With all of the fun and adventure of our week plus in the U.P. I was afraid that it would be a bit of a downer coming back to the same old, same old. Happy to report that is not the case. After using rental bikes on the trails in Copper Harbor, we took our bikes out to Hampton Hills the morning of Independence Day to have a little fun and maybe, just maybe improve our riding a bit. We did that for sure!
Afterward, I decided to see if she’d be into a ride out to Cuyahoga Valley National Park – K-0020 and if she might not mind me doing a quick activation. She tossed her eReader in her saddlebag and off we went.
Being a holiday on a Tuesday, it didn’t seem like the park was as full of people as it might have been. There was a large group having a kickball game in the field near The Ledges and for a family game it was getting heated. Nothing like hearing someone scream “IN YOUR FACE, SHARON!” at their clearly older relative. I don’t think my wife heard that one, but I had a good laugh.
The setup was my standard: IC-705, mAT-705 plus ATU, Chameleon whip, and Surface GO 2 running Ubuntu. I was up and ready to make contacts in about 5 minutes. Yeah, like the nerd I am, I’ve started timing my setups. Under 5 minutes is what I’m trying to get as an average. So far, so good!
I ran FT8 the whole time. It was a little warm and I wanted to get activated quickly so that I could get us home for some grilling. It went quickly and I picked up my required 10 and a couple of extras including a contact with Azores! The things we can do with 5 watts. Wow.
Here’s what the QSOMap looked like:
