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11 viewsIt's been a busy POTA week. On Wednesday March 25 two separate sites were activated.
Allen KN4FKS and John KB4QXI activated Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 from the Sawmill Lake site where they started doing POTA activations SIX years ago. A fun anniversary date but it was also Allen's 300th POTA activation. Allen made 40 SSB contacts, 10 on 20 meters, 11 on 15 meters and 19 on 40 meters with 19 P2P contacts. He had DX to Alaska, Honduras, and Belgium. John had 29 SSB contacts on 20 meters 20 P2P contacts with 2 contacts in Canada.
Danny AG4DW and Dan K2DTS journeyed up a steep mountain road to the Mill Creek Overlook to activate the Cohutta WMA US-7446. Tough to get to but an amazing view toward the West. Danny made 52 contacts with 9 SSB contacts on 40 meter SSB, with 5 P2P contacts to include Park to Parks with the crew on Pigeon Mountain. He moved to 20 meters and made 24 SSB contacts with 11 more P2P contacts. Switching to FT* mode he mad 14 FT8 contacts with two Canadians being the only DX. Dan was also on the air at Cohutta but I don't know his totals.
Ed KM6UTC didn't read the email correctly and showed up at the Sawmill Lake site on Pigeon Mountain on the usual Thursday missing the anniversary activation the day before. The day was most eventful for him. First the GA DNR folks were conducting two very large controlled burns and Ed drove through the smoke to get to the site. Then the DNR helicopter arrived to assist with the burn and landed in the same field where Ed was set up. Then just to add to the fun across the road a timber harvesting operation cranked up for the day with several pieces of heavy equipment and log hauling trucks. The burn went well and according to plan the smoke lifted well so Chattanooga didn't get a thousand acres of smoke. Ed made 31 FT8 contacts on 20 meters with 3 DX , Spain, Canada and the Dominican Republic.
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105 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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145 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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62 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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0 viewsEven though our esteemed leader, Allen (KN4FKS), and I both had to go out of town this week, there was still a LOT of POTA activity despite there being no organized group effort!
Ed (KM6UTC) solved a but of a POTA activation problem/mystery this week that made a gigantic difference in the number of contacts! And it had nothing to do with his equipment! I mention this not to embarrass Ed but, rather, to point out how easy it is for us humans to make the wrong assumptions and maybe there is someone else wanting to do POTA that has made the same assumption. Up until this week Ed says that he thought the only calls you could log for a POTA activation were calls to another activator or a hunter answering his CQ POTA call! In fact, almost any valid QSO counts and can be logged (no repeaters can be used, however). You can answer someone else’s CQ and have a rag chew. It counts as a valid POTA contact. Make a contact with a DXExpediton? It counts!
Armed with the new knowledge, Ed activated US-0716, Chickamuaga and Chattanooga National Battlefield, from the Cravens House location on the North side of Lookout Mountain, on Thursday. hw wound up with 85 contacts for the day with a number of DX. The DX included the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Romania, Spain, France, Canada (eh), Puerto Rico, Italy, Azores, & Hungary.
Ed noted that the views from Cravens House were wonderful due to the excellent weather. He also commented on what appears to once have been a beautiful Mansion and adjacent Coach House at the Cravens House location and noted that the Nation Park Service seems to have allowed these structures to deteriorate, probably past the point of no return!
Ed asked if anyone had any information about this and someone sent a link to a 13-year old link to the Chattanoogan.com that sums it up quite well! A copy of the link is attached if you want to find out more!
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/3/25/247432/John-Shearer-History-Of-The-Hardy-Home.aspx
Before heading out of town Allen (KN4FKS) got away Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to Estelle Mine Road on Pigeon Mtn.WMA (US-3742). He set up his 25 ft vertical with the faraday cloth radials and mainly chased parks for P2P contacts. He had 22 SSB contacts with 20 P2P and 2 special event stations. Also one P2P to Puerto Rico. On 20 meters he had 16 contacts and 6 more on 40 meters.
AND… a bug congratulations to Dan Strickland (K2DTS) for achieving a Kilo (1000 activator contacts) from US-0716 on Wednesday. Dan has been working on this goal for a while and he can finally put that notch in his belt!
As for me, Danny (AG4DW), I had to travel to Florida for the weekend but did manage to activate two new-to-me parks in Florida on the trip down. Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park (US-3647) and Price’s Scrub State Park (US-10463). These two parks are about 4 miles apart and are totally different! Payne’s Prairie has luscious tropical foliage and Spanish Moss everywhere and a large lake and picnic pavilions. Price’s Scrub is a relatively new park and is pretty primitive and expected to remain that way. One picnic table, one porta-potty and one trash can! I managed 25 SSB contacts on 20 meters at both parks!
And, in a first for me, we saw a park ranger pull in at Price’s Scrub in an unmarked truck and headed towards a small trailhead. He saw us watching him and backed up to us, identified himself, and told us he was there on official business! He was afraid we were going to call the cops and report HIM! You hear reports of rangers investigating POTA activators but usually not the other way around! We had a good laugh and he was very familiar with Parks on the Air. He said if the apocalypse ever happens, he is getting in touch with us POTA guys!
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