 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
554 viewsPOTA - 2022-09-29 - Prentice-Cooper State Forest TN K-5499 was the destination yesterday. At the far end of Tower Road is a cliff top site overlooking the Tennessee River Gorge. Ed ran FT8 using his Mag-Loop antenna, Peter used his end fed wire to work CW, and Allen hung his wire EFHW and worked SSB. Allen Had 41 contacts with 10 P2P contacts. Peter had 55 contacts with 4 P2P and Ed had 35 contacts with 1 P2P. Great day, beautiful day, great view, and great friends.
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554 viewsPOTA - 20021027 - What a great activation! Ham radio, picnic, friends, and sunset, nothing better.
Allen KN4FKS was on 17 meters SSB and had 36 contacts with 4P2P, and 4DX. John KB4QXI had quite a run on 40 meters with 102 contacts and 8 P2P. He was still busy when he went QRT for supper. Peter KX4BE was on 20 meters CW and had 68 contacts, 4 P2P, and 3 DX. Karen KX4KM had 31 contacts on 20 meter SSB with 8 P2P. Ed KM6UTC worked digital QRP on 30 meters and had 19 contacts with 1 P2P and 1 DX
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554 viewsFrom deep in the woods we sent out radio waves. This week we activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the Atwood point site. No pile ups for us, band conditions were 'wonky' to say the least.
Danny AG4DW used FT8 digital and made 43 contacts, with DX to Cuba. Spain, and Isle of Man. Tony WA4TW made 21 SSB contacts with 11 P2P and DX to Saint Petersburg Russia and Canada. Allen KN4FKS had 12 SSB contacts with DX to Switzerland and Slovenia. He also contacted the Battleship IOWA NI6BB. in California.
Tony's son Jerrick joined us for part of the morning.
John KB4QXI activated a park in Arizona that day also. Allen and Danny were able to make contact later that day so it was not a P2P but fun anyhow.
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554 viewsWe activated J. 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187 on Thursday Jan. 30 2025 from the lower lake site. The terrestrial weather was mild with mostly cloudy skies and only about 10 drops of rain at one time. The space weather cooperated as well and we all had a good day.
Allen KN4FKS rigged the end fed wire as a sloper and used the trusty old ICOM 706 MKIIG to run 100 watts. 20 meters SSB was active as usual and 71 contacts were made in short order. !5 P2P contacts and one Canadian contact. During the almost constant pile up I heard a partial of KC3 so came back with 'KC3go ahead' had another pile. To my amazement I had FOUR folks with prefix of KC3 calling me. Never had that happen before. John KB4QXI had a logging computer issue and had to work through that. Once he got set up with his Hamstick and YAESU 891 he went to work on 20 meters SSB making 87 contacts with 18 P2P and 3 Canadians. Danny AG4DW worked 15 meters and had 9 SSB contacts and 30 FT8 contacts. He had 15 DX contacts.to Canada, EH9 Ceuta & Melilla (a part of Spain in N. Africa) Columbia, Germany, France, Hawaii, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Also in other POTA news this week on Wednesday John KB4QXI went to Pigeon Mtn. US-3742 and made his 3,000th contact as an activator on that area. A TRIPPLE KILO ! Also as a POTA 'hunter' Allen KN4FKS has now contacted 2,000 distinct parks. So now he has a DOUBLE KILO as a hunter.
Hunting from the home shack or activating from a nearby park POTA has Ham radio fun for everyone.
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554 viewsEver have an itch and the need to scratch it? After I realized last week that I was 18 QSO's from a POTA double Kilo for Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 and that itch has been driving me crazy. So this morning I decided to head to the Ascalon Trailhead and scratch the itch.
