Great weather for activating the park today.  I started off with a good breakfast and started my first workout at the gym I joined.  I hope by taking better care of myself I will have more energy to activate parks. Hanging up my Endfed antenna took a little longer than what I wanted (45 minutes) due to the wire getting tangled and the string getting tangled but when I finished I had good swr for a change unlike what happened at my last activation. I suppose my set up time will be reduced with practice like they way it is with my vertical.  I did have a visitor stop by. Jason the carpenter was curious about what we were doing out here. Several of us have been activating the park.   I told him we are amateur radio operators and we were talking to people all over the world.  I told him about how to get licensed and had him take a picture of my ocr code for the website. This was maybe my second time with the Endfed at an activation.    
Thanks for reading keep checking my activities on POTA.

For my first attempt at this park see K-3867 Swift Creek Bluffs State Nature Preserve

I had tried to activate this park before but when I got passed #8 my battery went dead. No fault of my battery.  I hadn’t charged it in the last six activations.  Lesson learned.  I am gaining more confidence in the set up of the Chameleon Portable HF Antenna CHA HYBRID Micro.  This park has a small lot for parking so I backed up the car to the far corner.

Be sure to follow all my POTA activities Here

Thanks for reading. De  n4mqu 

 

 

 

 

I need to step up my game and activate more North Carolina parks quicker.  At this rate it will take me four years to activate the parks.  Today’s activation was a success.  I was able to activate the park without getting my car damaged.  I was pretty good navigating out of my spot utilizing several 3 point turns.  When I first entered I was going to investigate the game land further but a tree limb was blocking the way.

Using my pneumatic antenna wire launcher I was able to hang my MFJ-1984MP  but after getting one contact on 20 and trying more I decided to try to tune 40 and had no luck.  I ended up putting up my vertical antenna and completing my activation.  I will need to do more experimenting and see why i have had great success with it in the past but it’s hit and miss now.  Thank you for reading. Be sure to visit my POTA page.

As a result of this activation I received the Silver activator award.

 

As everyone knows that follows me my goal is to activate every park in North Carolina (230).  This is not North Carolina.  This does not prevent me from activating parks in other states as I visit for other reasons. My friend W4JE wanted me to rescue some spare parts from the storage room so we planned to meet at a mutually agreeable location in Virginia.  This time I selected a park. We had met at gas stations, television broadcast stations, etc. but never at a park for activation.  We chose K-0718 Richmond National Battlefield. 

While waiting for Andy to show I started getting everything ready. I guess I cross threaded something in my Chameleon Vertical antenna because I didn’t get it set up before Andy arrived.

Andy being a engineer was able to correct the situation and we were able to complete setting up the station.

Andy made the first contact with W4BWY in North Carolina.  This met my first goal of making at least one contact.  I proceeded to make 11 contacts and someone started giving the preamble to his net without asking if frequency is in use. When they paused I indicated that the frequency was in use. He informed me that they had been using that frequency for 40 years and etc. For everyone’s benefit 14.243 Mhz is a frequency that is owned by a net. (Kidding)  I asked him if I could contact the last station I was working and he agreed so I made the last contact and I relinquished the frequency.  It kind of put a damper on things but I did sweep thru the bands and made a few more contacts.  

As a net control station myself for a net going on since 1938 I have had ongoing qso’s before on net frequency and usually if I asked I haven’t had anyone turn me down on relinquishing the frequency. Maybe that person didn’t hear me and just was following his routine.  For everyone’s reference I copied this from the fcc.gov website.

Thank you for reading.  Follow my POTA activities here

 

 

Links to prior articles:

1. K-3854 #1 20220919
2. K-3854 #3 20220130
3. K-3854 #4 20220208
4. K-3865 #7 20220521

 

 

I arrived at 9:27 and started operating at 10:08.  I tried to work 6 bands but only worked 4.  40, 15, 17 and 20.  

Sandhills Amateur Radio Club Meeting and Support Your Park Event

The reason for picking this park to activate was because Sandhills Amateur Radio Club had their meeting there for July and promoted it as a Support Your Park event. As I was checking in I asked where the amateur radio event was and she pointed Me in that direction.  I knew it shouldn’t be too hard to find an amateur radio event.  After a few minutes of walking I spotted the antenna hanging in the tree.

The grilled hotdogs with all the trimmings were great. I don’t like it when they have hotdogs without the chili. The club had a business meeting and explained the antenna and radio equipment set up. After the meeting it was time to activate the park.  After a delay in anyone volunteering to come up I stepped up to the microphone.  They had a great setup. WO4ROG did the logging and I did the CQ’s.  I am use to handing the microphone to a second operator but we didn’t do it that way. We just switched to another operator after I completed 22 contacts. After everyone that wanted to operate did so it was time to pack up. I headed my way over to the campground.

 

The Camping Experience 

It was not a good weekend for camping.  It was so hot I couldn’t concentrate on setting up the Eureka tent properly.  I was able to set up three second tent.  The trouble with the three second tent was that it is a little too short for me.

Lessons Learned 

 

I prefer camp sites with water and electricity.  Electricity for charging batteries. I didn’t have the flexibility to change dates because this was for an event.

Campsites with trees “shady” versus campsite in full sun.  I found out I need to check this. Campsite #16 was in full sun.  It was also next to the handicapped parking spot next to the restroom.  I chose this site to be next to the restroom overlooking the shade aspect. I need to consider options when camping in the summer like maybe camping in the mountains.

 

This would be considered a failed activation but I learned something. Always charge your battery after each activation.  I must have been thru 6 activations prior to my first battery failure.

My friend KX4ZG had never activated a park before.  We parked in the parking lot and had a successful activation. We operated from Mark’s truck and I failed to get any photos. That is very unusual for me.  This may be a Multiple park situation co-located with: K-4567 – Capt John Smith Chesapeake NHT K-4581 – Star-Spangled Banner NHT, but I wasn’t sure of the locations so we just activated the one park

A friend with a new to him telescope invited me to Edenton to help him with setting it up. I gladly accepted and immediately checked the POTA  parks in the area to to act. I found several. One of them was K-6842 Historic Edenton State Historic Site. It only had been activated 4 times.