 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
613 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. at Atwood Point - 09-23-2021
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613 viewsPOTA - 2022-09-01 - Today we went to Cohutta Wildlife Management Area K-7446 over East of Chatsworth GA. We set up two stations each using an end fed half wave wire rigged as a sloper fed from the bottom. Battery power ran the 100 watt transceivers. Peter KX4BE worked CW on 20 meters and had 42 contacts with 1 P2P and 1 DX contact. Allen KN4FKS worked SSB on 40 meters and had 34 contacts with 4 P2P. Tony got on 20 meters SSB and made 15 contacts with 6 P2P and 1 DX to Alaska. Another great day doing POTA !
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613 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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613 viewsWe gathered this past Thursday at Red Clay State Park US-2970 for an activation day. It was a pleasant day weather wise with lots of shade and a nice breeze.
Danny AG4DW set up his POTA Performer vertical antenna for Jody W4LWC to use. A Rambler Radio Club graduate Emma Gillenwater who lives near the park now joined us. They made 72 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 4 DX to Canada and 1 to the Netherlands. It was great to see Emma once more.
Allen KN4FKS set up his 17 meter folded dipole and made 17 contacts on 17 meters SSB with 1 P2P and DX to Canada, France, England, and 2 Italians. Dave KQ4GLQ set up in the picnic shed and worked 40 meters SSB. I don't have his totals, but he had a good day. Dan K2DTS stopped by and without band pass filters could not get but 1 contact on 15 meters. However he moved away from us and ended up with 15 contacts on 20 meters. He was amazed that he actually heard stations in Bulgaria and Vietnam. They were strong but he was unable to break the pile up. Cool nonetheless.
John KB4QXI arriving fashionably late managed 11 contacts with 3 P2P after moving to another parking lot on the park to escape all the RF.
Red Clay State Park is a small historic park. It was the capital of the Cherokee nation for many years. So for POTA it is also a Trail of Tears US-3791 location.
Fun day on the bands, we also were able to introduce ham radio to several park visitors.
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612 viewsPOTA, Estelle Equestrian Farm - 8-14-2020 - Tony W4TDH with guests
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612 viewsPOTA - Arrowhead Wildlife Mgt Area - 2-24-2021
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612 viewsWe activated Chickamauga National Battlefield today, K-0716 Georgia. Made 70 contacts on 20 meters with 9 P2P and 5 DX contacts. One of the contacts actually had ancestor who fought in the battle fairly near where we were operating from. I stopped at lunch and then Tony WA4TW took over operating and cranked up on 40 meters He made 18 contacts with 5 P2P. The band came back then after a few minutes faded away again then came back. We checked and North America was center of large solar flare hit.
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612 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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612 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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611 viewsPOTA, Nick A Jack Trailhead - Cloudland Canyon - 12-17-2020. W4TDH, N9MJH
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611 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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611 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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