 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
544 viewsThis Thursday Nov. 21 we activated J. 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a bit chilly and at times very windy, One gust blew over Dave's antenna tripod and nearly tipped over my table. In spite of the weather we had a fun day.
John KB4QXI was the only smart one as he activated from inside his car .He made 46 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 17 Park to Park contacts in that total. The rest of us sat out in the wind. The sun was bright and the bands were good. Dave KQ4GLQ made 11 contacts on 10 meters SSB using his tripod vertical. Allen KN4FKS used his end fed wire to make 39 SSB contacts on several bands with 4 P2P contacts one to a park in Barbados. He had thirty contacts on 20 meters, six contacts on 17 meters, two on 12 meters and one on 6 meters. DX contacts were in Italy, Barbados and Canada. Danny AG4DW had 26 total contacts with 5 P2P contacts. Two SSB contacts on 6 meters, and 23 on FT8 on 15 meters. He had 7 DX contacts in Alaska, Canada, Czech Republic, Russia, Spain and Germany. By making his two contacts on 6 meters Danny qualified for the POTA "Activator N1CC" ten band activation award. He is the first of the crew to accomplish this award. Congratulations.
Dan K2DTS stayed closer to home and activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 where he made 15 contacts, 14 on 20 meters and 1 on 2 meters. He used a homebrew tripod vertical with elevated radials This antenna set up shows great promise in really projecting a signal well.
This coming week Thursday is Thanksgiving so we'll not schedule a planned POTA activation. However there are lots of parks and everyone can slip away sometime this week and get in an activation.
A famous Thanksgiving activation is shown in the video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOoXJhXzlw Enjoy!
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543 viewsPOTA - Arrowhead Wildlife Mgt Area - 2-24-2021
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543 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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543 viewsWe activated Johns Mtn. WMA K-3758 today from the Johns Mtn. overlook. On his way up the gravel mountain road Tony looks into the woods and sees a large black bear ambling along. Tony had 15 contacts with 7 P2P. One park to park was in Canada and another was in Italy. The bands were open and he had 7 DX contacts: Cuba, Italy, Slovenia, Guadeloupe Czech Republic, and Canada. Ed
KM6UTC showed up, set up his magnetic loop and worked digital on 20 and 30 meters.
In the meantime an Army fellow (Special Forces) showed up and set up his military radio. He was operating in military frequencies just above our 20 meter band. He was also a ham but he just played on the mil frequencies.Â
The occasional hikers came by today They stopped and were all amazed by just how far away we were communicating with our simple little rig.Â
Allen Got on 10 meters. Contacts were W1AW/7 in Arizona and the second was RW1A in Russia. The total for the day was 28 contacts with 4 P2P and 5 DX, European Russia, two in Italy, Canada, Canary Islands and Australia! Yes I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard VK4NH come back to my CQ. That was a first for our POTA contacts distance wise.Â
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543 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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543 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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542 viewsPOTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn Wildlife Mgt Area - 4-1-2021
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542 viewsPOTA - 2022-09-16 - With the crew scattered to the winds this week there was still POTA activity to be done.
Allen activated Chattahoochee WMA K-7447 and Hardman Farm SP K-3718. Peter activated Fort Mtn. SP K-2176, John activated Berry College WMA K-3734 and Tony activated Pigeon Mtn. WMA K-3742.
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542 viewsYesterday we activated Crockford Pigeon Mountain WMA K-3742 from the check station on Rocky Lane. The DNR folks were gracious enough to allow us to use the check station for our day. We had HEAT, a bathroom and a fun day.
We set up one station on the main table and then took turns on the microphone. We used Allen's KN4FKS Icom 706 MkIIG at 100 watts into a Chameleon vertical with a long counterpoise out on the side yard. Allen KN4FKS started out on 15 meters and made 25 quick contacts with 6 P2P and 7 DX contacts (2 Austria, 2 Germany, Spain, Ireland, and Canada.) Danny AG4DW took over and made about 20 contacts with several DX contacts. John KB4QXI went next on the same 15 meter frequency and made 20 contacts with 5 DX (2 Canadians, Austria, Ireland, and Slovak Republic.) Fred KQ4JXX got on and made about 15 contacts with a few DX contacts.
