 Most viewed - 2025 |
395 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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391 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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388 viewsThis Thursday July 31 we activated Crockford-Pigeon Mtn WMA US-3742 from the South Brow site. The bands were up and down crazy so short contacts were the necessity. The terrestrial weather cooperated till after lunch when a big thunderstorm moved in from the north and cut things short.
Allen KN4FKS had 48 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 16 Park to Park contacts. The early stoppage saw him stop 11 contacts shy of reaching the triple Kilo mark for this park. Bummer but that will be remedied soon!
Danny AG4DW made 41 contacts, 17 SSB on 40 meters 1 on 6 meters and 1 on 1.25 meters He also made 7 FT8 contacts before the storm came.
John KB4QXI made 17 contacts with 6 P2P with one P2P contact in Canada.
Dan K2DTS made 13 contacts on Pigeon then made 14 more at the Battlefield in spite of the static crashes on the way home.
Fun day in the big woods!
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386 viewsThis Thursday we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park location.
The DNR Game Warden K-9 units from all over the state were training at the park Thursday. While Allen KN4FKS was setting up his vertical antenna a K-9 and two handlers came by working on a trail and an evidence search problem. They passed within ten feet but the dog was focused on the job and was not distracted by Ham!
Soon Allen was on the air on 20 meters SSB where he made 17 contacts. Moving he made 18 more on 40 meters for a total of 35 contacts with 14 Park to Park contacts. Just to see Allen called CQ POTA for ten minutes on both 15 meters and 17 meters with no success. Mid day these bands were just not happening.
Danny AG4DW set up and made 84 contacts total. 37 on 40 meters and 47 on 20 meters. 40 contacts were SSB and 47 were FT8. He had DX from Japan Spain and Canada.
Also on Thursday John KB4QXI activated Pigeon Mountain, Ed KM6UTC and Dan K2DTS activated the Battlefield from different sites.
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385 viewsThis Thursday August 7 we activated Crockford Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 from the Estelle Mine Road site.
Allen KN4FKS put up his 25 ft. vertical with 8 radials and made 36 SSB contacts with 26 P2P on 20 and 17 meters with 2 contacts on 40.
Dave KQ4GLQ made 26 SSB contacts with 6 P2P on 20 meters using his 17 ft. vertical with 3 radials. His activation was cut short by a call to work, Bummer how that happens.
John KB4QXI after having tire issues made 10 SSB contacts with 3 P2P on 20 meters with his roof mounted HamStick.
Dan K2DTS elected to stay closer to home and activated the Battlefield US-0716 where he made 15 contacts using his vehicle mounted stick antenna.
Danny AG4DW was enjoying the world's longest yard sale with his wife so he did not attend.
Earlier in the week there were some KILOs to be finished. On Tuesday Danny AG4DW activated the Battlefield US-0716 with 84 contacts on 20 and 40 meters. 51 were SSB and 33 FT8 with 4 DX two Canadians one to Spain and one to the Dominican Republic. He made and passed his TWO KILO mark for this park. When you get close to the goals POTA has such as the KILO award it gnaws at you till you get it done, especially if you are very close. Allen KN4FKS was 9 contacts shy of a triple KILO on Pigeon Mtn. US-3742. So on Saturday he set up on Blue Hole road and made a quick 20 contacts finishing the KILO quest. POTA will capture you so use caution!
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375 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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364 viewsThe TSARC POTA crew has been busy this past week. On Thursday Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS activated Sloppy Floyd State Park US-2187. The terrestrial weather was fine and the space weather was a bit noisy but OK.
Allen made 25 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 11 Park to Park contacts. Danny made 69 contacts 44 were SSB and 25 were FT8. He had DX contacts to Cuba, England, France, St. Vincent Island, and 5 Canadians. Dan K2DTS stayed closer to home and made 19 contacts on 20 meter SSB at the Battlefield US-0716 also on Thursday.
In other activations Danny AG4DW finished out his KILO award for Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 on Wednesday. Congratulations on hitting the 1 thousand contacts milestone.
Mat AF4MH was in Michigan and activated 7 Lakes State Park US-1537 with 42 SSB contacts. John KB4QXI was in West Virginia and made two activations. On Aug 29 he activated Fox Forest WMA US-12038 with 15 contacts SSB with 6 P2P contacts. Then on Aug 31 he activated Bowden State Fish Hatchery US-12052 with 21 contacts on 20 meter SSB with 13 P2P contacts.
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357 viewsWe activated J. 'SLOPPY' Floyd State Park US-2187 this Thursday Sept 25th. It was a sloppy activation on several levels. Because of the threatening rains we set up at the picnic shelter up by the restrooms on top of the hill. As we are setting up a big truck pulls up and is there to empty the sewage tank about 20 feet from the picnic shelter. The fellow said "this might stink a bit" He was right.
Then after a bit of aroma therapy the park ranger walked up and advised us the picnic shelter was reserved for the day and we needed to pack up and move to another shelter. Both of us had not noticed the little note in the sign on the shelter saying it was reserved. As Danny AG4DW noted in the future "We must check the reservation board on shelters from now on" (see attached photos of what to look for) So we quickly packed up everything and moved down the hill to the 'Not Reserved' picnic shelter, set up again and completed the activation. It never rained a drop! However on the drive home it pored down rain for a while. It was a fun but 'Sloppy' day.
For the activation part Allen KN4FKS made 32 SSB contacts 28 Park to Parks ( one of the P2P's was to California) with DX to Cuba and Poland.
