I carved some time out of the chaos that is my life lately for some much-needed “radio therapy”. I drove over to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) yesterday morning to take advantage of some great spring-like weather. What I envisioned as an easy in and out POTA/WWFF activation turned out to be one of the more challenging activations I’ve done in a while.
I set up at a picnic table under a large pavilion. Since it was a weekday, I had the pavilion to myself—but not for long. More on that in a bit. To keep things simple, I used my Elecraft KH1 with the whip antenna on a Tufteln right-angle adapter. I ran my counterpoise wire out into the grass. This setup hasn’t failed me yet, so I was feeling confident. For keying, I used my trusty CWMouse paddles.
It was really slowgoing today. Although I was making some contacts, spots on the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) were few and far between. That’s not a good sign. Was it band conditions or my location? I don’t know, but I pressed on with dogged determination.
Not long after I got started, a park maintenance worker started mowing the grass in the picnic area. The bands weren’t all that great, and now I had to contend with some loud audio interference. They eventually finished up and moved to another area away from where I was sitting.
After 30 minutes, the 20M band had only produced seven contacts. One of those was 2,400 miles away in California, so my signal was getting out somewhere. Searching and pouncing produced two park-to-park contacts.
Before I knew it, I was sharing the pavilion with a group of about 40 exuberant kids. Apparently, they were on a school trip and taking a break from hiking for lunch. It was nice to see them enjoying the outdoors, but it also meant more audio interference for me. Eventually, some teachers rounded up the kids, and they all headed back down the trail. Once again the surrounding area was quiet, but I still wasn’t making any contacts.
I was stuck at nine contacts for what seemed like an eternity. I checked 17M and 15M a couple of times to no avail. The 20M band was the only one producing any contacts for me, and that wasn’t all that great.
After about an hour and a half, my stubborn persistence was giving way to frustration and resignation. I was about 15 seconds from shutting down and packing up when the elusive tenth contact came in. That contact came in the form of a very loud call from KB5HPM in Mississippi that had me reaching for the KH1’s volume knob. After logging that last contact, I packed up and headed home.
I ended my 40th activation at this park with the bare minimum 10 contacts, but I was okay with that. I’m not sure if this was the hardest I’ve had to work for 10 contacts, but it’s certainly right up there.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 