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 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
8 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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8 viewsWe gathered for POTA today at the newly re-opened Nick-A-Jack Trailhead, part of Cloudland Canyon State Park, US-2169. Our fearless leader, Allen (KN4FKS), could not make it today due to a scheduled appointment but Danny Wooten (AG4DW), Alan Painter (W4PLP) and John Law (KB4QXI) POTA'ed on! It was an on and off, blustery kind of day with a couple short periods of rain to make it more interesting. The slight breeze made it feel cooler than it actually was but everyone was prepared and had a good time anyway.
Danny (AG4DW) set up under the picnic shelter and deployed his vertical antenna and worked 10 meters and 15 meters all day, on both SSB and FT8, and had a bonanza of DX contacts! 83 contacts total; 50 contacts on 10 meters and 31 on 15 meters, 1 contact each on 2 meters and 70 cm. DX included Alaska, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, Germany, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay! He also talked to one activator that was only 3 QSO's away from his 100,000th (that's one hundred Kilo Awards!) contact at his main park!
Alan (W4PLP) started off the day with a technical problem and headed back home, which was close by, and changed equipment. Later in the afternoon he got everything sorted, returned to the park and got his activation underway! He made a total of 11 QSO's - all park-to-parks!
John (KB4QXI) seized the afternoon, working 20 meters out of his car, and decided to focus on park-to-parks. He wound up with 21 park-to-park log entries (31 parks total)!
We had a couple stop by for a visit and W4PLP explained what all of us were doing. We even had a hiker and his two dogs make an appearance!
With a newly widened and re-graveled driveway into the trailhead, I'm sure this will become a favorite activation location once again!
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7 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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7 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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7 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday from the overlook site on top of the mountain. The breeze kept up so the day didn't get too hot. Allen KN4FKS had 61 SSB contacts on 20 meters, 14 P2P and 6 DX with one P2P to the Dominican Republic and 5 Canadian stations. Ed KM6UTC had 58 digital FT8 contacts with 9 DX contacts and three contacts in a row to Indonesia. John KB4QXI had 11 contacts with 1 P2P. Danny had 16 contacts on 2 meters, 70 cm, 20 Meters and 15 meters. He had a DX SSB contact with Saint Petersburg Russia.
As usual at the overlook we had several visitors. First was the US Forest Service radio service technician checking on their repeater site 100 yards from the parking lot. They had erected a chain link fence around the tower and repeater house to hopefully slow down the copper thieves who steal the grounding wires from the tower legs and the radio equipment. Sad but true. We also had a Pinhoti Trail long distance hiker stop by and we helped him resupply his water bottles. ( He's in the background of one of the photos.) As we were getting ready to leave and elderly gentleman drove up and he was actually a HAM operator from the Villanow area. I didn't get his call sign but we had a nice chat.
Then even the drive home was eventful. Danny's truck kept overheating and he had to stop and cool down several times to limp home. Probably a water pump issue. Allen got within a mile of home and Winston just sputtered and quit running. It wasn't the heat it simply is not getting spark for some reason. Karen came and towed Winston home. Sort that out later when it cools off a bit. I hope Ed and John made it home without incident there seems to be a trend starting here. I hope not.
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7 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Ascalon Trailhead location this past Thursday Oct 31 2024.
Danny AG4DW, John KB4QXI, Dan K2DTS, Allen KN4FKS and new General Dave KQ4GLQ all showed up. Allen got Dave's logging software set up for POTA, Danny had a cold so he operated digital only, John cranked out the SSB contacts on the Ham Stick and realized his new 110 v inverter was very NOISY! Dan made several contacts with his vertical and used some jumper cables to create elevated radials. Wonderful idea and they come with handy clamps to attach them to the antenna base.
We also discovered that those fancy electric bicycles come with a ton of electric motor noise. You find out these things by activating at a popular trailhead. Horses however have no electric noise but can create hazards to laying out radials.
BTW only Danny AG4DW sent me any contact information. He had 50 contacts, all FT8 Mostly on 15m but a few on 30m and 10m. He had 19 DX contacts. Austria, Belgium, Canada 2, Dominican Republic, Russia, Germany, France, Hati, Hungary, Netherlands 2, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Puerto Rico, Spain 2, and Switzerland.
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7 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Ascalon Trailhead location this past Thursday Oct 31 2024.
Danny AG4DW, John KB4QXI, Dan K2DTS, Allen KN4FKS and new General Dave KQ4GLQ all showed up. Allen got Dave's logging software set up for POTA, Danny had a cold so he operated digital only, John cranked out the SSB contacts on the Ham Stick and realized his new 110 v inverter was very NOISY! Dan made several contacts with his vertical and used some jumper cables to create elevated radials. Wonderful idea and they come with handy clamps to attach them to the antenna base.
We also discovered that those fancy electric bicycles come with a ton of electric motor noise. You find out these things by activating at a popular trailhead. Horses however have no electric noise but can create hazards to laying out radials.
BTW only Danny AG4DW sent me any contact information. He had 50 contacts, all FT8 Mostly on 15m but a few on 30m and 10m. He had 19 DX contacts. Austria, Belgium, Canada 2, Dominican Republic, Russia, Germany, France, Hati, Hungary, Netherlands 2, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Puerto Rico, Spain 2, and Switzerland.
