Well that was overdue in several ways!
What’s Going On Here?
I looked up this morning after walking the dog and realized that I’d not done any POTA activating since vacation at Sleeping Bear Dunes. That’s unusual. For me, POTA Activations are a lot like meditation or regular exercise. I can tell if I’ve gone too long without really engaging because I don’t bounce back the way I should. In short, POTA is a good mental exercise and not doing it is something that I can feel. The flip side of that is that when I do get into the field, I feel great afterward! Even if it’s a quick 10 and out like this activation. I wasn’t even there an hour and I felt completely recharged.
Midnight (Morning) At The Oasis
Now I’ve been hanging on 19 activations of Coopenrider-Kent Bog Nature Preserve (US-9401) for quite a while now. Looking back on how the summer has gone so far, it’s not a surprise. We’ve had weird weather, bad AQI, and a lot of stuff that needed doing around the house. You know, the things that take away from hobby time. Today was the perfect day to drop by, grab 10, and finally cross the 20 activations line with this park. I’ve finally pulled in an Oasis Activator Award for a park that is something like 3 miles from my house maybe? Probably less? I don’t know. It feels dumb that I haven’t gotten a kilo there yet, but it’s a Parking Lot On The Air kind of site and that’s not usually what gets me motivated to get into the field. In any case, it’s done!
Gear
The IC-705 with the Chameleon whip on the Jeep were the order of the day. Easy to zip in and zip out with that setup and it’s really the only viable antenna for the park. I took along the Putikeeg paddes and clamped everything onto the grab bar in the Jeep as is my custom. Everything worked great on a whopping 5 watts of CW fury!
QSO Map
It was 40-meters all morning. The QSOs were coming quickly enough that switching bands seemed silly. It was a pretty good spread for 40-meters. I got RBN reports that had pretty good signals. I’m always excted to be 16dB at 5 watts or less.
Here’s what it looked like on the map:
Final
I’m glad I got out to the park today. I’m of a mind to do a Warthog Rove in the next week or so just because I can (if the weather holds). I might even have some Ham On A Bike activations coming up.
Thanks for reading and 72!