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 Random files - Parks on the Air |
639 viewsWe gathered today at Red Clay State Historic Park (US-2970), in Bradley County, Tennessee, which is also the origin point of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (US-3791).
It started off as a quiet day in the park but it wasn't too long before two school buses pulled into the Visitor Center and several dozen young kids disembarked. The buses then chose our area around the picnic pavilion to park their buses. Ed Dionne (KM6UTC) had set up in his car next to the picnic pavilion but he wound up getting sort of sandwiched in between the two buses and wisely chose to move to a different area. It was then that Ed realized that he had a low tire on his Range Rover but we managed to get it resolved and Ed worked mostly FT8 and some SSB out of his vehicle and had 41 contacts, including two DX QSO's, and five park-to-park QSO's!
Dan Strickland (K2DTS) set up his POTA Performer antenna at one of the picnic tables and worked SSB, mostly on 20 meters and had 31 contacts! (Dan also worked Chickamauga Battery last Thursday and had 32 SSB contacts.)
Danny Wooten (AG4DW) set out with a plan to activate on as many bands as possible to achieve 10 bands in both parks! Before the end of the day the goal was reached and he had a total of 38 FT8 HF QSO's, including 3 DX calls to Saint Barthelemy, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and 3 FM calls and worked total of 9 bands.
Band conditions were a little tough on SSB today but the terrestrial weather was perfect, except for the very thorough coating of yellow pollen on, well, EVERYTHING! All in all, though, a very, very good day doing POTA in a fairly busy, but beautiful park!
Oh, and around lunchtime the dozens and dozens of schoolchildren descended on the picnic pavilion above us and we all had visions of wild kids running all around and tripping over our cords and knocking over all of our antenna! Much to our surprise, these kids we well behaved and well supervised (unlike us) and caused no problems at all! Kudos to the teachers and helpers that were in charge of that group of very well behaved kids!
POTA On!
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589 viewsWhat an adventure. After a rendezvous in Scottsboro AL the POTA crew headed out in four vehicles to the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge K-0140. After a few highway miles we turned onto a county paved road and went to its end where we came to the first of four locked gates. Thanks to the Southeast Cave Conservancy Inc. for giving us permission to access their property which adjoins the NWR property. The road is 3.8 miles to our activation site and gets worse the further along we get. There are mudholes, rocky ledges, and gooey slick mud. Luckily no one got stuck or broke anything. Arriving at the end of the road we get turned around and begin unloading our gear. We walk a few steps and cross onto the NWR property where we set up four stations.
We made a total of 129 contacts. When we first got on the air we all were making contacts quickly then it was like you turned out the lights. Till we took a break for lunch getting contacts got harder and harder. The solar storm had hit hard. So then at lunch we start hearing thunder in the distance, A quick look at the weather radar reveals we are in the path of a line of thunderstorms. Radio gear and the 4x4 road we must take out do not react well to heavy rain. After we enjoyed Karen's blueberry "POTA PIE" we pack up everything and head out back to pavement, opening and closing all the gates as we go. Back on the pavement the vehicles are muddy to the windows and mud falls off the undercarriages. Luckily we outran the storms all the way home. The radar images later showed this big red blob passed directly over where we were activating. At a similar cave road location about 20 miles north a group found their access road flooded and several of their vehicles will have to be left on high ground for days till it quits raining. The vehicles that did get out had water over their headlights. The road we used only floods and traps vehicles after multiple heavy rains flood the valley. It has happened in the past but not for us this time.
Fern Cave NWR K-0140 was first activated by our crew in Nov. 2020. There have been 4 other small activations since then then our recent activation. Our group in two activations is responsible for 80% of the 487 total contacts made from this site. The other activators have accessed via canoe down the Paint Rock River. The 190 acre refuge is totally landlocked with no public access point. It is simply there to protect a cave where endangered bats live.
A mini DXpedition it was, with problems to be overcome, logistics to be planned and permissions obtained. This crew of experienced POTA operators had a successful POTA activation.
