A Tale of Two Activations (with apologies to Charles. The Dickins you say?)

October 29, 2023 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

It was the best of times, it was … actually pretty good. even the bad was good. We went out on the 24th, Tuesday October 24th, for those who were wondering, and the weather was beyond compare. Sunny and in the mid 20’s C ( mid 70’s for those stuck in the F scale, mid 290’s for those who prefer K). Not much wind. My antenna went up easily , almost like it knows where it is supposed to go. The contacts started rolling in very quickly and in no time I had worked a total of 43 including some park to parks and a couple husband-wyfe teams. a good day. After packing up, my wyfe and I took a ride up Hemlock Road and she did some videoing before we went and got some lunch/supper (lupper?). My owl decoy, Tootsie, kept the bears and Karens away and generally helped me log. The park is one of the nicest places a person can go; remote and quiet with a wooded charm.

Yesterday, 28 October, my wyfe said that maybe I should take advantage of the weather and activate as rain was supposed to move in today. As you may be able to tell, I am doing my best to get as many activations in before the weather turns shitty for the next 3 months. I like the outdoors but sitting out in the cold doesn’t appeal to me much these days. I guess I should explain that I am a neophyte when it comes to POTA. I only started doing this with any seriousness this summer. Sure, I had worked a few parks before this and I had registered on the POTA website in April for 2022, but I never really made any effort until this past summer. I started hunting and then I started doing activations. I am no expert by any means, though I have a lot of experience doing portable operating. In fact it is good to be getting back into it. Ok. Enough history. Yesterday I packed up the car and brought along Ptolomey as my mascot/guardian. I also brought my pink flamingo, Charade. It didn’t take long to set up but it did take a while for my first contacts to come in. I thought it was going to be hard to get 10 but finally they started gaining momentum. I started getting spots on the POTA APP and I was able to work 54 contacts with a lot of Park to Park contacts. Overall, though the day was a bit cloudy and dismal and the temps were a bit lower than Tuesday, It was a good day. Hopefully there will be more chances this Autumn.

Logging under the careful supervision of Tootsie.

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

October 19, 2023 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

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.

Tuesday the 10th vs Friday the 13th

October 13, 2023 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

This is a tale of 2 activations, 2 owls and one park. On Tuesday, Oct 10th, My long suffering wyfe and I set out to Kings Gap (K-4361 for you POTA types) and I activated the park. This consists of setting up my radio and making a minimum of 10 contacts. I was able to make 34 contacts in the time I had to be there and enjoyed the day. Everything went smoothly. I got my antenna line over a tree branch in one throw and was set up in less than 15 minutes. My wyfe wandered around taking pictures and also spent some time on the interwebs and enjoying the weather. It was a great afternoon. As I said, everything went smoothly. My owl decoy, Ptolomey (pictured below) kept watch for bears and made sure we weren’t bothered by insects or other pests. Then there was today, Friday the 13th. My wyfe, on the spur of the moment, decided that she wanted to do some videoing up at Kings Gap and since we would be going up there I decided to bring my equipment and activate. First, I had to turn back 1/2 km from home as I had forgotten to barricade off the area of the house where the cellar stairs are. I rather prefer not to return home to our Rhoomba on its back at the bottom of the stairs screaming for help and being circled by well-meaning cats. Then the small store at the bottom of the hill at Kings Gap did not carry the brand of chips my wyfe wanted. Once we go to the top of the hill where the mansion is, there were workmen doing various and sundry things preparing the place for the upcoming fall/winter seasons. My wyfe settled herself in to doing her thing and I started setting up my radio. Yeah … On the 4th throw, my throwing bag wound 3 times around a branch. I stood there, about 15 or so meters below staring at it and uttering lots of nsfw words. There was no way I could leave an weighted throwing bag attached to several meters of florescent twine attached to that branch. Finally the thought hit me: The twine has 2 ends!! I took a convenient stick and tied it up with the other end of the twine and threw it over the branch 3 times. This unwound the throwing bag. Unfortunately, my wyfe had wandered over to observe the spectacle and almost got hit with the bag when it came loose and plummeted to the ground. Now 3 more throws got it over the branch and I was able to raise my antenna. My usual 15 minute set-up took me almost 45 minutes. Now my owl Tootsie was able to scare away any bears but the gnats were another story. They ignored him and swarmed me. I did my best to ignore them. I made 55 contacts and had a very successful activation in spite of Friday the 13th and Murphy. Feel free to look at my pictures and to laugh at me. 🙂 Pic 1 is Ptolomey, Pic 2 is Me on the 10th, Pic 3 is Tootsie and Pic 4 is me on the 13th. Namaste Y’all