We had a new operator present so we quickly went to POTA.APP on his smart phone and went through the quick sign up process. Now officially set we turned the mic over to Jeff N2YYP. New to all this POTA stuff Jeff stepped up and quickly sounded like an experience POTA activator. He made his first contact as a Park to Park to Barbados Island in the Caribbean. He made 12 contacts total with 2 more DX contacts. Ed KM6UTC was present acting as adult supervision over this bunch of Hams. Just having one station allowed everyone else to sit around the table and ragchew quietly while someone worked the radio. Fun day.
One of the special things about Thursdays activation was that Jeff's Grandfather used to own the property the check station is on before the state bought it. Delmas Fitzpatrick lived in the old house (now gone) across the creek. He and his brother Shields Fitzpatrick took and old style cable bulldozer and built the original Rocky Lane up the East side of Pigeon Mountain. (I believe around 1950) Quite and engineering feat that was. The current Rocky Lane follows some of their original route and was constructed in the late 1980's using lots more modern equipment.
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541 viewsThis Thursday Nov. 21 we activated J. 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a bit chilly and at times very windy, One gust blew over Dave's antenna tripod and nearly tipped over my table. In spite of the weather we had a fun day.
John KB4QXI was the only smart one as he activated from inside his car .He made 46 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 17 Park to Park contacts in that total. The rest of us sat out in the wind. The sun was bright and the bands were good. Dave KQ4GLQ made 11 contacts on 10 meters SSB using his tripod vertical. Allen KN4FKS used his end fed wire to make 39 SSB contacts on several bands with 4 P2P contacts one to a park in Barbados. He had thirty contacts on 20 meters, six contacts on 17 meters, two on 12 meters and one on 6 meters. DX contacts were in Italy, Barbados and Canada. Danny AG4DW had 26 total contacts with 5 P2P contacts. Two SSB contacts on 6 meters, and 23 on FT8 on 15 meters. He had 7 DX contacts in Alaska, Canada, Czech Republic, Russia, Spain and Germany. By making his two contacts on 6 meters Danny qualified for the POTA "Activator N1CC" ten band activation award. He is the first of the crew to accomplish this award. Congratulations.
Dan K2DTS stayed closer to home and activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 where he made 15 contacts, 14 on 20 meters and 1 on 2 meters. He used a homebrew tripod vertical with elevated radials This antenna set up shows great promise in really projecting a signal well.
This coming week Thursday is Thanksgiving so we'll not schedule a planned POTA activation. However there are lots of parks and everyone can slip away sometime this week and get in an activation.
A famous Thanksgiving activation is shown in the video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOoXJhXzlw Enjoy!
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541 viewsOn Tuesday May 27 Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS headed towards Cartersville to activate three parks they had never activated before. A day moving from multiple parks is called a "Rove".
The plan was to start at Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site US-3715. After an early drive they arrived at the park at 10 am and set up two stations. Allen set up his end fed sloper wire and made 20 contacts on 20 meters. 6 were Park to Park contacts. Danny had started on 40 meters and it was not producing contacts. He made a few FT8 Contacts then moved to 20 meters when Allen was clear. He had 14 contacts with 9 SSB and 5 FT8 contacts. It was a new experience to set up, make a few contacts then take everything down and prepare to move to the next park. It just didn't feel right. But that was the plan.
