On Thursday Aug. 21, 2025 we activated the Vann House State Historical Site US-7457 This small park is only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so it doesn't see a lot of activations. There are lots of picnic tables and a wonderful shade tree to make it a pleasant site even on a hot day. The park manager lady is also a Ham so the staff is definitely POTA friendly. The adjacent museum and visitor center is worth a visit and the actual Vann house is amazing. Our native Americans did not live in Tepees.
Allen KN4FKS and Danny AG4DW shared a radio set up. They used the end fed wire and the ever trusty Icom 706 MKIIG. Allen made 37 contacts with 5 park to parks on 40 meters SSB. Danny made 22 contacts with 4 P2P also on 40 meters. It was tough work as we had a local QRM source giving us a 5-8 noise level on 40 meters and even 5-6 across all the bands. Don't know what it was but it made getting contacts a challenge. They could hear us but we couldn't hear them.
Dan K2DTS set up his trusty 17 ft. vertical on his car hood. He made 32 contacts on 20 and 17 meters on FT8 and had DX contacts in France, Slovakia, Belize, Guatemala, Czech Republic, Finland, and 2 in Germany. Dave KQ4GLQ set up his vertical and ran his ICOM 705 in a way cool go box set up. He made 61 contacts on FT8. I wore my special T shirt just for him. (see attached photos)
Earlier in the week John KB4QXI activated Berry College WMA 3734 on Wednesday and Danny AG4DW went to Estelle on Pigeon Mountain also on Wednesday. to edge closer to getting his KILO award for Pigeon. Dave KQ4GLQ and Tony WA4TW joined him there.
