In the spring of 2007 Weyert - PA1WLA thought is was a nice idea to form a Radio Group with the HAM operators he knew at that time in his hometown Wassenaar. Not long after this idea, the idea became reality and since the summer of 2007 the
Radio Group Wassenaar (RGW) is a fact. The Radio Group Wassenaar (RGW) is celebrating its first anniversary on June 21st, 2008!
Even before the idea by forming the Radio Group, the idea was born to organize a field expedition day. After several eyeball QSO's, late summer 2007 with a small group of the members, it was decided to organize a field expedition day related to the Atlantikwall.
Why the Atlantikwall? In the dunes from Wassenaar several bunkers from WOII are still present. These bunkers are really fascinating to see, and some of the members of the RGW even played in and around these bunkers when they were very young. From a broader perspective it's amazing to see how many bunkers have been build during WOII in a relatively short time and all together formed the Atlantikwall!
The initial plan was to operate the station from within one of these bunkers. Unfortunately these bunkers are not open to the public except for one bunker. This bunker is locally known as the "bat-bunker". Until the summer of 2007 it was possible to visit this bat-bunker and you were able to walk inside this bunker and look at the bats while they were asleep. All other bunkers were only possible to visit if you knew the right persons. Due to the age the bunkers in Wassenaar are suffering from construction damage. The townhall, who is currently responsible for these bunkers, unfortunately decided to close access to all remaining bunkers as of July 6, 2007.
Although we are not able to operate the station from within one of these bunkers, the fascination for these bunkers from WOII remained.
The alternative was to operate on-top of one of these bunkers, but the construction damage makes it unsafe to do so. The last alternative was to operate nearby the bunkers in the dunes from Wassenaar. We have found a nice location, and if pictures are available they will be put on-line in the photo-section.
Why the call PA66AW?
Pretty simple:
The dutch prefix for call signs starts with PA.
On August 8th 1942 Hitler gave the order to start constructing the
defend line, which is 66 years ago at the time of the field expedition.
AW is the abbreviation for Atlantikwall.
Put this together, and you have the callsign PA66AW
|