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675 viewsPOTA - 20021027 - What a great activation! Ham radio, picnic, friends, and sunset, nothing better.
Allen KN4FKS was on 17 meters SSB and had 36 contacts with 4P2P, and 4DX. John KB4QXI had quite a run on 40 meters with 102 contacts and 8 P2P. He was still busy when he went QRT for supper. Peter KX4BE was on 20 meters CW and had 68 contacts, 4 P2P, and 3 DX. Karen KX4KM had 31 contacts on 20 meter SSB with 8 P2P. Ed KM6UTC worked digital QRP on 30 meters and had 19 contacts with 1 P2P and 1 DX
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573 viewsIt's been a busy week. This Thursday June 12 we gathered at Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 over on the west side of the park at the 'recreation field' parking lot.
Danny AG4DW set up on the west end at the picnic tables. Jody W4LWC assisted him with logging duties. Danny made 91 total contacts. 74 SSB contacts and 7 FT8 contacts on 20 meters, then went to 15 meters FT8 and made 10 more including one DX to Spain. Allen KN4FKS set up on the east end of the parking lot under the shade trees. He had 29 SSB contacts, 26 on 40 meters and 3 on 20 meters with a total of 9 Park to Park contacts. Max N4NWD completed his first activation the hard way. He used his ICOM-705 QRP rig and was using 5 watts. He made 1 SSB contact on 40 meters and 9 on 20 meters for a successful POTA activation. Welcome to the 'dark side' Max. POTA has now claimed a new believer. John KB4QXI set up around the corner at the Wilder tower parking lot to avoid the heavy RF with us. He ran SSB on 20 meters for ?? contacts. We even got a Park to Park with him.
Dan K2DTS came by and we fixed his 'leak' He moved over across the park to activate for a bit before leaving to have lunch with his wife. He had ?? contacts on the day. Ed KM6UTC set up on the Battlefield as well but he was at the Cravens House site. He had 70 total FT8 contacts 6 DX contacts to the East. The the magic band opened up and he had 4 contacts on 6 meters.
Three of us were able to make a special POTA Park to Park contact today. Dom NC4XL was activating and passed the 200,000 POTA contacts milestone. He started this personal quest in April of 2021 and in 836 activations is now passing the 200K contact mark. An amazing ride and an amazing old man. You can see his YouTube video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZurxQY6oQvs (just for contrast I started POTA a year before Dom and I have 247 activations with 12,471 contacts)
Earlier in the week several folks were POTA active as well. Allen KN4FKS activated Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 from the Ascalon Trail Head site on Saturday June 7. He made 50 SSB contacts with 26 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI was a bit further afield over near Helen GA where he activated Hartman Farm State Historic Park US-3718 on Friday June 6 and made 24 SSB contacts with 8 P2P contacts. Then on Saturday he activated Unicoi SP US-2204 with 11 SSB contacts with 6 P2P contacts.
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625 viewsPOTA - Johns Mtn WMA - 09-10-2021
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942 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mountain - 1-6-2021, W4TDH
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599 viewsIt's been a busy week. This Thursday June 12 we gathered at Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 over on the west side of the park at the 'recreation field' parking lot.
Danny AG4DW set up on the west end at the picnic tables. Jody W4LWC assisted him with logging duties. Danny made 91 total contacts. 74 SSB contacts and 7 FT8 contacts on 20 meters, then went to 15 meters FT8 and made 10 more including one DX to Spain. Allen KN4FKS set up on the east end of the parking lot under the shade trees. He had 29 SSB contacts, 26 on 40 meters and 3 on 20 meters with a total of 9 Park to Park contacts. Max N4NWD completed his first activation the hard way. He used his ICOM-705 QRP rig and was using 5 watts. He made 1 SSB contact on 40 meters and 9 on 20 meters for a successful POTA activation. Welcome to the 'dark side' Max. POTA has now claimed a new believer. John KB4QXI set up around the corner at the Wilder tower parking lot to avoid the heavy RF with us. He ran SSB on 20 meters for ?? contacts. We even got a Park to Park with him.
