22 December 2024
After 20 years, my wife and I managed to synchronize a few days off around Christmas. Due to the lack of snow for several years in southern Romania during this time of year, we decided to go to Brasov City together for Christmas. On the way to Brasov, after passing Ploiesti, we decided to activate a few parks in the Câmpina area. We stopped for the first time at Vârful Ciobu Nature Reserve RO-0709. The first contact was made with a friend from Ploiesti – Cristi (YO9BZK). The park was activated quite quickly with pile-up and 49 stations. The Soceram Câmpina Park RO-0706 followed where we were also pleasantly impressed by the pile-up with 41 stations then followed a park higher up on a hill above Câmpina Fântâna cu Cireși Park RO-0707, activated with over 90 stations.
Before leaving Câmpina we looked on the POTA map to see if there was anything else posted near the city and on our way up north. We found Cheile Doftanei Nature Reserve RO-1035 a place we knew about but had never visited. We were a bit rusty because we hadn’t activated a park for a few months, but what followed in this location got us going. I mean a massive pile-up with 157 QSO/hour.
In the evening, close to sunset, we arrive in Brasov where we stop at 2 more parks (this time urban) at the entrance to the city Lacul Noua Recreation Park RO-0152 followed by The Hohenzollern Kings Recreation Park RO-0136.
23 December 2024
In the morning we started with Padurea Prejmer RO-0138. After that The fortified church in Prejmer Ro-0521 followed.
The third location was RO-0139 – the Mestecănișul forest reserve, Here was zero noise and we got good propagation because we worked K2 and W1 stations.
The Reci Lakeshore RO -0553 followed, and after we activate it, we moved to RO-0561 Pădureni lake. Next Park in this area was also RO-0552 Óriáspince Recreation Site . On the way to Brașov, we also activated The fortified church in Hărman RO-0524 at the end of the day.
After this somewhat circular route, we decided that we had to make a stop before reaching the accommodation at a store in the city where we could buy what was missing from our wardrobe for climbing the mountain. We were determined to do this on Christmas Day.
24 December 2024
Not far from the accommodation in the historical center of the city is the Cetățuia Brașovului Recreation Park RO-0134. We start the day with this location. And on this day we had set out with the idea of activating parks outside the city but we didn’t plan to exceed a radius of more than 30km, so we left the city towards Sibiu.
We stopped to activate The Fortified church Ghimbav RO-0525, then The Fortified church Codlea RO-0526 then Dealul Magura Codlei RO-1046. The weather conditions on this day were not favorable for activations lasting more than 30 minutes. It wasn’t raining but there was fog and a lot of humidity in the air. Being already somewhere around 20km away from Brasov, and a little past noon local time, we were thinking of activating something else while returning to the city. We activated RO-1047 Dumbravita Natura 2000 which was a few km away from us. We were again surprised by a pretty nice pileup in which over 40 stations were worked on.
We decided to make another stop at a park that we had missed the previous day because it had set in and we decided that on this trip we would not be caught at night in mountainous areas where the temperatures are much different from the QTH.
The last park activated on this day was Lempeș National Park RO-0137. Being Christmas Eve, at every QSO exit we greeted each other with our correspondents 73 & Merry Christmas. We caught the sunset in the area and we tried to turn off the transmission but every time we announced “QRT & frequency clear” we got 2-3 more calls. We finally managed to receive all the stations (there was around 100) but obviously it caught us in the evening.
25 December 2024 – Christmas Day
I forgot to mention that during this stay we were with family at the location in Brasov. My brother accompanied us with his wife and their son. On the eve of the 25th, while waiting for Santa Claus, we had discussed going to the mountain resort of Poiana Brasov, where we had found out that the snow cover was quite consistent.
In the morning, we all met for breakfast and resumed the discussion with a visit to the snowy area – an attraction for young children and adults alike. The weather in the city was a bit unstable, it had started to rain and at the same time to drizzle and the wind was blowing a bit hard. I looked for information about the weather in the area and found that it was not a favorable time to climb higher due to wind gusts exceeding 110km/h.
We left (my wife and I) around 09:00 for Poiana Brasov, and my brother chose another safer location for his son. Arriving at the location where the cable car to Postavaru Peak is located, we found that it was closed for safety reasons due to the wind. We noticed that the chairlift and gondola installations were still in use, so we decided to go up and if the weather wasn’t too bad we could walk another 70m to the top, about 900m of trail length. We were also planning to activate the YO/EC-011 summit in SOTA.
We reached the top station of the gondola (1727m). It was around -5 degrees Celsius but the wind was blowing so hard that you couldn’t see because of blowing snow more than 10-20m away. We realized we’re taking SOTA off the list and possibly POTA too. We circled the station for about 2-3 hundred meters in the hope that we’d find a place more sheltered from the wind. After about an hour, we found a mountain trail information board, which we used as a screen against the wind.
I barely managed to mount a telescopic antenna so that the wind wouldn’t blow it away. We managed to activate the Postăvarul National Park RO-0142 but we couldn’t resist standing still for more than 20 minutes. Because we didn’t want to risk frostbite, we packed up our equipment and went down to the resort.
The experience at 1727m was unique for us, we’re used to mountains and winter but not in such conditions. So that you can see what it’s all about, I’ll leave you a link with a live broadcast here : Click for Video
We left for our accommodation around 13:00 local time. We activated the Stejerisul Mare RO-0141 park on the way, then in the city Nicolae Titulescu Recreation Park RO-0151 and Tâmpa Nature Reserve RO-0012.
Christmas Eve was filled with family stories about the current year.
26 December 2024
The day of the end of the stay
We could hardly believe how quickly these few days spent in the mountain area passed and we were already thinking with nostalgia about the adventures we went through together with our radio amateur friends, those who followed us on the airwaves ways and whom we thank in this little article for participating in this small local event that we called “Pota Xmas 2024“. The Ham spirit was present in every location we visited (on-air), even on Christmas Day.
The road home seemed quite long but in reality, it really was because the mountain area where we were is full of tourists at this time of year. We decided to take a detour to avoid the crowds and traffic jams and to activate something along the way. We managed to activate Coasta Vie Recreation Site RO-0145 and Pasul Bratocea Ro-0147.
Final closing words
This is the fourth experience of this type for us in total, days in which we saw so many wonderful and spectacular landscapes.
This experience is different from the others this year. I say different because we chose to spend a 5-day stay together in the mountain area out of the desire to see a bit of snow first. This time we planned our accommodation and a bit of a route to follow on our POTA trip. It wasn’t exactly how we planned it, we didn’t manage to activate the Postavarul summit in SOTA, but we had what we wanted the most: snow. In addition, the adrenaline-filled adventure on Christmas Day we will not forget anytime soon.
Thank you for reading this article even if you are not a radio amateur. It is not an article aimed at a specific audience, it is an article in which I present how several passions can be combined in the little free time we have. Thank you to all hunters who have been with us these days, without them this would not have been possible.
73! YO3BEE & YO3DYL
😊 WILL BE CONTINUED 😊
We thank in this little article for participating in this small local event that we called “Pota Xmas 2024“. The Ham spirit was present in every location we visited (on-air), even on Christmas, 73 de YO3BEE!