Ridley Creek DX

I made a run down to Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414) for an early POTA activation. I usually do well at this park, but this morning was something else.

Using my usual Penntek TR-35 (5 watts), along with my 12-foot whip and homebrew coil, I made my first ten contacts on 40M in ten minutes. Among those was VE3WMB, a fellow Polar Bear QRPer. When things slowed down on 40M, I moved up to 20M. That’s when things really got interesting.

The WB3GCK "QRPmobile" at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414)
The WB3GCK “QRPmobile” at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414)

After I started calling CQ on 20M, I spotted myself on the WWFF spotting page. A minute later, the European stations came out to play. Between the stateside and European hunters, things got pretty busy. Up on 17M, for example, I had a string of six DX stations in a row. 

When I wrapped up after 90 minutes, I had 52 QSOs in my log, with five park-to-park contacts. I had a total of 13 European contacts today, including:

  • Italy: IW2NXI, IK1GPG
  • Finland: OH1MM
  • Germany: DL1EBR, DL1HB, DG1KJG
  • Sweden: SM4BNZ
  • France: F4ILH, F4HZR, F6EOC
  • Denmark: OZ1IPP
  • Latvia (a new one for me): YL2TQ
  • Poland: SP6GNJ

I think today’s activation was a combination of a site with good elevation, good band conditions, and some DX stations with exceptional ears. 

72, Craig WB3GCK

4 thoughts on “Ridley Creek DX”

  1. Hi Craig, excellent achievement well done. Two of those callsigns are regular SOTA chasers on 20m SSB during VK to EU long path, OH1MM and IK1GPG. I have taken up VK POTA and WWFF activities.

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    1. Thanks, John. I’ve had a run of good luck lately. I think the WWFF spots help a lot. It takes an extra step or two to submit my logs to both POTA and WWFF, but there’s software now that will convert POTA logs to WWFF format. — Craig

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