 Most viewed - 2024 |
276 viewsThis Wednesday May 1 we activated J. Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a beautiful sunny day down by the lake. However the solar weather was not exactly cooperating and the bands were "wonky". Danny AG4DW had a total of 25 contacts, 15 DX (Panama, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela, Cuba, Denmark Russia, Jamacia, Germany, Belgium, England and Canada). 5 were SSB, 4 were FM VHF/UHF and 16 FT8 digital. John KB4QXI had 12 contacts on 40 and 20 meters. His mobile mount antenna on his truck was not working very well. Allen KN4FKS had 43 contacts on 20 and 40 meters, 17 Park to Park, and 6 DX ( France Puerto Rico, and 4 Canadians. Dan K2DTS had issues with his digital set up and never got it working.
We had visitors, Several park hikers stopped by and were curious about what we were doing. They were impressed by the distance of the contacts using the simple equipment. We also had some local hams drop by Lonnie KK4VDE and Dewayne W4FDT. They both were very experienced POTA operators and have activated many of the parks we often go to. Dewayne also shared with us his experiences on a POTA trip to Alaska a few years ago. Fun bucket list type trip. Great fellowship.
|
|
276 views
|
|
275 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday from the overlook site on top of the mountain. The breeze kept up so the day didn't get too hot. Allen KN4FKS had 61 SSB contacts on 20 meters, 14 P2P and 6 DX with one P2P to the Dominican Republic and 5 Canadian stations. Ed KM6UTC had 58 digital FT8 contacts with 9 DX contacts and three contacts in a row to Indonesia. John KB4QXI had 11 contacts with 1 P2P. Danny had 16 contacts on 2 meters, 70 cm, 20 Meters and 15 meters. He had a DX SSB contact with Saint Petersburg Russia.
As usual at the overlook we had several visitors. First was the US Forest Service radio service technician checking on their repeater site 100 yards from the parking lot. They had erected a chain link fence around the tower and repeater house to hopefully slow down the copper thieves who steal the grounding wires from the tower legs and the radio equipment. Sad but true. We also had a Pinhoti Trail long distance hiker stop by and we helped him resupply his water bottles. ( He's in the background of one of the photos.) As we were getting ready to leave and elderly gentleman drove up and he was actually a HAM operator from the Villanow area. I didn't get his call sign but we had a nice chat.
Then even the drive home was eventful. Danny's truck kept overheating and he had to stop and cool down several times to limp home. Probably a water pump issue. Allen got within a mile of home and Winston just sputtered and quit running. It wasn't the heat it simply is not getting spark for some reason. Karen came and towed Winston home. Sort that out later when it cools off a bit. I hope Ed and John made it home without incident there seems to be a trend starting here. I hope not.
|
|
275 viewsThis Thursday Nov. 21 we activated J. 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a bit chilly and at times very windy, One gust blew over Dave's antenna tripod and nearly tipped over my table. In spite of the weather we had a fun day.
John KB4QXI was the only smart one as he activated from inside his car .He made 46 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 17 Park to Park contacts in that total. The rest of us sat out in the wind. The sun was bright and the bands were good. Dave KQ4GLQ made 11 contacts on 10 meters SSB using his tripod vertical. Allen KN4FKS used his end fed wire to make 39 SSB contacts on several bands with 4 P2P contacts one to a park in Barbados. He had thirty contacts on 20 meters, six contacts on 17 meters, two on 12 meters and one on 6 meters. DX contacts were in Italy, Barbados and Canada. Danny AG4DW had 26 total contacts with 5 P2P contacts. Two SSB contacts on 6 meters, and 23 on FT8 on 15 meters. He had 7 DX contacts in Alaska, Canada, Czech Republic, Russia, Spain and Germany. By making his two contacts on 6 meters Danny qualified for the POTA "Activator N1CC" ten band activation award. He is the first of the crew to accomplish this award. Congratulations.
Dan K2DTS stayed closer to home and activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 where he made 15 contacts, 14 on 20 meters and 1 on 2 meters. He used a homebrew tripod vertical with elevated radials This antenna set up shows great promise in really projecting a signal well.
This coming week Thursday is Thanksgiving so we'll not schedule a planned POTA activation. However there are lots of parks and everyone can slip away sometime this week and get in an activation.
A famous Thanksgiving activation is shown in the video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOoXJhXzlw Enjoy!
|
|
274 viewsOn Saturday, while a few were invited to spend time with the Ramblers, another crew of POTA operators went off to the Cherokee National Forest to activate.
