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43 viewsThis Thursday Dec 4 2025 we activated Summerville Fish Hatchery US-12771. This site was recently added by the POTA folks and is a difficult one to activate. First the signs are small and faded, two the paved public parking lot is small and there are overhead power lines everywhere. LOOK UP BEFORE YOU SET UP ! There is one small grassy area adjacent to the parking lot. On the good side the hatchery staff is friendly, knows about POTA and welcomes Ham visitors.
Allen KN4FKS set up a 17 ft vertical in the grassy area and made 63 SSB contacts 5 on 12 meters, 7 on 10 meters, and the rest on 20 meters. He had 13 Park to Park contacts, with DX to Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer vertical on the other end of the small grassy spot and made 73 contacts, 37 on SSB and 36 FT8 on 40,20 and 17 meters. He had DX to Canada (2) France (2) and Spain (2).
John KB4QXI got there late as usual and set up next to the dumpster with his ham stick on top of the car. He had 56 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 15 P2P contacts with three P2P's with Canadian parks.
Dan K2DTS set up across the parking lot with his 17 ft whip mounted on the car. He had 24 contacts 7 SSB and 17 FT8 on 20, 17, and 15 meters. He had DX to Canada, Italy, Belgium, France, Ecuador, and the Canary Islands.
Apologies to Danny as I completely forgot to take his photo when I had the camera out even though I had him take my photo. Maybe next time.
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48 viewsThis Thursday Dec 4 2025 we activated Summerville Fish Hatchery US-12771. This site was recently added by the POTA folks and is a difficult one to activate. First the signs are small and faded, two the paved public parking lot is small and there are overhead power lines everywhere. LOOK UP BEFORE YOU SET UP ! There is one small grassy area adjacent to the parking lot. On the good side the hatchery staff is friendly, knows about POTA and welcomes Ham visitors.
Allen KN4FKS set up a 17 ft vertical in the grassy area and made 63 SSB contacts 5 on 12 meters, 7 on 10 meters, and the rest on 20 meters. He had 13 Park to Park contacts, with DX to Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer vertical on the other end of the small grassy spot and made 73 contacts, 37 on SSB and 36 FT8 on 40,20 and 17 meters. He had DX to Canada (2) France (2) and Spain (2).
John KB4QXI got there late as usual and set up next to the dumpster with his ham stick on top of the car. He had 56 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 15 P2P contacts with three P2P's with Canadian parks.
Dan K2DTS set up across the parking lot with his 17 ft whip mounted on the car. He had 24 contacts 7 SSB and 17 FT8 on 20, 17, and 15 meters. He had DX to Canada, Italy, Belgium, France, Ecuador, and the Canary Islands.
Apologies to Danny as I completely forgot to take his photo when I had the camera out even though I had him take my photo. Maybe next time.
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68 viewsThis Thursday Dec 4 2025 we activated Summerville Fish Hatchery US-12771. This site was recently added by the POTA folks and is a difficult one to activate. First the signs are small and faded, two the paved public parking lot is small and there are overhead power lines everywhere. LOOK UP BEFORE YOU SET UP ! There is one small grassy area adjacent to the parking lot. On the good side the hatchery staff is friendly, knows about POTA and welcomes Ham visitors.
Allen KN4FKS set up a 17 ft vertical in the grassy area and made 63 SSB contacts 5 on 12 meters, 7 on 10 meters, and the rest on 20 meters. He had 13 Park to Park contacts, with DX to Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer vertical on the other end of the small grassy spot and made 73 contacts, 37 on SSB and 36 FT8 on 40,20 and 17 meters. He had DX to Canada (2) France (2) and Spain (2).
John KB4QXI got there late as usual and set up next to the dumpster with his ham stick on top of the car. He had 56 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 15 P2P contacts with three P2P's with Canadian parks.
Dan K2DTS set up across the parking lot with his 17 ft whip mounted on the car. He had 24 contacts 7 SSB and 17 FT8 on 20, 17, and 15 meters. He had DX to Canada, Italy, Belgium, France, Ecuador, and the Canary Islands.
