Many thanks to Ken (WR7D) for sharing the following field report and travelogue:

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POTA in Hungary

by Ken (HA/WR7D)

I had the opportunity to take a short notice trip to Hungary the beginning of June. I was accompanying my daughter who was attending a class at the University of Debrecen as part of her PhD program at Montana State University. The class was only a week long and we would be in Debrecen for that time and then spend a couple of days in Budapest before heading home.

My wife couldn’t make the trip because of work and my daughter would be occupied with the course for the time in Debrecen so that meant I had all kinds of time to do ham radio stuff. POTA is relatively new in Hungary, but there were already some designated parks around Debrecen and Budapest. One of the POTA coordinators, Greg (HA4UC) even offered to add parks if I found any that I would like to activate that weren’t already designated.

I didn’t have a lot of time to get things organized so I decided to stick with my trusty Elecraft KX2. I thought seriously about taking the Elecraft KH1 also but decided against it in favor of taking extra antennas and support stuff. My plan was to activate using CW with FT8 as a backup. I had been using The KX2 with the iFTx app on my iPhone, a headphone adapter and splitter. That setup had worked well a couple of times already.

The other question was what was required to operate legally in Hungary? I noticed on the POTA website that Spencer, N4KPT, had activated a park in Budapest just a few days prior. Along with his help, I determined that all I needed was a copy of the CEPT agreement, an original copy of my license and my passport. I also needed to prefix my call sign with HA/. Everything was set.

Debrecen

My first activation attempt would be at HU-0010, Debreceni Nagyerő Nature Reserve. This was ideal because it was within easy walking distance of the hotel. The main challenge I had was determining the actual boundaries of the park. The park is generally known as the Great Forest.

From what I found, the Great Forest originally encompassed much more area, but parts were carved out of it for the University of Debrecen, a large city park, a sports stadium and other venues. What was left became the Nature Reserve. I finally found a good drawing that showed the actual boundaries of the reserve. The red circle in the picture below is where I activated from.

For this attempt, I used the EFRW 4:1 from Tufteln, with a 15ft radiator and a 7.5 foot counterpoise. I had contacted Joshua about getting one of his EFRW no transformer antennas that would work great with the KX2. He suggested this new 4:1 antenna with the much shorter elements. He shipped it as fast as he could but no guarantee that it would arrive in time. Considering that, I built a simpler version of his no transformer antenna just in case.

I deployed the EFRW 4:1 antenna on a POTA20 mast. I didn’t even need to use the full height of the antenna. The antenna tuned fine, but I wasn’t getting any answers to my CW calls. I tried a couple different bands with no luck after quite some time. I decided to switch to FT8 on 20m. I was receiving and decoding signals but was having quite a time getting successful transmissions. I decided to call it a day after that.

Second Attempt

A couple days later, I attempted an activation from the same location. I had done some troubleshooting back in the hotel after the first attempt and believe I had discovered the problem with FT8 on the first attempt.

This time I used the EFRW no transformer antenna that I had built. This antenna has a 28.5 foot radiator and counterpoise. The radiator was suspended from a tree with the counterpoise on the ground. Again, I received no answers to my CW calls. I again switched to FT8. This time I was successful and made 15 contacts all over Europe in about an hour and a half. That’s not great for FT8, but a successful activation.

Below is a picture of my CW setup and my backpack of goodies. I made the knee board based off Carolanne’s (N0RNM) design. Mine is a bit smaller and I added a metal plate on the lower section for attaching magnetic keys. In this case a BaMaKeY TP-III.

Here is a map of the QSO’s from that activation.

I was planning on activating another park near Debrecen but after looking at the logistics to get there, I had second thoughts. Then a big geomagnetic storm hit about that time, so I decided not to attempt it.

Even though the band conditions were bad, I decided to try HU-0010 a third time since it was so convenient. Again, I received no answers on CW. I didn’t hear any CW traffic at all on 40m and 20m. I tried FT8 again but had more technical difficulties. I think I’ve decided this was a mic bias issue. It seems that the setting doesn’t survive a power cycle in DATA mode. The radio will always start with the mic bias on. I think that resulted in damage to the USB-C to headphone adapter.

