This AAR is brought to you by… wait for it… me! Lol. But seriously, today is special for another reason or two, on this day I activated Cloudland Canyon State Park for the 80th time and I met another ham at my home park!
Today, once again I setup the truck in the lower lot like I did a while back as it is faster somewhat but also it has a different view as well. I normally don’t setup down here as I have had issues with electronic hash noise in this area (I am guessing it is coming from inverters in the campground just over the hill) so that is why I goto the top of the hill where the disc golfers are most of the time. The antenna situation today is as follows, I went ahead and installed all the radials at once as it was threatening to rain the whole time and would sprinkle on occasion during the activation regularly.
I also used my RG-316 coax today along with my rain proof “countermeasures” which consist of a peanut bag taped over the coax connector to keep it dry during the activation. This is a field expedient solve that also happens to be a way to recycle a common piece of trash that would otherwise end up in the landfill. I can even reuse the tape a couple of times if I am careful.
Since I connected all my radials today, I also tried to use the whole suite of antennas that I have currently. If you will look closely, you will se I also installed QD mounts on my hamsticks as well. This made band changes so much faster!
I figured I would start on 17 meters to see what I could hear up there. When I connected it and saw the radio, I had high hopes as the waterfall on the Icom IC-705 had several signals on it. Calling CQ almost immediately netted 2 dx contacts! I worked DL1AX in Germany and SP9RXP in Poland! Did I mention I am only using 5 watts?!?! SP9RXP is 5060 miles from K-2169 so that qualifies for the 1000 miles per watt award! One day I will actually apply for these… HIHI I attribute this entirely to the new common mode choke I made and was using and a nice little band opening that happened at the same time. The choke probably didn’t have much of an impact on this but I want to believe it did.
This choke works so much better than my other one that it isnt even a real comparison. It also seems to help with band noise, but that could just be me wanting to believe it does since I built it more than anything. I know it measures real good on the nanoVNA… lol
While I was on 20 meters this camper van rolls by real slow, I tend to get that a lot with all the radials and the hamstick on the back of the truck. Then the camper van stops right in front of me and the guy gets out and starts over my way. I also get this a lot as people are curious and want to know what I am doing. But then it takes a completely different direction when he says (I am paraphrasing a little here) “Are you doing Parks on the Air?” This caught me off guard as I had never had someone who knew what I was doing, actually ask me if that was what it was.
Turns out this camper was none other than W5DXQ on vacation! He is from Texas and is very active on the air using an assortment of modes. I was in the middle of a QSO so I asked him to let me clear it then we proceeded to talk for about 20 minutes about my rig and CW and digital modes and how he uses the spotter system and SSB and the list goes on and on. Meeting Jeff was the highlight of the activation…well that and working two dx stations right out of the gate on 17 meters… It was awesome to finally meet someone else who does POTA at a park. I am so glad he decided to stop and ask what I was doing. I hope to work him on the air at some point! Now the challenge for me is to meet someone actually activating like Jeff did when he found me today.
Once we finished our eyeball QSO he headed off on his adventure and I got back on the air. Looking at the QSO map, it looks really odd with the two european stations when compared to the North American dispersion that happened once the band opening closed on 17 meters. I normally net at least a few western states but today saw no one west of Texas.
As you can see from the logbook, today 30 and 20 meters were the bands to use but even then the reports were showing how the bands were fading in and out. I did make some contacts on all four bands though so I am super happy with that.
The peeps over at the POTA website even sent me this cool certificate to commemorate the 80th activation! Nice!
All in all, it was a great day for POTA. I hope to hear you on the air soon. 72 de WK4DS