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 Most viewed - 2025 |
165 viewsWednesday was a beautiful springlike day in NW Georgia. With that several of us got out and activated a park.
Allen KN4FKS went to Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 at the hilltop site at the main part of the park. Set the wire antenna and cranked up the old Icom 706 MK II G to 100 watts on 15 meters.. First contact was to Moscow and 14 DX calls we made into Europe. In a short activation 60 contacts were made with 9 P2P calls.
John KB4QXI activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the field at the far south end of the area. He made 35 contacts all park to park with 6 on 40 meters and 24 on 20 meters. Allen and John also made a short distance P2P contact on 40 meters. Dan K2DTS activated the Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 and made 12 Park to Park contacts on 20 meters.
Danny AG4DW activated the Chickamauga Battlefield on Thursday. I activated US-0716, Chickamauga Battlefield, today (2/27) from the recreation field just behind Wilder Tower. The weather started out cloudy but started clearing around noon but the temps were pleasant at the picnic tables!
I had a total of 122 QSO’s with 88 SSB and 34 FT8. DX contacts were Canada (3), Dominican Republic and Mexico. All the SSB contacts were on 20 meters except for two on 10 meters. FT8 contacts were about half 20 meters and half 10 meters. There were 16 park-to-park contacts total!
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152 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!
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135 viewsOn Tuesday May 27 Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS headed towards Cartersville to activate three parks they had never activated before. A day moving from multiple parks is called a "Rove".
The plan was to start at Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site US-3715. After an early drive they arrived at the park at 10 am and set up two stations. Allen set up his end fed sloper wire and made 20 contacts on 20 meters. 6 were Park to Park contacts. Danny had started on 40 meters and it was not producing contacts. He made a few FT8 Contacts then moved to 20 meters when Allen was clear. He had 14 contacts with 9 SSB and 5 FT8 contacts. It was a new experience to set up, make a few contacts then take everything down and prepare to move to the next park. It just didn't feel right. But that was the plan.
Next was Allatoona Pass Battlefield State Historic Site US-7471. This Civil War site is a very small site with a small parking lot next to a busy road, and very noisy powerlines. We set Danny's vertical up on top of the adjacent berm with Lake Allatoona on the other side. Using Danny's rig we worked through the noise, shared the radio and Allen made 17 contacts, with 7 P2P contacts on 20 meters. Danny made 14 contacts on SSB. Handing the microphone back and forth saying 'standby for a second operator' was another new experience and again it just didn't feel right. But it worked and we both got an activation. At this site we had a lot of interaction with people walking by. We would take a moment to explain what we were doing "It's not CB" Many had a relative or friend who was into Ham radio. The 'Parks ON The Air' concept was interesting and exciting to all of them. We packed up the gear, then spent a few minutes walking past the monuments and interpretive signage to explore the battlefield site.
Then it was on to Red Top Mountain State Park US-2194. We used the large empty parking lot at group shelter 2 as our base. After a quick lunch we used Danny's radio and Allen's end fed wire antenna. to set up on 20 meters. Again sharing the radio Allen made 12 contacts with 11 P2P. and Danny made a quick 10 contacts. We could hear the static crashes on the radio and the sky was getting darker. A few drops fell so Danny deployed his "sun shade' umbrella to cover the tail gate where we had the rig set up. About the time we both had the 10 contacts required for a successful activation the rain was beginning to fall. As we quickly began to take everything down it began to rain harder, About the time we jumped in the truck it began to pour.
The drive up the interstate from Cartersville to Resaca was exciting to say the least. The rain was hard and at one place the fast lane was not draining and had about a foot of standing water. This was causing cars to spin out into the median, bang into each other and drown out their engines Several state troopers were on the shoulder working fender benders. Somehow Danny was able to safely get us through the mayhem and on up the road.
It was a fun day, very different and challenging at times. We each added three new parks to our list of sites we have activated. Maybe one day we'll both qualify for some obscure POTA certificate :-)
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132 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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125 viewsWe activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 yesterday at the Wilder Recreation Field site. This is on the West side of the park and was the front line on the third day of the battle. A dozen deer wandered across the field in front of us and the sun actually made it right pleasant.
As we gathered we agreed to a band plan as to who would be operating on which band. Then it was set up time. Allen KN4FKS and Danny AG4DW decided to utilize the nearby picnic tables and set their vertical antennas on opposite sides. Ed KM6UTC set up in the back seat of his vehicle. Dan K2DTS was on the far end of the parking lot and when John KB4QXI got there he also set up in the front of the parking lot.
