17.3.2019 OMFF-0626 + WCA-00095 Turniansky hrad (castle)

Turniansky Castle is a ruin of a castle from the 14th century over the village of Turňa nad Bodvou, only 5 km from the Hungarian border. It stands on the karst hill which is 375m asl.

Even though it was not necessary to hike up the hill to be inside the area for WWFF activation, I did it and hiked up to castle ruins.

It was nice sunny Sunday afternoon. I waited for the end of the Russian CW/SSB contest which has ended at 12:00 UTC. The castle is 30 minutes driving from my home QTH. The thermometer in the car was showing 19°C while driving to the location. Maybe it was the day with the highest temperature so far this year. Although the contest has already ended, there were still many stations on 40m band. I decided to run this band only. I wanted to test my new home-made linked dipole antenna supported by 10m fiber-glass mast.

I was using FT-891 and 50W at the beginning. I have increased the power up to 70W before the end of activation. Totally 67 QSOs were made with 18 countries in 39 minutes between 15:10 - 15:49.

It was very windy even though I was hiding behind the wall. It was really difficult to recognize callsigns in the wind and I didnt take the headphones with me..HI. The temperature dropped down and it became cold as the sunset was approaching. The north wind pushed the wind chill temperature even down.

Here are few photos of the castle ruins after the end of activation and just a few minutes before the sunset. It was a nice afternoon :).

Thank you all for calling me.

73 44 11, Martin OM8KT