Every app and webpage I frequent said the bands would be noisy and closed and they were not wrong.  But I went anyway. A slow day in the park beats any day at work, right?  Turns out, HF bands weren’t completely closed, but they were indeed very lonely. About an hour beeping into the solar winds produced 12 QSOs.  That’s one contact every five minutes.  It still beats working!

If you’re new to these scribblings, my QTH is within a 45-minute drive of five POTA entities. Looking at the national map, there are some places parkier than here, but whole lot more that aren’t.  I count myself fortunate, park-wise.  Most of my “home parks” are pretty small and tend to clog up with folks on pretty days.  Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge is by far the roomiest but after the recent rains, is the size of a lifeboat.  I chose Eisenhower State Park this morning, hoping to find enough space to string a 40-10 end fed wire out of the way. 

As expected, Ike was stunning.  The day was clear and bright, and I found a picnic table, out of the direct sun, but with antenna trees.   Nature often provides tall wooden masts the muggles (non-hams) call trees.  For my 40-10 EFHW wire, I like my mast about 40 steps away, as the fat man waddles.  I think the 66-ish feet of a 40m EFHW wire will “hear” as good or better than any other portable antenna and wanted all the “ear” I could muster in these band conditions.

Loadout:

• Yaesu FT-891
• ExpertPower 12V 20Ah Lithium LiFePO4
• BaMaKeY TP-III Paddles
• PackTenna Mini 20m EFHW Antenna w/ DIY linked extension for 40m (49:1 UNUN)
• ABR Industries RG-316 w/ ferrite beads

Activation:

I tuned to 20m listened, heard nothing but fuzz, called QRL, spotted, and called QC POTA at 15:48 UTC.  Off to the races… running round and round the racetrack, all alone. Levent, KB5TMU, came back at 15:55.  The first, and one of the few contacts for the day.  Levent is local and a radio friend.

I puttered along on 20m for another 20 minutes and made two more contacts.  Then rolled up to 15m.  15 minuteS on 15 meters was enough to convince me I was alone there, too.  Tried 10m for a bit and zip.

I’d received a few texts from friends asking, “Any luck?”  Nope, not really.  I had enough time on my hands to answer texts if that gives any indication.  At about 16:30 UTC I had a rush of hunters, a little pileup – six contacts in 8 minutes.  not really a pileup by any definition but, Woooo!  I completed the activation with 11 contacts.  Still, a far better day than going to work.

I’ve set HamAlerts to trigger a notification when my local parks are activated. I pops up a little message on my phone when the Reverse Beacon Network, RBN,  hears someone call CQ POTA from any of the parks I’m “watching”. I saw several notifications that W5AZO was activating US-3005.  I searched an found my mic, plugged it in and tried to find them on 28.390, but without any luck.  10m seldom offers appreciable ground wave or NVIS.

Keeping an eye open on the drive out, I found them Hatchback Hamming from a trailhead parking lot.  I’m very pleased to have met W5AZO Patty and W5AZN Jim Martin, very friendly amateur radio operators.  We enjoyed a nice chat and Jim generously toured me though their mobile station. They cued up their FT-857 to 2 meters and with me on an HT, Patty gave me another QSO for my day.  Really nice folks, thank you!

12 QSOs from US-3005!

Note: The Packtenna mini EFHW won’t handle CW at 100w for long!  During my activation, I cranked up the power in desperation and after about 10 minutes saw the SWR rise, indicative of an overheating toroid.  I eased the power back to 40w and the SWR immediately came down to where it started.  No permanent damage, it seems … it seems.  I’ll keep an eye on it.

TNX ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit