A Little Time Off
With the holidays upon us, I find myself looking for time to get outside and get on the air. This week has been a good one for it with two activations (so far) that landed in perfect timeslots with weather that was Good Enough.
Tinker’s Creek
On the 23rd we were more or less done with all of the food shopping and as much preparation as we could get done before people started to show up. We were hosting a brunch on Christmas Eve and doing Christmas at home with my mom. This means there’s no travel for anyone and we get to have a very relaxed time enjoying family. But being done at around 2 PM meant that I could get out and do a quick run to a park.
Sadly, the weather wasn’t being my best friend. The forecast said that the rain was done for the day but looking out the windows induced a bit of dissonance. It was misty and then drizzly and all-around messy. The park that lept to mind was Tinker’s Creek – K-1997 because it has a picnic shelter that is easily accessible and was very likely to be unused on a Saturday before Christmas Eve in the rain.
I got set up at a table near the edge of the pavillion so that I could get my counterpoise out onto the ground. The AX1 is an amazing antenna in this scenario as it’s easily deployed in the shelter and keeps me nice and dry. I’ve noticed that deploying both counterpoises improves performance significantly – including the SWR. We’ll science this out later, but my observations keep me working in a particular fashion.
With everything ready to go, I got on the air. I worked 40-meters for a bit and got almost nowhere. One contact. I moved on to 20-meters and life got significantly better. I walked away with 19 contacts in total.
The interesting note for this activation was the local disruption. At some parks, it’s hikers or people having picnics. Some places it’s motorboats. Here it was swans. Big, white, fluffy, noisy, nosy swans. They were surprisingly loud and at a frequency that wasn’t all that far off from the CW I was trying to decode. I couldn’t help but laugh.
The Map!
Here’s what the QSO Map had to say:
The Day After Christmas
My family was itching to hit the gym and go to craft stores to pick up supplies for my daughter as Christmas began to fade. I looked outside and saw weather in the mid-50s and a chance to get to a park. There was no rain in sight. The radar was telling exactly the story I needed to hear. So I went out to West Branch SP – K-1999 to enjoy a little radio.
Given that it wasn’t windy, I grabbed my EFHW out of the Jeep and put it up into a different tree. This felt like it was an extra spicy move given my success with the usual tree, but not only did I get the line up in the tree on the second try, it was the perfect branch to hit to get a really steep deployment from the table. I was very pleased with myself.
After putting the line in the tree, I looked out on the water and noticed that, yes, I was still in Ohio. There were two guys in a boat the day after Christmas. Look, if there’s no ice on the water, you should be in your boat. It all makes sense to me.
I set up my oil cloth tarp that my family got me and spread out my gear. A note for future activations is that the tarp keeps the key from sliding. It’s a really great work surface. AND it keeps my stuff dry and clean. It also is ready to be folded in half to keep rain off of my gear while I pack up if needed. And…well…hang on…
It was a healthy day for 40-meters. I pulled in a good number there before switching up to 20-meters. I got a nice Park To Park in there that happened to be a two-fer. But mostly, I was glad that it was warm enough that my hands didn’t get cold and there wasn’t much of a breeze. It was really a great, if overcast, day to be outside. It felt wonderful.
Sitting at the table and pulling in contacts was so very peaceful. I grabbed a pretty constant string of contacts and had a really wonderful time with it. I’m looking forward to working on my CW in the coming year so that I can get to a conversational level with it. Seems like getting back on the LICW class train would be a good idea. Starting with the Intermediate level, perhaps.
The Weather
What’s the saying? If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes and it will change. The back of my hand felt a drop of water and I looked around. Pulled from that wonderful CW flow and back into the world around me. Yeah, it was starting to rain.
I folded my tarp over my gear and got it packed as quickly as I could. The antenna came down fast thanks to my strange style of deployment (I’ll write that up someday…I doubt that it’s unique but I don’t see a lot of people working it that way). With everything in my pack, I wandered back to the Jeep, waving to some disc golfers along the way. Those dudes don’t disappoint.
The Map
Here’s what the QSO Map looked like:
Wrapping It Up
That’s a Christmas pun there. The title of this section, that is. If you read this far. And hey, if you did read this far, thanks! It’s the end of the year but I’m not sure that I won’t sneak in another activation. I’ve pulled together a list of things that I did this year in the hobby and I’ll be posting that soon enough.
Here’s hoping that everyone has a safe and enjoyable New Year! And now I’m off to buy stuff to make my wife’s birthday dinner. There’s still more revelry ahead.
72 and thanks again for reading!
