Two Days Out And About

April 22, 2025 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Avail yourselves of refreshing beverages and hearken to my tale of two very active days and two activations. Yesterday April 21st, a Monday, SWMBO and I had a busy day after I awoke from my sleep. We did some errands then we tackled Satan’s Putting Green for the first time this year. She used the lawnmower and I got all cave-man with the industrial weed wacker. This thing is made for heavy grass and light brush and uses 1/4 inch strings. It does the job and gets results. Once this herculean task was finished, we went for groceries. This brings us to the point where we decided to activate. SWMBO wanted to go to the Pioneer Cemetery in Tuscarora State Forest US-5479. The cemetery is located in an area known as Pandemonium. The road going up there is mostly gravel after the pavement ends. I was surprised that there were no birds to be heard there nor did we see any wildlife apart from squirrels. While she was going around taking pictures and shooting videos, I set up. I started operating on 40M and it did not take long to rack up 22 contacts (less than half an hour) and we packed it in. SWMBO did the logging, as usual. I did make a screw up by asking one ham to stand by because I wanted to work a weaker signal station and I didn’t get back to him. Next time I hear him on the air I will apologize. This brings us to today. This morning we went to some cemeteries in the Mechanicsburg area. You might notice a theme. We like taking pictures and photos in cemeteries. In one of the cemeteries we visited is buried a woman whose cause of death was spontaneous combustion! We then trolloped off to Gettysburg for a quick activation and a lunch at the Lincoln Diner. Through the course of the day our phone app heard: American Robins, Fish Crows, Northern Flickers, American Pipits, Chipping Sparrows, Blue Jays, American Crows, Northern Cardinals, White-Breasted Nuthatches and Red-Winged Blackbirds. I guess they were all out enjoying a nice day. Instead of going to Culp’s Hill where we usually go, we went to Barlow Ridge, near the Peace Light on Mummasburg Road. The contacts were slow to come today. I tried 40M and worked 5 before getting a bit frustrated. I went to 17 M and worked 7 more before we called it a day and went to lunch. If you are ever in Gettysburg, check out the Lincoln Diner. You won’t be disappointed. Well kidlets, here ends my tale for now. Below are some pics. I will be uploading at least 1 video to https://www.youtube.com/@gestyrious/featured in the next few days. Enjoy life and, as always, namaste!

A Beautiful Day In Gettysburg And Elsewhere

April 17, 2025 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

This morning SWMBO and I decided to go out and about. It was around 3C (37F) when we left and we were hoping for the best weatherwise. We decided on Gettysburg PA as a destination and we made our way to Culps Hill. While we were there the temp rose from 6C (43F) to 11C (52F) and there was not a cloud in the sky. The wind was calm, also. On the radio side of things, the A index was 84 and the K index was 7; a true solar storm! I didn’t know this until after I finished with the activation. We were only on the air from 12:47 UTC until 13:17 UTC and worked a total of 30 contacts of which 4 were Park-to-Park contacts. Very nice for a day when the propagation should have prevented us from talking across the street. 🙂 As per usual, I used my app to listen for birds and heard: Tufted Titmouses, White-throated Sparrows, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Brown-headed Cowbirds; a virtual symphony of tweets. After we picked up we decided to head to the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg. As I have mentioned before, we both like to take pictures in cemeteries as some of the carvings on the stones are very beautiful. We go to the cemetery and I again started my app hearing: Chipping Sparrows, Blue Jays, American Goldfinches, Tufted Titmice and Dark-eyed Juncos. The cemetery was also alive with a plethora (butt-load) of squirrels. The day continued to be gorgeous. One grave in particular that we visited was that of Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg. There is a statue of her there and a flagpole where people leave pennies to signify they visited the grave. In a day or so I will be uploading a video of her grave site to my YouTube channel : www.youtube.com/@gestyrious After we left the cemetery we headed over the mountain to Bunker Hill Farm in Michaux State Forest. Aside from once being a farm it was also a CCC Camp, a camp where the Army interrogated WWII prisoners of war, and a church camp (in that order). There are only foundations left now and the crumbling walls of the old barn. It is a cool place to walk around. Anyway, that sums up how we spent a beautiful morning. That is it for now. As always, Namaste kids.

Moxie and Zarathustra at Culp’s Hill maintaining the accuracy of our logs.

