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 Most viewed - Parks on the Air |
49 viewsThis week saw folks in far flung places and right here at home.
On Wednesday May 20 Dan K2DTS activated the Battlefield US-0716 from the Brotherton Rd. Picnic area. He made 15 SSB contacts with 13 P2P contacts and then made one CW contact. He commented:
"Conditions were poor with a smothering noise floor and persistent signal fading. Even with those conditions, it was a good day. In many ways, it is more fun to have to work for every contact. And it was satisfying to make the CW contact, although I am sure the station on the other end was not impressed by my many sending mistakes." Small beginnings of a great CW operator !
On Thursday May 21 Allen KN4FKS activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the check station site. It is nice to have friends who help you stay warm and dry while doing POTA on a rainy day Using 100 watts and the end fed half wave wire rigged as a sloper he made 61 contacts (29 on 20 meters and 32 on 40 meters) with 33 P2P contacts and 2 DX (Canada and St. Lucia )
On Friday May 22 John KB4QXI activated Sandhills State Park US-2351 near Hutchinson Kansas. John is out there attending a huge Geocaching convention so he and several other ham geocachers all headed out to the nearby state park. John made ??? contacts.
On Saturday afternoon May 23 KN4FKS Allen headed up top of Pigeon Mountain US-3742 to the Sawmill lake site to play with a different antenna configuration. Using the old faithful have wave end fed wire he rigged it as an NVIS antenna. Using three plastic electric fence post he rigged the wire horizontally waist high. He then deployed a slightly longer counterpoise wire along the ground directly under the antenna wire. A quick check with the antenna analyzer showed resonance on 40 and 20 meters. The bands were slow and he made a total of 16 contacts with 13 contacts in the first hour of calling CQ on 40 meters. They were mainly clustered around South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. At the end he went up to 20 meters and made 3 contacts there in Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. So the NVIS concept works and now to see the next test might be to rig it about 8 feet off the ground using the horse hitching poles in the camp area. Might have this worked out in time for Field Day so we can contact those close in stations.
Danny AG4DW is across the pond in Ireland bemoaning the fact that he has no radio gear with him this trip. The POTA map even showed never activated parks along the route his tour is taking. Painful for POTA but beautiful country for touring..
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49 viewsWell we braved the tropical storm, totally avoided the threat of flash flooding and activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 from the overlook site. The rain came in bands so we were able to all get set up in the dry and take down in the dry but every now and then it would rain, sprinkle or pour down rain. We all elected to operate out of our vehicles.
Allen KN4FKS set up his 17 ft vertical with Faraday cloth radials and made 28 SSB contacts, 26 on 20 meters, 1 on 15 meters and 1 on 40 meters. He had 4 Park to Park contacts and 1 DX to Canada.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 44 contacts, 17 SSB on 40 meters, 21 FT8 on 40, 1 FT8 on 30, and 5 FT8 on 17. He had 5 P2P and 1 DX to Canada.
Jim K4WWE set up his odd looking tripod antenna thing (see attached photo) and made 20 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 8 P2P contacts.
Once again we were ham radio ambassadors, A Forest work crew stopped by to have lunch at the overlook and one of the young men was interested in what we were doing. After answering lots of questions we loaded him up with information sheets on Ham Radio, TSARC and, POTA. On the way home Allen stopped in the Villanow store to get a drink and the clerk saw his Ham Radio related t shirt. She exclaimed her grandfather was a ham and she had fond memories of being in his shack as a child. You never know how you can represent the hobby so be prepared.
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47 viewsIt was a beautiful day on top of Johns Mountain US-3758 at the overlook site. It was a bit chilly early with a steady wind making it seem even cooler but we POTA'd on. Band conditions were a bit wonky which made it hard work for everyone.
Allen KN4FKS set his end fed half wave wire as a sloper and made 56 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 20 Park to Park contacts and only 1 DX contact to Barbados Island.
