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144 viewsWe activated two parks at once this Thursday Jan 22. Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 and the Trail of Tears US-3791. The old Lafayette Road which runs through the middle of the Battlefield is a designated part of the National Trail of Tears network. To activate a "trail" the rules are you have to be within 100 feet of the trail and on public land. There are a few places along the Lafayette road where you can park and be within 100 feet of the roadway/trail. To make this work the three of us set up at three different places along the road.
Danny AG4DW set up with his Hamstrick on top of his truck. He made 146 contacts, 74 SSB and 72 FT8 with 11 Park to Park and 11 contacts to Canada.
Allen KN4FKS set up north of Danny using his 17 ft vertical with the 6 foot extender in place. Working on 20 meters SSB he made 116 contacts with 17 park to park and 2 Canadians.
Dan K2DTS set up south of Danny and chased parks on 20 and 40 meters. making 25 P2P contacts and oddly on 20 meters made several contacts under the first skip zone to GA, NC, VA, SC.
Just after Allen set up the National Park enforcement rangers stopped by. They had seen the yellow coax coming out of the truck window and decided to investigate. They did not see the vertical antenna until they got out of their truck. They immediately realized I was doing POTA and commented you folks normally are over at the picnic area. I explained about the Trail of Tears thing and they were ok with it all. Probably thinking what a bunch of crazy old men. Nice fellows, protecting a special place.
Fun day with excellent band conditions for lots of contacts.
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61 viewsThis Friday March 6 we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Ascalon Trailhead.
Danny AG4DW set up his 'POTA Performer vertical and made a total of 121 contacts. 83 were SSB on 40-15-20 meters. He then made 38 FT8 contacts on 15 meters. DX was hopping as there is a DX contest this weekend. He made contacts in Bermuda, Brazil, Canada (4) Canary Islands, England, Germany (2) France (2) Spain (2) Switzerland, Venezuela.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed half wave wire antenna rigged as a sloper. He made 108 SSB contacts, 39 were Park to Park contacts. 100 on 20 meters, 8 on 10 meters. Ten was open long and he made DX contacts to Hawaii, Spain, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico.
John KB4QXI came late and set up his ham stick and made one P2P contact and his 891 radio had a crazy menu fit and refused to work any further. Tony WA4TW knows the fix and will assist John in solving the issue.
On Thursday Dan K2DTS activated the Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 on 20 meters and made 74 contacts in quick order, 21 were hunted P2P contacts then 42 set and call 'CQ POTA' he then capped it off with 11 FT8 contacts.
On Tuesday Allen KN4FKS ran over to Pigeon Mountain US-3742 and made a quick 140 SSB contacts in two hours on 20 meters using the 25 ft. vertical and the Faraday cloth radials. He had 20 Park to Park contacts and the only DX was two contacts in Canada. This days effort sent Allen's total number of POTA activation contacts to over 15,000. Time flies when you are having fun.
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