Dan K2DTS came by and we fixed his 'leak' He moved over across the park to activate for a bit before leaving to have lunch with his wife. He had ?? contacts on the day. Ed KM6UTC set up on the Battlefield as well but he was at the Cravens House site. He had 70 total FT8 contacts 6 DX contacts to the East. The the magic band opened up and he had 4 contacts on 6 meters.
Three of us were able to make a special POTA Park to Park contact today. Dom NC4XL was activating and passed the 200,000 POTA contacts milestone. He started this personal quest in April of 2021 and in 836 activations is now passing the 200K contact mark. An amazing ride and an amazing old man. You can see his YouTube video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZurxQY6oQvs (just for contrast I started POTA a year before Dom and I have 247 activations with 12,471 contacts)
Earlier in the week several folks were POTA active as well. Allen KN4FKS activated Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 from the Ascalon Trail Head site on Saturday June 7. He made 50 SSB contacts with 26 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI was a bit further afield over near Helen GA where he activated Hartman Farm State Historic Park US-3718 on Friday June 6 and made 24 SSB contacts with 8 P2P contacts. Then on Saturday he activated Unicoi SP US-2204 with 11 SSB contacts with 6 P2P contacts.
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 Last additions - Parks on the Air |
2 viewsI think Danny AG4DW said it best " we had great weather till we didn't"
This Friday Aug. 7 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Nickajack trailhead. At about 1:30 pm we notice the air getting cooler, we hear thunder in the distance and over the treetops see a huge black cloud coming our way. Quickly we went into demobilization mode. It started a light rain as we finished packing up then the bottom fell out, It rained a lot. Oddly as we drove home we drove right out of the storm onto dry pavement. Our luck. However before the storm hit we all had a good day on the radio.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 59 contacts, 44 SSB on 20 meters then 15 FT8 contacts on 17 meters. He had 15 Park to Park contacts as well. It was an odd twenty meter propagation day. The usual contacts weren't there but the entire west coast was there.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire half wave and made 36 contacts on 40 meters with 5 P2P contacts. After lunch he turned the rig over to Jonathon AA6H who cranked out 15 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 5 P2P contacts before the storm came.
David WK4DS set up his truck mounted 17 ft vertical and made 17 total contacts on 17,15, and 10 meters, 6 were CW and 11 were FT8 with 1 P2P.
Staying closer to home, Ed KM6UTC activated the Trail of Tears US-3791 at the Browns Ferry Tavern site. He had 60 FT8 QSO's on 6,17, and 20 meters. He had DX contacts in Cuba, France and Canada.
Just a heads up to put on your calendar. The 163rd anniversary of the battle that took place at the site in the Chickamauga Battlefield where we activate often will be on Saturday September 19 2026. We plan to activate that day from the picnic area site where on that day many years ago cannons roared, rifles fired and men died. It is a special hallowed place in our nations history. Plan to come join us on this special day. Aug 08, 2026
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3 viewsI think Danny AG4DW said it best " we had great weather till we didn't"
This Friday Aug. 7 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Nickajack trailhead. At about 1:30 pm we notice the air getting cooler, we hear thunder in the distance and over the treetops see a huge black cloud coming our way. Quickly we went into demobilization mode. It started a light rain as we finished packing up then the bottom fell out, It rained a lot. Oddly as we drove home we drove right out of the storm onto dry pavement. Our luck. However before the storm hit we all had a good day on the radio.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 59 contacts, 44 SSB on 20 meters then 15 FT8 contacts on 17 meters. He had 15 Park to Park contacts as well. It was an odd twenty meter propagation day. The usual contacts weren't there but the entire west coast was there.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire half wave and made 36 contacts on 40 meters with 5 P2P contacts. After lunch he turned the rig over to Jonathon AA6H who cranked out 15 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 5 P2P contacts before the storm came.
David WK4DS set up his truck mounted 17 ft vertical and made 17 total contacts on 17,15, and 10 meters, 6 were CW and 11 were FT8 with 1 P2P.