Apologies to Danny as I completely forgot to take his photo when I had the camera out even though I had him take my photo. Maybe next time.
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46 viewsThis Thursday Dec. 11 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park site on top of the hill. The terrestrial and the space weather cooperated for a fun day of radio.
Danny AG4DW made 123 contacts, 81 SSB and 42 FT8 on 40 and 20 meters. He had 9 DX contacts 7 to Canada then Spain and Slovenia. He was using his elevated vertical, POTA Performer antenna.
Allen KN4FKS made 45 SSB contacts with 8 Park to Park contacts. He had 38 contacts on 15 meters and 7 on 12 meters. There were 11 DX contacts with 3 to Spain, # to Puerto Rico, 2 to Canada, and then Italy, France and St. Kitts-Nevis. Allen used his 17 foot vertical with 8 radials.
Dan K2DTS had 46 contacts on SSB. All were P2P contacts on pretty much all the bands from 10 to 40 meters. He had DX contacts in Chile, Ecuador, and 2 in Puerto Rico. Dan used his Rybakov vertical antenna. It is a 25 ft wire suspended off a 31 ft. SOTA Beam mast on a drive on support base, uses a 4-1 balun and a single 17 ft counterpoise radial. We found our new POTA antenna but no one had an N connector to UHF adaptor. The crank up tower is a bit rusty but looks promising for later.
John KB4QXI couldn't make it for the activation but texted us asking "How are band Conditions?" Danny texted back "There haven't been any decent bands since the 70's" Hi Hi.
On Tuesday Dec 9 Allen KN4FKS was running a shuttle for Karen his wife for a hike on several Pigeon Mountain Trails. While he waited for her at the Estelle Mine Road site he activated CPMWMA US-3742 he had 58 SSB contacts with 21 P2P contacts. He had 8 contacts on 20 meters, 3 on 40, 5 on 17, and the rest on 15. As usual from that location with the iron ore ground DX was coming in well. There were 4 to Canada, 2 to France, and Germany, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, England and a p2p to Portugal. He used the end fed wire sloper antenna.
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34 viewsThis Thursday Dec. 11 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park site on top of the hill. The terrestrial and the space weather cooperated for a fun day of radio.
Danny AG4DW made 123 contacts, 81 SSB and 42 FT8 on 40 and 20 meters. He had 9 DX contacts 7 to Canada then Spain and Slovenia. He was using his elevated vertical, POTA Performer antenna.
Allen KN4FKS made 45 SSB contacts with 8 Park to Park contacts. He had 38 contacts on 15 meters and 7 on 12 meters. There were 11 DX contacts with 3 to Spain, # to Puerto Rico, 2 to Canada, and then Italy, France and St. Kitts-Nevis. Allen used his 17 foot vertical with 8 radials.
Dan K2DTS had 46 contacts on SSB. All were P2P contacts on pretty much all the bands from 10 to 40 meters. He had DX contacts in Chile, Ecuador, and 2 in Puerto Rico. Dan used his Rybakov vertical antenna. It is a 25 ft wire suspended off a 31 ft. SOTA Beam mast on a drive on support base, uses a 4-1 balun and a single 17 ft counterpoise radial. We found our new POTA antenna but no one had an N connector to UHF adaptor. The crank up tower is a bit rusty but looks promising for later.
John KB4QXI couldn't make it for the activation but texted us asking "How are band Conditions?" Danny texted back "There haven't been any decent bands since the 70's" Hi Hi.
On Tuesday Dec 9 Allen KN4FKS was running a shuttle for Karen his wife for a hike on several Pigeon Mountain Trails. While he waited for her at the Estelle Mine Road site he activated CPMWMA US-3742 he had 58 SSB contacts with 21 P2P contacts. He had 8 contacts on 20 meters, 3 on 40, 5 on 17, and the rest on 15. As usual from that location with the iron ore ground DX was coming in well. There were 4 to Canada, 2 to France, and Germany, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, England and a p2p to Portugal. He used the end fed wire sloper antenna.
