Second highest QSO Total 107

NC K-8010. Mckinney Lake State Fish Hatchery. I had my second highest solo QSO total. Great day for being by the lake I went to a different area of the park. I tried 10 and 12 but no QSO

40, 20, 17 and 15 successful contacts 37 contacts from my kilo award for the park.  On the hunting side I finally got Arizona missing WY, HI, and AK

Thanks to the hunters and p2p had several mobile and QRP stations. Thanks for reading de n4mqu

 Met a new friend with a new radio X-6100 here is the recording I made of our QSO. Another friend is encouraging me to get one. He insist that he didn’t put anyone up to contacting me but I was impressed with W4BUS Judd’s impression of his new radio.

Please don’t be afraid of CW. I get a high everytime someone responds to my call. Here is a audio extract of several contacts I made yesterday. I make mistakes and most likely don’t respond properly but don’t worry about it NC K-8010 de n4mqu

Support Your Parks Weekend Certificate

NC K-6947 Sandhills State Game Land

I have said it before myself it is not broken don’t fix it.  In amateur radio it’s important to try different setups and don’t get caught up in a rut.  I purposely set up using the MFJ Short HF Mobile Ham-tenna.  It was a beautiful sunny day for park activity. I actually went to a different area of the park.  Today I hit pay dirt. Three California stations on 10 meters and Two Arizona stations on ten.  Then I heard a station say VK. Australia couldn’t be but it was VK4NH. Another DX station came in PZ2YT  Yudel from Suriname.

I remember my novice days it took forever to get California.

I think today was one for the books or was that yesterday?  Sorry for my enthusiasm.

Thanks to the 11 p2p and the hunters.  I will be back to NC K-8010 this week to finish the kilo. De n4mqu.

10 8 contacts

20 5 contacts

40 13 contacts

What an intense and awesome day 20230415 on my 20th activation of K-8010 Mckinney Lake State Fish Hatchery. This place has significant family history my father was born at a house a few miles away. I made 68 contacts on 40, and 20 but I tried 10 and 15. Made 1 CW contact (N4NTO) and answered a AM mode CQ on 40. I did not achieve my kilo (144 left) but hope to do that in the coming week. Note to self be sure to check your area to make sure you don’t leave anything. I left my solar panel at my last activation. Fortunately it was there waiting for me when I return after this activation. Thanks for all the hunters and p2p de n4mqu

New Park New State

Today I activated SC K-9224 Lake Wallace Wildlife Management Area Bennettsville 26 miles 36 min from my home. And it is a new park and a new state for me.

I had my regular MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M modified and was planing on using that for my activation but it looked like I may have trouble getting out with those short trees. So I immediately decided to use my new MFJ Short HF Mobile Ham-tenna. On a couple of earlier post I called it a hamstick and I wanted to correct that designation.  I want to thank EA1GIB Spain for his persistence on 15 meters I finally got the call sign correct. I started on 40 and made 25 contacts moved to 15 and made 3 contacts I answered 3 p2p on 20. I decided to finish up with CW and made 5 contacts. If you see me spotted on cw you can be sure I am doing my best to go slow.  I appreciate all the CW contacts made today.  I am pleased to report it was the first CW contacts for that park. I will return and also check a few other parks near the boarder.

K-2888 Cheraw State Park 28 miles 38 min 60 Activations

K-3874 H. Cooper Black Jr. Memorial State Recreation Area 35 miles 49 min 36 activations

K-3891 Campbells Crossroads and Angelus Tracts Wildlife Management Area 36 miles 45 min 24 Activations

K-0519 Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge 51 miles 1 hour 2 minutes 61 activations

Thanks for reading de n4mqu.

“Fishing is great the fish are not biting”

NC K-8010 McKenny Lake State Fish Hatchery 19th activation and 212 from my Kilo for that park. Finally made 19contacts today kind of rough getting started but did get it activated. Thanks for the hunters and p2p. De n4mqu

Operators WJ3H & N4MQU

N4MQU and WJ3H

This is a little gem of a park in Central Virginia off of I-64. This was my first activation of this park and was WJ3H’s first activation!  It was tough getting contacts but we eventually achieved our activation.  One tip leave your throw line attached to the antenna insulator just in case the antenna gets tangled up in the tree.  It saved the antenna. I was in my way home from Virginia and Joe WJ3H expressed an interest in learning about how POTA works.

Equipment 

• MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M modified
• MFJ Model MFJ-969 Deluxe Versa Tuner II antenna tuner
• IC-706MKG HF/VHF/UHF All Mode Transceiver
• Bioenno Power 12V 20Ah 240 Watt-hours Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery
• Bioenno Power 28 Watt Foldable Solar Panel
• Bioenno Power 12V/24V 30A Solar Charge Control

15 contacts

1 CW

14 SSB

40 meters

N4NTO CW & SSB

P2P CW & SSB

1 Canada

1 PA

20 meters

1 MI

1 TX

1 NH

1 GA

1 ME

1 MI

1 MO

1 LA

1 GA

2 IL K-4123