Danny AG4DW set his 17 foot elevated vertical 'POTA Performer' and made 53 contacts, 23 were SSB on 40 meters and 1 FT8 contact. He moved to 17 meters and made 19 FT8 contacts. He had 6 P2P contacts and 5 DX to Canada. He set up his 2 meter J-pole antenna and made 10 FM contacts simplex on 2 meters. From the mountaintop he contacted: Gainesville, Talking Rock, Dalton, Lafayette, Chatsworth, and Cleveland TN.
John KB4QXI used his Hamstick roof mounted to make 15 contacts with 10 P2P contacts.
Micha K3WGC came by to see what all this POTA stuff was all about. After show and tell for everyone's rig he set up his vertical drive on pole support and used his G-90 to just chase DX and make a few contacts portable. It weas great to have him visit.
Dan K2DTS not wanting to sacrifice his car on the overlook road chose to activate the Battlefield US-0716. He had 36 contacts with 30 SSB and 6 FT8 on 20 meters. He is getting withing striking distance of his KILO for the Battlefield. Maybe soon if the bands cooperate.
Also of note this weekend is the Georgia QSO party contest. It starts at 2 pm local time on Saturday and runs till midnight than Sunday 10 am till 8 pm. The exchange is a signal report, and county abbreviation ( WLKR for Walker) This would be a great time to activate a park and take advantage of the increased traffic.
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47 viewsEven though our esteemed leader, Allen (KN4FKS), and I both had to go out of town this week, there was still a LOT of POTA activity despite there being no organized group effort!
Ed (KM6UTC) solved a but of a POTA activation problem/mystery this week that made a gigantic difference in the number of contacts! And it had nothing to do with his equipment! I mention this not to embarrass Ed but, rather, to point out how easy it is for us humans to make the wrong assumptions and maybe there is someone else wanting to do POTA that has made the same assumption. Up until this week Ed says that he thought the only calls you could log for a POTA activation were calls to another activator or a hunter answering his CQ POTA call! In fact, almost any valid QSO counts and can be logged (no repeaters can be used, however). You can answer someone else’s CQ and have a rag chew. It counts as a valid POTA contact. Make a contact with a DXExpediton? It counts!
Armed with the new knowledge, Ed activated US-0716, Chickamuaga and Chattanooga National Battlefield, from the Cravens House location on the North side of Lookout Mountain, on Thursday. hw wound up with 85 contacts for the day with a number of DX. The DX included the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Romania, Spain, France, Canada (eh), Puerto Rico, Italy, Azores, & Hungary.
Ed noted that the views from Cravens House were wonderful due to the excellent weather. He also commented on what appears to once have been a beautiful Mansion and adjacent Coach House at the Cravens House location and noted that the Nation Park Service seems to have allowed these structures to deteriorate, probably past the point of no return!
Ed asked if anyone had any information about this and someone sent a link to a 13-year old link to the Chattanoogan.com that sums it up quite well! A copy of the link is attached if you want to find out more!
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/3/25/247432/John-Shearer-History-Of-The-Hardy-Home.aspx
Before heading out of town Allen (KN4FKS) got away Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to Estelle Mine Road on Pigeon Mtn.WMA (US-3742). He set up his 25 ft vertical with the faraday cloth radials and mainly chased parks for P2P contacts. He had 22 SSB contacts with 20 P2P and 2 special event stations. Also one P2P to Puerto Rico. On 20 meters he had 16 contacts and 6 more on 40 meters.
AND… a bug congratulations to Dan Strickland (K2DTS) for achieving a Kilo (1000 activator contacts) from US-0716 on Wednesday. Dan has been working on this goal for a while and he can finally put that notch in his belt!
As for me, Danny (AG4DW), I had to travel to Florida for the weekend but did manage to activate two new-to-me parks in Florida on the trip down. Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park (US-3647) and Price’s Scrub State Park (US-10463). These two parks are about 4 miles apart and are totally different! Payne’s Prairie has luscious tropical foliage and Spanish Moss everywhere and a large lake and picnic pavilions. Price’s Scrub is a relatively new park and is pretty primitive and expected to remain that way. One picnic table, one porta-potty and one trash can! I managed 25 SSB contacts on 20 meters at both parks!
And, in a first for me, we saw a park ranger pull in at Price’s Scrub in an unmarked truck and headed towards a small trailhead. He saw us watching him and backed up to us, identified himself, and told us he was there on official business! He was afraid we were going to call the cops and report HIM! You hear reports of rangers investigating POTA activators but usually not the other way around! We had a good laugh and he was very familiar with Parks on the Air. He said if the apocalypse ever happens, he is getting in touch with us POTA guys!
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46 viewsThis Thursday June 4 we activated Chickamauga Battlefield US=0716 from the Brotherton Road picnic area.
Danny AG4DW arrived early, set up his 'PotaPerformer' vertical and made 47 quick SSB contacts. He had 13 on 40 meters and 34 on 20 meters with 6 park to parks and 1 DX to Canada. Jody W4LWC arrived and operated Danny's rig on 20 meters SSB. He cranked out 101 QSO's with 25 P2P and no DX. Dan K2DTS dropped by for a quick 'eye ball' QSO and had to leave soon.
John KB4QXI brought his new computer by so that Allen KN4FKS could set up the N3FJP logging software for most efficient use on POTA activations. As is typical when Allen is faced with technology issues the one critical step/ menu / tab is forgotten and things do not go well. Ugly words were spoken to the computer.
Taking a break Allen KN4FKS got on 17 meters and made 4 contacts, then went to 20 meters and made 9 more for a total of 13 QSO's with 9 P2P contacts. Then it was back to the computer this time trying to watch the You Tube video on how to set everything up on John's cell phone. Once again a fail so Allen took the computer home and sat down and soon had the 'Ah Ha' moment and remembered the one critical step to get everything working. Success finally! John is now set to go.
Earlier in the week on Wednesday Danny AG4DW headed out to a newly listed park in Alabama hoping to be the first activation at the new one. After quite a drive he arrived at the park to find a sign on the gate "Closed Wednesdays" POTA rules state the park has to be 'open' so defeated but not broken he headed over to Hinds Road Forever Wild site US-12740 and made 42 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 17 P2P. Then packing up and moving to nearby Indian Mountain Conservation Area US-11027 he made 35 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 11 P2P's. Also on Wednesday Allen KN4FKS headed out to Otting WMA US-7913 (it was actually open on Wednesday) and made 106 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 36 P2P and 3 DX all to Canada.
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44 viewsWell we braved the tropical storm, totally avoided the threat of flash flooding and activated Johns Mountain WMA US-3758 from the overlook site. The rain came in bands so we were able to all get set up in the dry and take down in the dry but every now and then it would rain, sprinkle or pour down rain. We all elected to operate out of our vehicles.
Allen KN4FKS set up his 17 ft vertical with Faraday cloth radials and made 28 SSB contacts, 26 on 20 meters, 1 on 15 meters and 1 on 40 meters. He had 4 Park to Park contacts and 1 DX to Canada.
Danny AG4DW set up his 17 ft vertical with elevated radials and made 44 contacts, 17 SSB on 40 meters, 21 FT8 on 40, 1 FT8 on 30, and 5 FT8 on 17. He had 5 P2P and 1 DX to Canada.
Jim K4WWE set up his odd looking tripod antenna thing (see attached photo) and made 20 SSB contacts on 20 meters with 8 P2P contacts.
Once again we were ham radio ambassadors, A Forest work crew stopped by to have lunch at the overlook and one of the young men was interested in what we were doing. After answering lots of questions we loaded him up with information sheets on Ham Radio, TSARC and, POTA. On the way home Allen stopped in the Villanow store to get a drink and the clerk saw his Ham Radio related t shirt. She exclaimed her grandfather was a ham and she had fond memories of being in his shack as a child. You never know how you can represent the hobby so be prepared.
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38 viewsEven though our esteemed leader, Allen (KN4FKS), and I both had to go out of town this week, there was still a LOT of POTA activity despite there being no organized group effort!
Ed (KM6UTC) solved a but of a POTA activation problem/mystery this week that made a gigantic difference in the number of contacts! And it had nothing to do with his equipment! I mention this not to embarrass Ed but, rather, to point out how easy it is for us humans to make the wrong assumptions and maybe there is someone else wanting to do POTA that has made the same assumption. Up until this week Ed says that he thought the only calls you could log for a POTA activation were calls to another activator or a hunter answering his CQ POTA call! In fact, almost any valid QSO counts and can be logged (no repeaters can be used, however). You can answer someone else’s CQ and have a rag chew. It counts as a valid POTA contact. Make a contact with a DXExpediton? It counts!
Armed with the new knowledge, Ed activated US-0716, Chickamuaga and Chattanooga National Battlefield, from the Cravens House location on the North side of Lookout Mountain, on Thursday. hw wound up with 85 contacts for the day with a number of DX. The DX included the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Romania, Spain, France, Canada (eh), Puerto Rico, Italy, Azores, & Hungary.
Ed noted that the views from Cravens House were wonderful due to the excellent weather. He also commented on what appears to once have been a beautiful Mansion and adjacent Coach House at the Cravens House location and noted that the Nation Park Service seems to have allowed these structures to deteriorate, probably past the point of no return!
Ed asked if anyone had any information about this and someone sent a link to a 13-year old link to the Chattanoogan.com that sums it up quite well! A copy of the link is attached if you want to find out more!
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/3/25/247432/John-Shearer-History-Of-The-Hardy-Home.aspx
Before heading out of town Allen (KN4FKS) got away Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to Estelle Mine Road on Pigeon Mtn.WMA (US-3742). He set up his 25 ft vertical with the faraday cloth radials and mainly chased parks for P2P contacts. He had 22 SSB contacts with 20 P2P and 2 special event stations. Also one P2P to Puerto Rico. On 20 meters he had 16 contacts and 6 more on 40 meters.
AND… a bug congratulations to Dan Strickland (K2DTS) for achieving a Kilo (1000 activator contacts) from US-0716 on Wednesday. Dan has been working on this goal for a while and he can finally put that notch in his belt!
As for me, Danny (AG4DW), I had to travel to Florida for the weekend but did manage to activate two new-to-me parks in Florida on the trip down. Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park (US-3647) and Price’s Scrub State Park (US-10463). These two parks are about 4 miles apart and are totally different! Payne’s Prairie has luscious tropical foliage and Spanish Moss everywhere and a large lake and picnic pavilions. Price’s Scrub is a relatively new park and is pretty primitive and expected to remain that way. One picnic table, one porta-potty and one trash can! I managed 25 SSB contacts on 20 meters at both parks!
And, in a first for me, we saw a park ranger pull in at Price’s Scrub in an unmarked truck and headed towards a small trailhead. He saw us watching him and backed up to us, identified himself, and told us he was there on official business! He was afraid we were going to call the cops and report HIM! You hear reports of rangers investigating POTA activators but usually not the other way around! We had a good laugh and he was very familiar with Parks on the Air. He said if the apocalypse ever happens, he is getting in touch with us POTA guys!
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36 viewsThis past Thursday June 11, we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park from the Nickajack Trailhead site. The new concrete driveway was a welcome relief from the old bumpy gravel hill.
Allen KN4FKS set up under the picnic shelter and deployed his end fed half wave wire into a nearby pine tree. The rough bark nearly snagged his throw bag string but careful maneuvering finally got everything working. He then made 68 SSB contacts with 20 being on 20 meters and 48 more on 15 meters. He made 23 Park to Park contacts with 4 DX contacts to Slovenia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. While on 15 meters Allen heard a DX call, it was HF0PAS at the Polish Antarctica research station. He was working split because of the pile up coming from both Europe and North America. Try as he will 100 watts and a wire was not going to bust that pile up on this day. The cool thing if he had made the contact it would have been a P2P contact as that part of the continent is designated as a park with a POTA number.
John KB4QXI set up his roof mounted Hamstick on 20 meters and made 63 SSB contacts with 19 P2P as well.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer 17 ft. vertical with the elevated counterpoise and made 68 contacts, 34 SSB and 34 FT8 on 40, 30, and 17 meters. He had 9 P2P contacts and 3 DX to Canada.
Alan W4PLP came by just to visit everyone for a while and give encouragement.