This was made possible by a very cordial invitation by the Cleveland Ham Radio group and coordinated by Larry Wallace KN4JUU. Their club has a repeater at the top of Oswald Dome at an elevation of 3000’.
The drive up took us into the clouds/dense fog, where the taillights of the vehicle ahead were barely visible. My Land Rover has rear end fog lights from the factory I thought I’d never use… well they got turned on for this.
The road itself was not as in a poor condition as some may remember when heading to the Bat Cave . But it most certainly was much longer.
We arrived and set up with a variety of different radios and antennas. From that elevation even some 2m DX was easily possible.
The highlight of the day was lunch being cooked by our own Chef Boy R Jeff N2YYP. He had made up some Deer burgers the day before. Dangerous stuff! So good a person wanted to just keep eating them. Fortunately self control managed to prevail. Jeff I believe has been elected as the ‘official cook/chef’ for future adventures. I should mention there were dogs and sausages for those who didn’t want any Bambi. And also , Jeff brought some of his award winning Chow Chow. Stuff goes good on just about everything imo
Anyway, I digress. Activations went very well. What a wonderful locale to activate. Afterwards the fog had burned off, and the trip back down was simply Gorgeous! Vistas popped as we traveled down that were picture card perfect.
If the Cleveland crew ever offer the opportunity to go to their site again, I’d strongly encourage folk to take them up on it
|
|
273 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park K-2169 today Thursday Jan 25 2024 from the main park site up on top of the hill at the big picnic shed. Luckily the shed roof kept us mostly dry but the mist that occurred between the rains blew through the open shelter and got everything a bit damp. Hopefully everything will dry out and still function. The terrestrial weather was ok with wet and rain but definitely warmer weather than last week. The space weather cooperated with no serious problems.
Ed KM6UTC set up his digital rig using the magnetic loop antenna and made quite a few contacts. Don't have numbers at this point. He also got Jeff N2YYP on digital as well and they had fun making contacts. Danny AG4DW set up his rig and used the vertical whip with tuned coil on 10 and 15 meters SSB. He made 17 contacts with 4 P2P and 5 DX contacts. One from the Netherlands was a park to park contact. He also contacted Italy, France and Canada. Allen KN4FKS then got on Danny's rig and made 25 contacts on 15 meters mostly with 3 P2P and 1 DX to Germany.
Then we changed operators again and Jeff N2YYP working 15 meters SSB made 23 contacts, with 6 DX contacts Spain, France and 4 Canadians. John KB4QXI worked on 40 meters through the static crashes and made 16 contacts. Fun day in the clouds at Cloudland.
POTA on!
|
|
273 viewsFrom deep in the woods we sent out radio waves. This week we activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the Atwood point site. No pile ups for us, band conditions were 'wonky' to say the least.
Danny AG4DW used FT8 digital and made 43 contacts, with DX to Cuba. Spain, and Isle of Man. Tony WA4TW made 21 SSB contacts with 11 P2P and DX to Saint Petersburg Russia and Canada. Allen KN4FKS had 12 SSB contacts with DX to Switzerland and Slovenia. He also contacted the Battleship IOWA NI6BB. in California.
Tony's son Jerrick joined us for part of the morning.
John KB4QXI activated a park in Arizona that day also. Allen and Danny were able to make contact later that day so it was not a P2P but fun anyhow.
|
|
272 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday from the overlook site on top of the mountain. The breeze kept up so the day didn't get too hot. Allen KN4FKS had 61 SSB contacts on 20 meters, 14 P2P and 6 DX with one P2P to the Dominican Republic and 5 Canadian stations. Ed KM6UTC had 58 digital FT8 contacts with 9 DX contacts and three contacts in a row to Indonesia. John KB4QXI had 11 contacts with 1 P2P. Danny had 16 contacts on 2 meters, 70 cm, 20 Meters and 15 meters. He had a DX SSB contact with Saint Petersburg Russia.
As usual at the overlook we had several visitors. First was the US Forest Service radio service technician checking on their repeater site 100 yards from the parking lot. They had erected a chain link fence around the tower and repeater house to hopefully slow down the copper thieves who steal the grounding wires from the tower legs and the radio equipment. Sad but true. We also had a Pinhoti Trail long distance hiker stop by and we helped him resupply his water bottles. ( He's in the background of one of the photos.) As we were getting ready to leave and elderly gentleman drove up and he was actually a HAM operator from the Villanow area. I didn't get his call sign but we had a nice chat.