Staying closer to home, Ed KM6UTC activated the Trail of Tears US-3791 at the Browns Ferry Tavern site. He had 60 FT8 QSO's on 6,17, and 20 meters. He had DX contacts in Cuba, France and Canada.
Just a heads up to put on your calendar. The 163rd anniversary of the battle that took place at the site in the Chickamauga Battlefield where we activate often will be on Saturday September 19 2026. We plan to activate that day from the picnic area site where on that day many years ago cannons roared, rifles fired and men died. It is a special hallowed place in our nations history. Plan to come join us on this special day. Aug 08, 2026
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3 viewsI think Danny AG4DW said it best " we had great weather till we didn't"
This Friday Aug. 7 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Nickajack trailhead. At about 1:30 pm we notice the air getting cooler, we hear thunder in the distance and over the treetops see a huge black cloud coming our way. Quickly we went into demobilization mode. It started a light rain as we finished packing up then the bottom fell out, It rained a lot. Oddly as we drove home we drove right out of the storm onto dry pavement. Our luck. However before the storm hit we all had a good day on the radio.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 59 contacts, 44 SSB on 20 meters then 15 FT8 contacts on 17 meters. He had 15 Park to Park contacts as well. It was an odd twenty meter propagation day. The usual contacts weren't there but the entire west coast was there.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire half wave and made 36 contacts on 40 meters with 5 P2P contacts. After lunch he turned the rig over to Jonathon AA6H who cranked out 15 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 5 P2P contacts before the storm came.
David WK4DS set up his truck mounted 17 ft vertical and made 17 total contacts on 17,15, and 10 meters, 6 were CW and 11 were FT8 with 1 P2P.
Staying closer to home, Ed KM6UTC activated the Trail of Tears US-3791 at the Browns Ferry Tavern site. He had 60 FT8 QSO's on 6,17, and 20 meters. He had DX contacts in Cuba, France and Canada.
Just a heads up to put on your calendar. The 163rd anniversary of the battle that took place at the site in the Chickamauga Battlefield where we activate often will be on Saturday September 19 2026. We plan to activate that day from the picnic area site where on that day many years ago cannons roared, rifles fired and men died. It is a special hallowed place in our nations history. Plan to come join us on this special day. Aug 08, 2026
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1 viewsI think Danny AG4DW said it best " we had great weather till we didn't"
This Friday Aug. 7 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Nickajack trailhead. At about 1:30 pm we notice the air getting cooler, we hear thunder in the distance and over the treetops see a huge black cloud coming our way. Quickly we went into demobilization mode. It started a light rain as we finished packing up then the bottom fell out, It rained a lot. Oddly as we drove home we drove right out of the storm onto dry pavement. Our luck. However before the storm hit we all had a good day on the radio.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 59 contacts, 44 SSB on 20 meters then 15 FT8 contacts on 17 meters. He had 15 Park to Park contacts as well. It was an odd twenty meter propagation day. The usual contacts weren't there but the entire west coast was there.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire half wave and made 36 contacts on 40 meters with 5 P2P contacts. After lunch he turned the rig over to Jonathon AA6H who cranked out 15 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 5 P2P contacts before the storm came.
David WK4DS set up his truck mounted 17 ft vertical and made 17 total contacts on 17,15, and 10 meters, 6 were CW and 11 were FT8 with 1 P2P.
Staying closer to home, Ed KM6UTC activated the Trail of Tears US-3791 at the Browns Ferry Tavern site. He had 60 FT8 QSO's on 6,17, and 20 meters. He had DX contacts in Cuba, France and Canada.
Just a heads up to put on your calendar. The 163rd anniversary of the battle that took place at the site in the Chickamauga Battlefield where we activate often will be on Saturday September 19 2026. We plan to activate that day from the picnic area site where on that day many years ago cannons roared, rifles fired and men died. It is a special hallowed place in our nations history. Plan to come join us on this special day. Aug 08, 2026
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1 viewsThis Thursday July 23 we activated the Otting WMA US-7913. The weather cooperated and was not too hot and the bands were rather active and low noise.
