I was out of town this past week puppy-sitting my grand-dog recovering from surgery. Although I brought my KH1 along, I didn’t have an opportunity to use it. Today was the first day I could get in some radio time. Since I hadn’t been there in a while, Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380) seemed like an appropriate destination.
My (far) better half and I had plans for the afternoon, so I got an early start. The weather was somewhat dreary with some occasional drizzle, so the park wasn’t very crowded. I hunkered down in the truck with my usual Penntek TR-35 and 12-foot loaded whip.
As is my custom, I started on 40M. Since the Straight Key Century Club’s (SKCC) monthly Weekend Sprintathon (WES) was in progress, I grabbed my straight key and worked a half-dozen SKCCers. One thing I love about the TR-35 is that it has separate inputs for paddles and straight key, and you can switch between the two at will. That’s perfect for mixing SKCC and POTA/WWFF.
I started calling CQ on 40M and worked 13 POTA/WWFF hunters before a digital station started transmitting on top of me. Right about then, it started raining, so I grabbed a plastic bag to protect my loading coil. From that point on, I stayed on the WARC bands, picking up some more contacts on 30M and 17M.
After an hour and 10 minutes, I had logged 35 contacts. The bands seemed to be in decent shape, although there was some static from storms along the east coast. Despite the occasional noise, I had contacts with both California and Poland on 17M.
Although it was another of my typical short-duration activations, it was great to get back on the air. And I’m happy to report that my grand-dog is recovering nicely and doing great.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 