This Activation Was Quick
Look, not every trip to the park is a walk in the park. Something like that. Sometimes, it’s really cold, really windy, there are whitecaps on the reservoir and everything is miserable. The siren song of POTA and the therapeutic benefits are all still in tact during times like these, but it doesn’t make for the most fun of activations. Though it does test an operator!
I went to West Branch SP – K-1999 and set up very quickly. I had the IC-705 with me as always and I went with the AX1 because when I use it with the picnic table mount, it is extremely stable even in high wind. And there was considerable wind. It was coming in with gusts up to 25 mph. Not the best weather for an activation.
The temperatures were in the mid-20s F. With the wind, I would assume it was in effect close to 0dF or so. Certainly cold enough that my fingers weren’t happy to be exposed for any period of time. But with my gear deployed, I got to work.
I started on 40-meters and the Ohio team came out in force. I knocked out 9 contacts on 40 before things dried up. I consider 10 minutes with no contacts in that weather time to move on. So I pulled the 40-meter coil and moved to 20-meters. The Radio Mastodon crew came out to support me and I grabbed contacts with WJ3FF and N0ZB. Always good to have people out there to grab you when you’re freezing at the park.
Is That It?
Yeah. This was definitely a simple Get Outside And Activate day. I felt better for it, but also very cold. Sometimes, it’s just fun to get outside and do our thing.
QSO Map
Here’s what the QSO Map had to say.
Final
Thanks for reading and hopefully I have more exciting activations this week!
