OKFF-3601, OKFF-3427

The Mission

The mission for 2026 remains the same, the humble goal to activate every previously unactivated OKFF. To achieve that, the club members must keep enduring extreme weather conditions, the first winter months of fatigue and darkness, and of course all technical issues a HAM OP can encounter during field operations.

This time we packed our gear early and headed out north west of Prague in an attempt to activate OKFFs near Rakovnik, ready for below zero temperatures.

OKFF-3601 Rakovník - za koupalištěm

We started with the easier one, at least we thought so. The zone should be reachable by a very short walk from the parking area, there is a shelter on the site, even a public fireplace, which we probably wouldn't use, although the outside temperatures were calling for it.

The path was full of ice, but we found our way safely and placed our antenna in the tree on the 1st attempt. Everything looked fine, we found a frequency and started our CQ, then our xiegu x6100 started acting up. After some time, the SWR went up, PWR down and eventually the waterfall fell silent. Also the playback of the recorded message was strangely failing. We attempted several restarts, rechecked both the antenna and the coaxial, tried it with and without the ATU, yet the problem persisted. Eventually we ended up pulling out the microsd with custom firmware and going with the stock one, which acted up for a while too, but seemed more stable.

As can be seen in the log graph below, the start of the OP was a bit of a difficult one, after initial QSOs, a long 42 minute gap followed, partially due to antenna tweaking and firmware switching, but we finished the OP with a solid pileup and achieved the needed number of QSOs easily.

Todos & lessons learned

• improve guying techniques, especially how to work with the end with a longer remainder of the rope
• debug x6100
  • run test to dummy load
  • erase data partition
  • attempt base fw downgrade, if it's even possible

OKFF-3427 Na spáleništi

The second operation of the day was expected to be more difficult, deeper in the woods, a small zone. In spring, an easy walk, but in January a lot of ice and snow was expected, also time was running short and we had to move quickly.

Parking our car without breaking any traffic rules (and not entering the beautiful forest with it) meant we had to walk about 3 kms on foot with all the gear. Locating the zone itself proved to be even more difficult as the roads on the map were not present in real life, or at least were not to be found under the snow. When we finally made it, the forest in the zone wasn't that deep luckily, so we guyed the antenna on a huge oak tree and started our first forest operation. This time without any man made shelter.

Despite the logistic difficulties, we had a solid, long-lasting pileup and collected the necessary QSOs quickly and more easily than in the morning.

Summary

Excellent operation, we activated another two previously unactivated OK FFs. We know what improvements to work on for next time, and we know we can operate without shelters and man made objects, in pure wilderness.