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)
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.
I made a long overdue visit to a nearby park yesterday. Norristown Farm State Park (K-4363, KFF-4363) is only about 30 minutes away, but it has been six years since my last activation. So, I set out to rectify that.
This time around, I parked in the lot near the park office, a few spaces away from where I parked six years ago. Being a working farm, this parking lot is surrounded by cornfields, making it an unusual setting for a state park.
Operating from Norristown Farm Park (K-4363, KFF-4363)
This time around, I used my current go-to setup: Penntek TR-35 (5 watts) and 12-foot loaded whip. I noticed that there was some local noise on the bands. It was most noticeable on portions of the 20M band. Undeterred, I got on the air.
I started on 40M, but that was slow going. After logging three contacts, I moved up to 20M, where I spent most of my time. I also checked 17M, and that band seemed in good shape as well.
After an hour and 20 minutes, I logged 34 contacts, including five park-to-park contacts. Some highlights:
European contacts with Spain, Italy, and Germany. (WWFF spots always seem to bring out the DX stations.)
K4NYM called me on 17M from Florida. Bill was working a “3-fer,” giving me three park-to-park contacts with one QSO. Thanks, Bill!
I’m not sure why it took me so long to get back here, but I’ll definitely visit more often.
After spending the morning traveling to watch my grandson play soccer, I had some time to go play radio. I made a trip to nearby ValleyForge National Historical Park (K-0761, KFF-0761) for a quick activation. I almost talked myself out of going, but I’m glad I went ahead with it.
I pulled into a trailhead parking lot, where I’ve operated from a bunch of times in the past. I used my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts) in the truck, with my 12-foot whip and homebrew coil mounted on the back.
My location at the Yellow Spring Road trailhead in Valley Forge National Historical Park
I started off on 40M, but I only made two contacts there. The 20M band was where the action was this afternoon. I searched around for some park-to-park contacts before parking on a frequency and calling CQ. I spotted myself on the POTA website, and the hunters started calling. Today, I also spotted myself on the WWFF spotting page. Right after that, I started getting calls from DX stations.
After operating for about an hour and 20 minutes, I had 44 contacts in the log, with five park-to-park QSOs. Twelve of my contacts were with DX stations on 20M and 17M. I worked the following countries today:
Italy (3 contacts. One station worked me on two bands.)
Sweden (2 contacts)
France (2 contacts)
Ukraine
Finland
Poland
Czech Republic
Switzerland (WWFF park-to-park)
I also worked Michael VA2NB, a fellow Polar Bear QRPer operating from Quebec.
Well, that sure was fun today. When I have to talk myself into doing an activation, I usually end up having a good time.
I headed out for an early morning activation at Evansburg State Park (K-1351, KFF-1351). The weather forecast was calling for scattered showers today. I consulted my weather radar app before leaving the house. It looked like I could get an activation done before the next round of rain came through. Ha!
It was raining lightly when I got to the park, and it continued most of the time I was there. I set up my homebrew loading coil and 12-ft whip on the back of the truck. I used a plastic shopping bag to fashion a “raincoat” to protect the coil from the elements. To keep things classy, I used a bag from a local dollar store. It looked pretty cheesy, but it worked. I used my TR-35 (5 watts) in the cab of the truck.
An improvised “raincoat” for my homebrew loading coil
Despite the lousy weather, I had a successful activation. After 90 minutes of operating, I had 45 QSOs in the log with 5 known park-to-park contacts. The 40M band was the most productive for me today. I had 22 contacts on 40M, with the rest divided between 30M and 20M.
Thanks to all the hunters out there who kept me busy this morning.
I had a little time this morning before heading out of town for a family event. It’s been a while since I last visited Marsh Creek State Park (K-1380, KFF-1380), so I made a quick trip over there.
I operated from the parking lot at the West Lauch area of the park. Despite the hilly terrain leading down to the boat launch, I’ve always had good luck there. The beautiful view of the lake is a bonus, too.
My view at Marsh Creek State Park (K-1380, KFF-1380)
For my antenna, I went with my 12-whip and homebrew loading coil combination. I used my TR-35 (5 watts) in the truck.
The bands were in pretty good shape, which made for a busy activation. After operating for 50 minutes, I finished up with 30 contacts. Twenty-two contacts were on 40M, and the rest were on 30M. I had two park-to-park contacts I know of.
It was a short activation but a lot of fun. And now it’s time to hit the road to visit family.
Looking through my POTA stats, I noticed I was one activation away from a Repeat Offender Award for French Creek State Park (K-1355). So, I set out today for my 20th activation for this park. For many POTA activators, this is a trivial milestone. But for a casual activator like me, it takes a while to get to that point.
