Today was one of those lazy days. I intended to go out to do some radio, but I came very close to talking myself out of it. In the end, I went ahead, and I’m glad I did. It turned out to be a fun activation.
I made a quick trip to nearby Valley Forge National Historical Park (K-0761, KFF-0761) and pulled into one of my favorite spots. Using my KX3 (5 watts) and my homebrew 19-ft vertical, I planned to spend an hour operating, regardless of the outcome.
Despite the “fair” propagation prediction, the 40M band produced 11 contacts for me. Once I moved to 20M, things got interesting. My 20M contacts included Germany and France. Sandwiched in between those DX contacts was one with fellow Polar Bear QRPer, VE3WMB. Michael and I exchanged the customary Polar Bear greeting, “GRRR.” My last contact on 20M was with W7AV in Washington State. It’s always fun to work both Europe and the West Coast in rapid succession. Moving back down to 40M, I picked up a couple of park-to-park contacts before calling it quits. My hour-long outing resulted in 20 contacts, including four park-to-park QSOs and the two DX stations.
As I was finishing up my contacts, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a man and woman closely inspecting my antenna. When I got out to take the antenna down, the woman asked me about it. I gave her my ham radio, POTA, and Morse Code speech, and I told her the places I contacted today.
The two people were soon joined by six children they had been hiking with. The woman asked me if I could explain to the kids what I was doing and how far I had gotten out. So, I gave the speech again. When I mentioned Morse Code, one girl excitedly said she didn’t know the Code, but she knew what it was. I’m not sure my impromptu show and tell produced any prospective hams, but it was fun talking with the kids.
In the end, I’m glad I talked myself into going out today. It was a short but fun activation. I didn’t take any pictures today; but, then again, there wasn’t anything noteworthy about my setup today.
Happy Canada Day to my friends to the north. To my friends here in the U.S., have a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday weekend.
73, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 