Then even the drive home was eventful. Danny's truck kept overheating and he had to stop and cool down several times to limp home. Probably a water pump issue. Allen got within a mile of home and Winston just sputtered and quit running. It wasn't the heat it simply is not getting spark for some reason. Karen came and towed Winston home. Sort that out later when it cools off a bit. I hope Ed and John made it home without incident there seems to be a trend starting here. I hope not.
|
|
271 viewsDespite our fearless (underground) leader, Allen (KN4FKS), being otherwise engaged in the process of counting bats in a nearby belfry (cave), we had good attendance today as we activated K-2933, Booker T. Washington State Park, in Chattanooga. The weather was perfect, a warm sunny day. We found spots near Picnic Pavilion #2 overlooking Chickamauga Lake! The bands were up and down and otherwise kinda' funky but we managed to make some good contacts anyway!
Danny (AG4DW) had a total of 35 contacts (including 6 park-to-parks) working the 10 meter band. 9 contacts were SSB with five US contacts and three DX, including Bermuda (a park), Spain and Belgium. There were 26 digital (FT8/FT4) contacts with 12 US contacts and 14 DX, including Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain and France.
Ed Dionne (KM6UTC) worked FT8/FT4 on 20 meters using his loop antenna out of the back of his car and made 84 contacts. Two of those were DX to Canada and probably a few park-to-parks but we won’t know how many until the POTA databases work that all out.
Fred Mahler (AD4FM) worked 15 meters out of his truck using hamsticks and made 18 contacts, including 2 park-to-parks and 2 DX to Spain!
Dan Strickland (K2DTS) also worked out of the back of his car but his purpose today was to work out the kinks and configuration of some new equipment and antennas! He did not activate but nonetheless made a few contacts, including one to the Dominican Republic!
KJ4AFL, Tom Hill, crashed our POTA party. Tom lives just on the other side of the lake from the park and showed up to do a solo activation. Surprise! We welcomed him into our group. Tom worked out of his car and was having to work out some issues with an antenna that wouldn’t tune properly. It wound up being a bad piece of coax cable and he was able to take a quick trip home to replace the cable and got up and running. It was fun having Tom join us!
We had at least one visitor that was curious about what we were doing and we spent some time demonstrating POTA and Ham Radio.
We certainly missed having Allen there but we managed a good outing even without proper adult supervision!
|
|
271 viewsOn Saturday, while a few were invited to spend time with the Ramblers, another crew of POTA operators went off to the Cherokee National Forest to activate.
This was made possible by a very cordial invitation by the Cleveland Ham Radio group and coordinated by Larry Wallace KN4JUU. Their club has a repeater at the top of Oswald Dome at an elevation of 3000’.
The drive up took us into the clouds/dense fog, where the taillights of the vehicle ahead were barely visible. My Land Rover has rear end fog lights from the factory I thought I’d never use… well they got turned on for this.
The road itself was not as in a poor condition as some may remember when heading to the Bat Cave . But it most certainly was much longer.
We arrived and set up with a variety of different radios and antennas. From that elevation even some 2m DX was easily possible.
The highlight of the day was lunch being cooked by our own Chef Boy R Jeff N2YYP. He had made up some Deer burgers the day before. Dangerous stuff! So good a person wanted to just keep eating them. Fortunately self control managed to prevail. Jeff I believe has been elected as the ‘official cook/chef’ for future adventures. I should mention there were dogs and sausages for those who didn’t want any Bambi. And also , Jeff brought some of his award winning Chow Chow. Stuff goes good on just about everything imo
Anyway, I digress. Activations went very well. What a wonderful locale to activate. Afterwards the fog had burned off, and the trip back down was simply Gorgeous! Vistas popped as we traveled down that were picture card perfect.
If the Cleveland crew ever offer the opportunity to go to their site again, I’d strongly encourage folk to take them up on it
|
|
269 views
|
|
269 viewsThis Thursday we activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from inside the check station. With rain showers all around and the hot muggy weather it was certainly nice to have air conditioning and a roof over our heads.
We set two stations and shared radios and bands. Allen, KN4FKS, started out on 20 meters with 14 contacts, 12 P2P and no DX. Peter, KX4BE, broke out the key and worked 20 meter CW and made 13 contacts with all 13 being P2P. Then John KB4QXI made 18 contacts on 20 meters. Danny, AG4DW, set up his digital rig on 15 meters and made 28 contacts on FT8. He had 4 DX contacts to: Columbia, Belize, and 2 Canadians.
Thanks to the GA DNR folks who let us use the check station to avoid the heat and rain!
|
|
| 109 files on 10 page(s) |
 |
|
|
5 | |
|
|
|
|
