Several members of our Parks on the Air group met up at the Ascalon Trailhead, on Lookout Mountain, for a day of activation. The trailhead is part of Cloudland Canyon State Park (US-2169). The weather was perfect, albeit a little warm for those who activated out in the sunshine. 20 Meters and 15 Meters cooperated somewhat, but most of the other bands were not kind today.
The day started off with our fearless leader, Allen (KN4FKS), feeling under the weather and unable to attend. Best wishes to Allen and get some rest, plenty of fluids and feel better!
Danny (AG4DW) and Barry (W4LKT) began the day with getting Barry's new Comet antenna tuned and mounted to his car. Using a NanoVNA we were able to adjust the 6 meter and 10 meter portions of the antenna to achieve the lowest SWR in those bands. Afterwards Barry spent several hours calling CQ on 10 meters but there was just nothing happening on that band today!
Danny (AG4DW) started the day off on 20 meters SSB and made a total of 30 contacts before switching to 15 meters. There he made one SSB contact and 24 FT8 contacts. DX included Canada (2), Colombia, Costa Rico, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. He also made contact with a DXpedition to the Russian island, Franz Joseph Land (RI1FJL)! This is the northernmost DXCC location in the world in the Arctic ocean well north of Russia!
Just when Barry and Danny thought they were going to be the only two activators, they were joined by Maurice (KO4MPH), Micha (K3WGC) and “Radio Matt” (AF4MH), around 11:00 a.m. Also, bravely giving up some of his beauty sleep 🤣, John (KB4QXI) joined us around 1:00 in the afternoon!
Matt (AF4MH) worked 20 Meters with his vertical antenna and worked hard to make a total of 12 contacts with 7 park-to-parks, including one to Canada. Halfway through his activation, another ham took over his frequency and he had to QSY. To be fair, the bands were so screwed up that I don't think the other guy could hear him when he asked if the frequency was in use!
Micha (K3WGC) set up his 40 Meter vertical antenna using a drive on support stand and collapsible flagpole but was unable to make any contacts on 40 meters.
Maurice (KO4MPH) set up his tri-pod mounted vertical and called CQ on 17 Meters for a few hours but, in the end, was not able to make any contacts.
John (KB4QXI) worked from his automobile using a 40 meter hamstick and made a total of 10 contacts with one park-to-park.
In other POTA activations this week:
Ed (KM6UTC) activated on Thursday from the Brown’s Ferry Tavern Historic Site, which is a Trail of Tears site (US-3791), and It was a tough day from that location. Almost ALL of the signals coming in were registering as negative dB on the FT8 screen. Even after cleaning and reconnecting antenna connections the incoming signals were still weak. Despite that, Ed was able to make 56 contacts, mostly on 20m FT8. A scattering of FT4 and other bands were thrown in. DX included Cuba, Costa Rica, Germany, Haiti, and Canada.
