Philosophy

It’s All Fun And Games When Someone Loses An Eye

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Yesterday was January 6th, the first Saturday in 2024. What is the significance, you might ask? Well it was the beginning of the week-long PA Farm Show held in Harrisburg PA. Local legend would have it that the Farm Show is a harbinger of bad weather (go figure, it is held in January) and this year it has held up to that reputation. Late morning yesterday it began to snow. A nice, pretty wet snow. Within a couple hours we had around 76.2 MM of accumulation on the ground ( ~ 3 inches for those who use the outdated measuring system) and then the temperature started to rise slightly above freezing. It remained that way overnight. This morning I spent over an hour with my snowblower clearing my driveway. My wyfe and I then went out to lunch and got a few groceries. When we got back i settled in with a cup of coffee and started trying to work some POTA stations. I began to wonder why I was getting lousy signal reports when I looked out the window. A couple of tree branches had succumbed to the weight of the wet snow and fell, taking down my dipole and breaking the rope which ran through the pulley on the tower which held the center support up. My long-suffering wyfe agreed to leave the warm comfort of the house and assist me in getting the antenna back up in the air. It took some doing. My antenna is now in a different position than it was, is lower and the setup is temporary. Once the weather gets a bit better I am going to make the installation more permanent. At least I am back on the air and making contacts. I, however, did run out of expletives which is highly unusual as I studied under a master, my father. As for blame, I place that squarely in the lap of the PA Farm Show. Namaste Kiddos.

More from the POD Person

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Heidi-Ho. Wow, 2 posts in 2 days. Something must be off with me lol. I decided to activate today because the weather was nice …. for January. The temperature was pretty mild …. about 3.5 C (38.5 F) which was not too bad. First, I tried to go to Fowlers Hollow State Park but there was oo much road construction activity there so I decided to go to Big Springs State Park, my old stand by. We got the POD set up and I got on the air. I put the heater in it and soon was in shirtsleeves. BTW, all my owls declined to make the excursion with us so I was mascot-less. Oh well, their loss. We were set up and on the air in a short period of time and I quickly made the required amount of contacts for a legit activation. After about half an hour I switched from 40 meters to 15 meters and made more contacts. I even made 2 DX contacts: Spain and Canary Islands. Overall I made a total of 45 contacts in an hour on 3 bands, 40, 15 and 20 meters using an inverted Vee antenna and my Yaesu ft891 at 75 Watts. My Wyfe is urging me to try operating from the car as a practice for our vacation so I am going to look at streamlining my setup. I will fill in more about that in later posts. Well the log has been uploaded, I am warm and am drinking coffee and my motional sports cat is by my side so I think it is time to sit back and relax. As always, namaste kidlets until we meet again.

The POD
The Pod from the side

Calling CQ

Co-dependency? Symbiosis?

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Since one of my stated purposes of this blog is a study/discussion of the aspects of nature, I am going to start the New Year off with a discussion of the relationship between the POTA Activator and the POTA Hunter. First off, is it a co-dependency? Without the hunters there would be no activators and without the activators there would be no hunters. The existence of either depends on the existence of the other, but a true co-dependence would suggest a one-to-one relationship. Dictionary.com defines co-dependency as: “a state of mutual dependence between two people”. WAIT!!!!! They used a derivative form of the word within its own definition! Naughty, naughty!!  Websters defines it as: “ a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person manifesting low self-esteem and a strong desire for approval has an unhealthy attachment to another often controlling or manipulative person”. This shows that it does not apply at all to the relationship between hunters and activators. 

Let’s look at symbiosis. Webster defines it as: ” 1: the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms (as in parasitism or commensalism)” This first definition does not really apply. Though we may make friends through POTA activities, I wouldn’t classify the association as intimate or parasitical. Now lets look at definition number 2 in Webster’s arsenal: ”2 : a cooperative relationship (as between two persons or groups)”. There, I think they are onto something! By activating, the activator gives the hunter a purpose and the hunter, by hunting gives the activator a purpose. It is often repeated that without the hunters, there would be no activators. Hmmmm …. something seems to be missing here. 

The group that is overlooked or forgotten is the one that labors in the shadows. The organizers, the administrators, the VOLUNTEERS who run the POTA.APP website and maintain a clearing house of logs, those who track the State Parks and assign numbers to them, those who make the rules for activations and those who watch over the logs and design the awards which mystically and magically appear in our accounts when we pass a threshold. Think of them this year. Maybe donate some time or money to support the effort. 

