23rd March of 2013.

Thought about going to activate some new one last several days. Due to forecasted minus 18C in morning I decided to do nothing. Then, about at the midday, went out of home for a car and found that there is just about 5C minus and sun is shining very bright. Quickly checked maps, packed the gear in car and went to the Vidusburtnieks nature reserve. The territory is in the place which is more than 10km off the main roads and it is still very deep winter here outside despite of calendar, which shows end of March. All the smaller roads are in ice, Meaning that they are not just slippery, it could be easily to skate on skates. There was no sign that some cares about them waiting for the soon coming warmer spring days when they will naturally thaw.

Anyway in a bit more than an hour I made those 60km and found a place on the roadside to park the car and put up my antenna. In all the time I operated from there it were just about 10 cars which passed me on that road. That was in about 6 hours! Anyway pilups were nice and I made my own best making 517QSOs in less than 5 hours in one activation. Even few first BPSK31 contacts during the activations. It was one nice Saturday afternoon without any bigger contests, hi!