This week saw folks in far flung places and right here at home.
On Wednesday May 20 Dan K2DTS activated the Battlefield US-0716 from the Brotherton Rd. Picnic area. He made 15 SSB contacts with 13 P2P contacts and then made one CW contact. He commented:
"Conditions were poor with a smothering noise floor and persistent signal fading. Even with those conditions, it was a good day. In many ways, it is more fun to have to work for every contact. And it was satisfying to make the CW contact, although I am sure the station on the other end was not impressed by my many sending mistakes." Small beginnings of a great CW operator !
On Thursday May 21 Allen KN4FKS activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the check station site. It is nice to have friends who help you stay warm and dry while doing POTA on a rainy day Using 100 watts and the end fed half wave wire rigged as a sloper he made 61 contacts (29 on 20 meters and 32 on 40 meters) with 33 P2P contacts and 2 DX (Canada and St. Lucia )
On Friday May 22 John KB4QXI activated Sandhills State Park US-2351 near Hutchinson Kansas. John is out there attending a huge Geocaching convention so he and several other ham geocachers all headed out to the nearby state park. John made ??? contacts.
On Saturday afternoon May 23 KN4FKS Allen headed up top of Pigeon Mountain US-3742 to the Sawmill lake site to play with a different antenna configuration. Using the old faithful have wave end fed wire he rigged it as an NVIS antenna. Using three plastic electric fence post he rigged the wire horizontally waist high. He then deployed a slightly longer counterpoise wire along the ground directly under the antenna wire. A quick check with the antenna analyzer showed resonance on 40 and 20 meters. The bands were slow and he made a total of 16 contacts with 13 contacts in the first hour of calling CQ on 40 meters. They were mainly clustered around South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. At the end he went up to 20 meters and made 3 contacts there in Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. So the NVIS concept works and now to see the next test might be to rig it about 8 feet off the ground using the horse hitching poles in the camp area. Might have this worked out in time for Field Day so we can contact those close in stations.
Danny AG4DW is across the pond in Ireland bemoaning the fact that he has no radio gear with him this trip. The POTA map even showed never activated parks along the route his tour is taking. Painful for POTA but beautiful country for touring..
