With the 2018 Green Party upon us, I arrived at the chosen place at 8:00 local time for the ‘French Flora Fauna’ (FFF) activity feeling excited about the day which lay ahead.
The scenic park was situated in Vimy, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department (62) in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Its reference was 107 and my callsign 14DA/FFF-0107.
Nearby, the Vimy Memorial overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge. Here stands the Canadian National Vimy Memorial with its great twin pylons rising up into the sky and nearby twenty sculptured figures representing such ideas as peace, justice, mourning and grief.
After mounting the antenna, a 1 element Bamby quad some 10m above the ground, my first QSO was with fellow Frenchman 14AT824 Philip at 8H55.
The spread was not terrible but hey we continued to have 11 operators in the log until 10:30am.
At this time, we disassembled the portable station to go on the second ‘French Flora Fauna’ entity in Maroeuil.
This is a picturesque village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais (62), 6 kilometers north-west of Arras, between the roads to Houdain and Aubigny.
With famous nearby landmarks being a number of World War 1 cemeteries, including the Maroeuil British cemetery, the park’s reference here is 1302.
The first DX Hunter in the log for 14DA/FFF-1302 was 14DX019 Chris at 11h53 local time.
As in the morning, the spread was not great with 10 other stations in the log.
So, a day not terrible for me on the set of two charming ‘French Flora Fauna’ DXstinations.
A total of 21 in the log for a few hours DXing but the overall goal was to participate in the 2018 Green Party Challenge so I was very happy to be a part of it.
Thank you all for coming to the log on my two FFF entities and also to those guys who listened without hearing my portable dx adventure station.
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