Week 3
12 August
We left in the morning around 08:30 from the accommodation in Bistrita, after a hearty breakfast offered by the host, to the first location which was not very far from the location where we were staying “Perii Seculari Park – RO-0011“. The location offered us a bit of offroad going up the Bistrita hills. We then continued with “Jelna Recreation Site – RO-0659” a location that offered us a morning landscape of all the beauty.
We follow the route to other two locations: “ Laleaua Pestriță Nature Reserve – RO-0660” and “ Pădurea de şes Protected Area – RO-0661“. The propagation was not good at all, one of our QSO hunters had informed us that there was an intense activity of the sun and that in the next 2-4 hours it would be quite difficult to activate. We activated them as well and then headed towards the “ Biserica de lemn din Petriș – RO-0658” where we again enjoyed a wonderful landscape on the hill behind the church.
Energized by this splendid place where we had a relatively good activation due to the non-existent bandnoise, we head to the location “Satul Dorolea – RO-0209“.
After we activated it, we decided to leave the county and head to Maramures. The clock already showed 14:00 and we were thinking of activating a few more locations before nightfall around Sighetul Marmatiei. On the way we stopped in the city of Beclean to activate “Beclean Park – RO-0207” where we had to deal with quite a lot of bandnoise and with a quite crowded city. We activated it quite difficult, we stayed in the area for more than an hour.
Arriving in the extreme north, we initially went to Borsa where we activated the ” Monumentul eroilor de la Moisei – RO-0596“, then to Vișeul de sus “Mocanița Maramureș – RO-0301“.
We looked for accommodation and we found it in Sighet and we were relaxed because we informed the host that we were arriving late. We stopped at the last location “Pădurea Ronișoara – RO-0600” where we arrived at sunset.
This location was activated very hard only by me, at 22:00 the propagation effectively failed completely, there was no signal even in the FT8 working mode. We were exhausted from the road and our nerves stretched to the maximum by the weak propagation, so we decided to give up the location and activate it the next morning.
13 August
We woke up early in the morning and left for the last location from the previous day and decide to activate it the first time as early as possible. At 09:00 we were at the location. We thought that it was not a good area either, because it gave us trouble for about an hour in the morning, or the propagation wasn’t completely recovered.
We arrived two hours later at the tourist destination that I had proposed to my wife at the beginning of the vacation, a location that I had visited a few years ago, “Cimitirul Vesel din Săpânta – RO-0597“. Before the activation, we reserved about 20 minutes to enter the famous cemetery among the crosses to take some pictures of the location.
Arriving in such a northern area, 3-4 days before the end of the vacation, we thought it would be advisable to “take it downhill” to the south (knowing how many kilometers we were going to cover).
We proposed to stop at Alba Iulia city and the next day to go down even more towards CampulLung Muscel where we wanted to activate about 2 locations through the sota.
I remembered the “Antigravity Hill – RO-0980“, which I had recently proposed to Mihai (LB9HI), and somehow, we thought on the way to Alba to activate it. Before this, we activated “Pădurea Crăiasa – RO-0598“, then when we reached the destination we had fun for 20-30 minutes as the car “climbed” up the hill. There we talked with a local about the phenomenon who explained and showed us that any cylindrical or spherical object, including a water bottle, rolls towards the hill in that area.
Later, the parks “Balnear Toroc Provincial Park – RO-0189“, “Castrul Roman Potaissa – RO-0190“, “Aiud Municipal Park – RO-0213“, “Cetatea Aiudului – RO-0214” followed. The end of the day was successfully concluded near the town of Alba Iulia town where we stayed at the same guesthouse where we had been a few days ago.
14 August
As we had already established a day ago we proceeded on our journey on the return road to “Cetatea Țărănească Câlnic – RO-0976” and then to the “Biserica fortificată din Miercurea Sibiului – RO-0475“, “Poiana Soarelui Recreation Site – RO-0975” and “Castelul Turnu Roșu din Boita – RO-0354“.
Arriving near the Olt Valley, we were discouraged by the fact that a short summer rain had started outside, but we continued our way to “Lac de acumulare Robești – RO-0869” and “Castrul roman Praetorium II de la Racovița – RO-0868“. The activations were short-lived, we again had a day with many kilometers to travel, so we did not waste too much time per location.
On the way to the town of Ramnicu Valcea, we also stop at “ Castrul roman Arutela – RO-0867” and “Grădinile Mănăstirea Cozia Park – RO-0866“. After we activated them, we thought about how to shorten the route to Campul Lung. We have decided to give up the cule’ in the Ramnicu Valcea area that we will visit them on the occasion of another travel in the area. We still stopped on the outskirts of the city for one last activation at “Lacul Râmnicu Vâlcea – RO-0861“. We were tired and later decided to enter the city and have dinner and then head to the accommodation in Campulung Muscel, which we did and arrived quite late after 10 pm.
15 August
We woke up in the morning to a not-very-early morning coffee because we had arrived quite late at the campsite where we were staying next to Campulung Muscel. Here we planned to stay 2 nights at the “YP0FD Field Day” and also to activate something in POTA / SOTA in the area.
Our host Edi (YO3RAM) from Field Day suggested us not to spend all day until night falls like every day spent in the marathon, with the idea of spending a few hours in the light at the Field Day location. There we were going to talk about our vacation adventures and maybe we’ll make a barbecue.
I accepted the proposal because we didn’t have much to do in the area anyway, we had been 2 months ago in the surroundings of Campulung Muscel.
Together with my wife we decided to do another CQ SOTA – CQ POTA from the locations: “Piatra Dragoslavelor – RO-0303 and YO/MC-136, then from “Dealul Mățău – RO-0703 and YO/MC-033, and then if there is still time to activate the POTA location “Palatul Bilcești Historic Site – RO-0704“.
