awards. OH2YV secured the first place early on and went for an almost theoretical maximum. However the final weekend was exciting with all the top chasers scoring 10 or more points to try to claim a higher spot. 

The following operators deserve a special mention for working all ten different FREE calls:  IK2TTJF5NEP and M0ILT.

Well done all! It was a pleasure seeing so many familiar calls on the various bands and modes.

Final awards have been generated and can be downloaded below - including the special awards for the TOP 15. We will now order QSL cards and send them out as soon as possible.

The P*75FREE team thanks all chasers for joining the event. Stay FREE!

Top chasers 

Final update (June 1):

OverallOutside EU
PosCallPtsPosCallPts
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
9
11
12
13
13
15
15
OH2YV
IK2TTJ
9A6W
F5NEP
EA1LT
OM1AX
9A3KG
IK2ULS
YO6CFB
IK6IHU
R6AF
DL1EJG
OZ1BUR
SP2PBY
HB9OAU
F6COW
117
104
98
97
74
69
68
59
57
57
55
50
48
48
46
46
1
2
3
3
5
6
7
8
9
10
10
12
12
14
14


4Z4DX
PP7DX
N4MM
VE3XN
W9OO
RX9WN
EA8WU
K2VV
KF2O
W9RF
UN7IT
KB1EFS
VE3AT
4Z5UY
RY9C

43
31
28
28
27
26
25
21
20
18
18
16
16
15
15


Apart from the top 15 the following operators reached the gold level (in scoring order): IW2OGW, IK2UCL, OE6WIG, OM3CND, MI0GOZ, M0ILT, ON4CB, OM5KM, YO3JW, OM5CM, IK2YXH, EC1A, HA6VH, SP4NKU, DL5BK, F4VSD, SP8BJU, YU7NW, OK4RQ, M0BMX, EA3IM, SP3J, OH3GZ, E77O, F6HIA, HA5KY, SP2EWQ, OK1MTA, OK1DSN, IW2KIC, 9A1WW, OK2PDE, 2E0MNG and ON4LN.




Awards

If you managed to reach an award level (bronze, silver, gold), you can download an award here by entering your base callsign (without "/"). Single awards will download as JPEG, multiple awards as ZIP.

To request an SWL award please check our SWL rules.





Event data








The database contains more than 25.000 QSOs with 13.000 chasers from 137 DXCC.