With the holidays closing in, it seems like it’s getting harder to find time for getting out to play radio. However, I managed to get in two early morning activations over the weekend.
Norristown Farm Park (US-4363, KFF-4363)
First up was a chilly trip over to Norristown Farm Park on Saturday. I’m slowly progressing towards a POTA Repeat Offender award, so I’ve been activating this park quite a bit lately. My rig was my trusty Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot loaded whip.
I started on 40M and got off to a brisk start, making my first 10 contacts in about 9 minutes. By the time I had 24 contacts in the log, the pile-ups subsided, and I switched to 20M.
Despite some high noise levels on the band, I added 11 more stations to the log. My first contact on 20M was with DK3DUA, who would later work me again on 17M.
I finished up on 17M, where I was plagued with the same noise levels. Undeterred, I worked nine more there, mostly European DX.
After an hour and ten minutes, I finished with 44 contacts. Among those, were two park-to-park contacts and 9 DX contacts:
- Germany (4)
- Finland (2)
- Italy
- Slovak Republic
- Ukraine
And then, it was back home to help my (far) better half set up the Christmas tree.
Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414)
On Sunday morning, I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park. Thankfully, the weather was a little milder this time around. My equipment setup was the same as the day before.
Once again, I was amazed with the number of early-rising hunters. The action on 40M was fast and furious; my first 10 contacts came in about seven minutes. Things were a little slower on 20M, but I made a few DX contacts. The real fun came on 17M. The signals weren’t all that strong, but there were lots of them.
After an hour and 15 minutes, I had made 55 contacts. I only had one (known) park-to-park contact, but I had a dozen Europeans in my log:
- France (4) – F4HZR worked me on two bands
- Germany (3)
- Azores
- Italy
- Poland
- Slovenia
- Slovak Republic
After logging contact #55, I had to take off to run a couple of errands. All-in-all, it was a pretty good weekend—by my standards, anyway.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 
Is there a basic protocol for contacts? ie cq, they answer, i give ??? info and signal report, they give sig report???, then what for the log then how what log so on record where? I usually see if i can hit SDR’s around the US. Boy today to europe is yuck. Havent found many SDR’s in europe that can even hear international beacon projects or WWV on 10mhz, 15mhz, or 20mhz. Solar storm? Hope to work you some day but my recv of code is bad. when I do listen i cheat with a cw phone app………….
LikeLike
When called, I usually just send a signal report. The callers will have typically seen my spot on the POTA or WWFF sites, so they already know my park number. They usually send a signal report and optionally their state or province. The DX stations usually just send a signal report.
I usually log whatever they send, but your log only needs the date, time, band, mode, and their call sign.
YouTube has lots of videos of hams activating parks.
LikeLike
From your picture it looks like the weather is a lot better down there in PA. We have been getting buried in snow here in Ontario.
LikeLike
No real snow here in southeastern Pennsylvania yet, John. The temperatures have been all over the place, though. Some days are below freezing and some days are near 60F (16C).
LikeLike