Over the years, I’ve run into some weird stuff while operating in parks. This morning, I experienced something new: a dust storm of sorts. Despite that short-lived issue, I had a successful activation at Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351).
When I rolled into the park early this morning, there was a park maintenance worker using a zero-turn mower to clear the leaves out of the parking lot. To get away from all that racket, I grabbed my backpack and headed down a trail towards a wooded area. I set up at a picnic table in a stand of trees.
Keeping it simple, I used my KH1 in the “tabletop mode.” I used the KH1’s whip, an AXE1 coil, and a right-angle adapter. I ran the counterpoise wire further into the woods. With the KH1 tuned up on 40M, my activation got underway.
Not long after spotting myself on the POTA and WWFF sites, the calls came rolling in. Because of the noise from the mower up in the parking lot, I had to crank up the audio. The activity was brisk on 40M, with my first 10 contacts coming in just eight minutes.
Around that time, I noticed the racket from the mower was getting louder. I looked over and saw the mower coming down the path about 15 feet away. As the mower went by, it left a thick cloud of dust in its wake. The good news is that the dust quickly settled. The bad news is that it settled on me and all of my gear. I took a brief break to blow the dust off the KH1, my phone, and my logbook. I’m just glad the lid was closed on my travel mug. (Don’t mess with my coffee!) With the man-made dust storm over, I got back to work.
I eventually moved up to 30M and picked up a few contacts before removing the AXE1 and setting up for 20M. I only made five contacts on 20M, but one of them was W6LEN out in California.
I headed back down to 40M for a bit before shutting down. Among my contacts on 40M, I worked my friend N3CU, who was activating a “two-fer” down in Maryland. After a little more than an hour, I had 35 contacts using the KH1’s little whip. I blew the dust off everything as I packed up.
Except for the brief dust storm, it was a beautiful morning to be playing radio out among the trees.
72, Craig WB3GCK