In any event, continue to support POTA in whichever why your heart tells you to and is within your abilities. If you are a hunter, hunt. If you are an activator, activate. If you do both then do both. Just have fun and POTA on

Namaste, kidlets!

And just like that, November was gone!

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It was a rare and beautiful late Autumn day, today and I took advantage of it. The sun was out of the clouds and the temperature was heading up to the high 40’s F (8 C) and the outdoors was calling to me. My wyfe and I set out to Kings Gap (K-4361) and I set up quickly. Tootsie watched over my shoulder for lions, tigres and bears (and the odd hunter or 2) and I was on the air. The 40 metre band was not in the best of shape but I was able to make 18 contacts including 3 park-top-park contacts. I call this a success. I did have to move a bit up as someone came on just below me and was carrying on a QSO but that happens. I think the next time I blog I will have something new and exciting to report … maybe something unexected. 🙂 Until then, Namaste.

Tootsie keeping watch
Still life with owl, thermos and antenna

Ha Ha Charade You Are

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It was a somewhat gloomy day though not quite. Actually, it was pretty nice when we set out, my long-suffering wyfe and I. The goal was to activate K-1376, Little Buffalo State Park, about 19 kilometers away in New Bloomfield PA. The parking area near the swimming pool is gated off for the season which had no effect on me as I had no plans on going to that end of the park anyway. We went to the boat launch area. It overlooks the Eastern end of the lake and is usually less crowded with foot traffic. Today there were a few dog walkers and one fellow who put his boat into the water and went fishing but that was all. A side note about the fisherman, He had something in his truck that was causing a broad band humming on my radio, not enough to interfere but it was noticeable. It stopped when he shut the truck off. Anyway, I was set up in about 15 minutes and go on the air. I used my Buddistick this time and had good results. Ever since I stopped trying to tune using the counterpoise and started using a 6 meter by 10 centimeter strip of copper mesh as a ground plane, tuning it with my tuner is a breeze. I started operating on 7.188 MHz and made several contacts and then had to move due to a net coming in on top of me. I moved to 7.278 MHz and was able to finish out my operation. I stayed as long as I could but the cold did get the best of me. The temperature was around 7C but the wind was blowing from off the lake a constant 11 Kph and gusting to 28 Kph which took the core temperature right out of me, in spite of the copious amounts of coffee and the nice blanket I was sitting on. I made 46 contacts and had Zarathustra with me to keep watch for lake monsters. Namaste for now, kidlets.

My Buddistick. The cones mark the copper mesh ground plane.
Zarathustra watching over my shoulder for lake monsters
A view of where I was operating from.

Always have a plan “B”

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Once again it was too nice a day to waste, so my long-suffering wyfe, my owl Ptolomy and myself set out to activate a park. I wanted to get a new one (at least new to me) in the books so we headed to Col Denning State Park, just on the other side of Doubling Gap. It was a great day and it did not take long to get set up. Unfortunately I was unable to make more than one contact. He was mobile and in RI so I know it wasn’t my antenna. Just circumstances, I guess. There was no internet signal where I was so I could not see if I was spotted, nor could I spot myself. Oh well, such is life and ham radio. On to Plan B. Not too far away is the Three Square Hollow Vista in Tuscarora State Forest, which I have worked from before. It is a beautiful location with an outstanding view and good radio visibility. Within about 1/2 hour of operating I was able to make 29 contacts including some park-to-parks which helped ease the sting of an unsuccessful attempt. All in all it was a great day. I even got to chat a bit with some of the other hams out there. I am attaching the obligatory photos of Ptolomey, my radio and the view from both locations. Namaste, kidlets, until next time.

Ptolomey watching my 6 at Col Denning State Park.
Yes, that is a thermos of coffee.
Ptolomey at Three Square Hollow Vista blocking my view of Cumberland County PA.

