Support Your Parks!
Every quarter, the Parks On The Air folks have an event called Support Your Parks Weekend. The idea is to get out to the park at least once a quarter, right? I see it as just another weekend to go play, but maybe there are more hunters out there and a better chance for Park To Park contacts for those who chase those kinds of things.
For me, it’s another excuse to get out. “It’s the Support Your Parks event! I have to go out and activate! I don’t want people to think I don’t support the parks!”
Yeah, no one buys that, but it sounds good when I say it.
Keeping It Familiar
Everything about this activation was very tried and true. The truth of the matter is, I have a lot of change going on at home right now and what I needed more than anything was a chance to get outside and forget about it all while dits and dahs flow out of my radio.
The park was the personal favorite Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020. The location was The Octagon at my usual picnic table. The radio was my IC-705 and the antenna was my AX1. This is a place and a pile of gear I could set up with my eyes closed. In fact, from setting down my bag to getting on the air was just about 3 minutes according to my stopwatch.
Sometimes, it just feels good to use the things we know.
The Bands
I started off on 40-meters and it was quiet. Really, really quiet. The kind of quiet that tells you it’s going to be a rough time on that band. I poked around and got two contacts in about 20 minutes. That’s not the best. I knew that I had a sink to install later, so I switched up to 20 so I could hopefully get what I needed.
20 was a little more lively. I could see a lot of activity on the waterfall and signals were coming in nice and clear. Low noise and little to no crashing. In fact, it was really great! But it still took me just under an hour to get enough contacts for an activation. Not that I mind. I did switch up to 17 in the end, but only got one contact there. Better than none!
The Point
This was one of the activations where it really is about sitting at the park and enjoying the weather. It was 72 dF, clear skies, light breeze, low humidity. There was nothing not to like about it. The Octagon area was more or less deserted, so there wasn’t any human noise either.
It was a great time to watch the open field which was freshly mowed. Lots of families come out here to have picnics and play games. Plenty of youth programs are held here during the week. It’s one of those wonderful shared spaces that we have set aside as what will probably be remembered as our nation’s best idea (just ask Ken Burns!).
For someone like me who has been coming to this spot for a while now, it was a chance to enjoy the way the hawks hunt mice and chipmunks when the grass is freshly cut. There is a pair that I’ve observed for some time. They patrol the perimeter and wait patiently for a mouse or chipmunk to get too cocky and get too far out from the tree cover. I’ve seen many raptor picnics on that field.
And isn’t that the point of Support Your Parks weekend? Seems like it is. Using the radio as an excuse to get out to a shared space and enjoy the weather – whatever it may be. See the trees or grass or whatever natural features you have to hand.
The QSO Map
It looks like everything was aligned to the west. I’ve not seen a QSO Map like this before with this antenna. I guess the east coast was just busy!
Final
For people who need an excuse to take their rig portable, the Support Your Parks Weekend really do deliver. They happen every quarter, so even if that’s the only time you activate, you’ll get to see your favorite park in each season. Take notes. Enjoy the scenery. Make some contacts and have fun.
Thanks for reading along and 72!
