US-6934 Pee Dee River State Game Land #43

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Battling the Humidity at Pee Dee River State Game Land (US-6934) — Activation #43

N4MQU Portable Field Station at Pee Dee River State Game Land
The full portable operating station set up at Pee Dee River State Game Land (US-6934).

I returned to the Pee Dee River State Game Land (US-6934) today for Activation #43, and I definitely had to work for every single contact. The humidity was thick, the summer heat was clinging to the air, and band conditions made signals tough to hunt down.

Despite the sticky weather, the station setup went smoothly as usual. I deployed my trusty 20-meter homemade dipole, threw the wire up into the trees, and got the rig powered on without a hitch.

Close up of N4MQU portable radio rig and battery setup
Rig and power ready to hunt for contacts despite tough band conditions.

Once on the air, I decided to test out CW—both calling CQ myself and hunting for other park activators—but conditions just weren’t cooperating on Morse today. I pivoted over to 20m SSB, where persistence finally paid off. Over the course of 2 hours and 4 minutes on site, I managed to pull 13 solid SSB contacts out of the noise to qualify the park!

Radio interface during the POTA activation
Working contacts on 20 meters.

One major change for today’s run was stepping back to paper logging. I’ve been using HAMRS / H2K for electronic logging during recent activations, but I realized today that I’m actually much more efficient and relaxed using a pen and paper logbook in the field. I can transcribe it electronically later, but in the hot woods, keeping it simple wins every time.

Paper logbook used during activation #43
Back to classic paper logging—simple, reliable, and fast in the field.

Activation Stats & Map Breakdown

  • Park: Pee Dee River State Game Land (US-6934)
  • Total Operating Time: 2 hrs, 4 mins, 58 secs
  • First QSO: 12:39:02 UTC
  • Last QSO: 14:44:00 UTC
  • Total QSOs: 13 (100% 20m SSB)

QSOs by Location:

  • Texas (TX): 4 contacts (K5MEC, KM5RF, KJ5MWJ, KA5GSS)
  • Minnesota (MN): 2 contacts (K0OE, N0SBW)
  • Wisconsin (WI): 2 contacts (KA8GIM, KD9KJC)
  • Arkansas (AR): 1 contact (KJ5LNI)
  • Florida (FL): 1 contact (KK5DX)
  • Illinois (IL): 1 contact (W3SKG)
  • Quebec (QC): 1 contact (VE2KH)
  • Special / HQ: 1 contact (W1AW/0)

A huge thank you to all the chasers who stuck with me through the noise, as well as the fellow activators and POTA volunteers who make Parks on the Air so much fun.

73,
N4MQU

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