If Nothing Went Wrong, It Wouldn’t Be Ham Radio

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Yup. did another activation today. We took a drive on the spur of the moment up to Kings Gap Environmental Education Center (POTA K-4361). You might have surmised that we sorta-kinda like the place. What’s not to like? A peaceful hilltop in a verdant setting where any noises are muffled by the trees. Today there were 2 bus loads of public school kids and 4 van loads of Mennonite school kids participating in a school program and we didn’t even hear them from where we were parked. As to my setback … well, it was a lapse on my part. I got my antenna set up and ready and then put my rig out and connected it to the tuner and went to make the final connections to the battery and LO! and BEHOLD! I had left the pigtail that goes from the power pole connectors on the rig to the battery at home! Luckily, I had spare connectors, wire, alligator clips and crimpers in my radio box. I rigged up a pigtail and was soon on the air. The antenna I was using was my Buddistick. I had it mounted on a tri-pod and was using 6 meter by 10 cm copper mesh strip as a counterpoise. It worked pretty good on the 40M band though it did not out perform my usual inverted vee setup. I made 30 contacts varying from CT to MI to the Carolinas to Ontario. I will try this again to make sure it wasn’t just the day. I will also try this setup in one of the other parks I have activated before and compare notes. I will have to keep an eye on the weather but I may activate on Tuesday, either Big Spring or possibly Little Buffalo State Park. I am not looking forward to colder weather and am planning on squeezing in as many activations as I can before I am forced to stay inside until the area gets more hospitable. Well my coffee cup is empty so I think I will end this for now and will post a few pictures to include the owl of the day, Zarathustra. Picture 1 is my Biddistick. Picture 2 is Zarathustra supervising my logging. You kids behave. Namaste.

As for Summer, I don’t hear no singing!

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It was a beautiful day today and I decided to go activate a park. I went to Big Spring State Park which is located in Tuscarora State Forest, making it a two-fer! All went well. I put my antenna up over a convenient branch with my arborist bag and quickly got on the air. I self spotted on the POTA app and soon was making contacts. I had no real issues until an operator started using AM on a nearby freq. I just moved down the band and started over. I ran for a while more before the heat got to me. Overall a very successful activation. I made 44 contacts including 3 park to parks. I will be back there in the near future as it is a nice park and is nearby. I enjoy working portable and POTA gives me a chance to get outdoors. Yesterday I was out on my lawn and, with the help of my long-suffering wyfe, got my Buddistick tuned up using a 4″ by 20′ length of copper screen as a ground radial. It worked great and I will have to try it at a park next. Now I think I will sit here and stream some shows.

Namaste, y’all

Took a Late Spring Break

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Well I am back. Took a bit of a break inclding a vacation which included driving over 2400 miles and eating lots of food that I shouldn’t have eaten, but isn’t that what you are supposed to do on vacation? In the near future I will be posting some more on here. I have some picture and comments and observations. First off, though, I would like to point out that I would like to say that I am the type of person that it would be good to have on a ghost hunt. I am a sceptic and look for explanations rather than jump to conclusions. Having said that, my wyfe and I were in a cemetery where she was doing some recording trying to catch EVP (electronic voice phenomenon). I was staying away from where she was and was wandering around taking pictures of cool stones and textures. I caught motion out of the corner of my eye and the impression that someone was walking next to me. There was no one there. I took out my phone and activated a “spirit box” app. Now these things are, in my opinion, apt to pick up random words and phrases from broadcast and CB radio. Just for fun I asked “Is there anyone there?” I heard a reply: “Hello” I asked do you have anything to say? All I heard was static. I asked again: “Do you have anything to say?” I heard a very distinctive “I’m freezing”. I have no explaination for this. Since this was late June and the current temp was in the high 70’s, I doubt such a comment would come up in normal conversation. Who knows. Well, namaste for now kidlets.

Events Special and Otherwise

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Yesterday we, the club I belong to, held a special event to mark the anniversary of the birth of Marie Doro, a local who was a very well known actress in the early 1900s. She was very famous on stage and in silent films and was the first American actor invited to appear before the British royalty!. She was born here in Duncannon PA and is buried here, though she lived the majority of her life elsewhere. In a perfect world, running a Special Event would be simple. Since when has this world been perfect? There is quite a process involved starting with getting the club interested in hosting the event to announcing the event and getting the announcement published in QST magazine and on QRZ.com to painstaking work designing the certificate to securing a venue to hold the event to procuring equipment to enticing people to operate the radios and bring food, chairs, tables and other odds and ends. anyway, we did it. I even made a batch of chili which was a big hit. I even brought one of my mascot owls, Tootsie to supervise. He approved of the radio activity.