Allen chased Park to Park contacts on 20 meters SSB and needed 20 P2P's to make a double Kilo ( 2000 ) P2P POTA award. with 21 made it was a successful day. Danny cranked up on 15 Meters, caught a band opening and worked DX into Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Hawaii, and Mexico. He had a total of 104 contacts with 46 SSB and 58 FT8 all on 15 meters. Ed worked 10 meters and had 46 FT8 contacts with 22 of those being DX. Dan worked the WARC bands of 12 & 17 meters and I don't know his totals. John worked 40 meters and had 26 contacts with 4 P2P.
A fun day was had by all, there were lots of park visitors coming by and one cyclist chatted and his father, SK now was a Ham back in the 50's he could even remember his call sign. In the attached photos we utilized the latest model of line gun to get antennas set. Hi Hi.
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125 viewsYesterday Thursday Jan. 23 we activated Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. WMA US-3742 from the check station on Rocky Lane. It was warm inside but getting the antennas up was COLD !
Danny AG4DW set his rig up on the dining area table and Allen set his rig up in the front entry room. The coax was passed through a window and a piece of foam pipe insulation was used to keep the cold out and prevent damage to the wire.
With room for only two operating positions inside Ed KM6UTC opted to use his back seat shack to operate on 15 meters. He made 64 FT8 contacts with 22 being DX into Europe. Inside Tony WA4TW used Allen's rig and quickly made 44 contacts in 30 minutes on 20 meters with 3 P2P and 2 DX to Canada.. Allen handled the logging and helped grab callsigns out of the nonstop pileup.
After a bathroom break Allen KN4FKS got on 20 meters and again quickly made 48 contacts in 32 minutes. He had 4 P2P and 1 DX to Canada. Tony handled the logging which helped maintain the fast pace contacts. Later John KB4QXI got on the 20 meter rig and made 48 contacts with 5 P2P and 2 DX to Canada. Dan K2DTS fired up the 20 meter rig later and made ??? contacts. So after 4 successful activations of over 140 contacts the 100 watt radio had used less than 10 amp hours from the battery.
In the other room Danny AG4DW set up his station and operated on 10 meters. he made 35 total contacts with 17 SSB and 18 FT8. 22 contacts were DX with contacts made to Argentina, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, Maderia Island, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Puerto Rico, and Spain.
Just think in about six years we'll remember how 10 meters was super hot and even open for dx after 10 pm local. Now we are in the good times so get on 10 meters and talk to the world.
Matt AF4MH got on Danny's 10 meter rig and using SSB made 15 contracts with 2 P2P and 7 DX to Canada, Brazil, England, Chile, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.
At lunch we were joined by four of the DNR wildlife folks who were our host and also wanted to enjoy a warm place to have lunch. Thanks for letting us "play radio" in the check station. Another fun day of activating POTA!
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123 viewsThis Thursday we activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 from the Overlook site.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed half wave sloper antenna under the trees and Dan K2DTS warmed it up first. He made 20 contacts on 20 meters SSB. the band was wonky and contacts were either long or close. He had one in Alabama and one in California. Allen then used the same rig to make 21 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts which included a park to park in Bermuda before the rains came.
Danny AG4DW cranked up his rig using a vertical antenna and made 4 SSB contacts, 25 FT8 contacts and 2 FM contacts. With the two FM contacts on the 1.25 m band he accomplished a rather hard to get POTA award. The POTA N1CC award is obtained by making contacts on TEN bands in TEN different parks. He is the first of our crew to get this award, congratulations on all the hard work. John KB4QXI made 20 contacts on 20 meters with 16 P2P contacts and 2 Canadian DX contacts.
The drive up the gravel road to the overlook is rough as usual but the mountain laurel bushes were in full bloom and made the trip a bit more bearable.
We seem to be in a springtime rain shower loop as every week we seem to be taking down antennas in the rain. Luckily none of the radio equipment has gotten wet. However antennas, coax and throw string need to be dried before the next activation. Hopefully the next activation will be a dry one.
Again, congrats to Danny on the award.
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122 viewsIt has been a busy POTA week.
The week started with John KB4QXI activating Chattahoochee Bend State Park US-2168 on Sunday. He made 34 contacts with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts.
Then on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd State Park US-2187. He made 97 contacts with 41 P2P and 12 DX contacts.
On Wednesday John KB4QXI and Danny AG4DW activated the Zahnd WMA US-7903. John made 33 Contacts with 15 P2P and2 DX. Danny made 17 contacts with 1 DX contact.
On Thursday the crew gathered at Cloudland Canyon State Park, Nick A Jack trailhead to activate US-2169. Allen KN4FKS operated mostly on 40 meters SSB and made 64 contacts with 16 P2P on a total of seven bands, 40,15, 80, 6. 2, 1.25, 70cm.
