OHFF Puskaralli 2024 - The Jämi Pedition!
Puskaralli - what?!
Finnish WWFF organization OHFF arranged a "Puskaralli" during weekend 7-9.6.2024. The term "Puskaralli" translates literally to "Bush rally". It was a well advertised event where some prizes are for grabs based on lottery tickets that could be achieved with either activating or hunting.
The Jämi Pedition 2024
OG3E Marko and I (OH3CUF Jouni) had been planning to take trip together to activate a WWFF reference for some time. We decided to do it now during this "Puskaralli" and chose Hämeenkangas OHFF-0162 as our reference to be activated. Hämeenkangas is a really big Natura 2000 area so we could choose our location to be Jämi activity center near Jämijärvi. Also there is a really beautiful ridge which increased our elevation. This turned to be a good choice as there was food and toilets nearby.
Saturday 8.6.2024
Our trip from Tampere to Jämi started in a bit mixed feelings as the HF bands were torn down because of flare and other farts from The Sun. We knew this is going to be interesting for sure to see how many QSOs we can actually get.
As we had setup our camps & radio stations, we had chance to get some QSOs but then a thunder storm front started to approach and it picked up wind to pretty high speeds. I was camping with an hammock and tarp as protection. The wind got to such speeds that I had to really nail the tarp to ground to prevent it from flying around. I decided to evacuate to OG3E's tent with my radio gear as I didn't know how much it was going to rain. With that wind speed & possible rain that would been a total disaster to loose the tarp and get my stuff pretty much washed all around.
After evacuation I decided to have coffee & sandwhich at the local hotel to just chill down. After a while I stepped outside the hotel and amazed that there was no wind or no rain. Time to get more QSOs!
The evening was fun to work the QSOs and managed to get 55 QSOs in total. I was pretty happy with that!
Our pedition got visitors and it was time to have some live ragchewing and enjoying OG3E's mighty tent grill service with sandwhiches and pizza. At 22:00 PM local time I wanted to execute my plan of "late evening QSOs". Not a big surprise but hunters were already QRT but still I got 5 QSOs - which was fine. It was perfect time to get some sleep. I slept the night in hammock and had a good night sleep.
Sunday 9.6.2024
I woke up at 7.00 AM local time and went back on air pretty much straight away after I woke up. My plan was to have a breakfast first thing in the morning - at local hotel but it was closed. I did't have anything to drink or to eat and most horrifying was: I couldn't have any coffee. Only possibility was to start activating and so I did. After being on air for one hour, I heard from OG3E that the restaurant was open. I enjoyed so much of the warm indoors and hoarded stuff for breakfast. Finally, some coffee (well, three mugs of it)!
After breakfast I went back to my camp to pack hammock, tarp, sleeping bag etc. as there was rain front approaching. I decided to work until first rain drops hit my radio and so I did. I had good sprint at the end of the activation on 40m SSB and closed down my radio with a big smile. Its done! Quickly packed radio and rest of the gears and headed to help OG3E with his very very nice tent.
Aftermath
I ended up scoring 105 QSOs over The Mighty Jämi Pedition (HI HI). More than enough for me. I was hoping to get 44 QSOs per day but exceeded that even the HF weather was "challenging". I probably exceeded my CW record for activation (even for day) and was a very good practice. I personally feel I'm still struggling with my CW skills but ..--.. is my best friend!
We both got 2m band QSOs too (no sched!) - on just regular whip antenna on handheld radio and 7 watts of power - which was very surprising. The ridge had a very good elevation so that probably explains. I personally got a bit more interested in VHF band for sure!
Thanks to Marko OG3E for company on this Mighty Pedition and BIG thanks to all hunters all around. You make this possible. And thanks to all patient CW hunters too :D Also cheers to OHFF for arranging such activities.
.. and one thing: 44 dit dit!
