This past Thursday June 11, we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park from the Nickajack Trailhead site. The new concrete driveway was a welcome relief from the old bumpy gravel hill.
Allen KN4FKS set up under the picnic shelter and deployed his end fed half wave wire into a nearby pine tree. The rough bark nearly snagged his throw bag string but careful maneuvering finally got everything working. He then made 68 SSB contacts with 20 being on 20 meters and 48 more on 15 meters. He made 23 Park to Park contacts with 4 DX contacts to Slovenia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. While on 15 meters Allen heard a DX call, it was HF0PAS at the Polish Antarctica research station. He was working split because of the pile up coming from both Europe and North America. Try as he will 100 watts and a wire was not going to bust that pile up on this day. The cool thing if he had made the contact it would have been a P2P contact as that part of the continent is designated as a park with a POTA number.
John KB4QXI set up his roof mounted Hamstick on 20 meters and made 63 SSB contacts with 19 P2P as well.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer 17 ft. vertical with the elevated counterpoise and made 68 contacts, 34 SSB and 34 FT8 on 40, 30, and 17 meters. He had 9 P2P contacts and 3 DX to Canada.
Alan W4PLP came by just to visit everyone for a while and give encouragement.
Soon after we had arrived a young couple showed up at the trailhead to go hiking and the lady expressed having an interest in Ham radio over the years. So, quickly we gave her a tour of Danny's set up and explained about the different facets of the hobby. Luckily we had prepared information sheets to give her concerning an introduction to ham radio, an overview of the TSARC and what POTA is all about. Hopefully we'll see this young hiker again on the radio. We are all ambassadors so it is helpful to always be prepared with a smile and information.
