There are dozens, if not hundreds of places in the UK called “Poor Common”; land granted many centuries ago by the local Lord to ordinary people so that they had somewhere to graze their livestock. But this one, GB-1723 Poor Common Nature Reserve is the only one in the POTA database. It’s also now the closest POTA park to me since it was added a couple of months ago—though I was beaten to “first activation” by a couple of days!

A footpath in Poor Common

I went exploring before I picked my spot to activate, as usual, and discovered the remains of a WW2 bunker I’d not heard of before (and neither had Bunkers on the Air). Named Belle View Bunker, it was once manned by the Ferndown Auxiliary Unit, before being lost to time after the war. It was only rediscovered and excavated in 2019. It’s now fenced off to protect the portion that remains exposed above ground, and a sign explains the history of the bunker and of the excavation.

Belle View Bunker, and plaque giving the names of the soldiers that served there

The sign explaining the history of the bunker. (Click for full size.)

Almost all of Poor Common is wooded. There is an open area to the east which looks tempting for a radio setup based on satellite imagery, but is really waist-high brambles and ferns. Instead, I sought out the high point of the area, and found a clearing in the woods to set up for the activation.

There were a few attempts at wooden shelter building up there, thick trunks and branches laid on the ground, and nearby an old hoodie hanging from a branch. A few hours later, as the Halloween gloom darkened, it would have been a creepy place to be.

Like my previous solo activations, I ditched the picnic blanket in favour of a camp chair, and the inverted-V dipole for the JPC-12 vertical.

Radio balanced precariously on my knee, as is tradition

As usual I did a quick bit of hunting on 20 metres. My first contact was Chris, DK5CH, who was also my last contact while POTA hunting from home in the morning! Three hours later he was still there, so I gave him a second call to make it a park-to-park. My P2P hunt also netted another multi-operator park-to-park with Tobias, DC1TC and Harm, DK4HAA near Hamburg.

A CQ call got the pileup going as usual, and 33 operators were worked before the calls dried up.

Switching to the 10 metre band, I spotted Mike, VY2MG in a temptingly close corner of Prince Edward Island, but after a few tries getting through his pileup, I gave up and called CQ myself nearby. That netted me another five QSOs with hunters in North America, but sadly the calls dried up very quickly. I ended up going back to VY2MG with a bit more patience, and made it in the end—another transatlantic park-to-park to cap off the afternoon’s activation.

Happy Halloween! 🎃