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498 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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497 viewsShort video of John Law, KB4QXI making a POTA contact from Cloudland Canyon State Park K-2169 on Jul 20, 2023 - You MUST download the file here and play it on your local device: https://tristatesarc.com/club/pic/albums/userpics/10001/IMG_5563.mov
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497 views
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496 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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496 viewsIt has been a busy POTA week.
The week started with John KB4QXI activating Chattahoochee Bend State Park US-2168 on Sunday. He made 34 contacts with 7 P2P and 3 DX contacts.
Then on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd State Park US-2187. He made 97 contacts with 41 P2P and 12 DX contacts.
On Wednesday John KB4QXI and Danny AG4DW activated the Zahnd WMA US-7903. John made 33 Contacts with 15 P2P and2 DX. Danny made 17 contacts with 1 DX contact.
On Thursday the crew gathered at Cloudland Canyon State Park, Nick A Jack trailhead to activate US-2169. Allen KN4FKS operated mostly on 40 meters SSB and made 64 contacts with 16 P2P on a total of seven bands, 40,15, 80, 6. 2, 1.25, 70cm.
Dan K2DTS made 15 contacts with all of them being P2P contacts. John KB4QXI made a total of 113 contacts, 10 on 15m SSB and the rest on 20m SSB. He had 30 P2P contacts and 6 DX. Danny AG4DW had 50 contacts, 10 SSB and the rest FT8 with 11 DX contacts. Danny also participated in the multi band effort. He is leading the pack in the POTA N1CC award ( N1CC is making contacts on ten bands in ten different parks )
Lots of peanut butter and jelly was consumed and all had a fun time on difficult bands this week.
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495 viewsChickamauga Battlefield Park - 09-19-2020
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495 viewsMOTA / POTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn - 10-27-2021
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494 viewsPOTA - Pigeon Mountain - 4-24-2021
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494 viewsIn case you have been under a rock for some time this weekend was the ARRL Field Day event. Several of us with the TSARC set up at the Cedar Grove Community Center in SW Walker County. The community center is a great location for field day with one exception. It has air conditioning a big plus, a full kitchen, lots of space to set up, a basket ball court sized big central room And did I mention air conditioning!. The one problem with the location in the valley is that it is surrounded on three sides by nearby Lookout mountain and Pigeon Mountain. So getting a signal out of this hole is difficult but doable.
We got off and running Saturday afternoon and as usual a big thunderstorm rolled in over the mountain. Quickly we disconnected antennas and watched the rain blow sideways first one direction then the other. Ed KM6UTC has his vertical antenna support tripod blow down but luckily it was not damaged. Then late Sunday morning here came another big storm so we called it quits and hurriedly got all the antennas down and everything packed away just before the storm hit once more. The timing was excellent as we had just run out of cookies to munch on. A crisis was at hand.
Field day is POTA done large and all of us have gotten lots of practice operating portable. But field day is not POTA as there were no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
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493 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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493 viewsWe activated Cloudland Canyon State Park US-2169 on Thursday May 29. We set up in the picnic shed on top of the hill at the highest point on the park next to the disc golf course. It wasn't raining when we set up but it certainly was when we were taking down.
Allen KN4FKS set up his new 25 foot tall Chameleon vertical and made a fairly quick 35 contacts on 20 meters. Then moved to 17 meters and slowed down a bit to make 19 contacts. Then moved to 40 meters to make 3 contacts. for a total of 57 contacts with 7 park to park contacts with 2 DX contacts, Mexico and Canada. The bands were wonky with signals coming and going or just non existent. The sun burped once more.
Danny AG4DW set up his elevated radial POTA performer vertical and made a total of 73 contacts, 47 on SSB, with 10 P2P contacts then 25 contacts on FT8 all on 40 meters, he then retuned and made 1 contact on 30 meters. Dan K2DTS used his mag mount HamStick and made 27 contacts on 20 meters, 16 SSB, 6 FT8, and 4 FT4.
Notable contacts on the day was first the US aircraft carrier USS Lexington W5LEX was hunting parks and gave me a call. Then later a booming signal 'park to park' came and it was David WK4DS calling from the Ascalon Trailhead in the same Cloudland Canyon Park property. He was probably two miles away. Then the next contact was in Washington state. \
The bands were odd short and then long. Did I mention it rained? I haven't packed away dry gear in over a month. I'm ready for some sunshine. Regardless a fun time was had by all.
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492 viewsPOTA, Fern Cave 11-18-2020 - KB4QXI, KN4FKS
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