 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
581 viewsThis Thursday Feb. 22 we activated the Zahnd WMA K-7903 which is in the middle of nowhere on the South end of Lookout Mountain. The small wildlife area consist of woodland, cliffs, and large sandstone boulders. The only public facility is a 10 car gravel parking lot just off the side of GA Hwy 157 south of Hwy 136.
Allen KN4FKS set up his station using an end fed half wave rigged as a sloper. on 20 meters and had 61 contacts, 11 P2P, and 3 DX. Ed KM6UTC set up his mag loop antenna and worked digital on 40 meters with 40 contacts, 4 P2P, and 14 DX. Ed was "slightly" delayed getting on the air searching for his cell phone which was hiding under his wallet in his back pocket. John KB4QXI set up his Ham Stick on top of the car and made 7 contacts on 40 meters and 25 on 20 meters with 12 P2P contacts. Danny AG4DW used the end fed rig to make 19 contacts with 3 contacts back to back from Spain, then 1 Mexico and 1 Canadian.
While there we had occasion to introduce two rock climbers and two hikers to Ham radio and POTA. Before we left Allen and Ed crossed the highway and walked a short distance to the top of the cliff line overlooking McLemore Cove and Pigeon Mountain to the East. The view is amazing even on an overcast day. Fun day once again.
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581 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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581 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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581 viewsThis Wednesday May 1 we activated J. Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a beautiful sunny day down by the lake. However the solar weather was not exactly cooperating and the bands were "wonky". Danny AG4DW had a total of 25 contacts, 15 DX (Panama, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela, Cuba, Denmark Russia, Jamacia, Germany, Belgium, England and Canada). 5 were SSB, 4 were FM VHF/UHF and 16 FT8 digital. John KB4QXI had 12 contacts on 40 and 20 meters. His mobile mount antenna on his truck was not working very well. Allen KN4FKS had 43 contacts on 20 and 40 meters, 17 Park to Park, and 6 DX ( France Puerto Rico, and 4 Canadians. Dan K2DTS had issues with his digital set up and never got it working.
We had visitors, Several park hikers stopped by and were curious about what we were doing. They were impressed by the distance of the contacts using the simple equipment. We also had some local hams drop by Lonnie KK4VDE and Dewayne W4FDT. They both were very experienced POTA operators and have activated many of the parks we often go to. Dewayne also shared with us his experiences on a POTA trip to Alaska a few years ago. Fun bucket list type trip. Great fellowship.
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581 viewsWe activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 Friday June 7 from the usual picnic area site.
Ed KM6UTC had 75 FT8 digital contacts Danny AG4DW had 26 digital contacts on 15 meters with several DX contacts, Cuba, France, Italy, Russia, Poland and 2 from Puerto Rico. Jeff N2YYP used his trusty slingshot and put his 135 foot long end fed vertical in a tall pine tree. He had 18 SSB contacts with 7 P2P contacts. Allen had 20 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 6 P2P contacts. Dan K2DTS worked FT8 digital for his activation.
John KB4QXI arrived late and just enjoyed keeping Karen KX4KM company. We all had a fun day in the park and enjoyed the paint fumes from the crew painting parking place lines on one half of the small parking lot.
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581 viewsThis Thursday we activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from inside the check station. With rain showers all around and the hot muggy weather it was certainly nice to have air conditioning and a roof over our heads.
We set two stations and shared radios and bands. Allen, KN4FKS, started out on 20 meters with 14 contacts, 12 P2P and no DX. Peter, KX4BE, broke out the key and worked 20 meter CW and made 13 contacts with all 13 being P2P. Then John KB4QXI made 18 contacts on 20 meters. Danny, AG4DW, set up his digital rig on 15 meters and made 28 contacts on FT8. He had 4 DX contacts to: Columbia, Belize, and 2 Canadians.
Thanks to the GA DNR folks who let us use the check station to avoid the heat and rain!
