I found a cool morning at US-2991 Bonham State Park.  Not cool-neato, but cool-brrr.  It was high 50’s when I  arrived at 08:00 and dropped four or five degrees while I was there.  The activation was a breeze, pun intended. No rain in the forecast, but the overcast skies seemed potentially “drippy” as the weather went from wow to woah.

It’s a small park but they’ve done a really nice job with the space available.  The day use area is along one shore for fishing and wading with maybe a dozen tree-shaded picnic tables.

Loadout:

• FT-891
• 20Ah LiPo Battery
• 40m EFHW w/ sparkplug 49:1
• POTA20 carbon fiber mast
• ABR RG-316 feedline
• BamaKey TP-III
• Admin Pouch

I used giant bread ties to secure the POTA20 mast to a wooden bench and ran my 40-10 EFHW in an inverted V.  66-ish feet of EFHW is allot of wire and when deployed as a sloper, it needs some significant space.  It’s always a game for me to pick a tree with branches I can reach with a throwline, enough height to get some performance out of the radiator, and far enough away to drop the feed point within range of a shaded picnic table.  Ah, POTA puzzles.

Inverted V is the cheat and is really easy.  Performance?  I’ve never comparison-tested it beside a sloper or vertical.  For portable ops, antenna performance is only one consideration, and not always the highest priority.  The first priority is “it fits”, “it works” is second to that.

I set my station on the loneliest picnic table at the park (my favorite) and sat facing the water.  Starting on 40 meters, I set phasers to 30 watts, called QRL, spotted, and sent CQ.  WI5D, Steve in Missouri, was first to come back.  I’ve QSO’d Steve enough to recognize his call when he drops by but his name escaped me in that moment so I couldn’t “name” him during the contact.

About that – I have to admit to the small, childish, pleasure of hearing my name during a Morse code contact.  Trading names is not part of the usual POTA protocol.  When I hear dada dida didadit dadidah, I know they’re intentionally offering an extra step, a kindness.  It’s like a line from the theme song to “Cheers”, “And they’re always glad you came, where everybody knows your name.”

40m activity lulled after the fourth contact and ever-impatient, I QSY’d to 20.  After a few CQs, nine more contacts came back in short order.  I got cold, lazy, and sent QRT.

You can watch the activation here. 

A pleasing activation at one of my favorite spots.  I’ve taken PTO for the days leading into Thanksgiving and fully plan to stretch every opportunity to get outside and activate. Drop by if you’re able!

As always,
TNX ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit