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323 viewsIt's been a busy week. This Thursday June 12 we gathered at Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 over on the west side of the park at the 'recreation field' parking lot.
Danny AG4DW set up on the west end at the picnic tables. Jody W4LWC assisted him with logging duties. Danny made 91 total contacts. 74 SSB contacts and 7 FT8 contacts on 20 meters, then went to 15 meters FT8 and made 10 more including one DX to Spain. Allen KN4FKS set up on the east end of the parking lot under the shade trees. He had 29 SSB contacts, 26 on 40 meters and 3 on 20 meters with a total of 9 Park to Park contacts. Max N4NWD completed his first activation the hard way. He used his ICOM-705 QRP rig and was using 5 watts. He made 1 SSB contact on 40 meters and 9 on 20 meters for a successful POTA activation. Welcome to the 'dark side' Max. POTA has now claimed a new believer. John KB4QXI set up around the corner at the Wilder tower parking lot to avoid the heavy RF with us. He ran SSB on 20 meters for ?? contacts. We even got a Park to Park with him.
Dan K2DTS came by and we fixed his 'leak' He moved over across the park to activate for a bit before leaving to have lunch with his wife. He had ?? contacts on the day. Ed KM6UTC set up on the Battlefield as well but he was at the Cravens House site. He had 70 total FT8 contacts 6 DX contacts to the East. The the magic band opened up and he had 4 contacts on 6 meters.
Three of us were able to make a special POTA Park to Park contact today. Dom NC4XL was activating and passed the 200,000 POTA contacts milestone. He started this personal quest in April of 2021 and in 836 activations is now passing the 200K contact mark. An amazing ride and an amazing old man. You can see his YouTube video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZurxQY6oQvs (just for contrast I started POTA a year before Dom and I have 247 activations with 12,471 contacts)
Earlier in the week several folks were POTA active as well. Allen KN4FKS activated Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 from the Ascalon Trail Head site on Saturday June 7. He made 50 SSB contacts with 26 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI was a bit further afield over near Helen GA where he activated Hartman Farm State Historic Park US-3718 on Friday June 6 and made 24 SSB contacts with 8 P2P contacts. Then on Saturday he activated Unicoi SP US-2204 with 11 SSB contacts with 6 P2P contacts.
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321 viewsThis past Thursday was 'one of those days'. The activation site was the Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 using the Cravens House site on the front slope of Lookout Mountain. This site overlooks downtown Chattanooga and is a convenient spot to activate for many of the crew. The terrestrial weather started out cloudy and overcast but later cleared to a mostly sunny day.
John KB4QXI could not come because he had to wait at home for a package delivery. Ed KM6UTC stopped by but then had to leave to also go wait for a package to be delivered. Dave KQ4GLQ came and he and Allen KN4FKS worked setting up the N3FJP logging software on his new computer to work easily with POTA activations. Then Dave got a phone call from his boss and was off to Nashville for work. Danny AG4DW was traveling to grandkids graduation. Dan K2DTS was available for a short while so he set up his mag mount ham stick and gave it a go. Allen KN4FKS set up his vertical over near the old park ranger residence.
The space weather went from bad to worse. Band conditions were dismal. Dan had one contact when he had to leave. Allen chased parks and called CQ on several bands and after 3 hours had 13 contacts. At that point you couldn't buy a contact. So I enjoyed the view for a bit, talked to several park visitors about ham radio and packed it up and went home. POTA even on a horrible day is still fun and I look at it this way, I didn't have to stress over working a chaotic pile up.
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319 views
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318 viewsIn case you have been under a rock for some time this weekend was the ARRL Field Day event. Several of us with the TSARC set up at the Cedar Grove Community Center in SW Walker County. The community center is a great location for field day with one exception. It has air conditioning a big plus, a full kitchen, lots of space to set up, a basket ball court sized big central room And did I mention air conditioning!. The one problem with the location in the valley is that it is surrounded on three sides by nearby Lookout mountain and Pigeon Mountain. So getting a signal out of this hole is difficult but doable.
We got off and running Saturday afternoon and as usual a big thunderstorm rolled in over the mountain. Quickly we disconnected antennas and watched the rain blow sideways first one direction then the other. Ed KM6UTC has his vertical antenna support tripod blow down but luckily it was not damaged. Then late Sunday morning here came another big storm so we called it quits and hurriedly got all the antennas down and everything packed away just before the storm hit once more. The timing was excellent as we had just run out of cookies to munch on. A crisis was at hand.
Field day is POTA done large and all of us have gotten lots of practice operating portable. But field day is not POTA as there were no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
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317 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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316 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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310 viewsThis past Thursday July 17 2025 we activated Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 from the main park site up at the disc golf course.
The weather cooperated with no rain or lightning. However the bands were a bit on the disturbed side. The ionosphere instead of being a nice smooth lake surface acted like there was a small craft advisory out there in space. Contacts would fade mid sentence or come booming in from odd places.
On the day Allen KN4FKS set up his 25 ft Chameleon vertical with eight radials and had 46 contacts with 10 Park to Park contacts and 3 Canadians all on 20 meters SSB. Danny AG4DW had 92 contacts using his POTA performer vertical antenna. He had 2 SSB on 20 meters then went to FT8 on 40 meters and made 49 contacts then went to 17 meters FT8 and made 41 more. John KB4QXI used his hamstick on top of the car and made 38 SSB contacts on 20 meters.. He had 14 P2P's and 1 air mobile contact. An airplane at 40,000 feet altitude over central TN made contact as well. Talk about antenna height !
Other folks were active as well on other days during the week. Allen activated on Wednesday, Dan also as well on Wednesday , Danny activated on Friday.
Remember the upcoming Saturday activation on the 26th and see you on the radio.
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306 views
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302 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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301 views
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300 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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