I activated my 100th unique park reference today.  Not 100 activations, but 100 different locations. This milestone represents, in my mind, the difference between “does POTA” and “really does POTA”.  To anyone else, it doesn’t mean squat.  And that’s how it should be.

Some people live in park-rich areas.  The states on the East coast are the size of counties in Texas.  There, activators might drive 50 or 75 miles between parks.  Here, we measure travel in hours, not miles.  Parks I’ve never seen in Texas start at three hours out … one way.

 I’ve done a little travel for business and am fortunate in that they often let me drive.  I’ve driven from Dallas to Maryland twice and from Dallas to Jackson, Mississippi more times than I can count.  I’ve driven through places (and activated parks) I would never see otherwise.

This morning I left home at 06:00 for a meeting in Jackson tomorrow morning. My tally of unique parks was at 98 and I really wanted to push it over the century mark.  I rolled into Jackson about noon with three hours to kill before I could check in to a hotel.  So, I activated two parks before 15:00.  I planned this and packed for speed.

Loadout

• Yaesu FT-891
• Hamstick, 20m and 40m
• 20ah LiPo battery
• Key and cables

Activation

Park #1 US-2544 Lefleur’s Bluff State Park

The weather was rare-beautiful.  A little overcast but still bright in the way only spring can be.  It was a great day to sit at a picnic table and grind out 40 QSOs, but I had two parks to activate in as many hours.  I’d planned on a war wagon activation and was sticking to it.

I plunked a mag mount on the roof of my rental car and screwed in the 20 meter hamstick.  With the -891 on the dash and battery in the passenger seat, I called QRL, spotted, and called CQ with 35 watts.  The noise was terrible – maybe S7. 

Lefleur’s Bluff is an urban park smack inside Jackson, Mississippi and me and my 12 hunters suffered.  It’s pretty but small, with a children’s museum and awesome play area.

In addition to the QRN, noise, there was a marked amount of QSB on 20m.  The first two hunters came in under the noise floor and I could barely hear enough to know someone was calling.  Had to send SRI QRN. 

It took about 25 minutes to score 12 contacts.  I unplugged the radio, set it in the passenger seat and drove to the next park with the 20m hamstick gyrating on the roof.

Park #2 US-10279 Old Trace Park Recreation Park

Old Trace is a newly designated park, recognized by POTA since my last time here.  My activation today is its 11th.  I regret not having time to share it with more hunters.  It’s been QSO’d by less than 700. That’s 700 of over 46,000 hunters.

The park sits on the Southwest shoreline of the Ross R. Barnett Reservoir, 15 minutes Northeast of Jackson.

Same gear, same beautiful weather – same noise.  Except, this park had an RF zurg.  That’s a zurg-sound that lays in over the RF noise every few seconds.  Maybe broadcast interference, maybe a machine of some kind?  Who knows?  I drove around the single parking lot with my rig on the dash until I found the quietest place.  Not a quiet place, just the quietest available.

On 20 meters again, I found 11 contacts, culminating with a nice CW chat with N4REE.  He was QSB-ish when he first came in but got solid pretty quick.  Seems like maybe he turned a beam at me.  Probably why he asked for my QTH.  I answered Anna, but working in Jaskson, MS.  See, this is why I need to keep struggling and actually learn Morse code.  There’s more to these good folks than their callsigns. Thanks for working me, Bob.

TNX ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit