November 17 and 18 are off days in my world to celebrate my circumnavigating the sun one more time. And what does it mean when there is time off? POTA, my friends. POTA. Nothing but POTA. All day long. And it’s in the service of getting that Oasis Activator Award before the end of 2022. This is activation 16!
The park was more than empty. It was definitely quiet, cold, and windy. No one in their right mind would be out and about in 34F weather with gusts, right? Well, no one with sense maybe.
The setup today was a little bit different. The Chameleon extension with the telescoping whip and capacitance hat were all stacked up and ready to go. Some sideyard testing shows that the SWR on this combination is in the range of 2:1 or below for most bands. That’s crazy, but here we are.
It’s the usual setup for FT8 at the same old picnic table. Just colder today.
There always seems to be some kind of gear failure these days. This time, it was relatively useful. It seems that the little spot on my glove where I’m supposed to be able to use touchscreens managed to wear through. Made it that much easier to use the trackpad, but didn’t do much for thermal conservation.
The activation went well. FT8 was pretty lively for a Thursday afternoon. There were good contacts on 40m, 30m, and 20m. Even squeaked on in on 10m. And most of the U.S. seemed to have me coming in nice and clear.
After an hour, I decided that there is a limit to how much cold is interesting. Things were packed up and prepared to head out.
And of course, when POTA activators find souvenirs, we have to take them home. Or in this case, to the trash. Leave it better than you found it!
And with that, the QSO Map for the day:
