 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
364 viewsPOTA - GA QSO Party w/ Rambler Radio Club - 4-12-2021
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364 viewsPOTA - Johns Mountain Overlook - 12-02-2021
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364 viewsMade it ! Reached a POTA milestone for Cloudland Canyon State Park K-2169 Thursday. The 'KILO' award is for making one thousand contacts from a specific park. (see attached photo)
The space weather cooperated for an exceptional day and the terrestrial weather cooperated as well by not being to hot in our shady location at the Ascalon Trailhead.
In addition to our radio gear we had two 12 volt fans running off battery power. Allen KN4FKS started off on 20 meters with Danny AG4DW logging.. Fred KQ4JXX provided adult supervision for the crew. Allen KN4FKS made a total of 107 contacts with 12 P2P and 13 Canadian contacts. After lunch Danny AG4DW got on 20 and made a quick 14 contacts before it just was getting too warm to be fun. Even on top of the mountain and in the shade it was 90 degrees F.
The rig we used was my trusty old ICOM 706 Mk IIG at 100 watts with 50 ft of RG-8-X coax feeding and end fed half wave rigged as a sloper with the balun on the ground stake. To make 107 contacts the battery meter showed only 6.5 amp hours of the 20 Ahr battery used. Fun day was had by all even after getting wasp stung.
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364 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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363 viewsPOTA - Pigeon Mountain - 4-24-2021
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363 viewsPOTA - with the Rambler Radio Club - 5-15-2021
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363 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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363 viewsYesterday Thursday Jan. 23 we activated Crockford-Pigeon Mtn. WMA US-3742 from the check station on Rocky Lane. It was warm inside but getting the antennas up was COLD !
Danny AG4DW set his rig up on the dining area table and Allen set his rig up in the front entry room. The coax was passed through a window and a piece of foam pipe insulation was used to keep the cold out and prevent damage to the wire.
With room for only two operating positions inside Ed KM6UTC opted to use his back seat shack to operate on 15 meters. He made 64 FT8 contacts with 22 being DX into Europe. Inside Tony WA4TW used Allen's rig and quickly made 44 contacts in 30 minutes on 20 meters with 3 P2P and 2 DX to Canada.. Allen handled the logging and helped grab callsigns out of the nonstop pileup.
After a bathroom break Allen KN4FKS got on 20 meters and again quickly made 48 contacts in 32 minutes. He had 4 P2P and 1 DX to Canada. Tony handled the logging which helped maintain the fast pace contacts. Later John KB4QXI got on the 20 meter rig and made 48 contacts with 5 P2P and 2 DX to Canada. Dan K2DTS fired up the 20 meter rig later and made ??? contacts. So after 4 successful activations of over 140 contacts the 100 watt radio had used less than 10 amp hours from the battery.
In the other room Danny AG4DW set up his station and operated on 10 meters. he made 35 total contacts with 17 SSB and 18 FT8. 22 contacts were DX with contacts made to Argentina, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, Maderia Island, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Puerto Rico, and Spain.
Just think in about six years we'll remember how 10 meters was super hot and even open for dx after 10 pm local. Now we are in the good times so get on 10 meters and talk to the world.
Matt AF4MH got on Danny's 10 meter rig and using SSB made 15 contracts with 2 P2P and 7 DX to Canada, Brazil, England, Chile, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.
At lunch we were joined by four of the DNR wildlife folks who were our host and also wanted to enjoy a warm place to have lunch. Thanks for letting us "play radio" in the check station. Another fun day of activating POTA!
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363 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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362 viewsCrockford-Pigeon Mountain - 05-27-2020 - W4LWC, Jody
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362 viewsPOTA - Russell Cave - 7-19-2021
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362 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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