 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
424 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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424 views2023-05-03 - For POTA this week we activated Johns Mtn. WMA K-3758 today from the Johns Mountain Overlook site. This spot is off Pocket Road in Vilanow, 2 miles up a gravel forest service road to the parking lot with an amazing view to the West. On a clear day you can see into Alabama and Tennessee from there.
Getting set up first involves throwing a line into a nearby tree to hoist one end of a simple end fed Half Wave antenna. Then set up the portable station, today it was my old ICOM IC-706 MkII G with a MFJ tuner running off a 15 Amp hour Goal Zero battery. For log keeping I use a really cheap Walmart computer running N3FJP software. Today Tony WA4TW ran the log and I did the calling. The goal today was to get 57 contacts to get my POTA KILO award for making 1,000 contacts from a single park.
I got 66 contacts so the Kilo was made! After a long lunch sitting in the sun Tony got on the air and made a quick 12 contacts with 9 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI showed up late and used his Hamstick antenna on top of the car to get his activation in. It was a windy day at the overlook and band noise was rough on 20 meters but everything worked out for a fun day.
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424 views2023-05-03 - For POTA this week we activated Johns Mtn. WMA K-3758 today from the Johns Mountain Overlook site. This spot is off Pocket Road in Vilanow, 2 miles up a gravel forest service road to the parking lot with an amazing view to the West. On a clear day you can see into Alabama and Tennessee from there.
Getting set up first involves throwing a line into a nearby tree to hoist one end of a simple end fed Half Wave antenna. Then set up the portable station, today it was my old ICOM IC-706 MkII G with a MFJ tuner running off a 15 Amp hour Goal Zero battery. For log keeping I use a really cheap Walmart computer running N3FJP software. Today Tony WA4TW ran the log and I did the calling. The goal today was to get 57 contacts to get my POTA KILO award for making 1,000 contacts from a single park.
I got 66 contacts so the Kilo was made! After a long lunch sitting in the sun Tony got on the air and made a quick 12 contacts with 9 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI showed up late and used his Hamstick antenna on top of the car to get his activation in. It was a windy day at the overlook and band noise was rough on 20 meters but everything worked out for a fun day.
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424 viewsOn Saturday, while a few were invited to spend time with the Ramblers, another crew of POTA operators went off to the Cherokee National Forest to activate.
This was made possible by a very cordial invitation by the Cleveland Ham Radio group and coordinated by Larry Wallace KN4JUU. Their club has a repeater at the top of Oswald Dome at an elevation of 3000’.
The drive up took us into the clouds/dense fog, where the taillights of the vehicle ahead were barely visible. My Land Rover has rear end fog lights from the factory I thought I’d never use… well they got turned on for this.
The road itself was not as in a poor condition as some may remember when heading to the Bat Cave . But it most certainly was much longer.
We arrived and set up with a variety of different radios and antennas. From that elevation even some 2m DX was easily possible.
The highlight of the day was lunch being cooked by our own Chef Boy R Jeff N2YYP. He had made up some Deer burgers the day before. Dangerous stuff! So good a person wanted to just keep eating them. Fortunately self control managed to prevail. Jeff I believe has been elected as the ‘official cook/chef’ for future adventures. I should mention there were dogs and sausages for those who didn’t want any Bambi. And also , Jeff brought some of his award winning Chow Chow. Stuff goes good on just about everything imo
Anyway, I digress. Activations went very well. What a wonderful locale to activate. Afterwards the fog had burned off, and the trip back down was simply Gorgeous! Vistas popped as we traveled down that were picture card perfect.
If the Cleveland crew ever offer the opportunity to go to their site again, I’d strongly encourage folk to take them up on it
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424 viewsThe terrestrial weather was hot, the solar weather was stormy but we had fun anyway.
Activating the Otting WMA US-7913 on Thursday Aug 1 saw John KB4QXI make 27 contacts with 7 Park to Park contacts on 20 meters. Allen KN4FKS made 11 contacts on 40, 15, and finally 20 meters with 2 P2P contacts. Dan K2DTS set up on several bands both SSB and digital but did not report his tally for this report.
