It seems so long since I’ve activated.  My club held field day at a POTA entity last weekend so the QSOs I made counted as activations, but it didn’t feel like an activation.  It felt like contesting and I’ve come to dislike contesting and what it does to decent people.

So, it was a real treat to get out to a park and back to my POTA Pals.  I just made up “POTA Pals” and it sounds terrible.  Let’s don’t say that again.

US-7684 Blue River State Fishing Lake is about 90 miles North of me, into the territories.  It’s a beautiful, tree covered, river smack in the middle of the flat prairie of Southern Oklahoma.  The Blue River is rock bottomed here and the water is clear.  It’s stocked with Trout in the Winter months and all together, it’s just a challenge to reconcile this cool place hidden in the dusty flatlands.

Access was closed to my favorite spots, probably because the road is washed out by the recent rains.  So I found a different place, actually a site I’ve camped before.  It didn’t offer a view of the river, but what it did show was a darn-site better than the view of a parking lot or open field.

I had all intentions of flying a tarp for shade – maybe show off my knot skills – but my best intentions tend to vaporize when it’s radio time.  I set up a table and chair, raised a mast, wire, and got right to it.

Load Out

• Elecraft KX2
• Bioeno 6Ah
• BaMaKeY TP-III Paddles
• ABR Industries RG316 Feedline with orange sheathing
• Packtenna EFRW with 17ft counterpoise
• Spiderbeam 10m mast

Activation:

I called QRL, tuned, spotted, and called CQ on 20 meters at 1455UTC.  NA2B from Sun City, Florida came back at 1456.  The next 26 Q’s came in steady after that.  I had both a few pile ups and a few pauses, but the band was productive.

At 1530 UTC I QSYd to 30m and called into silence until WJ8Y came back from Ohio at 1536.  I QSYd to 17m with no luck then jumped back down to 20m and made three more QSOs.  31 in about an hour and 20 minutes – certainly not a runaway activation, but decent for QRP power and well worth the drive.

Takeaways:

1. I’ve missed the Blue River and didn’t know it – even the grumpy folks running the grill at Scotty’s on the way in. 
2. I continue to pack a ton of gear I don’t use.
3. My copy is getting better.  In 31 QSOs at 20 WPM, I sent one question mark because I missed part of the call.  He came back somewhere between 25 and 30 WPM and I just could hang on.  I sent QRS? And he did – same speed, just gave me some Farnsworth.  Then he rolled his key speed back to my 20 WPM and by golly tested me.  He asked for my Name, QTH, rig, then my power, then my antenna.  I didn’t copy all of it, but I caught those three-letter words and the question marks… and I answered him.  What’s the big deal you wonder?  Well, I activate parks with CW and can’t copy Morse code to save my life.  I’m a CW fraud. I’ve worked really hard to get better and it seems like I’m not.  Today, it worked.  Some dude intentionally poked me right in the skill-hole and I passed.  Take that, Elmer!

TNK ES 73,
KA5TXN
DitWit