All along the Norwegian coast you’ll find heavy fortifications, most of which were either built or improved during WW2, where they took part in the German Atlantic Wall defenses. One of the most epic remaining parts of it is one of the 38 cm cannons at Batterie Vara, which protected the Skagerrak Sea between Norway and Denmark from allied incursions. The battery was matched by a counterpart in northern Denmark, and together they covered all but a small part of the sea.

The remaining cannon is operated as a museum, where you can see the crew- and loading areas below the cannon as well as enter the main cannon itself. There’s also a small modern museum that you can visit with a gift shop and some information. The area around the cannon is filled with remains of a large casemate, smaller bunkers, trenches and AA positions. Most of these are still open, but they are not maintained or restored like the museum is. The area is a popular hiking area with locals wanting short daytrips and is set up as POTA NO-3067. The cannon has WWBOTA reference B/LA-0057.

I visited the museum on their daily “running the cannon” event when they power up the old diesel engines and move the barrel of the cannon. This turned out to be a large local event, probably since it’s the 80^th anniversary of the end of WW2.

Radio-wise I was surprised by the conditions; this was one of the many days with a major solar event. Even if I activated before most of the storm hit, I still noticed heavy QSB and noise on the band. The POTA activation was successful, but I didn’t get enough QSO’s to activate WWBOTA which requires more QSO’s.

In my video of the activation I take you on a short tour of the cannon before starting the activation.