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332 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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332 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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332 viewsWell the day started off dark and rainy. Everyone except me (Allen KN4FKS) bailed for one reason or another. When I arrived at the Nick A Jack trailhead for Cloudland Canyon SP US-2169 the rain let up long enough to get everything moved to under the picnic shed. Then it rained hard while I watched and waited.
A hiker came out of the trail and we chatted for a while and the rain stopped for a bit, he left and I set up my new 25 foot Chameleon vertical. Back under the shed and the bottom fell out again. I got on 20 meters SSB and made 52 contacts before lunch. The band was busy and the adjacent QRM was bothersome at times. Had lunch by myself (the usual peanut butter jelly) the rain tailed off and eventually the sun came out. After lunch I went to 17 meters to avoid the crowd and made 9 contacts there. One DX from Sweden. Went back to 20 meters and made several more Park to Park contacts. Finished up with one park to park on 40 meters and called it a day with 69 QSO's and 25 P2Ps.
After I got home and uploaded my log I checked my totals for Cloudland Canyon SP and suddenly realized I had gone QRT early and was only 18 QSO's away from my double KILO on the park. Could have made that easy in a short bit. Oh well next time will be the clincher. No pressure.
Peter KX4BE ventured out close to home at Harrison Bay SP US-2951 today. He used the mini Tarheel antennal on the car and made 18 quick contacts on 20 meters with 4 P2P and no DX. He reported a beautiful day there with a nice breeze. Oh well.
Field Day is coming up next weekend June 28-29. Just think of it as a looong POTA activation with better food and air conditioning ! If you haven't signed up yet RSVP now! Go to the club website https://tristatesarc.com/club/ and sign up. See you there.
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331 viewsChickamauga Battlefield Park - 09-19-2020
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331 viewsPOTA - Pigeon Mountain - 4-24-2021
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331 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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331 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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331 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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331 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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331 viewsOn Thursday Sept. 5 we activated 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187. It was a wonderful day weather wise.
The bands also cooperated! Allen KN4FKS made 105 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 42 Park to Park contacts and 5 Canadian contacts. Danny AG4DW made a total of 76 contacts, 31 SSB on 20 meters, and 45 FT8 contacts on 15 and 30 meters. He had 7 DX contacts to Japan Germany Cuba and Canada. Dan K2DTS was there as well but I don't know about his contacts.
Another wonderful day in the parks.
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331 viewsThis weekend April 5-6, 2025 saw the 3rd annual Georgia State Parks POTA Contest . The goal here is to have ALL of the Georgia State Parks activated at once in a contest format. Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 was activated by Allen KN4FKS and John KB4QXI from Cabin 7. They set up antennas and stations on Friday evening and got ready for the contest start at 8:00 am Saturday morning.
Through the weekend Allen operated exclusively on 20 meters and John stayed on 40 meters. Band pass filters saved the day with such close proximity RF.
Bright and early Saturday both operators were ready at the start. You could not buy a contact on 20 meters! The band was dead. The sun had burped. After calling CQ for 45 minutes Allen suddenly got an answer from Arizona. He said I was the ONLY signal on his band scope. Ouch. Another few minutes and a DX contact to Columbia was made then the calls started to trickle in. It was 2 contacts the first hour, then 7 more the second hour. By the end of the third hour the 20 meter total was 20 QSO's. It slowly got better and when the day was done Allen had a total of 376 contacts. John was having similar difficulty on 40 meters. He had 143 contacts on the day, We shut down the stations at 10 pm. to get some sleep and be ready to go again Sunday morning.
During the day several fellow hams came by. Harry N4VQ stopped in with his K-9 buddy. Danny AG4DW stopped by to provide adult supervision then went across the park and set up his station giving us Park-to-Park contacts. He cranked out 25 contacts and called it a day. Dean KK4EB an old friend of both John and Allen stopped in and set up on the picnic table out in the yard. He operated on 15 meters and made 81 contacts total, 31 DX and one Georgia P2P .
Allen was awakened Sunday morning by a thunderclap at 6:30 AM. Jumping up he quickly detached both stations coax from the antennas. It was raining heavily and the thunder rolled across the ridge top. Not a good beginning to the second day of the contest. Check out time for the cabin was noon so the morning was tough. Between storm fronts Allen got on the air for a few minutes and quickly got 34 contacts before having to shut down again.
Totals for the weekend Allen Had 410 contacts with 69 P2P calls and only one Georgia park contact for a contest score of 413. John had 187 total contacts, 44 P2P contacts and 31 Georgia P2P contacts which adds 155 points to his 187 for a rough score of 342.
To cap off a fun weekend of solar and terrestrial weather, packing up to leave in the rain was fun. Antenna demobilization with occasional thunder was exciting as well as wet. Then moving all the stuff out to the cars it was just as wet. Fun weekend in spite of all the challenges. Now to dry everything out.
Alan W4PLP activated Unicoi State Park. How was your weekend? Anyone else get out to POTA?
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330 viewsPOTA - Chickamauga Battlefield - KO4DRX, Matt and KN4FKS, Allen
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