The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) Weekend Sprintathon (WES) was going on this weekend. I hadn’t taken part in a WES in a while, so I started off using a straight key and calling “CQ WES.” My first eight contacts were with SKCC members. After that, I spotted myself and started calling “CQ POTA.”
The 40M band was in great shape this morning, with lots of POTA activity. In fact, all of my contacts were on 40M. In about an hour and 15 minutes, I ended up with 23 contacts. Among those were four park-to-park contacts.
My parking spot at French Creek State Park (K-1355, KFF-1355)
I used my 12-foot whip and homebrew loading coil for the second time today. I like that I can set it up in a couple of minutes. Once again, it worked like a champ. I think it will probably my go-to antenna for stationary-mobile operation. Inside the truck, I used my trusty TR-35 (5 watts).
And with that, POTA activation #20 at French Creek State Park is in the books.
It had been a while since my last portable outing, so I was itching to get out today. The weather forecast, however, was calling for periods of heavy rain and gusting wind. Fortunately, I had a plan in mind to deal with the weather.
I made a quick trip up to nearby Evansburg State Park (K-1351, KFF-1351). It was rainy on the drive there, but tapered off by the time I reached the park. According to the weather radar app on my phone, another round of nasty weather was likely.
In order to use my usual truck-mounted antennas, I have to open up the tonneau cover. I had some things back there that I needed to keep dry, so I opted to set up under a large picnic pavilion. It’s no surprise that it was unoccupied. Who wants to hold a picnic on a rainy day in October, anyway?
My operating position under a pavilion at Evansburg State Park (K-1351, KFF-1351)
I pressed my Alexloop into service today, so I could keep my whole station under cover. Since my TR-35 doesn’t have an SWR indicator, I used a homebrew resistive SWR bridge. The resistive bridge is a little too sensitive on 40M and 30M, so I have to reduce the TR-35’s output power in order to see the null on the LED indicator.
My rig at Evansburg State Park (K-1351, KFF-1351). My homebrew resistive SWR bridge is the silver box to the right.
I started out on 20M, and things got off to a quick start. I logged seven contacts in the first few minutes. After that, it dried up. I picked up two more on 30M, but I was wondering if I was going to make it to 10 contacts before the next band of storms moved in.
I dropped down to 40M, and the activity picked up again. Even though it’s the least efficient band for the Alexloop, I always have good luck there. It was my most productive band today.
The rain wasn’t the big problem today; it was the wind gusts. I had to stop twice to pick up things that blew off the table. So, after just under an hour, I called it quits. I finished up with 21 contacts in the log. I had one park-to-park contact today (that I know of).
Despite the inclement weather, it wasn’t a bad day.
I built a new loading coil to use with my MFJ-1956 12-foot telescopic whip. This is a scaled-down version of the old one I had been using. But, more on that in a separate post. Anyway, I was dying to see how it worked, so I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414) to put it on the air.
When I rolled into the parking lot, I was surprised to see a large military truck there. As I drove around the loop, I saw about a dozen soldiers in a field. Two of them were carrying a stretcher back into the woods. No, the park wasn’t under attack. It appeared to be some reservists going through a training exercise.
I deployed the new antenna configuration in a minute or two. Before I got on the air, I hooked up my antenna analyzer to confirm that I could tune it up on each band from 40M through 17M. Success! I used a Sharpie® pen to mark the coil tap locations for each band.
My new homebrew loading coil on its maiden deployment
My rig today was my trusty TR-35 (5 watts). I started out on 40M: and, after spotting myself, the calls started rolling in. I made the requisite 10 contacts in about eight minutes. After making 23 contacts on 40M, I moved up to 20M.
There was also lots of action on 20M. One caller was W6LEN in California. It’s been a while since I worked Jess, so it was good to hear him again. Jess spotted me for the WWFF folks, and I soon started receiving calls from DX stations. I logged contacts with Puerto Rico, Italy, France, and Poland.
After exactly an hour of operating, I had 42 contacts, with four park-to-park contacts I’m aware of. Throwing in the DX contacts, this was one of the better activations I’ve had lately.
I’m hesitant to attribute today’s success to my shortened, base-loaded whip; but this thing seems to have some kind of mojo. I’ll do a separate post on the coil and how I put it together.
I wanted to get out for at least one POTA activation during the Labor Day holiday weekend. Since we have another extended heatwave kicking off today, I opted to go out yesterday. I got an early start at French Creek State Park (K-1355, KFF-1355), figuring that the park would be busy—and it was.
I parked at a trailhead, well away from the busy boat launch and picnic areas. Using my TR-35 (5 watts) and homebrew vertical, my first ten contacts came in about 15 minutes. Most of my contacts were on 40M, while 30M and 20M both yielded a few more.