Danny AG4DW cranked up the FT8 machine and made 31 contacts 25 on 10 meters and 6 on 40 meters. He had lots of DX into Europe. Germany(5), Hungary(2), Italy(2), Canada, Poland, Spain and Ukraine.
John KB4QXI was not able to attend, he spent the entire day waiting on a Windstream technician who never showed up. Customer service?
On Wednesday Danny AG4DW got to do something special in the POTA world. He was able to activate an "ALL TIME NEW ONE" (ATNO) A new state park was created in Tennessee on Sunday. Danny contacted the POTA coordinator for Tennessee and set things in motion. The park Ocoee River State park had the POTA number US-12663 by Tuesday night. Danny made tracks over to the park first thing Wednesday morning, set up and made 94 ATNO QSO's. He had 78 on SSB and 16 FT8 before the rain set in. Two other hams activated the park later that day. ATNO's don't last long so 'You snooze you loose" Congratulations to Danny on first getting the park listed then on grabbing the ATNO activation.
Fun days, fun hobby, always something new.
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356 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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354 viewsThis Thursday we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the main park location.
The DNR Game Warden K-9 units from all over the state were training at the park Thursday. While Allen KN4FKS was setting up his vertical antenna a K-9 and two handlers came by working on a trail and an evidence search problem. They passed within ten feet but the dog was focused on the job and was not distracted by Ham!
Soon Allen was on the air on 20 meters SSB where he made 17 contacts. Moving he made 18 more on 40 meters for a total of 35 contacts with 14 Park to Park contacts. Just to see Allen called CQ POTA for ten minutes on both 15 meters and 17 meters with no success. Mid day these bands were just not happening.
Danny AG4DW set up and made 84 contacts total. 37 on 40 meters and 47 on 20 meters. 40 contacts were SSB and 47 were FT8. He had DX from Japan Spain and Canada.
Also on Thursday John KB4QXI activated Pigeon Mountain, Ed KM6UTC and Dan K2DTS activated the Battlefield from different sites.
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353 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday October 9, 2025. The terrestrial weather was breezy and the space weather was great. The forest road up the mountain is getting worse but everyone made it in one piece.
Danny AG4DW set up his vertical and worked 10 meters, He made 2 SSB contacts and 60 FT8 contacts. The band was open and he made 31 DX contacts! Brazil, Dominican Republic (2) Germany (4) France (2) Haiti, Hungary, Italy (8) Kuwait, Netherlands (3) Reunion Island, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela. Yes 10 meters was open.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire and made 50 SSB contacts, 25 on 20 meters, 25 on 15 meters He had 8 Park to Park contacts and 5 DX contacts, Sweden (2) Grenada, Canada, and Slovenia.
John KB4QXI had 43 SSB QSO's on 20 meters using his roof mounted Hamstick. . He had 20 P2P contacts with 4 DX contacts, Canada (3) and Sweden. His contact SM3NRY did the heavy lifting on the QSO to Sweden. Check out his antenna farm on his QRZ page.
Dan K2DTS set up his tripod vertical and made 28 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 28 P2P. After that he made 9 FT8 contacts and like everyone else made a DX contact to Sweden.
We had several visitors at the overlook, first two large C-130 cargo plans practicing low level flying came directly over us. You almost wanted to duck they were so low. Later Jeff N2YYP showed up on horseback with several of his horseman friends and we enjoyed talking to them about POTA and the NW Georgia mountains. Then some tourists from NE Georgia came by. They had come over on a trip to see the waterfalls of the area. Finding out they are all DRY they changed plans to visiting vistas that brought them to Johns Mtn. For waterfalls we advised them to come back next spring. They were interested in our POTA radios and how far we had talked from the overlook.
It was a fun day of radios, peanut butter sandwiches and now a staple Danny's salty roasted peanuts.
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352 viewsWe activated the Chickamauga National Battlefield US-0716 this past Friday September 19 2025. One hundred and sixty two years ago the Indiana infantry and the Ohio artillery were in a bloody battle on the actual ground where we activate from. This was a special activation to remember that time in history. The site is at the junction of Brotherton Road and Alexanders Bridge road in the park, there is now a picnic area there. Quite a contrast from past times.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire and operated SSB on 20 meters. He made 62 contacts with 33 Park to Park contacts. No DX contacts were made. His transmit power was at 100 watts and the battery use for the day was 7 amp hours.
Alan W4PLP came by and operated as a second operator with Allen for a while. He made 12 SSB contacts for an activation. The two Allen/Alan combo worked well.
Danny AG4DW used his POTA Performer elevated vertical to make 50 contacts with 17 on 40 meters 32 on 15 meters and 1 on 2 meters. 15 meters was hot for DX with contacts into Spain(3), Russia(3), Germany(3), France(4), Belgium, Denmark, Honduras, Ukraine, Poland, and Italy.
David Saylors WK4DS set up his 17 ft vertical and with QRP power made 15 contacts on 17 meters 11 FT8 and 4 CW. Activating the hard way.
Dan K2DTS couldn't come on Friday so he activated the same site on Thursday with 35 Contacts, 25 SSB and 10 FT8. Danny and Fred activated the Battlefield from Signal Point on the Tennessee side on Wednesday.
Dave KQ4GLQ activated two parks in Louisiana on Wednesday. Make time for POTA after work for sure.
Come join us anytime or just activate on your own, lots of parks nearby to explore!
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