Trying to get an early start to avoid the heat but it was still already warm when I arrived at the park. The throw string went exactly where I aimed it (there was no audience) and I quickly got the end fed wire antenna up. I got everything set up opened the computer and got the log all ready. I found an open frequency and spotted myself on the POTA page. 14.263 on 20 meters SSB. I called CQ for a bit and wondered where everyone was. I wondered if everything was connected then I looked at the radio display. I was on 7.263 40 meters. No wonder the spot wasn't bringing in the contacts. I quickly changed bands and there was Danny AG4DW giving me a call. So now I had the first QSO out of the 17 I needed. Being on the right band helped and contacts rolled in steadily and I easily made the 17 for the 2xKilo. I kept calling CQ and had to move once due to QRM but wound up with a total of 60 contacts with 7 Park To Park contacts and the only DX was two Canadians. By 11 am it was beginning to get hot the breeze had died so I called it a day and headed home early. The itch has been scratched so now I can concentrate on Field Day.
In June of 2017 I heard about this group doing a Ham radio thing 'Field Day' using the old 'command bus' set up at Walker Fire Rescue Station 1 in Rock Spring. It was a while after supper and I dropped in to find Jody Carter and Alan Painter still on the air. They took the time to introduce me to Ham radio and explain what I needed to do to get licensed. At the club meeting in August I took the Technician and General test and was soon on the air. The rest is history. So I will always have a special place in my heart for field day. See everyone Saturday.
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553 viewsCloudland Canyon 11-05-2020 - KN4FKS
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553 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. at Atwood Point - 09-23-2021
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553 viewsPOTA - 2022-08-04 -Our POTA activation today was at J. Floyd State Park near Summerville GA. John KB4QXI made 79 contacts on 40 meters. Tony WA4TW made 27 contacts with 7 P2P on 20 meters. Peter KX4BE made 53 contacts with 1 P2P on 30 meters CW. The assistant Park Manager Hope Cates came by and was very interested in our activation and visited for a while. Her father was a ham years ago so she remembered ham radio fondly. We had to quit early today as a thunderstorm came up from the south.
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553 viewsActivated K-6267 Sequatchie Cave State Natural Area. Some kind folks spotted me on 20 meters as the cell service is very dismal as soon as you leave Hwy 28! I had 86 CW contacts and one SSB (my first spotter) 2 DX (Hungary and PR), 4 Canadians and 4 P2P. Propagation, I would say, was excellent, considering the location.
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553 viewsPOTA 2023-08-02 - Today John KB4QXI and Allen KN4FKS activated the Johns Mountain WMA k-3758 from the overlook site. The terrestrial weather cooperated with cooler temperatures, a partly cloudy day, and a pleasant breeze. However the solar weather was less than kind with crazy up and down band conditions. A station would go from a solid 5-9 signal down to almost unreadable then back up in 45 seconds. This made QSOs interesting sometimes. John went first and made 16 contacts with 12 P2Ps with two P2P from Canadian parks. After lunch Allen took over the mic and made 17 contacts with 11 P2P.
Also just in summary since Allen and John started activating parks for POTA in March of 2020 their totals are:
Allen 142 activations 6914 QSO's with 1015 Park to Park contacts
John 140 activations 5875 QSO's with 472 Park to Park contacts
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553 viewsOn late Monday afternoon (Oct 23, 2023) we gathered at the Johns Mountain WMA (K-3758) overlook to activate the park, cook a hotdog and watch the sunset. All three objectives were met. We set up three stations and played radio! Danny AG4DW made 43 SSB contacts with 3 P2P, 2 Alaska and one Venezuela mostly on 15 meters. John KB4QXI made 61 contacts with 9 P2P, 5 Canadian contacts plus one North Africa and one Venezuela mostly on 20 meters. Peter KX4BE made 20 contacts on CW with one FM contact for DX he had 2 Japan and one Chile. Allen KN4FKS had 12 contacts with 5 FM contacts on 70 cm. The other 7 were on 40 meters.
As it got close to sundown at about 7 pm we took a break for supper and to watch the sunset from the overlook. We had hotdogs with the fixins cooked over charcoal, chips, macaroni salad, and smores for desert. There was supposed to be another desert cooked over the fire but someone (Karen KX4KM) forgot the essential ingredient, butter. We were assisted by our mascot dog I4ZZY.
The sunset was spectacular and the company was the best. Thanks to all the hunters who make our fun possible.
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553 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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