Note: The image for this post is from the word Press AI. You just click a button, and it whips up an image based on the content of the post. I have no idea what those antennas are and I think it’s funny.

Whew!  What a weekend.  I had some banked time to spend at work and scheduled Friday and Monday off.  The YL and I found a BnB in Eastern Arkansas that was of course nestled between four parks.  Not sure why the park thing keeps happening to us.  Coincidence, I guess.  No sooner had I made my non-refundable payment then we received news of a  memorial service to attend in Hillsboro.  That’s certainly more important than radio sports so off to Central Texas… and I didn’t even pack a rig.  Well, I didn’t pack an HF rig.

Back to the QTH on Saturday and I hustled up to the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site where the K5GCC wrecking crew – David, Ricky, and Lee – were activating the park while operating as W5P for the club’s annual special event for Perrin Field.  Perrin Field was a WW II a training airbase for airmen headed over seas to fight in the European and Pacific theaters.  The special event is to honor the servicemen who trained and worked there. 

240518@US-9757 Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail

I joined them to contribute some CW mode fumbling but I couldn’t find clean air among the other radios running.  RFI, Radio Frequency Interference, is a real thing.  I shot over to Binkley Park, where the US-9757 Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail passes through and got in a quick activation. 

I raised my Packtenna Random wire on a 10m Spiderbeam mast and pushed 30 watts of CW through it.  Easy Peazy Lemon Squeezy. I found 13 contacts, all on 20 meters in about 20 minutes.  Packed up and headed back to Ike’s house just in time to help the gang pack up.  I’m fat and talked David into a burger at City Limits in Sherman.  If you haven’t’, you should – a right decent burger.

240519@US-0548 Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

I made it to the park about 0900, pitched a fly for shade, and set up my station. 

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 brought a friend’s, NZ5K Mike, IC-706MKiiG with me to play with…err…field test. It’s a really cool little portable rig.  HF, VHF, UFH, all mode, QRO.  I started with 30 watts on 40 meters and made four, quick contacts.  But, it seemed really loud – an S5 noise floor – and I just felt like I was missing some weaker stations.  I’m sure the 706 has some filters and widgets to help manage that noise but I became impatient with menus and turned to my FT-891.  Sorry, Mike.  I don’t feel like I gave it a fair shake.  Is what it is.

But, the FT-891 seldom disappoints.  Small, durable, and has a great CW keyer.  Of course, I wish it had a tuner, but that would add size to its already perfect form.

I ended the day with a personal CW record.  Now, I’m usually a 15 to 20 CW QSOs kind of operator.  “Let’s quit on a good note.”  But this day, I put the ol’ 891 on 40 watts and kept at it, CW James Frank style.  85 QSOs in about 3 hours, counting all the set up, tear down, and fiddling throughout.

40m, 12 QSO
20m, 61 QSO
15m, 12 QSO

240519@US-0548 Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

I made for Hagerman again the next morning.  I’m sorry it’s more of the same location, but it’s hard to beat the Hag as a POTA location.  It’s about a 40 minute drive.  If I’m not all alone there, then it’s just a few bird-nerds and they don’t talk much. There’s trees for shade and to hold wire antennas.  Picnic benches if you want one.  Sit-down potties.  Not much else any hatchback ham can ask for.

I went for the same station set up with the same gear as the day before – less the sun fly – The trees are leaved out now and there’s plenty of shade if you keep the sun in mind and pick the right spot.

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 started on 40m again and walked in to a pile up.  Not the, horn-honking, finger-throwing, road-rage type of pile up.  It was the toe-tapping, please hurry up, type pileup that I could hear in their fists.  40m brought 28 contacts in about 30 minutes.  In my mind, I can imagine the contesters were frustrated by my plodding 20 WPM and insistence on sending the courtesies like TU for Thank You and GM for Good Morning.  But courtesy is what separates us from the apes.  That, and funtional thumbs.

Oh.  And 20 meters was even more active.  By this time, I was well established in the RBN and have to assume Ham Alerts were buzzing in my friends pockets because I started getting the “Where are you?” and “How’s props?” and, “Do you ever go to work?” texts.  Understand, I like my friends and I like these texts.  And if friends are reading and I’m slow to respond, it’s only because I have “fish on!”

When I’d pause to check my phone, the radio hissing quietly beside me, one lone operator would send a single question mark into the silence –  “ditty dah dah ditty – meaning “are you still there?” 

I’m amazed by this unlikely phenomenon – that you can hear emotion in someone’s fist.  Even in this modern age of paddles and electronic keyers where the tones and spaces are electronically generated, precisely generated, you can still hear the human being bleeding through.

It can be a little stressy.  I assume most POTA activators feel a little stress and anxiety.  You want to make it smooth, easy, and comfortable for the hunters.  You just don’t want to be that guy.  The only guys who don’t feel this, are the “that guys”.

And I love it.  I love the adrenalin of a pileup.  But more, I love standing on the principles of good operating, of courtesy and proper protocol – in the midst of a pile up.  I love hearing a new fist sending shaky code.  I refuse to send them smoke – I will slow and I will repeat until we both get there.  The pileup be damned. 

I have a long way to go on my morse code journey.  It takes work and time to learn the characters so well that you forget them a little, and they just become letters.  And I consider it an egregious affront to my own character to roll rocks onto someone lower on the hill than me. You do you and if I’m taking too long, spin the VFO.

Note:  No one reads this but Dave, so I ramble what I want.

So, I wrapped the day with 81 QSOs from Hagerman.

20m, 45 QSO
30m, 8 QSO
40m, 28 QSO

TNX ES 73,
KA5TXN
DitWit