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456 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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455 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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455 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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454 views
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453 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!
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445 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 on Wednesday July 9 2025 from the overlook site. It was hot but there was as usual a breeze to make it barrable.
Allen KN4FKS set his usual end fed wire antenna and worked 40 meters SSB. He had 77 contacts with 6 park to park contacts and just 1 Canadian contact. John KB4QXI had 59 contacts with 18 P2P's on 20 meters SSB using his rooftop ham stick. Danny AG4DW set his 'POTA Performer' vertical and worked 17 meters with 8 SSB contacts and 62 FT8 contacts. He had several DX contacts 1 to Spain, 2 to the Dominican Republic and 4 to Canada.
The handy thing about operating from the overlook is that you can keep an eye on the developing weather to the west. When we arrived there was not a cloud in the sky. Then a line of small puffy clouds developed over the far ridgeline. Then as the morning moved into afternoon the clouds got bigger and then darker. About 1:30 we noticed a few far off static crashes. My shade moved and I was about to be in full sun. Enough fun, time to pack up and call it a day. We all got packed up and off the mountain then ran into heavy rains on the way home. Excellent timing. Fun day.
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