Bachelor Weekend!
This past weekend was one where my son and I were living the bachelor life as the ladies were off camping. Given that my son is a big time sleep in kind of guy, I took the opportunity to go to West Branch State Park – K-1999 for an activation. Why West Branch? The temperature was in the low 50s and the winds were blowing. I didn’t have all day, so a 3-4 hour excursion to Cuyahoga Valley National Park by bicycle didn’t seem like a great idea given other commitments. So why not West Branch again? Why not indeed!
When I arrived, the park was nearly empty. In fact, from what I saw, it was just me and a group of Disc Golfers. Those are some hardcore dudes. They will Disc Golf even after the snow flies. I have respect for that, but I also think that it’s weird. Yes, the guy who hurls low-power radio waves at the ionosphere is gonna give side eye to some dudes throwing frisbees into chain nets?
Maybe not.
In any case, the place was looking abandoned. Since they tore down all of the structures, pulled the grills, and removed almost all of the picnic tables, the park on the side nearest the beach has a very abandoned feel to it. Even moreso now that we’re into my favorite time of year when the temperatures drop and the parks empty out.
I settled in at the picnic table near the water as I did last week. The plan for the day was to use my EFHW hanging from a nearby tree. My newly acquired 8 oz. throw weight was on my line and ready to hit a really great tree branch. Instead, I launched it into orbit and got a branch that was much higher than intended and even better than the original position. Who knew that moving from 10 oz. to 8 would make such an enormous difference? I maneuvered the antenna up to the branch and then noted that I didn’t have a tent stake in my antenna bag to tether the other end of the antenna. This was most unfortunate, but wouldn’t have been a great solution anyway. The ground in that area is very hard and it took a rubber mallet to get the ground stake for the vertical in the weekend before. However, the clamp mount for my Chameleon kit was in my backpack and I was able to clamp that to the table and have a very nice position for the antenna. Not too shabby!
The entire setup took less than 10 minutes from getting to the picnic table to powered up and on the air. The bands seemed to be in really good conidition. I started on 20m which, looking back on it, might have been a bit silly. This was the California QSO weekend. The CW area of 20m was packed. I found a sliver of the band and held it. I was on the air for about 40 minutes and pulled in 15 contacts. Given that I was competing with a popular QSO party, I take that as a complete win!
There are some things about CW operation that didn’t make sense until I was doing it. Before, when I was listening to the bands and there was a pileup, it just sounded like a mad cacophony. All of these beeps happening at random and on top of one another. Even with as little experience as I have now, it’s far easier to hear the subtle differences in pitch and tone. Even the speed of the characters adds information to the signal which synthesizes itself into a unique voice. Reading about that in books is one thing. Hearing it and experiencing it for oneself is something else entirely. There were several times when there were competing stations and signals were fading in and out but I was able to lock in on one (usually the one where I got the first 2 characters or a number) and pull them out of the noise enough to make the contact.
It was a successful activation and a lot of fun!
Here’s what the QSO Map looks like:
And then there was Sunday…
The ladies returned from camp early. The weather took a nasty turn and there is a point where, as a Scout leader, one must make the call: are we building character or being miserable for no reason? Given the scenario, the adult leaders made the right call and bugged out which put the ladies home at about 9:30 PM on Saturday night. That meant, when Sunday morning rolled around, no one was motivated for anything other than to make a quick run with dad for donuts and then get straight back to a PJ Day.
With everyone more or less decided that it was going to be a slack day, I tossed my gear in the Jeep and went back to West Branch. The truth is, I had so much fun Saturday that given a little free time on Sunday it seemed foolish not to head out to the park. Here in NE Ohio we’re running into that time where daylight becomes quite precious and we need to take advantage of every minute.
Sunday would prove to be quite different from Saturday. The same winds that forced the Scouts to pack it in were still in effect. There were 30 mph sustained winds and gusts into the 40s. What worked on Saturday with my EFHW was not going to work on Sunday. Sunday was going to have to be a vertical whip kind of day. The big bummer was that with the winds as high as they were, keeping log paper settled enough to write and even hearing signals over the wind was a challenge. Much to my chagrin, I would have to work from inside the Jeep.
Remember: Everything about ham radio involves compromising something.
I set up the antenna in the grass at the nose of the Jeep and ran the feedline through the window on the passenger side. I keep the lighting mount that I use with the IC-705 in the Jeep console. Pulling it out and getting the radio in place was easy enough. One thing I noticed right away was that not having a tablet or laptop to wrestle made working from inside the vehicle (which I truly hate) much more comfortable.
I tuned up and got to it. 40m was dead. I heard one other station as I spun up and down the band. That was weird. On 20m, things were livlier. It was one of those days where people didn’t hear me and just set up shop on top of me. I don’t blame them as 5 watts isn’t much, but it’s still frustrating to have to bounce all over the place. Like the day before, I was on the air for about 40 minutes and snagged 13 contacts. One of the notable ones being the station in Quebec that exploded out of the noise like a cannon! I had the volume up on the 705 and all of the suddem – BAM – this station was RIGHT THERE. I’ve never been startled like that while playing radio.
Looking at the map for the activation, it was quite a wild spread of stations.
Back to back activations made for a great weekend. I don’t imagine that I’ll squeeze in too many more like that in the weeks to come. It’s always possible and I will keep my eyes open for any chance I can get to head out to the parks. I still want to get in as many bicycle activations as I can before the snow flies and things get weird. How many will that be? No one can say. I do know for certain that snow and freezing temperatures won’t keep me from heading out to the parks with my radio, but at the same time, I’m going to enjoy every day I get before winter sets in.
73!
