The Planning

At the end of August, I went on holiday to Scotland for two weeks. Before that, of course, I had to think about the radio setup a bit.

Transporting by plane was also something I was thinking about beforehand. Which device should I take with me? What do I need to consider when transporting it and what about the batteries?

Most of my questions were answered in the Draussenfunker Discord channel. To be on the safe side, I specifically asked the airline about the batteries again. My planned 2 × 6 Ah-hour Eremit can be transported in hand luggage without any problems.

For the TRX, I had the choice between the Icom IC 705 and the FT-891. I thought about it for a long time and then decided on the FT-891. I don't come to Scotland that often for radio activities and a park activation shouldn't fail due to insufficient output power.

However, when I look back at the reports, it would have been easily possible with QRP power.

In terms of weight, my radio backpack easily stayed under the 8 kg limit for hand luggage. I couldn't pack the antenna in my hand luggage anyway, as the DF-Vertical would have been considered a "weapon". Especially the ground spike. I'm not even allowed to take a small screwdriver, which I normally always have in my radio backpack. I packed that in my normal luggage too. 

But now to the actual radio operation in Scotland. I took the Retevis RT3s with me so that I could possibly have a QSO via repeater on VHF/UHF. However, there are very few repeaters on the island and very few in our planned holiday area. I tried a few times to reach a nearby repeater, but without any notable success.

POTA in Scotland

I didn't really plan much beforehand. I just took a quick look at the parks on the official POTA map. I quickly noticed that there is very little information about the park boundaries, if you can find anything at all.

An inquiry to Ilyas (MM0MMN) was able to shed some light on the matter, at least for one park that I wanted to activate on the Isle of Skye.

The first park, which turned out to be a 2fer, was activated on the second day. They were GB-0836 Caingorms National Nature Reserve and GB-0906 Insh Marshes Nature Reserve.

Unfortunately, I had to stop after 15 minutes because it started to rain, and the wind got stronger. But it was enough for 10 QSOs.

Typical Scottish weather, because shortly after dismantling it got better again. Nevertheless, we had made a start. Although I have to say that we had nothing but good weather for the whole two weeks. It only rained heavily in the evening on the day of arrival, everything else was just a little drizzle.

GB-0882 Forsinard Flows RSPB Reserve

While I was out walking, I discovered a nice spot for the park activation. However, the ground spike of the DF-Vertical could not be moved more than 5 cm into the ground. Necessity is the mother of invention, so I quickly used the stones available to stabilize it.

GB-0993 Wester Ross Scenic Site

I was actually lucky to find a small table with a sea view, which I could use for my activation.

But the shock came when I was setting up the antenna and connecting the RG-58 cable. The plug simply fell off the cable. Mind you, this was a cable that was included with the HF-P1 at the time. The core wasn't even soldered.

If I hadn't packed a spare cable in my luggage before the vacation, the radio operation would have come to an end here.

Here I was able to take my time with the radio operation and managed 60 QSOs. There was actually a sked with my OV colleague Bernd (DB3GF/DL0TI) which took a little longer. Bernd even briefly activated his friend Andi (9A5EAT) for a QRO test with the OM Power OM4001A. After a short warm-up phase, 1.5 KW was in the air. But I would have heard him even with 100.

It was interesting when Andy asked me to send out a quick RTTY signal to see if he could hear me in VK on the WebSDR. It actually worked with S2.

GB-0862 Cuillins (Isle of Skye) Protected Area

Although Arlene (Balmeneach House B&B) had advised us against visiting the Fairy Pools, my wife really wanted to go there. We left after a short while because it was nothing special and was massively overrun with tourists. 

Luckily, Arlene gave us an insider tip, which we headed for straight away. A beautiful beach at a campsite. Fortunately, not far from GB-0862. So my wife could walk on the beach and I set off with the radio backpack. After about 45 minutes uphill, I found a nice spot on a large rock. Here I had to try for a while until the antenna could be moved into the ground. 

With a 5-star view and loads of sun included, I began the activation. Unfortunately, there was no cell reception there and so it was a bit tough at first. After 12 QSOs and a developing sunburn, I packed up. I finally wanted to walk a little higher and then along the bottom of the ridge to a waterfall.

QRV on Oban Beach

Beach without POTA. You can do that after a sumptuous dinner in the nearby restaurant. My wife was happy because she could walk on the beach, and I was happy too because I quickly set up the antenna.

There, it was even possible to make a small DF2DF contact. Many thanks for that, Björn (DK1BOU)

GB-0892 Glencoe National Nature Reserve

On a morning hike, I discovered a nice spot by the river that was suitable for activation. Of course, it took several attempts here too until the antenna's ground spike was sunk into the ground.

It was a lightning-fast activation. After 17 minutes, there were 20 QSOs in the log and I took it down again. This is quick with the DF-Vertical. The whole process, including setting up and taking down, took less than half an hour.

GB-8024 Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve

I only have one picture of the antenna from the last activation in Scotland. I took it from the car. It was only 7 degrees and the wind was blowing strongly. Luckily, I found a parking space with a small depression for the antenna.

Here, too, the activation went rapidly with a tried and tested setup in just under half an hour. In all activations, the transmission power of the FT-891 was 50 watts.

Ham Radio Operation in Scotland

It's a lot of fun! There are hardly any disruptions here. Unfortunately, I only found the really useful POTA map at the end of my vacation: https://kwirk.github.io/pota-gb-map

Pretty much everything can be displayed there, from POTA to WWFF, SOTA and BOTA. Although the park boundaries are not all included here, some of them match WWFF and can be adopted as such.

In germany we fortunately have the POTA-MAP from Heinz (DK5UR)

Any questions? You are welcome to comment on or write me an email. 

You are also welcome to visit the Instagram page from groundcontrol. There you will find pictures of the activations