|
 Random files - Parks on the Air |
420 viewsAgain it has been a POTA active week. The week started with John KB4QXI activating Berry College WMA US-3734 making 26 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 5 P2P and 2 Canadian contacts. This gave him a total contacts as an activator on Berry of 961.
On Tuesday Ed KM6UTC activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Cravens house site on Lookout Mountain. He made 84 FT8 contacts for the day. Also on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 from the Estelle Mine road site. He made 58 contacts SSB mostly on 40 meters with 4 P2P and no DX contacts.
Then on Thursday Ed KM6UTC went back to the Cravens house site and made 108 FT8 contacts with 3 P2P and lots of DX into Europe and Eurasia. John went back to Berry to finish out his 'KILO' award on Berry making 46 contacts with 21 P2P. Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd SP US-2187 from the usual lower lake site. Danny made 27 contacts mostly on FT8 with DX to Canada, Greece, and Spain. Allen KN4FKS made 77 contacts with 25 P2P and 3 Canadians to put him over the 1,000 contacts mark for Floyd SP.
Another 'KILO' awarded to part of the TSARC POTA crew.
A busy week with TWO KILO awards issued and as usual lots of radio fun.
|
|
404 viewsWe activated Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. Wildlife Management Area today (1-26-2023) at our Dougherty Gap location. We were hoping the sun would break through the clouds and spread a little warmth. That didn't happen, the wind blew, it was cold and it occasionally spit a little snow.
Allen KN4FKS worked off the Cameleon vertical with the extendable whip and four radials on 20 and 15 meters. Sixty contacts were made with 14 P2P and 3 Canadians. Danny Wooten AG4DW sat in Winston with Allen and handled logging duties keeping everything straight. John KB4QXI used his end fed half wave wire with the end up in a tree and rigged as a sloper with the feed on the ground. He covered 40 meters with 20 contacts and 1 P2P. He kept getting covered up by rag chewers who could not hear him.
Our CW whiz kid, Peter KX4BE used his new 75A Tarheel antenna on the 30, 20, 17, 15, and 12 bands. He had 84 contacts with 10 DX (all on 15m) and 2 P2P.
|
|
406 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn Wildlife Mgt Area - 4-1-2021
|
|
399 viewsAgain it has been a POTA active week. The week started with John KB4QXI activating Berry College WMA US-3734 making 26 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 5 P2P and 2 Canadian contacts. This gave him a total contacts as an activator on Berry of 961.
On Tuesday Ed KM6UTC activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Cravens house site on Lookout Mountain. He made 84 FT8 contacts for the day. Also on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 from the Estelle Mine road site. He made 58 contacts SSB mostly on 40 meters with 4 P2P and no DX contacts.
Then on Thursday Ed KM6UTC went back to the Cravens house site and made 108 FT8 contacts with 3 P2P and lots of DX into Europe and Eurasia. John went back to Berry to finish out his 'KILO' award on Berry making 46 contacts with 21 P2P. Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd SP US-2187 from the usual lower lake site. Danny made 27 contacts mostly on FT8 with DX to Canada, Greece, and Spain. Allen KN4FKS made 77 contacts with 25 P2P and 3 Canadians to put him over the 1,000 contacts mark for Floyd SP.
Another 'KILO' awarded to part of the TSARC POTA crew.
A busy week with TWO KILO awards issued and as usual lots of radio fun.
|
|
425 viewsPOTA - 2022-09-29 - Prentice-Cooper State Forest TN K-5499 was the destination yesterday. At the far end of Tower Road is a cliff top site overlooking the Tennessee River Gorge. Ed ran FT8 using his Mag-Loop antenna, Peter used his end fed wire to work CW, and Allen hung his wire EFHW and worked SSB. Allen Had 41 contacts with 10 P2P contacts. Peter had 55 contacts with 4 P2P and Ed had 35 contacts with 1 P2P. Great day, beautiful day, great view, and great friends.
|
|
486 viewsPOTA - New Echota Historic Site - 10-08-2020
|
|
441 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!
|
|
400 viewsPOTA - Arrowhead Wildlife Mgt Area - 2-24-2021, KB4QXI
|
|
 Last additions - Parks on the Air |
2 viewsIt was cold outside, but we were warm and toasty inside. This Thursday Jan.15 2026 we activated the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area US-3742 from the check station site on Rocky Lane. It sure is nice to have friends in high places that let us use the check station to do POTA. However setting up antennas was a bit frosty in the 23 degree F air with a 20 Mph wind.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire in a nearby tree and Danny AG4DW set his Pota Performer elevated radial vertical in the side yard. We used some foam pipe insulation pieces to block the wind where we pulled the coax through the slightly open windows. It kept the heat in and the cold wind out.