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69 viewsThis Thursday Dec. 11 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park site on top of the hill. The terrestrial and the space weather cooperated for a fun day of radio.
Danny AG4DW made 123 contacts, 81 SSB and 42 FT8 on 40 and 20 meters. He had 9 DX contacts 7 to Canada then Spain and Slovenia. He was using his elevated vertical, POTA Performer antenna.
Allen KN4FKS made 45 SSB contacts with 8 Park to Park contacts. He had 38 contacts on 15 meters and 7 on 12 meters. There were 11 DX contacts with 3 to Spain, # to Puerto Rico, 2 to Canada, and then Italy, France and St. Kitts-Nevis. Allen used his 17 foot vertical with 8 radials.
Dan K2DTS had 46 contacts on SSB. All were P2P contacts on pretty much all the bands from 10 to 40 meters. He had DX contacts in Chile, Ecuador, and 2 in Puerto Rico. Dan used his Rybakov vertical antenna. It is a 25 ft wire suspended off a 31 ft. SOTA Beam mast on a drive on support base, uses a 4-1 balun and a single 17 ft counterpoise radial. We found our new POTA antenna but no one had an N connector to UHF adaptor. The crank up tower is a bit rusty but looks promising for later.
John KB4QXI couldn't make it for the activation but texted us asking "How are band Conditions?" Danny texted back "There haven't been any decent bands since the 70's" Hi Hi.
On Tuesday Dec 9 Allen KN4FKS was running a shuttle for Karen his wife for a hike on several Pigeon Mountain Trails. While he waited for her at the Estelle Mine Road site he activated CPMWMA US-3742 he had 58 SSB contacts with 21 P2P contacts. He had 8 contacts on 20 meters, 3 on 40, 5 on 17, and the rest on 15. As usual from that location with the iron ore ground DX was coming in well. There were 4 to Canada, 2 to France, and Germany, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, England and a p2p to Portugal. He used the end fed wire sloper antenna.
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71 viewsThis Thursday Dec. 11 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park site on top of the hill. The terrestrial and the space weather cooperated for a fun day of radio.
Danny AG4DW made 123 contacts, 81 SSB and 42 FT8 on 40 and 20 meters. He had 9 DX contacts 7 to Canada then Spain and Slovenia. He was using his elevated vertical, POTA Performer antenna.
Allen KN4FKS made 45 SSB contacts with 8 Park to Park contacts. He had 38 contacts on 15 meters and 7 on 12 meters. There were 11 DX contacts with 3 to Spain, # to Puerto Rico, 2 to Canada, and then Italy, France and St. Kitts-Nevis. Allen used his 17 foot vertical with 8 radials.
Dan K2DTS had 46 contacts on SSB. All were P2P contacts on pretty much all the bands from 10 to 40 meters. He had DX contacts in Chile, Ecuador, and 2 in Puerto Rico. Dan used his Rybakov vertical antenna. It is a 25 ft wire suspended off a 31 ft. SOTA Beam mast on a drive on support base, uses a 4-1 balun and a single 17 ft counterpoise radial. We found our new POTA antenna but no one had an N connector to UHF adaptor. The crank up tower is a bit rusty but looks promising for later.
John KB4QXI couldn't make it for the activation but texted us asking "How are band Conditions?" Danny texted back "There haven't been any decent bands since the 70's" Hi Hi.
On Tuesday Dec 9 Allen KN4FKS was running a shuttle for Karen his wife for a hike on several Pigeon Mountain Trails. While he waited for her at the Estelle Mine Road site he activated CPMWMA US-3742 he had 58 SSB contacts with 21 P2P contacts. He had 8 contacts on 20 meters, 3 on 40, 5 on 17, and the rest on 15. As usual from that location with the iron ore ground DX was coming in well. There were 4 to Canada, 2 to France, and Germany, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, England and a p2p to Portugal. He used the end fed wire sloper antenna.