We start at the first location Piatra Dragoslavelor around 10:30. From the national road to Brasov, at a certain point there is an exit to the location in Dragoslavele on the left on a forest road paved with stone to where the mountain peak is located (it is around 4km). It is quite a slow road; the paving stone is quite big and we went very slowly – I didn’t want to cause any more problems with the car.
We arrived at the base of the mountain and prepared our backpacks for the climb. We climbed for 30 minutes until we reached the top where the forest ended and we were going to take the ridge road to the Sota point. Before leaving the forest on our way, we met a bear poo (the excrement was about an hour old). Knowing that there are quite a few bears in the area and being a route not crowded with tourists, we decided to not stay too long in the area and to go down. We activated “fast forward”, tightened the equipment, and with great fear began the descent of the mountain. Nothing happened on the way to the car, but I can’t describe in words how we both felt, being alone and without a GSM signal on our phones. I had prepared the portable HAM radio station, which I set to the frequency of a nearby repeater.
Arriving safely at the car, we were thinking of not doing anything that day, we were so tired of the climb and then the adrenaline-filled descent. Here we realized that we didn’t take any pictures up on the ridge 😊. We only took pictures on the way up before we met the signs left by the bear.
After a while on the way back, the effect of adrenaline passed and we both decided to go to Matau Hill, passing through the location of the Bilcesti Palace.
After activating the Bilcesti Palace, we set off for Matau to activate it in SOTA/POTA. We left the car under the hill, prepared our backpacks again and climbed to the highest point somewhere to the left of the gsm relay poles about 2-3 hundred meters (we thought we would have QRM if we stayed near the relays).
We reached the top, unfolded the telescopic multiband antenna, adjusted the SWR, and took 2-3 pictures, at which point we saw a small mountain storm approaching from the west. We were already thinking “Do we have any good luck today? Or rather we retreat to the FieldDay sooner than we expected”…
We activated it and at some point, the “propagation fell” on us… I’m not talking about pileup anymore. We managed to finish a “pileup” of about 30 stations in 17 minutes, HI, HI. It was already the third experience of this type on mountain peaks. There were no electric discharges nearby, so we got a smaller portion of adrenaline than the incident with the presence of the bear on the route.
We finished this day of activations quite early and set off for the city “to look for mouth-watering food” for the barbecue. The carnivore in me was roaring with an appetite for a piece of meat, the entire vacation we had had no time and no desire to do anything other than visit as many locations as possible. In a way it was good, the liver also rested – no meat, no alcohol 😊.
A very nice and long evening followed at the Field Day where we stayed until late at night to make the barbecue and tell stories about HamRadio and the routes they walked on and what they did during their vacations in the mountainous areas, with Edi (YO3RAM) and Dragos (YO3IVA) who was with his family.
August 16
In the morning, we hardly left our friends from Field Day, we would have liked one more day of vacation to stay with them, but we had to return to QTH 2 where the bees were waiting for us (we had been absenting for 2 weeks).
We look at the POTA map and think about trying to activate new locations on our way back. We find the location “Cula Retevoiești Historic Site – RO-0718” so we decide to start with it. When we got there, we were once again disappointed by the fact that this cula is not taken care of and was left in disrepair.
Later, not far from the city of Pitesti, which it was on our way back home, we noticed 2 other locations: “Acumularea Budeasa Natura 2000 – RO-0877” and “Cula Racovița Historic Site – RO-0720“.
We stopped at each one and activated them and were happy that we had managed a marathon together with my wife of 155 parks activated in POTA and 180 locations visited in this wonderful country.
Final closing words
For us it is the third experience of this type but not in the same number of days, 17 in total, days in which we saw so many wonderful and spectacular landscapes. The experience left us with the desire to return to the mountains also to the eastern part of Romania.
We didn’t plan anything, we found accommodation every day, we didn’t lack supermarkets and restaurants in any part of the country, but I have to say that it was a little difficult for us to get used to the fact that starting at 8 p.m. you don’t find stores open everywhere anymore. The only thing we missed was the tent, we had forgotten at home. We would have liked to camp in certain specially arranged areas and wake up in the morning with many of the landscapes we saw on our little trip.
Thank you for reading the article even if you are not an Amateur Radio. I believe that the “spirit of HAM RADIO” is not a “chimera” as many say. Why am I saying this? We both had radio operators who were with us during these days and helped us so that the number of 10 QSOs per park was not so difficult for us to achieve. They also benefited from the “hunting” part of the POTA program, but how many of us nowadays meet people with such patience and goodwill that they have shown:
F5PYI, IK4IDF, EA1BUL, G0RQL, EA2DT, PD4US, F4ILH, EA2EZ, EA4TL, I4RHP, EA1AF, PD3RL, ON4ON, EA1FIC, EA5FI, EC5CSW – as top hunters,
and also LB9HI, YO3RAM, SP2EL, 2E0ESY, OH1NOA, DL1DUR, EA5CVS, K2UPD, F4FTJ, SM3NRY, SQ9MDF, SQ9NOT, EC1R, EA7HI, EA7HY , EA8DDW, EA2CPG, F4HJO, EA4GJP, IT9ETC, EA5JN, F5NZO, YO7LPT, YO7LPF, YO7NSP, YO7LSI, YO7PED … and more others …
😊 WILL BE CONTINUED 😊
Felicitări! și vă mulțumesc! Datorită vouă și celor ca voi mă simt încă tânăr.
73! Remus YO2CNH.
Mulțumim pentru apreciere, încercăm să dezvoltăm această pasiune din portabil și pe meleagurile țării noastre. 73 de YO3BEE &YO3DYL