Perhaps our OK activators can give me some information about the legal situation when entering nature, especially forests in OK.
Yesterday I activated OK/KA-037. When I was walking back to my car I met a local hunter. In fact he was searching for me as he propably had seen my parked car near the road. He asked me what I was doing and I answered I was returning from an amateur radio activity.
He told me, I was disturbing the hunt and I should stop this and stay in the German forests. As I was returning anyway and do not speak Czech language I did not mind following his order.
Some additional information:
It was 18:50 local time, so it was dark and I was using a very dim headlamp.
I was walking on a forest track, the hunter was able to drive with his 4x4.
Up to the time I met the hunter I have not seen any person, nor any hint some hunting was going on.
There were no signs restricting access (except for cars) or fences.
This area was no nature reserve. Another part of my walk was on an official cycling track with signs.
For future I would like to know:
Am I allowed to walk on forest tracks which are not official hiking trails?
Am I allowed to leave the forest tracks and enter the forest?
Is this limited to daylight time?
I did not think about this up to now as it is explicitly allowed by law in Germany.
ist mir auch schon mal in OK/KA passiert.
Er frage mich wohin ich wolle, und ich sagte zu Gipfel.
Da meinte er das ich nur noch 500m weitergehen darf, weil “Hirschzeit” wäre.
Also: Jagtzeit oder Hirsch-Vergnügungszeit
Scheinbar gibts dort besondere Regeln. Aber grundlegend sollte es doch nicht verboten sein, markierte Waldwege abzuwandern …
not sure about the legal situation in austria (and the czech rep. as well) … but especially in autumn i try to avoid hiking in forests in the morning and evenings as this is “high-season” for animals … and hunters
all in all my impression is that SOME (not all) hunters are definitely not very happy with people driving around with mountainbikes or hiking in the dark.
In reply to DB7MM:
Hi Michael,
Sorry for problems with SOTA activation. When Forrest is out of nature park, You can go everywhere, on the way and out of the ways. In the nature park are on the border of the park information about motion on the park. Usually is permit to go to the park on the ways or on the marked ways. Some area of the park can be prohibited totally. There is information on the border of prohibited area. OK/KA-037 is out of the nature park and You can go everywhere.
Other question is hunting. Hunters organize mass hunting and they have no duty to inform the public about actually hunting event. This mass hunting are usually in daylight. When they organize big hunting, they can close the hunting area for a short time. They must mark closed area with the information from to is area closed. When You hear gunshots, is reasonable to turn and go back. Some hunters hunt individually. They can hunt all day. But they have no authority to forbid You enter to the forest. They only can ask You for change Your trail for your safety.
I hope this information will be sufficient for Your next SOTA activation in OK region.
73 and HNY
Jirka OK1DDQ
In reply to OK1DDQ:
That might change the meaning of “hunting summits”…
I think that the real special activity on the field is hunting, not hiking or walking…
In reply to DB7MM:
Not knowing anything about laws in OK land, my opinion is that, unless the area where the mountain you activated is located in a private hunting area or natural reserve, in which case, the area should have been closed by fences and signs or information pannels about access restrictions should have been placed in visible locations, there shouldn’d be any issue with your hicking and radio activity. Just the opposite.
Sometimes I walk in the mountains while listening hunting dogs barking not too far around me and hunters shooting their riffles from time to time (not too close to me of course) and I use to smile thinking that my walking with my dog in the mountain may be warning and saving animals from being killed by hunters at least that day… I enjoy living animals in wild.
In reply to OK1DDQ:
“they have no duty to inform the public about actually hunting event”
Hunters MUST inform the public about actually hunting event in HA.
They have to put information sign and/or table on all tracks on the border of the restricted area.
Of course sometimes they “forget” to do this.
The online edition of Turista Magazin plans to start maintain a database to keep all access restrictions up-to-date.
You will be informed if this database will be up.