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0 viewsWell I waited for everyone to show up at 10:00 am but nobody came. Friday Dec. 26 I activated Everglades National Park US-0024 from the Long Pine Key picnic area.
I set up the 17 ft. vertical with a single long counterpoise, used the trusty old ICOM 706 MkIIG at 100 watts. On 20 meters SSB I made 31 contacts with 9 Park to Park contacts as well. There was not a lot of shade in the picnic area so it got hot fast Just after noon it was 81 degrees F.
This was the first time I had activated the Everglades and the first time I've had to worry about alligators. The picnic area is next to a small lake and gators are plentiful there. While having lunch 4 acrobatic airplanes put on a show to my east. Fun day in an amazing national park.
Anybody else been out recently?
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0 viewsWell I waited for everyone to show up at 10:00 am but nobody came. Friday Dec. 26 I activated Everglades National Park US-0024 from the Long Pine Key picnic area.
I set up the 17 ft. vertical with a single long counterpoise, used the trusty old ICOM 706 MkIIG at 100 watts. On 20 meters SSB I made 31 contacts with 9 Park to Park contacts as well. There was not a lot of shade in the picnic area so it got hot fast Just after noon it was 81 degrees F.
This was the first time I had activated the Everglades and the first time I've had to worry about alligators. The picnic area is next to a small lake and gators are plentiful there. While having lunch 4 acrobatic airplanes put on a show to my east. Fun day in an amazing national park.
Anybody else been out recently?
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260 viewsOn Thursday Aug. 21, 2025 we activated the Vann House State Historical Site US-7457 This small park is only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so it doesn't see a lot of activations. There are lots of picnic tables and a wonderful shade tree to make it a pleasant site even on a hot day. The park manager lady is also a Ham so the staff is definitely POTA friendly. The adjacent museum and visitor center is worth a visit and the actual Vann house is amazing. Our native Americans did not live in Tepees.
Allen KN4FKS and Danny AG4DW shared a radio set up. They used the end fed wire and the ever trusty Icom 706 MKIIG. Allen made 37 contacts with 5 park to parks on 40 meters SSB. Danny made 22 contacts with 4 P2P also on 40 meters. It was tough work as we had a local QRM source giving us a 5-8 noise level on 40 meters and even 5-6 across all the bands. Don't know what it was but it made getting contacts a challenge. They could hear us but we couldn't hear them.
Dan K2DTS set up his trusty 17 ft. vertical on his car hood. He made 32 contacts on 20 and 17 meters on FT8 and had DX contacts in France, Slovakia, Belize, Guatemala, Czech Republic, Finland, and 2 in Germany. Dave KQ4GLQ set up his vertical and ran his ICOM 705 in a way cool go box set up. He made 61 contacts on FT8. I wore my special T shirt just for him. (see attached photos)
Earlier in the week John KB4QXI activated Berry College WMA 3734 on Wednesday and Danny AG4DW went to Estelle on Pigeon Mountain also on Wednesday. to edge closer to getting his KILO award for Pigeon. Dave KQ4GLQ and Tony WA4TW joined him there.
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500 viewsAllen KN4FKS headed over to Calhoun to activate New Echota State Historic site US-3722 and at the same time activate the 'Trail of Tears' US-3791.
He made 135 contacts, with 13 Park to Park contacts and 5 Canadians plus one Cayman Islander. 20 meters was hopping and contacts came quick and heavy. Had a nice chat with the park naturalist who was very familiar with Ham radio from her CERT experience in Paulding County GA.
ED KM6UTC made the trip to New Echota but as soon as he arrived got a call and had to leave. Bummer.
John KB4QXI was in West Virginia for an event and activated Coopers Rock State Forest US-5585 on Thursday as well. He made 26 contacts with one Canadian park to park three fer. (1 contact but three park numbers)
From Danny AG4DW
Having airport shuttle duties this Thursday morning, and a necessary trip to Dunlap, TN, to pick up a custom part I ordered, I decided to go a few miles further past Dunlap to Savage Gulf State Park, US-9718, in Grundy County. This is a new-to-me, gorgeous park with lots of trails, meadows and a large picnic area with massive wooden picnic tables. And the cicadas were deafening! 20 meter band conditions were not too bad and I got 9 SSB contacts, all park-to-parks, and 21 FT8 contacts in a little under two hours.