Otting got activated with lots of sweat on the operators and even the radio equipment got hot!
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423 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. at Atwood Point - 09-23-2021
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423 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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423 viewsPOTA - 20221103 - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. WMA K-3742 today from the Estelle Trailhead field. Today Tony WA4TW with help from David KO4YQD made 37 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 19 P2P and 1 DX contact. Ed KM6UTC had 28 contacts on 40 meters digital with 1 DX. Allen KN4FKS just helped Tony chase parks. John KB4QXI overslept and was late arriving and was having vehicle electrical issues. While we were there Jeff N2YYP rode up on his horse and with two fellow riders and visited with us for a while.
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423 viewsThe Rambler Radio Club W4LMS activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 today from the park interpretive center.
We set up two stations, one on 40 meters and one on 20 meters. Band conditions were tough with a solar storm arriving this morning. In spite of everything the 40 meter station made 36 contacts with 20 P2P and no DX with kids as operators and Danny AG4DW as the Elmer. The 20 meter station made ??? contacts with ??? P2P and ??? DX.
With Jody W4LWC as Elmer. Allen KN4FKS acted as the visitor welcoming person answering questions and handing out HAM radio information. The park was very busy today and the parking lot stayed full all day with a steady stream of folks coming into the interpretive center. Several licensed hams dropped in and several prospective Hams were helped along the way.
Matt AF4MH came by as did John KB4QXI. John visited a bit then went up the hill to our usual POTA site and made 21 Contacts on 20 meters with 15 P2P and 2 Canadian parks contacted.
The bear wanted to work some DX but we were trying to make P2P contacts so he just stood quietly in the corner.
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423 viewsIt has been a busy POTA week.
The week started with John KB4QXI activating Chattahoochee Bend State Park US-2168 on Sunday. He made 34 contacts with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts.
Then on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd State Park US-2187. He made 97 contacts with 41 P2P and 12 DX contacts.
On Wednesday John KB4QXI and Danny AG4DW activated the Zahnd WMA US-7903. John made 33 Contacts with 15 P2P and2 DX. Danny made 17 contacts with 1 DX contact.
On Thursday the crew gathered at Cloudland Canyon State Park, Nick A Jack trailhead to activate US-2169. Allen KN4FKS operated mostly on 40 meters SSB and made 64 contacts with 16 P2P on a total of seven bands, 40,15, 80, 6. 2, 1.25, 70cm.
Dan K2DTS made 15 contacts with all of them being P2P contacts. John KB4QXI made a total of 113 contacts, 10 on 15m SSB and the rest on 20m SSB. He had 30 P2P contacts and 6 DX. Danny AG4DW had 50 contacts, 10 SSB and the rest FT8 with 11 DX contacts. Danny also participated in the multi band effort. He is leading the pack in the POTA N1CC award ( N1CC is making contacts on ten bands in ten different parks )
Lots of peanut butter and jelly was consumed and all had a fun time on difficult bands this week.
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422 views5-25-2022, I activated the Dahlonega Gold Museum K-7456. To set up radios I set my vertical antenna in the grass half way between the building and the street. The radio and tuner were placed on a low brick wall and that was my operating position. Got on the air on 20 meters and had a noise floor of S-7 to 8. Made 13 contacts with 1 P2P and 2 DX (Spain, Canada) before I had to go QRT because it was about to rain. With all the passers by and tourist I spent a fair bit of time explaining what I was doing.
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POTA 2022-07-21, Desoto State Park K-1039 in Alabama422 viewsPOTA this week was to Desoto State Park K-1039 in Alabama. We set up in the recently renovated picnic area in the Desoto Falls portion of the park. The falls just below our operating position is right at 100 feet tall. This time of year the water flow is low but it is still impressive. We had many interested park visitors come by and Karen assisted one curious young man in making three contacts around the country. The 40 meter band was hopeless so we took turns on 20 meters.
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