It was a long bit of time off for me this holiday. I grabbed what amounted to about two weeks of time off and spent most of it with my family around the house. It was a wonderfully low-key holiday season for us. That meant that there was time to head out to the park for some radio fun.
I did two final activations of Cuyahoga Valley National Park – K-0020 in 2022. I went out on both the 29th and the 30th. The 29th, I went out for a solo activation. There was still snow on the ground. The temperatures were starting to creep back up out of the negatives from the previous days and it was quiet at the park. I saw a total of maybe two people walking dogs. We were all still a bit shocked by the lows. I got in a good activation using FT8.
On the 30th, my wife, son, and wife’s dog came along. My wife wanted to walk the puppy and get out some of her pent-up energy. I think my son just wanted to get out of the house. He brought along his closed cell sleeping pad so that he could grab a picnic table and have a nap or something. He’s a teen. He does strange things. In any case, we sat and chatted while I got my contacts rolling. Everything was cut a bit short with the sky opened up with unpredicted rain. I had my lucky blue tarp that covered my gear as we packed. I had to hold it over my stuff as I got the last of my 11 contacts (I try to get an extra). We picked up my wife and puppy at a trail crossing and headed out.
That was the end of 2022. Sigh.
On the second day of the new year, it was actually fairly warm. Getting close to 50F! Sure, it was overcast, but this is NE Ohio. I made another run. This time, I got 25 contacts in about an hour. A great way to start the new year.
Here are the QSO maps for the three activations.
