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85 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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85 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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84 viewsJohns Mountain WMA K-3758 4-28-2022. It was a beautiful blue sky spring day. John KB4QXI even showed up on his 3 wheel bike with a trailer hauling his ham gear. Allen KN4FKS had 25 contacts with 3 P2P and one Saskatchewan Canada DX on 20 meters before lunch. Then Tony WA4TW hopped over to 40 meters and cranked out 31 contacts with 4 P2P. After that John KB4QXI got on 40 and got 18 contacts with 3 P2P. In the mean time Peter KX4BE worked CW on both 40 and 20 and grabbed 79 contacts, 5 P2P, and 3 DX.
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POTA 2022-07-28, Cloudland Canyon State Park K-216984 viewsAllen KN4FKS had 25 contacts on 40 meters with 9 Park to Park contacts. John KB4QXI had 64 contacts on 20 meters with 9 P2P’s. He had 3 DX contacts, Chile, Alaska, and Canada. He also was hunted by W1AW the ARRL HQ station. Ed KM6UTC activated for the first time and had 12 contacts on 40 m with 1 P2P. Welcome to the dark side… Matt AB4MH had about 30 contacts on 40 meters before a storm came up and prompted an early QRT.
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84 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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84 viewsPOTA 2023-04-13. Chief Vann House Historic Site K-7457 we had a great activation before the rain started.
Tony WA4TW and Danny AD4DW spotted and logged for Allen KN4FKS. Ed KM6UTC played digital with his loop antenna and had 62 contacts with 3 DX contacts (Italy, Ukraine, Canada) Allen KN4FKS had 49 SSB phone contacts with 14 P2P contacts and 3 DX ( Russia, and 2 Canadians) The park manager Irina Garner (who is a licensed HAM) stopped by and visited, We also had a park visitor from Germany stop by and inquire about the radio stuff.
The Vann House is a very interesting historic site. Take time to visit the museum and then tour the house and surrounding period buildings.
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84 viewsPOTA from many places. This past Thursday April 17 the TSARC POTA crew activated several parks from different places.
Allen KN4FKS and John KB4QXI activated 'Sloppy' Floyd State Park US-2187 from the site near the lower lake dam. Allen had 105 contacts with 23 Park to Park contacts and 1 DX to Canada. John had 64 contacts with 28 P2P contacts and 1 DX to Mexico. Allen is now just 59 contacts away from making that 'KILO' award for Floyd SP. The KILO is awarded in recognition of making 1.000 contacts as an activator from that park.
Ed KM6UTC activated Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Battlefield US-0716 from the Cravens House site up on the slopes of Lookout Mountain overlooking downtown Chattanooga. Operating the digital mode of FT8 he made 99 contacts with lots of DX all over the world. He worked an 'EA6" station from the Balearic Islands. Do you know where that is without looking it up? Dan K2DTS had a quick activation from the Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 by pulling onto a roadside pulloff and setting his mag mount antenna on the car. He made 20 quick contacts by simply chasing parks. So he had 20 Park to Park contacts. with 1 DX to Bermuda.
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83 viewsMOTA / POTA - Crockford-Pigeon Mtn - 10-27-2021
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83 views
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83 viewsAgain it has been a POTA active week. The week started with John KB4QXI activating Berry College WMA US-3734 making 26 contacts on 20 meters SSB with 5 P2P and 2 Canadian contacts. This gave him a total contacts as an activator on Berry of 961.
On Tuesday Ed KM6UTC activated Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 from the Cravens house site on Lookout Mountain. He made 84 FT8 contacts for the day. Also on Tuesday Allen KN4FKS activated Pigeon Mountain WMA US-3742 from the Estelle Mine road site. He made 58 contacts SSB mostly on 40 meters with 4 P2P and no DX contacts.
Then on Thursday Ed KM6UTC went back to the Cravens house site and made 108 FT8 contacts with 3 P2P and lots of DX into Europe and Eurasia. John went back to Berry to finish out his 'KILO' award on Berry making 46 contacts with 21 P2P. Danny AG4DW and Allen KN4FKS activated J. Sloppy Floyd SP US-2187 from the usual lower lake site. Danny made 27 contacts mostly on FT8 with DX to Canada, Greece, and Spain. Allen KN4FKS made 77 contacts with 25 P2P and 3 Canadians to put him over the 1,000 contacts mark for Floyd SP.
Another 'KILO' awarded to part of the TSARC POTA crew.
A busy week with TWO KILO awards issued and as usual lots of radio fun.
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83 viewsThis past Thursday was 'one of those days'. The activation site was the Chickamauga Battlefield US-0716 using the Cravens House site on the front slope of Lookout Mountain. This site overlooks downtown Chattanooga and is a convenient spot to activate for many of the crew. The terrestrial weather started out cloudy and overcast but later cleared to a mostly sunny day.
John KB4QXI could not come because he had to wait at home for a package delivery. Ed KM6UTC stopped by but then had to leave to also go wait for a package to be delivered. Dave KQ4GLQ came and he and Allen KN4FKS worked setting up the N3FJP logging software on his new computer to work easily with POTA activations. Then Dave got a phone call from his boss and was off to Nashville for work. Danny AG4DW was traveling to grandkids graduation. Dan K2DTS was available for a short while so he set up his mag mount ham stick and gave it a go. Allen KN4FKS set up his vertical over near the old park ranger residence.
The space weather went from bad to worse. Band conditions were dismal. Dan had one contact when he had to leave. Allen chased parks and called CQ on several bands and after 3 hours had 13 contacts. At that point you couldn't buy a contact. So I enjoyed the view for a bit, talked to several park visitors about ham radio and packed it up and went home. POTA even on a horrible day is still fun and I look at it this way, I didn't have to stress over working a chaotic pile up.
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82 viewsPOTA 2023-08-02 - Today John KB4QXI and Allen KN4FKS activated the Johns Mountain WMA k-3758 from the overlook site. The terrestrial weather cooperated with cooler temperatures, a partly cloudy day, and a pleasant breeze. However the solar weather was less than kind with crazy up and down band conditions. A station would go from a solid 5-9 signal down to almost unreadable then back up in 45 seconds. This made QSOs interesting sometimes. John went first and made 16 contacts with 12 P2Ps with two P2P from Canadian parks. After lunch Allen took over the mic and made 17 contacts with 11 P2P.
Also just in summary since Allen and John started activating parks for POTA in March of 2020 their totals are:
Allen 142 activations 6914 QSO's with 1015 Park to Park contacts
John 140 activations 5875 QSO's with 472 Park to Park contacts
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