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7 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 from the Ascalon Trailhead location this past Thursday Oct 31 2024.
Danny AG4DW, John KB4QXI, Dan K2DTS, Allen KN4FKS and new General Dave KQ4GLQ all showed up. Allen got Dave's logging software set up for POTA, Danny had a cold so he operated digital only, John cranked out the SSB contacts on the Ham Stick and realized his new 110 v inverter was very NOISY! Dan made several contacts with his vertical and used some jumper cables to create elevated radials. Wonderful idea and they come with handy clamps to attach them to the antenna base.
We also discovered that those fancy electric bicycles come with a ton of electric motor noise. You find out these things by activating at a popular trailhead. Horses however have no electric noise but can create hazards to laying out radials.
BTW only Danny AG4DW sent me any contact information. He had 50 contacts, all FT8 Mostly on 15m but a few on 30m and 10m. He had 19 DX contacts. Austria, Belgium, Canada 2, Dominican Republic, Russia, Germany, France, Hati, Hungary, Netherlands 2, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Puerto Rico, Spain 2, and Switzerland.
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7 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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6 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday from the overlook site on top of the mountain. The breeze kept up so the day didn't get too hot. Allen KN4FKS had 61 SSB contacts on 20 meters, 14 P2P and 6 DX with one P2P to the Dominican Republic and 5 Canadian stations. Ed KM6UTC had 58 digital FT8 contacts with 9 DX contacts and three contacts in a row to Indonesia. John KB4QXI had 11 contacts with 1 P2P. Danny had 16 contacts on 2 meters, 70 cm, 20 Meters and 15 meters. He had a DX SSB contact with Saint Petersburg Russia.
As usual at the overlook we had several visitors. First was the US Forest Service radio service technician checking on their repeater site 100 yards from the parking lot. They had erected a chain link fence around the tower and repeater house to hopefully slow down the copper thieves who steal the grounding wires from the tower legs and the radio equipment. Sad but true. We also had a Pinhoti Trail long distance hiker stop by and we helped him resupply his water bottles. ( He's in the background of one of the photos.) As we were getting ready to leave and elderly gentleman drove up and he was actually a HAM operator from the Villanow area. I didn't get his call sign but we had a nice chat.
Then even the drive home was eventful. Danny's truck kept overheating and he had to stop and cool down several times to limp home. Probably a water pump issue. Allen got within a mile of home and Winston just sputtered and quit running. It wasn't the heat it simply is not getting spark for some reason. Karen came and towed Winston home. Sort that out later when it cools off a bit. I hope Ed and John made it home without incident there seems to be a trend starting here. I hope not.
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6 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 this Thursday from the overlook site on top of the mountain. The breeze kept up so the day didn't get too hot. Allen KN4FKS had 61 SSB contacts on 20 meters, 14 P2P and 6 DX with one P2P to the Dominican Republic and 5 Canadian stations. Ed KM6UTC had 58 digital FT8 contacts with 9 DX contacts and three contacts in a row to Indonesia. John KB4QXI had 11 contacts with 1 P2P. Danny had 16 contacts on 2 meters, 70 cm, 20 Meters and 15 meters. He had a DX SSB contact with Saint Petersburg Russia.
As usual at the overlook we had several visitors. First was the US Forest Service radio service technician checking on their repeater site 100 yards from the parking lot. They had erected a chain link fence around the tower and repeater house to hopefully slow down the copper thieves who steal the grounding wires from the tower legs and the radio equipment. Sad but true. We also had a Pinhoti Trail long distance hiker stop by and we helped him resupply his water bottles. ( He's in the background of one of the photos.) As we were getting ready to leave and elderly gentleman drove up and he was actually a HAM operator from the Villanow area. I didn't get his call sign but we had a nice chat.
Then even the drive home was eventful. Danny's truck kept overheating and he had to stop and cool down several times to limp home. Probably a water pump issue. Allen got within a mile of home and Winston just sputtered and quit running. It wasn't the heat it simply is not getting spark for some reason. Karen came and towed Winston home. Sort that out later when it cools off a bit. I hope Ed and John made it home without incident there seems to be a trend starting here. I hope not.
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6 viewsWe activated Pigeon Mountain US 3742 this Thursday at the South Brow Road site. There was abundant shade and a cooling breeze all day so it was a wise choice for a hot summer day.
Jeff N2YYP set up his rig way down an old roadbed away from the parking area. Something about sausages and gas. He made 41 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 7 P2P and 6 DX contacts.
Allen KN4FKS worked 15 meters SSB and made 33 contacts 4 P2P and 6 DX. Germany, Hungary, Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico and 2 Canadians.
Ed KM6UTC worked FT8 on 10 and 20 meters with 89 contacts and 12 DX.
John KB4QXI worked 40 meters SSB off his hamstick and made 12 contacts with 3 P2P.
Peter had tweaked his back so he didn't brave the pothole filled road but made the trip up to Grundy Forest Natural Area in Tracy City where he used CW to make 8 QRP contacts and 11 non QRP contacts for a total of 19 contacts.
A fun day was had by all.
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