John KB4QXI made 14 Park to Park SSB contacts on 20 meters using his end fed half wave wire rigged as a sloper.
Danny AG4DW used his elevated radial pota performer 17 ft. vertical antenna to make 57 total contacts. He had 55 FT8 and 9 SSB contacts on 40, 80, 17,and 12 meter bands, with dx to Brazil and Canada.
Ed KM6UTC set up his backseat shack and used his ATAS 120 A antenna to make 79 total FT8 contacts. He worked 40, 30, 17, 15 and 6 meter bands and had 13 contacts on 6 meters (and the 6m band was supposed to be dead) He had DX to Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Allen KN4FKS had 65 total SSB QSO's with 26 P2P contacts and DX to Canada (5) Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands. He used his 17 ft vertical with the faraday cloth radials
In other POTA news Ed got his POTA KILO award for making 1000 activator contacts from the Trail of Tears US-3791. Way to go Ed ! Danny AG4DW on his third try actually found the Dekalb County State Public Fishing Area US 13340 open for visitors. He made 32 contacts all SSB on 20 meters with 25 P2P. One P2P contact had two operators and was a "five fer" site as well He also had DX to France and Canada.
Just as a side note would you know what to do if on the way to a POTA activation site you came across an elderly man laying in the grass on the side of the road? Just such a similar thing occurred Tuesday evening. The Walker County Cave Cliff team was gathering for a training session on the South Brow Road on top of Pigeon Mountain. The first team member headed down the road came across the man in the grass. Stopping she rendered aid to him and was quickly joined by other team members, The 81 year old man had been reported missing Sunday evening in Lafayette. He had left home in a white Honda sedan. It was not anywhere near him. I quick call to Walker 911 got an officer to come and take him home. The elderly man advised his vehicle was stuck on a road somewhere. He did not know where. He was taken home and the family was glad to have him back. The vehicle was located by an equestrian group on a trail deep in the woods the next day. He had driven the sedan over a berm adjacent to the gate where we often set for POTA on South brow road. The DNR folks were able to get the vehicle out of the woods successfully. Would you have water, electrolyte drink with you to give someone in need? Would you know how to describe to the 911 dispatcher where you actually were located? The nearest address in their computer system was over 5 miles away. Could you decide whether an ambulance was needed? What if you had no cell service to call 911. Could you relay the needed information via Ham radio to the dispatcher? What if you were the Ham sitting at home and heard the emergency traffic call on the local repeater. Would you know who to call and what information is needed?
Stay safe POTA friends, remember look up before you set up. Hazards come in many shapes and sizes. Jul 27, 2026
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1 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 from the Overlook site Thursday July 16 2026. The road up the mountain is getting rougher every day so it is a bouncy ride.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire as a sloper and made 106 contacts on 20 meters SSB. He had 22 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Ed KM6UTC used his mobile rig with the back seat ham shack set up to make 102 FT8 contacts. He had 9 contacts on 6 meters and the rest on 15,20 and 40 meters.
The Johns Mountain site is also a 'two-fer' as it is also Chattahoochee National Forest US-4473. In spite of the bad road we had some visitors, a couple interested in Ham radio for his drone hobby arrived in a Honda sedan and a family showed up in their mini-van. We also had a couple of hikers pass through.
On Friday July 17 Allen KN4FKS decided to travel a bit further out and activate two parks over near Ellijay. First stop was Rich Mountain Cartecay Tract WMA US-12417 from the archery range parking lot where he made 14 quick Park to Park contacts on 20 meters then packed up to head to the second site. About two miles away there is an access point on Owl Town Road for the Rich Mountain WMA US-7452. With storm clouds building Allen made 27 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 9 P2P contacts and no DX. As the thunder started to rumble he got packed up and headed out for home. Two quick new activations in the log.
I know other folks were also active this week so feel free to post to the group about what you did as well. Jul 21, 2026
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3 viewsJul 21, 2026
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3 viewsJul 21, 2026
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