Allen started on 40 meters and was busy from the start. Later he went to 20 meters and was also busy For the day he had 76 contacts with 15 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Danny started on 20 meters and made 1 SSB contact then switched to FT8 He made 69 more contacts. He worked digital on 20, 15, and 10 meters. He had 24 DX contacts from all over Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We had a few visitors curious about what we were doing so we explained Ham radio and POTA then answered their questions about the area. We always take time away from pileups to meet visitors. Part of the job as POTA ambassadors.
Fun day, great peanut butter and jelly, stayed warm and had great company for the day. Jan 16, 2026
|
|
1 viewsIt was cold outside, but we were warm and toasty inside. This Thursday Jan.15 2026 we activated the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area US-3742 from the check station site on Rocky Lane. It sure is nice to have friends in high places that let us use the check station to do POTA. However setting up antennas was a bit frosty in the 23 degree F air with a 20 Mph wind.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire in a nearby tree and Danny AG4DW set his Pota Performer elevated radial vertical in the side yard. We used some foam pipe insulation pieces to block the wind where we pulled the coax through the slightly open windows. It kept the heat in and the cold wind out.
Allen started on 40 meters and was busy from the start. Later he went to 20 meters and was also busy For the day he had 76 contacts with 15 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Danny started on 20 meters and made 1 SSB contact then switched to FT8 He made 69 more contacts. He worked digital on 20, 15, and 10 meters. He had 24 DX contacts from all over Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We had a few visitors curious about what we were doing so we explained Ham radio and POTA then answered their questions about the area. We always take time away from pileups to meet visitors. Part of the job as POTA ambassadors.
Fun day, great peanut butter and jelly, stayed warm and had great company for the day. Jan 16, 2026
|
|
0 viewsIt was cold outside, but we were warm and toasty inside. This Thursday Jan.15 2026 we activated the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area US-3742 from the check station site on Rocky Lane. It sure is nice to have friends in high places that let us use the check station to do POTA. However setting up antennas was a bit frosty in the 23 degree F air with a 20 Mph wind.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire in a nearby tree and Danny AG4DW set his Pota Performer elevated radial vertical in the side yard. We used some foam pipe insulation pieces to block the wind where we pulled the coax through the slightly open windows. It kept the heat in and the cold wind out.
Allen started on 40 meters and was busy from the start. Later he went to 20 meters and was also busy For the day he had 76 contacts with 15 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Danny started on 20 meters and made 1 SSB contact then switched to FT8 He made 69 more contacts. He worked digital on 20, 15, and 10 meters. He had 24 DX contacts from all over Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We had a few visitors curious about what we were doing so we explained Ham radio and POTA then answered their questions about the area. We always take time away from pileups to meet visitors. Part of the job as POTA ambassadors.
Fun day, great peanut butter and jelly, stayed warm and had great company for the day. Jan 16, 2026
|
|
0 viewsIt was cold outside, but we were warm and toasty inside. This Thursday Jan.15 2026 we activated the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area US-3742 from the check station site on Rocky Lane. It sure is nice to have friends in high places that let us use the check station to do POTA. However setting up antennas was a bit frosty in the 23 degree F air with a 20 Mph wind.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire in a nearby tree and Danny AG4DW set his Pota Performer elevated radial vertical in the side yard. We used some foam pipe insulation pieces to block the wind where we pulled the coax through the slightly open windows. It kept the heat in and the cold wind out.
Allen started on 40 meters and was busy from the start. Later he went to 20 meters and was also busy For the day he had 76 contacts with 15 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Danny started on 20 meters and made 1 SSB contact then switched to FT8 He made 69 more contacts. He worked digital on 20, 15, and 10 meters. He had 24 DX contacts from all over Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We had a few visitors curious about what we were doing so we explained Ham radio and POTA then answered their questions about the area. We always take time away from pileups to meet visitors. Part of the job as POTA ambassadors.
Fun day, great peanut butter and jelly, stayed warm and had great company for the day. Jan 16, 2026
|
|
0 viewsIt was cold outside, but we were warm and toasty inside. This Thursday Jan.15 2026 we activated the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area US-3742 from the check station site on Rocky Lane. It sure is nice to have friends in high places that let us use the check station to do POTA. However setting up antennas was a bit frosty in the 23 degree F air with a 20 Mph wind.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire in a nearby tree and Danny AG4DW set his Pota Performer elevated radial vertical in the side yard. We used some foam pipe insulation pieces to block the wind where we pulled the coax through the slightly open windows. It kept the heat in and the cold wind out.