After more testing back at the hotel, I’m not sure about the mic bias setting. Sometimes the bias will remain off when the radio is power cycled in DATA mode. Regardless, the solution is to power up the KX2 and make sure the mic bias is off before connecting the headphone adapter and splitter cord. Fortunately, I did find a new headphone adapter in Debrecen that I could use in Budapest.

I also brought the new Elecraft AX3 antenna. I didn’t think it would work very well for the park activations but wanted to set it up at the hotel since I had a balcony. I set it up about three times, but the noise was high so no contacts. The third time I set it up was mostly to get some pictures that Wayne, N6KR, had requested of the antenna. I got a little distracted that time and completely removed the nut for the counterpoise and ping, off it goes into the ether. I couldn’t find a replacement in Hungary because they only have metric hardware.

I didn’t spend all my time in Debrecen doing ham radio. I also did some touristy types of stuff. Here are some pictures of some delicious Chicken Paprikash, the main building at the University of Debrecen, the Reformed Great Church of Debrecen and the Déri Museum in Debrecen.

Budapest

After a week in Debrecen, we headed back to Budapest for a couple of days before we flew home.

I wanted to try one more park activation in Budapest. There were a couple of possibilities but HU-0015, Városliget Park, was convenient.

A couple of days earlier I had seen a post on the POTA Facebook page, from Kinion, KB5UOD, stating he was going to activate that park the next day. Spencer posted a comment that when he had activated the park, he did it on the roof of the Ethnographic Museum. This is no ordinary roof. It’s an arc with a 1000-foot radius that is lush with grass and trees. Here’s a shot from the roof where I had set up.

This time, I planned on starting with FT8 and then switching to CW when I got 10 QSO’s. I set up the EFRW no-transformer antenna with the radiator sloping from the POTA20 mast. I didn’t have any success on 40m so I moved to 20m. For some reason, the antenna wouldn’t tune on 20m. I switched to the EFRW 4:1 antenna and it tuned fine on 20m. I got 11 FT8 contacts and then switched to CW.

I couldn’t hear anyone that was spotted on the POTA spot page, but did hear someone in France calling for the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). Then I realized it was a Weekend Sprint for SKCC. I thought I recognized the call sign, but before I could respond, he was gone. I checked the SKCC sked page and found he had moved to 15m. I moved to 15m but couldn’t hear him there. I did notice another spot from France on 15m.

I was able to make a QSO with him and then realized it was Bert, F6HKA. The one I thought I had recognized earlier. I’ve talked to Bert many times from my home QTH in Idaho. The SKCC does require a mechanical key. That’s another nice thing about the KX2, the two key inputs. I keep the normal key input set up for paddles, but the other key input is set up for a hand key. I have the KX Keyport from Pro Audio Engineering that allows the use of a standard key cable instead of the Elecraft paddles. When I heard the SKCC call, I moved the paddles to that port and used the paddles as a straight key.

I intended to get some more CW contacts, but it was already getting warm and I was sitting in the shade. I was also excited to get the QSO with Bert and decided to end on a good note.

Here is a picture of that activation and a QSO map. The guy lying in the background showed up after I had set up. I’m not sure why he picked that spot to get some sun because there were lots of other areas. He finally asked what I was doing so we chatted for a few minutes.

My daughter and I also did a bit of tourism in Budapest. Here are pictures of Hero’s Square, a jeep tour of the city, and the Castle District at night from a dinner cruise on the Danube River.

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Would I go again?

I would absolutely go again, given the chance.

Hungary is a beautiful country with amazing historical sites and fabulous food. It’s hard to believe that large portions of Budapest and Debrecen were destroyed during World War II. We discovered that the Castle District is still being restored from damage done during the war but it’s hard to tell.

I would certainly like to be more successful with CW if I go back. Band conditions were bad for part of the trip, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I did successfully activate two parks and think I’ve resolved the problem with my minimalist FT8 setup.

If you get the chance to go, I highly recommend it, and take a radio.

Ken

HA/WR7D