Newest Activation

It was Friday and it was 4PM...quitting time at work for me.  Due to COVID I have been working from home for the last four months, so I was ready to get out of the house.  I grabbed my POTA activation go-kit and headed south back to K-4183, Atterbury State Fish and Wildlife Area. 

I arrived there at about 5PM EDT and started getting things set up.  This would be an activation attempt using the Eagle One hitch mount antenna, the Elecraft K2, and LDG Z11 autotuner.  I got started out on 30m, tuned to 10.115 Mhz by 5:30PM EDT.   The band was a little weak at first, but after about 20 minutes or so things changed and the contacts were rolling in. 

By 5:56Pm EDT I was at 12 contacts on 30m and ready to move to the 40m band.  I had worked nine different states, from New York to Texas running about 10 watts from the K2.  The hunters had great ears tonight, and I thank them for working my activation.  My RST reports ranged from 229 to 599 with  a couple of  339s thrown in for good measure. 

Here is a bugs eye view of my antenna: 

Eagle One Vertical...hitch mounted on my POTA Mobile

At about 6PM I was ready to jump down to 40m and give that a try, started out a little weak but the band did begin to improve a little for me toward the end of my session.  I managed to work another 10 hunters on 40m.  RBN was really starting to look good. 

At about 6:30PM EDT, my friend and fellow POTA activator, Wayne AC9HP showed up ready to operate.  By this time I was tired of sitting at the picnic table and decided to let Wayne use my K2 and his Blue Racer to see if he could squeeze out an activation. 

Wild about POTA activations!  KB9BVN es AC9HP 

Wayne was working the hunters on 30m and 40m as well and by the time we stopped he had about 15 contacts in the log, plenty good for an official activation of K-4183.  I think Wayne liked my K2 pretty well, Ivin W9ILF and I are trying to coerce him in to building one for POTA use.  

Wayne has only been at CW for a relatively short time but he has progressed quickly, and can run that Blue Racer bug like a champion.  So after his activation we started packing up.  With the Eagle One hitch mount and the Go Kit I can be deployed in less than 15 minutes and torn down in about the same.  This antenna is no wonder wire, but it is certainly easy for a one man operation to set up and take down.   My son Andrew N9AWM, has loaned me his FT-857D so I can try some SSB contacts the next time I go out.  My K2 does SSB but I don't have a microphone for it. 

We cleaned up the site, and decided it was time for dinner.  So off to the Diner in New Whiteland for a home cooked meal.  I might add it was delicious.

Last but not least. I used the tools at https://qsomap.org to create neat map of the contacts I made tonight from Central Indiana.  This is a really cool tool to map out contacts.  In the midst of all this activating I realized a new state!  

KB9BVNQSO Map from K-4183 on JUL 10 2020

Arizona is now in the log thanks to W7WXX/P working me on 30m.  Now I  am down to the last ten.  I hope to finish this three year quest for WAS QRP CW by the end of 2020. 

Best 73 de KB9BVN