On the way home I took a little detour and stopped at another new-to-me park, North Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Park, US-11879, on Montlake Road, near Soddy-Daisy, TN. This was a very difficult park to activate as it was basically a large hole in the ground (I guess that's why they call it a gorge) and not only did signals not want to get out, they didn't want get in either. After about two hours I only had six contacts and was about to give up and chalk up my first missed activation. Then I got a 3-fer park, in South Dakota, with two operators and it saved my bacon! I had a total of 14 contacts, 9 SSB and 5 FT8, all domestic.
I tried to make contact with KN4FKS, Allen, at New Echota State Historic Site, and KB4QXI, John, at Coopers Rock State Forest, in West Virginia, but I couldn't hear either one of them. Even tried to get AD4FM, Fred, via groundwave on Signal Mountain, just a few miles away, but no joy.
Band conditions this week were 100% better than last week. New Echota had a noise floor of about S-5 and nearby highway traffic was at times loud and a few times old cars came by with a bad spark plug wire and you would certainly know it. If you head there to activate take headphones so you can hear over the traffic noise.
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406 viewsThis weekend April 5-6, 2025 saw the 3rd annual Georgia State Parks POTA Contest . The goal here is to have ALL of the Georgia State Parks activated at once in a contest format. Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 was activated by Allen KN4FKS and John KB4QXI from Cabin 7. They set up antennas and stations on Friday evening and got ready for the contest start at 8:00 am Saturday morning.
Through the weekend Allen operated exclusively on 20 meters and John stayed on 40 meters. Band pass filters saved the day with such close proximity RF.
Bright and early Saturday both operators were ready at the start. You could not buy a contact on 20 meters! The band was dead. The sun had burped. After calling CQ for 45 minutes Allen suddenly got an answer from Arizona. He said I was the ONLY signal on his band scope. Ouch. Another few minutes and a DX contact to Columbia was made then the calls started to trickle in. It was 2 contacts the first hour, then 7 more the second hour. By the end of the third hour the 20 meter total was 20 QSO's. It slowly got better and when the day was done Allen had a total of 376 contacts. John was having similar difficulty on 40 meters. He had 143 contacts on the day, We shut down the stations at 10 pm. to get some sleep and be ready to go again Sunday morning.
During the day several fellow hams came by. Harry N4VQ stopped in with his K-9 buddy. Danny AG4DW stopped by to provide adult supervision then went across the park and set up his station giving us Park-to-Park contacts. He cranked out 25 contacts and called it a day. Dean KK4EB an old friend of both John and Allen stopped in and set up on the picnic table out in the yard. He operated on 15 meters and made 81 contacts total, 31 DX and one Georgia P2P .
Allen was awakened Sunday morning by a thunderclap at 6:30 AM. Jumping up he quickly detached both stations coax from the antennas. It was raining heavily and the thunder rolled across the ridge top. Not a good beginning to the second day of the contest. Check out time for the cabin was noon so the morning was tough. Between storm fronts Allen got on the air for a few minutes and quickly got 34 contacts before having to shut down again.
Totals for the weekend Allen Had 410 contacts with 69 P2P calls and only one Georgia park contact for a contest score of 413. John had 187 total contacts, 44 P2P contacts and 31 Georgia P2P contacts which adds 155 points to his 187 for a rough score of 342.
To cap off a fun weekend of solar and terrestrial weather, packing up to leave in the rain was fun. Antenna demobilization with occasional thunder was exciting as well as wet. Then moving all the stuff out to the cars it was just as wet. Fun weekend in spite of all the challenges. Now to dry everything out.
Alan W4PLP activated Unicoi State Park. How was your weekend? Anyone else get out to POTA?
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