Allen started on 40 meters and was busy from the start. Later he went to 20 meters and was also busy For the day he had 76 contacts with 15 Park to Park contacts and no DX.
Danny started on 20 meters and made 1 SSB contact then switched to FT8 He made 69 more contacts. He worked digital on 20, 15, and 10 meters. He had 24 DX contacts from all over Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
We had a few visitors curious about what we were doing so we explained Ham radio and POTA then answered their questions about the area. We always take time away from pileups to meet visitors. Part of the job as POTA ambassadors.
Fun day, great peanut butter and jelly, stayed warm and had great company for the day. Jan 16, 2026
|
|
0 viewsThursday Jan. 8 2026 we activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Brotherton Rd. picnic area.
Dan K2DTS set up his vertical and made 14 SSB contacts on 20 meters with all of them being Park to Park contacts. He had 4 to Canada, 1 to California and 1 to Texas.
Tony WA4TW also used his vertical and made 26 contacts with 20 being P2P contacts including two DX P2P's to Canada and Saint Lucia Island.
Allen also set his vertical antenna and made 32 SSB contacts half on 12 meters and half on 40 meters. He had 10 P2P contacts one of which was a DX P2P to Brazil and another to St. Vincent Island. When taking down the antenna he realized that when operating on 40 meters he had left one section of the expandable vertical down so no wonder he had a lot of less than strong signal reports. Hey we all make mistakes. Some of us more than others.
It was a vertical kind of day with all three stations using a vertical antenna. Band Pass filters were a necessity and worked to minimize any cross band problems.
Alan W4PLP stopped by as well as Casey KD4FYY. We had a few curious park visitors and gave out POTA brochures and Ham radio info sheets. We also had a rather unusual fellow sitting at a nearby picnic table when we arrived. Long story but it was a bit spooky to say the least. He soon left after we arrived.
Fun day in the park and had fun on the radio. Jan 10, 2026
|
|
0 viewsThursday Jan. 8 2026 we activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Brotherton Rd. picnic area.
Dan K2DTS set up his vertical and made 14 SSB contacts on 20 meters with all of them being Park to Park contacts. He had 4 to Canada, 1 to California and 1 to Texas.
Tony WA4TW also used his vertical and made 26 contacts with 20 being P2P contacts including two DX P2P's to Canada and Saint Lucia Island.
Allen also set his vertical antenna and made 32 SSB contacts half on 12 meters and half on 40 meters. He had 10 P2P contacts one of which was a DX P2P to Brazil and another to St. Vincent Island. When taking down the antenna he realized that when operating on 40 meters he had left one section of the expandable vertical down so no wonder he had a lot of less than strong signal reports. Hey we all make mistakes. Some of us more than others.
It was a vertical kind of day with all three stations using a vertical antenna. Band Pass filters were a necessity and worked to minimize any cross band problems.
Alan W4PLP stopped by as well as Casey KD4FYY. We had a few curious park visitors and gave out POTA brochures and Ham radio info sheets. We also had a rather unusual fellow sitting at a nearby picnic table when we arrived. Long story but it was a bit spooky to say the least. He soon left after we arrived.
Fun day in the park and had fun on the radio. Jan 10, 2026
|
|
0 viewsThursday Jan. 8 2026 we activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Brotherton Rd. picnic area.
Dan K2DTS set up his vertical and made 14 SSB contacts on 20 meters with all of them being Park to Park contacts. He had 4 to Canada, 1 to California and 1 to Texas.
Tony WA4TW also used his vertical and made 26 contacts with 20 being P2P contacts including two DX P2P's to Canada and Saint Lucia Island.
Allen also set his vertical antenna and made 32 SSB contacts half on 12 meters and half on 40 meters. He had 10 P2P contacts one of which was a DX P2P to Brazil and another to St. Vincent Island. When taking down the antenna he realized that when operating on 40 meters he had left one section of the expandable vertical down so no wonder he had a lot of less than strong signal reports. Hey we all make mistakes. Some of us more than others.
It was a vertical kind of day with all three stations using a vertical antenna. Band Pass filters were a necessity and worked to minimize any cross band problems.
Alan W4PLP stopped by as well as Casey KD4FYY. We had a few curious park visitors and gave out POTA brochures and Ham radio info sheets. We also had a rather unusual fellow sitting at a nearby picnic table when we arrived. Long story but it was a bit spooky to say the least. He soon left after we arrived.
Fun day in the park and had fun on the radio. Jan 10, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
