Author: n4mqu

NC K-8010 McKinney Lake State Fish Hatchery #28

K-8010, Portable, POTA

NC K-8010 McKinney Lake State Fish Hatchery #28

Always fun showing a new person POTA.  Olivia OJ  (KE8WDY) completed her third activation and was introducing her dad Bill (N6WL) to his first POTA activation. I made 14 contacts but due to conditions we each struggled with passing the microphone around we lost the other station. It was a nice day for an activation temperature wise.  I look forward to working Bill from his “ home”park CA K-0650 Mojave Preserve National Conservation Area.  Thanks to the hunters and p2p. Be sure to visit my website for all my latest activities n4mqu dot com select POTA

 

 

NC K-6934 #9 Pee Dee River State Game Land

K-6934, Portable, POTA

NC K-6934 #9 Pee Dee River State Game Land

Today I used MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M W4JE modified. And the MFJ-1984HP, ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M. Just seem like I was getting low signal reports from my first 10 contacts so I switched when I got the park confirmed. I guess I waited in case I broke something. Someone did asked me to move up two but I am sure that frequency would have been busy too. I usually try to be accommodating but I had already been there ten minutes and things were hopping.  That station didn’t give his call sign so I continued until I was ready. Please give your call sign when you transmit it is in the rules. A good morning for an activation. Temperature was comfortable. 62 phone contacts my second highest for that park. I am at 9 activations for that park and I am on target to making my kilo award when I achieve my repeat offender status for that park. 397 contacts. Are you one of those?  Thanks to the hunters and p2p and the early shift contacts.

 

NC K-6934 #8 Pee Dee River State Game Land

K-6934, Portable, POTA

NC K-6934 #8 Pee Dee River State Game Land

Today I used MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M W4JE modified.  I made 57 contacts that happens to have been my goal. I figured out if I hit my kilo award at the same time I get to my repeat offender award 20 I would need 57 contacts for the number of activations I have left. I am ahead of schedule at 335 contacts 1000 – 335 = 665.  665/12 =  55.4. So I will not be reducing my goal.  The other three parks took me more activations to get my kilo award.  I used the strong arm method to throw the rope up took me 6 times to get it right and I got my Endfed tangled.  I got it fixed and finally got started with contacts. It was frustrating start also dropped my cell phone and broke it so I am working on replacing or fixing it.  Saw two deer on the way out! Congratulations to KM4LCF/AG. Love to work the AG stations. Sounded like he was a pro at it.  Good to work K8ROY on 20 and 15. Thanks to the hunters and p2p. Be sure to visit my website for all my latest activities n4mqu dot com select POTA

NC K-6934 #7 Pee Dee River State Game Land

Amateur Radio, K-6934, Portable, POTA, Uncategorized

NC K-6934 #7 Pee Dee River State Game Land

Would one of my engineering friends please explain how radio works?  Oh it is magic.  Today I used MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M W4JE modified 77 contacts beat my goal of 57 contacts. I was successful on 20, 17 and 40. Thanks to the contacts I made on 2 bands  K9DEG and VE1BQC This morning I decided to go after the repeat offender award for this park and get the kilo award at the same time.  We will see what happens.  My goal was 57.  I realize how fortunate I am to live in a rural area and to have 3 POTA parks I can activate within a 15 mile drive. I will not forget the other parks K-8010 and K-6947. Thanks to the hunters and p2p. Be sure to visit my website for all my latest activities n4mqu dot com select POTA

 

NC K-6934 #4 Pee Dee River State Game Land

Amateur Radio, K-6934, Portable, POTA

I thought there was no rain in the forecast so I decided to go out without double-checking.  After I got set up my weather app told me rain in 31 minutes. Oh well I had a good activation with 13 contacts including 2 p2p.  I decided not to take a chance to beat the rain.  I hope to soon make this my fourth repeat offender park.  Thanks to the hunters and p2p I really appreciate you.  I am out of hunting parks from home my Buckmastet OCF came down during the storm Monday night.  I have to figure out what I am going to do.

NC K-6947 #25 Sandhills State Game Land

Amateur Radio, K-6947, Portable, POTA

NC K-6947 #25 Sandhills State Game Land

I was attempting to do an antenna test between my CHAMELEON ANTENNA Mobile Antenna Elements V2L-ELEMENT and MFJ Short HF Mobile Ham-tenna and with the new to me LDG AT-200 PRO II Antenna Tuner. Apparently my signal was so bad my frequency was taking over so I changed to my MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M W4JE modified antenna and ended up with 26 SSB contacts. The day started off cloudy so we didn’t have that hot sun to deal with until later.  I ended up using 3 different antennas.  I think we had four contacts on the Chameleon and had a test on two of them one saying they could see no difference and the other one saying Chameleon was better.  So result was inconclusive.  I have a video I’ll be editing with some of the test.  Thanks to the hunters and p2p.

Park #51 NC K-2741 Lake Waccamaw State Park

Amateur Radio, K-2741, Portable, POTA

Park #51 NC K-2741 Lake Waccamaw State Park

It took over an hour just to get 11 contacts. I met a friend half way to pickup a new tuner.  It will be nice just to push a button to tune up.  I know a nicer situation will be perfect swr but sometimes the trees make that difficult. Glad to get the 51 park activated. As a bonus I actually saw wildlife a slivering snake and an eagle flying right above me. Unmistakable.

K-8010 #27

Amateur Radio, K-8010, Portable, POTA

NC K-8010 McKinney Lake State Fish Hatchery #27

To my CW veterans how do you handle those pileups?  It was slow getting started but ended up to be a good day for me with 21 SSB and 4 CW contacts I used my MFJ-1984MP ENDFED 1/2 Wave 40-10M modified and  CW Morse Blue Micro Morse Code Key W/ Aluminum Base. I was pumped after my 4th CW contact but when it seemed like 6 or 7 (maybe it was only 2)stations were coming at once I didn’t know how to handle it.  Thanks for the p2p and hunters. De n4mqu.

K-2888 #1 Cheraw State Park

Amateur Radio, K-2888, Portable, POTA

K-2888 Cheraw State Park

28 miles from home This made my 50th unique park activation and my 1000th p2p contact.  This is my 3rd South Carolina Park. It was a nice day at the park.  Thanks to all the hunters and p2p. 21 contacts 2 on 15, 1 on 17, 2 on 40 and 15 on 20.  Looking at the map to extend my park activation list I’ll have to do some driving that may be possible.  But I have 5 parks I can easily get to on a regular basis.

Park restrictions:  As I was leaving on of the rangers said not to use the trees to support the antenna, they are concerned about antenna wire getting caught in trees.  I did not know this when I checked in they didn’t give me any restrictions.