Independence Day POTA

I made an early trip to French Creek State Park (K-1355, KFF-1355) to get in a quick activation before the hot weather kicked in. Despite the lousy band condition predictions, I did pretty well in less than an hour. 

Knowing that this park gets busy on holidays, I steered clear of the boat launch and picnic areas. Instead, I found a shady spot in a trailhead parking area. My rig today was my trusty Penntek TR-35 (5 watts) and my homebrew 19-foot vertical. 

My propagation app showed poor daytime conditions on 40M through 20M. Indeed, 40M was noisy; but I still heard quite a few loud signals across the band. Cell coverage here is poor (at least for my carrier). Using the Wi-Fi in my truck, however, I was able to post a spot and soon started receiving calls. It only took about 11 minutes to make my first 10 contacts. 

I moved up to 20M and started off searching for park-to-park contacts. I heard N4NYM in there, but it sounded like Bill had a pretty good pile-up going. Instead of trying to break through with 5 watts, I moved up the band and started calling CQ. Again, the band seemed to behave better than the predictions. In fact, I seemed to have a pipeline to Florida today. During my time on 20M, N4NYM called me; so I eventually got that park-to-park contact with him.

Speaking of N4NYM, I ended up my activation with a second park-to-park contact with Bill, this time on 17M. By this time, the weather was heating up; so I packed up and headed home to enjoy the rest of the holiday.

In about 55 minutes, I worked 24 stations with three park-to-park contacts. My best “DX” today was Nevada on 20M. 

I’d like to wish my fellow Americans a happy and safe Fourth of July.

73, Craig WB3GCK