Next was Allatoona Pass Battlefield State Historic Site US-7471. This Civil War site is a very small site with a small parking lot next to a busy road, and very noisy powerlines. We set Danny's vertical up on top of the adjacent berm with Lake Allatoona on the other side. Using Danny's rig we worked through the noise, shared the radio and Allen made 17 contacts, with 7 P2P contacts on 20 meters. Danny made 14 contacts on SSB. Handing the microphone back and forth saying 'standby for a second operator' was another new experience and again it just didn't feel right. But it worked and we both got an activation. At this site we had a lot of interaction with people walking by. We would take a moment to explain what we were doing "It's not CB" Many had a relative or friend who was into Ham radio. The 'Parks ON The Air' concept was interesting and exciting to all of them. We packed up the gear, then spent a few minutes walking past the monuments and interpretive signage to explore the battlefield site.
Then it was on to Red Top Mountain State Park US-2194. We used the large empty parking lot at group shelter 2 as our base. After a quick lunch we used Danny's radio and Allen's end fed wire antenna. to set up on 20 meters. Again sharing the radio Allen made 12 contacts with 11 P2P. and Danny made a quick 10 contacts. We could hear the static crashes on the radio and the sky was getting darker. A few drops fell so Danny deployed his "sun shade' umbrella to cover the tail gate where we had the rig set up. About the time we both had the 10 contacts required for a successful activation the rain was beginning to fall. As we quickly began to take everything down it began to rain harder, About the time we jumped in the truck it began to pour.
The drive up the interstate from Cartersville to Resaca was exciting to say the least. The rain was hard and at one place the fast lane was not draining and had about a foot of standing water. This was causing cars to spin out into the median, bang into each other and drown out their engines Several state troopers were on the shoulder working fender benders. Somehow Danny was able to safely get us through the mayhem and on up the road.
It was a fun day, very different and challenging at times. We each added three new parks to our list of sites we have activated. Maybe one day we'll both qualify for some obscure POTA certificate :-)
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541 viewsIt's been a busy week. This Thursday June 12 we gathered at Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 over on the west side of the park at the 'recreation field' parking lot.
Danny AG4DW set up on the west end at the picnic tables. Jody W4LWC assisted him with logging duties. Danny made 91 total contacts. 74 SSB contacts and 7 FT8 contacts on 20 meters, then went to 15 meters FT8 and made 10 more including one DX to Spain. Allen KN4FKS set up on the east end of the parking lot under the shade trees. He had 29 SSB contacts, 26 on 40 meters and 3 on 20 meters with a total of 9 Park to Park contacts. Max N4NWD completed his first activation the hard way. He used his ICOM-705 QRP rig and was using 5 watts. He made 1 SSB contact on 40 meters and 9 on 20 meters for a successful POTA activation. Welcome to the 'dark side' Max. POTA has now claimed a new believer. John KB4QXI set up around the corner at the Wilder tower parking lot to avoid the heavy RF with us. He ran SSB on 20 meters for ?? contacts. We even got a Park to Park with him.
Dan K2DTS came by and we fixed his 'leak' He moved over across the park to activate for a bit before leaving to have lunch with his wife. He had ?? contacts on the day. Ed KM6UTC set up on the Battlefield as well but he was at the Cravens House site. He had 70 total FT8 contacts 6 DX contacts to the East. The the magic band opened up and he had 4 contacts on 6 meters.
Three of us were able to make a special POTA Park to Park contact today. Dom NC4XL was activating and passed the 200,000 POTA contacts milestone. He started this personal quest in April of 2021 and in 836 activations is now passing the 200K contact mark. An amazing ride and an amazing old man. You can see his YouTube video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZurxQY6oQvs (just for contrast I started POTA a year before Dom and I have 247 activations with 12,471 contacts)
Earlier in the week several folks were POTA active as well. Allen KN4FKS activated Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 from the Ascalon Trail Head site on Saturday June 7. He made 50 SSB contacts with 26 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI was a bit further afield over near Helen GA where he activated Hartman Farm State Historic Park US-3718 on Friday June 6 and made 24 SSB contacts with 8 P2P contacts. Then on Saturday he activated Unicoi SP US-2204 with 11 SSB contacts with 6 P2P contacts.
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