Dan K2DTS made 15 contacts with all of them being P2P contacts. John KB4QXI made a total of 113 contacts, 10 on 15m SSB and the rest on 20m SSB. He had 30 P2P contacts and 6 DX. Danny AG4DW had 50 contacts, 10 SSB and the rest FT8 with 11 DX contacts. Danny also participated in the multi band effort. He is leading the pack in the POTA N1CC award ( N1CC is making contacts on ten bands in ten different parks )
Lots of peanut butter and jelly was consumed and all had a fun time on difficult bands this week.
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121 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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121 viewsThis Thursday we activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 from the Overlook site.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed half wave sloper antenna under the trees and Dan K2DTS warmed it up first. He made 20 contacts on 20 meters SSB. the band was wonky and contacts were either long or close. He had one in Alabama and one in California. Allen then used the same rig to make 21 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts which included a park to park in Bermuda before the rains came.
Danny AG4DW cranked up his rig using a vertical antenna and made 4 SSB contacts, 25 FT8 contacts and 2 FM contacts. With the two FM contacts on the 1.25 m band he accomplished a rather hard to get POTA award. The POTA N1CC award is obtained by making contacts on TEN bands in TEN different parks. He is the first of our crew to get this award, congratulations on all the hard work. John KB4QXI made 20 contacts on 20 meters with 16 P2P contacts and 2 Canadian DX contacts.
The drive up the gravel road to the overlook is rough as usual but the mountain laurel bushes were in full bloom and made the trip a bit more bearable.
We seem to be in a springtime rain shower loop as every week we seem to be taking down antennas in the rain. Luckily none of the radio equipment has gotten wet. However antennas, coax and throw string need to be dried before the next activation. Hopefully the next activation will be a dry one.
Again, congrats to Danny on the award.
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119 viewsWe activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 yesterday at the Wilder Recreation Field site. This is on the West side of the park and was the front line on the third day of the battle. A dozen deer wandered across the field in front of us and the sun actually made it right pleasant.
As we gathered we agreed to a band plan as to who would be operating on which band. Then it was set up time. Allen KN4FKS and Danny AG4DW decided to utilize the nearby picnic tables and set their vertical antennas on opposite sides. Ed KM6UTC set up in the back seat of his vehicle. Dan K2DTS was on the far end of the parking lot and when John KB4QXI got there he also set up in the front of the parking lot.
Allen chased Park to Park contacts on 20 meters SSB and needed 20 P2P's to make a double Kilo ( 2000 ) P2P POTA award. with 21 made it was a successful day. Danny cranked up on 15 Meters, caught a band opening and worked DX into Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Hawaii, and Mexico. He had a total of 104 contacts with 46 SSB and 58 FT8 all on 15 meters. Ed worked 10 meters and had 46 FT8 contacts with 22 of those being DX. Dan worked the WARC bands of 12 & 17 meters and I don't know his totals. John worked 40 meters and had 26 contacts with 4 P2P.
A fun day was had by all, there were lots of park visitors coming by and one cyclist chatted and his father, SK now was a Ham back in the 50's he could even remember his call sign. In the attached photos we utilized the latest model of line gun to get antennas set. Hi Hi.
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118 viewsIt has been a busy POTA week.
The week started with John KB4QXI activating Chattahoochee Bend State Park US-2168 on Sunday. He made 34 contacts with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts.
Then on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd State Park US-2187. He made 97 contacts with 41 P2P and 12 DX contacts.
On Wednesday John KB4QXI and Danny AG4DW activated the Zahnd WMA US-7903. John made 33 Contacts with 15 P2P and2 DX. Danny made 17 contacts with 1 DX contact.
On Thursday the crew gathered at Cloudland Canyon State Park, Nick A Jack trailhead to activate US-2169. Allen KN4FKS operated mostly on 40 meters SSB and made 64 contacts with 16 P2P on a total of seven bands, 40,15, 80, 6. 2, 1.25, 70cm.
Dan K2DTS made 15 contacts with all of them being P2P contacts. John KB4QXI made a total of 113 contacts, 10 on 15m SSB and the rest on 20m SSB. He had 30 P2P contacts and 6 DX. Danny AG4DW had 50 contacts, 10 SSB and the rest FT8 with 11 DX contacts. Danny also participated in the multi band effort. He is leading the pack in the POTA N1CC award ( N1CC is making contacts on ten bands in ten different parks )
Lots of peanut butter and jelly was consumed and all had a fun time on difficult bands this week.
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