My rig at French Creek State Park (K-1355, KFF-1355)
After an hour or so, the bands seemed to suddenly dry up; so I packed up. (After I got home, I saw that there was some geomagnetic activity in progress.) In any event, my log had 22 QSOs with four park-to-park contacts.
This activation put me one away from a “Repeat Offender” award for this park. I guess I’ll be back again soon to wrap that up.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe Labor Day holiday.
We made a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week for our annual family vacation. As in previous years, we rented a house on Currituck Sound. This time, however, we were just outside the village of Duck.
This was our first time renting this house, so I did a little prior research on the layout using pictures on the Realtor’s website and Google Earth. OK, I’ll be honest; I was looking for places to put my antenna. I had a couple of possibilities in mind, but I waited until we got there to decide where to set up.
My Set-up
It was brutally hot when we arrived on Sunday afternoon, August 13th; so I decided to forego putting up an antenna until the following morning. Instead, I surveyed the property to find a spot to set up the radio gear.
Later the next day, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to a fence near the pole. The wind was pretty strong, so I used every velcro strap I had with me. Since these rental houses usually come with high noise levels, I kept the antenna about 40 feet from the house. I used the pole to support a 29.5-foot vertical wire, which was fed through my weather-resistant 9:1 unun. I had to use 50 feet of RG-8x to connect to the rig. That’s longer than I usually use, so I’m sure I was introducing increased coax losses. Life is full of trade-offs, I guess.
My 31-foot Jackite pole strapped to a fence about 40 feet away from the house
We were under an excessive heat warning for the first few days, so I kept my radio inside the building. I unclipped the bottom of the window screen enough to accommodate the coax. I cut a foam pool noodle to fit the width of the window. Then I made a lengthwise cut so I could fit it onto the window frame and seal the window a bit.
My operating position. A piece of foam “pool noodle” was used to seal the window where the coax enters.
After getting it all together, I did a quick test. The KX3’s tuner provided a good match on every band from 80M to 10M. I’m sure the coax losses were helping to make it easier to tune the antenna. There was a fair amount of noise on 40M and below, but the higher bands weren’t too bad.
Antenna feedpoint. My homebrew, weather-resistant 9:1 unun was used to feed a 29.5-foot vertical wire.
While I was on 30M, I heard a station in Arkansas calling CQ. Despite some deep fading and static from storms in the area; we managed to complete the QSO. The antenna, while nowhere near optimal, was functional. Satisfied with that, I declared victory and headed out to join the rest of the family in the pool.
Wright Brothers Memorial (K-0797, KFF-0797
For the past several years, I thought about activating a park or two on the Outer Banks. For various reasons (mostly laziness), it hasn’t happened. I set out to change that this time around.
On Wednesday, I drove down to the Wright Brothers National Memorial (K-0797, KFF-0797), about 30 minutes away from where we were staying in Duck. I planned to go the day before, but I delayed it by a day, because of an excessive heat warning. There’s normally a fee to enter this park, but my Veterans ID card got me in for free.
Wright Brothers National Monument (POTA K-0797) Visitor Center
The Wright Brothers Monument
My parking spot at the Wright Brothers Monument (K-0797). There was no one around me when I started.
I operated from my truck in the main parking lot, using my TR-35 (five watts) and 12-foot loaded whip antenna. The bands were in great shape; I made my first ten contacts in ten minutes.
After about 50 minutes, it started getting hot and crowded; so I started packing up. This park is a very popular attraction; the empty parking lot I started in was now full. I ended up with 30 contacts in my log, including six park-to-park QSOs.
I had planned to activate a second park this week, but that didn’t work out. I’ll save that for next year.
Operating from the House
Besides the POTA activation, I made a handful of QSOs each day. The 30M and 20M bands, both having a low noise floor, were the most productive for me. These rental houses are chock full of light dimmers and other noise-producing amenities, so operating on the lower bands can be challenging.
Tuesday, August 15th, was the 30th anniversary of my first QRP portable operation. I wrote about that trip in a post from five years ago. It was fitting, I suppose, that I was portable this week.
Things also got a little dicey Tuesday evening. A storm blew in, and the high winds were bending my 31-foot Jackite pole further than I had ever seen. I hurried out and collapsed the pole before the heavy rain started. That pole has really taken a beating over the years, and this year was no different. The wind collapsed it a few times during the week.
Our view of Currituck Sound from the 3rd story deck
One of my last QSOs for the week was with EC1R, who was activating a park in northern Spain. I had to crank up the KX3 to 15 watts to make it, but I managed to bust through the pile-up he had going.
After a few final QSOs on Saturday morning, it was time to take down the antenna and pack up the radio gear. Our annual family vacation always seems like the shortest week of the year. This year was no exception.
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 