The remains of the barn at Bunker Hill Farm

2 Weeks And I Am Back

April 13, 2025 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

On 31 March, I took my car to the body shop due to damage from a ruminant running into my door. I finally got it back on Wednesday, 9 April . The rental I had was really bad. I didn’t like it at all nor did my wyfe. We are thrilled to have our Scoobydoo back. We went out yesterday driving around and looking for places to take pictures and videos. We ended up on the back roads around Gettysburg. One place we stopped was at Sachs Bridge. The bridge was used by the Confederate Army during their withdrawal from Gettysburg after the battle. It is a “Town” Truss type covered bridge and the area is a great spot to fish or just watch the creek roll by. Today we set out to do an activation and play with the cameras again. I asked SWMBO to pick a direction and she had said south. We took off directed south and made our way to Fort Frederick in Maryland which is a park I hadn’t activated before. Where we parked was next to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which is a historic trail and on the list of places you can activate. It is officially a National Park and runs from Washington DC to Cumberland MD along the Potomac River. This made our activation a 2 fer.I used my app to listen for birds and we heard Northern Cardinals, White-Throated Sparrows, American Goldfinches, Tufted Titmouses, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Carolina Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrushes and Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers. We started operating and within a half hour we worked 41 contacts. We then played tourist in the park and did some photography and videos. It was a good weekend and it is good to be back in my car where I can work POTA stations. Thanks for being there. Namaste.

A ruminant track next to my car. Quarter is for scale.

A Two-fer And A Onesie

February 25, 2025 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

A good time was had by all today! We did a couple of activations today. We heard the following birds: American Crow, House Finch, American Robin, Tufted Titmouse (or was that titted tuftmouse?) Canada Goose, Carolina Wren and Northern Mockingbird. Quite a bunch! Last night I asked SWMBO where we should go to activate today. She suggested Maryland. She also talked me into activating multiple parks (like that took a lot of arm twisting lol). Well I was looking at a map and a list of parks and decided to go to Gathland State Park US-1574 in Jefferson Maryland. It is located on South Mountain and was the site of a civil war battle. It is a small quiet park though a few people were there when we arrived. A man came over to the car as I was setting up and introduced himself as KB3EOF, Sandy. He had just finished activating the park. It is nice to have a face-to-face qso. He gave me a call when he got home and I got him in the log as a hunter. After he left I finished setting up and got on the air. With SWMBO logging we worked 43 stations, all on 40M. This park was also a 2-fer as the Appalachian Trail US_4556 runs through it. We then took a walk around the park, read the historical signs and took pictures. We then set out for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park US-0735. Harpers Ferry was only about 15 minutes away so that was convenient. We spoke with the people in the Visitors Center and they were very okay with ham radio activities in the park. One of their volunteers is a ham and he has activated the park himself. Though the AT runs through Harpers Ferry, we were too far away from the trail to count it. We only worked 25 contacts here on both 40M and 17M. We got some contacts from all over the US, a couple from Europe and I was very surprised and pleased to receive a call from A65D in the UAE. This is the first contact I have had with that country and was glad to get it into the log. Now I am sitting at home with a cat taking over my lap. The cat in question is Kalamazoo, one of my pocket panthers. Well I am going to close for today. Namaste kidlets!

The War Correspondents Memorial at Gathland SP

When is the last time you have seen one of these?

Walking Between Raindrops

May 31, 2024 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Yes, I am back. Wednesday we got a bit bored and set out under rainy skies to Big Springs State Park US-4355. In about 1/2 hour we worked 17 stations including 2 park-to-parks. Then we went for a ride on one of our favorite back roads looking for nature. We saw a total of 5 squirrels and 4 bunnies and 1 whistlepig. I guess the rain showers kept most of nature in. Yesterday we set out as planned. We started with breakfast at the Newville Diner; breakfast being the cornerstone of any good activation. After an ongoing argument with my GPS, we arrived on top of Culp’s Hill in Gettysburg, PA. I have found this to be a great location to work from. It is elevated and is off the beaten path of the battlefield. Yes, some bus tours do stop there but aside from some curious looks, they leave you alone. I parked next to the 7th Indiana Infantry monument and set about activating the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park US-0027. We had a good run. We started at 0930 EDT (13:30 UTC) and spent about 15 minutes on 40M and made our 10 contacts. I then changed antennas and went to 17M for 15 minutes before going back to 40M. In between contacts we listened to the birds and enjoyed a nice quiet morning. A few people came up and climbed the tower but they left us alone. Overall we worked 25 stations from MA to NM . We then had to let mundane life take control and did some shopping. After we got home and got settled we decided to go out again. We are lucky to live in an area where we can drive a short distance in just about any direction and hit either a State Park, State Forest or State Game Land. Anyway, we arrived at Little Buffalo State Park US -1376 at around 17:30 EDT (21:30 UTC) and got on the air. This time I did not have time to consider changing bands. 40M was hot. I hunted 1 park-to-park and then found an empty frequency and stayed on it until we left. We worked 45 contacts with 6 park-to-parks and got to watch people fishing and picnicking and dog walking. The mood on the band was very upbeat. Everybody seemed very happy and everything was just humming along. I am very happy myself with the performance of these “hamstick” antennae. They do perform well. I am looking forward to taking them on vacation. If you want to see where we are, keep an eye on the POTA spots as I will update them. Also, I keep my APRS on in the car so when we are on vaca you can track us and make a guess as to where we will be next. ok. Enough for now I have a few things to do as I am working tonight. As the Prophet said: “work is the curse of the drinking class”. Namaste y’all