Whew, what a great day for radio. The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, and the thermometer stayed  under a hundred.  I had some things to take care of yesterday after work, namely sleep, so I was on fire to get to a park this morning.  Wasn’t sure where, didn’t care where, but going somewhere.

The GCARC POTA gang traded some texts about heading to Hagerman.  I like to run CW and the club guys absolutely crush side band. I didn’t want to be that QRM guy, so I landed at Hagerman also, but I intentionally went to the other end of the park.

The Texas sun has taught me to avoid it like I’m a vampire, so I found a tree, parked next to it and pitched a Ham Shanty.  This is an ingenious invention I’ve developed over the years.  It’s a tarp……. I’m single handedly revolutionizing portable radio and no one notices.  You’re welcome.

I settled on the 40-10 EFHW and Sparkplug, stabbed the butt of the mast in a Armadillo rut and got on with it.  About the butt of the mast…

Armadillos will use their pointy nose to dig little coffee cup sized holes in the soil, looking for grubs, and they make a nice little pocket to poke the butt of the mast.  I’ve lost a few masts.  The system I use guys they mast from the top of the first element.  This means I have the first two feet securely anchored but the 31 feet above it is waving in the wind.  It doesn’t take much wind to upend the whole kit and caboodle.  I imagine it falls majestically like an East Texas pine tree, but I don’t know.  I wouldn’t see it through my tears.  I’ve lost two masts to falls like this. Both times it snapped off the tip of the mast.  I have other means and methods for securing the butt, but I’ll always take a Texas Dinosaur rut if they’re offering.

Load Out:

• FT-891
• Bioeno 20Ah LiPo battery
• Sparkplug EFHW
• Spiderbeam 33ftTtelescoping Mast.
• Begali Expedition

It felt like forever since I’d been out, so I piddled away some time fussing with my radio and log.  I’d found a quiet spot on 40m and sent QRL while I got ready. KD2KW grew impatient listening to me drag my feet with occasional Q code and sent a question mark at 14:01 UTC, before I got spotted.  Oops, ya heard me.  I responded with CQ POTA DE KA5TXN and he started my day with a pre-spot QSO.  Nice.

Activation:

I started on 40 meters and 40 watts, cleared the room of hunters (all five of ’em), and moved up to 20.  20 was a bar brawl, people everywhere – pushing, shoving, and pulling hair – lots of fun!  At about 20 contacts, I saw my side band buddies from the club on ham alert and called QRT.  I plugged in a mic and hunted three quick parks, four if you count the two-fer.  I couldn’t find them on the air, so I closed down my station, CSMO, and moved to the other end of the refuge.

I met my friends from the club under the pavilion.  They had nice shade and were having great success with SSB on 20 meters.  I watched while they pulled in a 30-minute, uninterrupted string of park-to-park QSOs.  With each contact the hunter collected four contacts from US-0548 – three operators at the same park, plus the club’s special event callsign W5B commemorating the Texas Oklahoma Red River Bridge War.

All told, it was a great day at the park.  I got a little CW in, got to dust off my ham shanty, and enjoyed some quality time with friends.  If you’re not trying this Parks On The Air thing, you’re missing out.

TNX ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit