Parc regional des Ballons des Vosges (FFF-0078)

On Sunday 31st March 2024 at 09:06 UTC, Lothar DL3HXX, a radio amateur from Germany made contact with Armin F/DL6GCA/P, a radio amateur from Germany who was operating from Parc regional des Ballons des Vosges (FFF-0078), on the 40m amateur radio band.

Parc regional des Ballons des Vosges (FFF-0078), is a protected area of 292,100 hectares which covers the south of the Vosges massif and parts of the departments of Haut-Rhin , Haute-Saône , Vosges and Territoire de Belfort in the east of France. It was designated in 1989 as a Regional Nature Park and is an IUCN Management Category V area.

An IUCN Management Category V area is a lived-in working landscape, where the interaction of people with the natural landscape has resulted in a landscape with significant biological, ecological and scenic value.

Armin was at the summit of Kuppelthannkopf (885 metres asl) while he was at the reserve and made a total of 19 contacts for the Summits on the Air (“SOTA”) group.