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584 viewsToday we went to Crockford-Pigeon Mtn WMA K-3742 and set up on South Brow road on top of the mountain. Allen tried a new band today, 15 meters. In 4 hours made 14 contacts and used 75% of my battery calling CQ, made 1 P2P and 3 DX contacts. Got the activation but it was work. The first contact I had was from Italy and he was hunting parks. Had to QSY twice, once due to YL in Saudi Arabia (the first female ham in the kingdom HZ1HZ ) she could not hear us when she started and then the pile up was huge.
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583 viewsCrockford-Pigeon Mountain - 05-27-2020 - W4LWC, Jody
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583 viewsPOTA, Fern Cave 11-18-2020 - KB4QXI
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583 viewsPOTA - Otting WMA K-7913 - 01-27-2022
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583 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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582 viewsCrockford-Pigeon Mountain - 05-27-2020 - W4LWC, Jody
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582 viewsPOTA, Cloudland Canyon - Nickajack Trail Head 6-11-2020, John - KB4QXI
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582 viewsCrockford-Pigeon Mtn @ Attwood Pt. 10-14-2020 - The road up
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582 viewsPOTA - Johns Mountain Overlook - 12-02-2021
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582 viewsPOTA - 2022-09-08 - Thursday we did a POTA activation at Chickamauga National Battlefield K-0716. We set up in the picnic area at the junction of Brotherton Road and Alexander's Bridge Road. Allen KN4FKS had 22 SSB contacts with 17 P2P (park to park contacts) Peter had 16 CW contacts with 4 P2P. John KB4QXI went to Point Park on the battlefield property so we had a same park P2P and two state QSO. He had 33 contacts with 7 P2P.
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582 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 Thursday afternoon and the sun was out. However the wind was howling and the temperature was dropping fast. Setting up antennas got everyone chilled then it got worse.

We had an old friend Dean Harris KK4BE join us for the activation and he set up outside on a table. John KB4QXI and Allen KN4FKS set up inside their vehicles to escape the wind. Dean quickly realized sitting outside was just too cold. While he was moving into his truck cab the wind blew over his folding chair.

John KB4QXI operated on 20 meters SSB using his Hamstick on top of his car. He made 105 contacts with 11 Park to Park contacts and 4 Canadian DX contacts. Dean KK4EB used his end fed sloper and made 22 contacts on 10 meters. two were P2P and 4 DX to Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Wales. Allen KN4FKS used his vertical with the single long counterpoise to make 31 contacts on 15 meter SSB with 3 P2P and 6 DX contacts to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and 3 Canadians.

It was a fun day but challenging due to the weather but we POTA'd on!
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582 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 on Thursday May 29. We set up in the picnic shed on top of the hill at the highest point on the park next to the disc golf course. It wasn't raining when we set up but it certainly was when we were taking down.

Allen KN4FKS set up his new 25 foot tall Chameleon vertical and made a fairly quick 35 contacts on 20 meters. Then moved to 17 meters and slowed down a bit to make 19 contacts. Then moved to 40 meters to make 3 contacts. for a total of 57 contacts with 7 park to park contacts with 2 DX contacts, Mexico and Canada. The bands were wonky with signals coming and going or just non existent. The sun burped once more.

Danny AG4DW set up his elevated radial POTA performer vertical and made a total of 73 contacts, 47 on SSB, with 10 P2P contacts then 25 contacts on FT8 all on 40 meters, he then retuned and made 1 contact on 30 meters. Dan K2DTS used his mag mount HamStick and made 27 contacts on 20 meters, 16 SSB, 6 FT8, and 4 FT4.

Notable contacts on the day was first the US aircraft carrier USS Lexington W5LEX was hunting parks and gave me a call. Then later a booming signal 'park to park' came and it was David WK4DS calling from the Ascalon Trailhead in the same Cloudland Canyon Park property. He was probably two miles away. Then the next contact was in Washington state. \

The bands were odd short and then long. Did I mention it rained? I haven't packed away dry gear in over a month. I'm ready for some sunshine. Regardless a fun time was had by all.
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