It’s been a while since my last activation. It doesn’t mean that there’s nothing going on around here, but it does mean that radio time in the field has been limited. It’s been for good reasons like picking up our new camper. There will be plenty of pictures of that in a future installment as we get out and camp with it in the coming weeks. It’s got a great place to mount an antenna. More on that later!
I did get out with the PCARS Portable Operation Special Interest Group a couple of weeks back to do a POTA activation at West Branch State Park [K-1999]. It was good to see club members out in the open again. There were 3 stations set up and lots of contacts being made. I couldn’t stay long as I had to do some significant yard work that particular Saturday, but it was Big Fun!
On another radio related piece of news, the QDX transceiver from QRP Labs came back into stock and I’m not ashamed to say I paused watching my daughter defend the goal at her soccer game to get my order in. It showed up in my mailbox within days. So now it’s sitting in a box on my bench taunting me until I have a few free minutes to wind up some toroids and get the iron hot.
And on the subject of POTA, I seem to have worked my way up to being a Platinum Hunter. I just watch the WSJT-X screen go by sometimes and when I see POTA I jump on it. Not really much of a strategy there, but I sometimes watch as the bands open and close. In the meantime, I got myself setup with some new awards. Neat!
This coming weekend should be better for getting out to the parks. I have a couple in mind as I need to nail 3 more unique parks to get my first activator award. I’m not really chasing the paper, but I’m chasing the paper. It’s fun.