Soon after we had arrived a young couple showed up at the trailhead to go hiking and the lady expressed having an interest in Ham radio over the years. So, quickly we gave her a tour of Danny's set up and explained about the different facets of the hobby. Luckily we had prepared information sheets to give her concerning an introduction to ham radio, an overview of the TSARC and what POTA is all about. Hopefully we'll see this young hiker again on the radio. We are all ambassadors so it is helpful to always be prepared with a smile and information.
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34 viewsThis past Thursday June 11, we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park from the Nickajack Trailhead site. The new concrete driveway was a welcome relief from the old bumpy gravel hill.
Allen KN4FKS set up under the picnic shelter and deployed his end fed half wave wire into a nearby pine tree. The rough bark nearly snagged his throw bag string but careful maneuvering finally got everything working. He then made 68 SSB contacts with 20 being on 20 meters and 48 more on 15 meters. He made 23 Park to Park contacts with 4 DX contacts to Slovenia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. While on 15 meters Allen heard a DX call, it was HF0PAS at the Polish Antarctica research station. He was working split because of the pile up coming from both Europe and North America. Try as he will 100 watts and a wire was not going to bust that pile up on this day. The cool thing if he had made the contact it would have been a P2P contact as that part of the continent is designated as a park with a POTA number.
John KB4QXI set up his roof mounted Hamstick on 20 meters and made 63 SSB contacts with 19 P2P as well.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer 17 ft. vertical with the elevated counterpoise and made 68 contacts, 34 SSB and 34 FT8 on 40, 30, and 17 meters. He had 9 P2P contacts and 3 DX to Canada.
Alan W4PLP came by just to visit everyone for a while and give encouragement.
Soon after we had arrived a young couple showed up at the trailhead to go hiking and the lady expressed having an interest in Ham radio over the years. So, quickly we gave her a tour of Danny's set up and explained about the different facets of the hobby. Luckily we had prepared information sheets to give her concerning an introduction to ham radio, an overview of the TSARC and what POTA is all about. Hopefully we'll see this young hiker again on the radio. We are all ambassadors so it is helpful to always be prepared with a smile and information.
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33 viewsEven though our esteemed leader, Allen (KN4FKS), and I both had to go out of town this week, there was still a LOT of POTA activity despite there being no organized group effort!
Ed (KM6UTC) solved a but of a POTA activation problem/mystery this week that made a gigantic difference in the number of contacts! And it had nothing to do with his equipment! I mention this not to embarrass Ed but, rather, to point out how easy it is for us humans to make the wrong assumptions and maybe there is someone else wanting to do POTA that has made the same assumption. Up until this week Ed says that he thought the only calls you could log for a POTA activation were calls to another activator or a hunter answering his CQ POTA call! In fact, almost any valid QSO counts and can be logged (no repeaters can be used, however). You can answer someone else’s CQ and have a rag chew. It counts as a valid POTA contact. Make a contact with a DXExpediton? It counts!
Armed with the new knowledge, Ed activated US-0716, Chickamuaga and Chattanooga National Battlefield, from the Cravens House location on the North side of Lookout Mountain, on Thursday. hw wound up with 85 contacts for the day with a number of DX. The DX included the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Romania, Spain, France, Canada (eh), Puerto Rico, Italy, Azores, & Hungary.
Ed noted that the views from Cravens House were wonderful due to the excellent weather. He also commented on what appears to once have been a beautiful Mansion and adjacent Coach House at the Cravens House location and noted that the Nation Park Service seems to have allowed these structures to deteriorate, probably past the point of no return!
Ed asked if anyone had any information about this and someone sent a link to a 13-year old link to the Chattanoogan.com that sums it up quite well! A copy of the link is attached if you want to find out more!
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/3/25/247432/John-Shearer-History-Of-The-Hardy-Home.aspx
Before heading out of town Allen (KN4FKS) got away Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to Estelle Mine Road on Pigeon Mtn.WMA (US-3742). He set up his 25 ft vertical with the faraday cloth radials and mainly chased parks for P2P contacts. He had 22 SSB contacts with 20 P2P and 2 special event stations. Also one P2P to Puerto Rico. On 20 meters he had 16 contacts and 6 more on 40 meters.
AND… a bug congratulations to Dan Strickland (K2DTS) for achieving a Kilo (1000 activator contacts) from US-0716 on Wednesday. Dan has been working on this goal for a while and he can finally put that notch in his belt!
As for me, Danny (AG4DW), I had to travel to Florida for the weekend but did manage to activate two new-to-me parks in Florida on the trip down. Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park (US-3647) and Price’s Scrub State Park (US-10463). These two parks are about 4 miles apart and are totally different! Payne’s Prairie has luscious tropical foliage and Spanish Moss everywhere and a large lake and picnic pavilions. Price’s Scrub is a relatively new park and is pretty primitive and expected to remain that way. One picnic table, one porta-potty and one trash can! I managed 25 SSB contacts on 20 meters at both parks!
And, in a first for me, we saw a park ranger pull in at Price’s Scrub in an unmarked truck and headed towards a small trailhead. He saw us watching him and backed up to us, identified himself, and told us he was there on official business! He was afraid we were going to call the cops and report HIM! You hear reports of rangers investigating POTA activators but usually not the other way around! We had a good laugh and he was very familiar with Parks on the Air. He said if the apocalypse ever happens, he is getting in touch with us POTA guys!
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33 viewsThis past Thursday June 11, we activated Cloudland Canyon State Park from the Nickajack Trailhead site. The new concrete driveway was a welcome relief from the old bumpy gravel hill.
Allen KN4FKS set up under the picnic shelter and deployed his end fed half wave wire into a nearby pine tree. The rough bark nearly snagged his throw bag string but careful maneuvering finally got everything working. He then made 68 SSB contacts with 20 being on 20 meters and 48 more on 15 meters. He made 23 Park to Park contacts with 4 DX contacts to Slovenia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. While on 15 meters Allen heard a DX call, it was HF0PAS at the Polish Antarctica research station. He was working split because of the pile up coming from both Europe and North America. Try as he will 100 watts and a wire was not going to bust that pile up on this day. The cool thing if he had made the contact it would have been a P2P contact as that part of the continent is designated as a park with a POTA number.
John KB4QXI set up his roof mounted Hamstick on 20 meters and made 63 SSB contacts with 19 P2P as well.
Danny AG4DW set up his Pota Performer 17 ft. vertical with the elevated counterpoise and made 68 contacts, 34 SSB and 34 FT8 on 40, 30, and 17 meters. He had 9 P2P contacts and 3 DX to Canada.
Alan W4PLP came by just to visit everyone for a while and give encouragement.
Soon after we had arrived a young couple showed up at the trailhead to go hiking and the lady expressed having an interest in Ham radio over the years. So, quickly we gave her a tour of Danny's set up and explained about the different facets of the hobby. Luckily we had prepared information sheets to give her concerning an introduction to ham radio, an overview of the TSARC and what POTA is all about. Hopefully we'll see this young hiker again on the radio. We are all ambassadors so it is helpful to always be prepared with a smile and information.
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6 viewsOur plan worked for once. This week we activated Pigeon Mountain US-3742 from the South Brow site. It was nice and shady, a light breeze blew and it never really got that hot. The bands also cooperated enough to make it a fun day.
Allen KN4FKS set up his end fed wire as a sloper and worked 40 meters SSB. He made 47 contacts with one Park to Park and no DX. A useful accessory for POTA this time of year is a small clamp on 12 volt fan.
Danny AG4DW set up his POTA Performer 17 ft vertical and made 69 total contacts. 21 SSB contacts on 20 meters, then 41 FT8 contacts also on 20 meters. Then he made 7 FT8 contacts on 15 meters. He had 4 P2P contacts and DX to Canada (5) Cuba, France, and the Netherlands.
Jim K4WWE set up his Horizon Antennas Vertical Dipole and made 11 contacts for a successful activation.
Doug W4LAW came by to check on us and provide some adult supervision.
It was a fun day proving you can actually successfully activate a park in the summer heat if you pick your spot carefully.
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