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580 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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580 viewsThursday August 17 we activated Chickamauga National Battlefield K-0716. Tony WA4TW did the talking and Allen KN4FKS kept the log. They recorded 50 contacts with 16 P2P's and 4 Canadians on 20 meters SSB. Danny AG4DW had 21 contacts, 8 SSB on 17 meters and 12 FT8 on 15 meters. Fred KQ4JXX came by and probably was overwhelmed by everything that was said and done. Luckily we did not have to use the line gun to get the antennas up both stations used ground mount verticals. (see the photos for our line gun)Â
A fun day was had by all. It's always great to have a new face and coax them over to the dark side of POTA
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580 viewsThis Wednesday May 1 we activated J. Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a beautiful sunny day down by the lake. However the solar weather was not exactly cooperating and the bands were "wonky". Danny AG4DW had a total of 25 contacts, 15 DX (Panama, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela, Cuba, Denmark Russia, Jamacia, Germany, Belgium, England and Canada). 5 were SSB, 4 were FM VHF/UHF and 16 FT8 digital. John KB4QXI had 12 contacts on 40 and 20 meters. His mobile mount antenna on his truck was not working very well. Allen KN4FKS had 43 contacts on 20 and 40 meters, 17 Park to Park, and 6 DX ( France Puerto Rico, and 4 Canadians. Dan K2DTS had issues with his digital set up and never got it working.
We had visitors, Several park hikers stopped by and were curious about what we were doing. They were impressed by the distance of the contacts using the simple equipment. We also had some local hams drop by Lonnie KK4VDE and Dewayne W4FDT. They both were very experienced POTA operators and have activated many of the parks we often go to. Dewayne also shared with us his experiences on a POTA trip to Alaska a few years ago. Fun bucket list type trip. Great fellowship.
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579 viewsMOTA / POTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn - 10-27-2021
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579 viewsWhat an adventure. After a rendezvous in Scottsboro AL the POTA crew headed out in four vehicles to the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge K-0140. After a few highway miles we turned onto a county paved road and went to its end where we came to the first of four locked gates. Thanks to the Southeast Cave Conservancy Inc. for giving us permission to access their property which adjoins the NWR property. The road is 3.8 miles to our activation site and gets worse the further along we get. There are mudholes, rocky ledges, and gooey slick mud. Luckily no one got stuck or broke anything. Arriving at the end of the road we get turned around and begin unloading our gear. We walk a few steps and cross onto the NWR property where we set up four stations.
We made a total of 129 contacts. When we first got on the air we all were making contacts quickly then it was like you turned out the lights. Till we took a break for lunch getting contacts got harder and harder. The solar storm had hit hard. So then at lunch we start hearing thunder in the distance, A quick look at the weather radar reveals we are in the path of a line of thunderstorms. Radio gear and the 4x4 road we must take out do not react well to heavy rain. After we enjoyed Karen's blueberry "POTA PIE" we pack up everything and head out back to pavement, opening and closing all the gates as we go. Back on the pavement the vehicles are muddy to the windows and mud falls off the undercarriages. Luckily we outran the storms all the way home. The radar images later showed this big red blob passed directly over where we were activating. At a similar cave road location about 20 miles north a group found their access road flooded and several of their vehicles will have to be left on high ground for days till it quits raining. The vehicles that did get out had water over their headlights. The road we used only floods and traps vehicles after multiple heavy rains flood the valley. It has happened in the past but not for us this time.
Fern Cave NWR K-0140 was first activated by our crew in Nov. 2020. There have been 4 other small activations since then then our recent activation. Our group in two activations is responsible for 80% of the 487 total contacts made from this site. The other activators have accessed via canoe down the Paint Rock River. The 190 acre refuge is totally landlocked with no public access point. It is simply there to protect a cave where endangered bats live.
A mini DXpedition it was, with problems to be overcome, logistics to be planned and permissions obtained. This crew of experienced POTA operators had a successful POTA activation.
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579 viewsWe activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 on Wednesday July 9 2025 from the overlook site. It was hot but there was as usual a breeze to make it barrable.
Allen KN4FKS set his usual end fed wire antenna and worked 40 meters SSB. He had 77 contacts with 6 park to park contacts and just 1 Canadian contact. John KB4QXI had 59 contacts with 18 P2P's on 20 meters SSB using his rooftop ham stick. Danny AG4DW set his 'POTA Performer' vertical and worked 17 meters with 8 SSB contacts and 62 FT8 contacts. He had several DX contacts 1 to Spain, 2 to the Dominican Republic and 4 to Canada.
The handy thing about operating from the overlook is that you can keep an eye on the developing weather to the west. When we arrived there was not a cloud in the sky. Then a line of small puffy clouds developed over the far ridgeline. Then as the morning moved into afternoon the clouds got bigger and then darker. About 1:30 we noticed a few far off static crashes. My shade moved and I was about to be in full sun. Enough fun, time to pack up and call it a day. We all got packed up and off the mountain then ran into heavy rains on the way home. Excellent timing. Fun day.
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