Finally got back out there in the wilderness today. Instead of the old standby of Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area I took a longer drive do to Morgan County Indiana and activated at Morgan Monroe State Forest. I haven't been here since September 2023, and this was my 40th park activation since starting in POTA in June of 2020. I am definitely not setting any records but it was a beautiful day to be outdoors.
The temperature was about 76 degrees, which compared to the 90's and upper 80's we've been having, it was delightful to say the least. I got to the state forest at about 11:15AM EDT and got my station setup and operational but about 11:40AM. The solar propagation numbers were not looking too good for the lower bands, 30m down to 80m was virtually silent., so I setup on 20m at a frequency of 14059 Kilohertz and started calling CQ POTA.
I did not break out the little AX1 antenna with the KX2 transceiver, instead I raised the mast on the Eagle One, attached a couple radials, and started tuning up. The Eagle One is a telescoping vertical that raises to a full 10 meters in height. The band was pretty quiet and I was beginning to think I made the trip down here to just practice setting up.
With the attached radials, this antenna can be tuned on the 40m band down to the 10m band. Which comes in pretty handy.
I called CQ POTA for about 5 minutes, once every 30 seconds before I got that fist contact. K4AHO down in Florida answered my call. I was running 10 watts today because I knew the band was not great. In the next 8 minutes I made contact with W0PWE in Iowa, WE5K in Texas, W7GB in Washington State, VE3GRG in Ontario Canada, K5VWW in Nevada, and K9PMM in Florida. That was GREAT...my hopes were raised, as you need 10 contacts for the activation to count.
So I was munching on a bag of veggies, and enjoying a handmade turkey sandwich while I listened for a few minutes. Next up was VE3GSS from Ontario Canada, N0EO from Minnesota, W5WIL from Oklahoma, K2MER from New Jersey and I finished up with AI5DD also in Oklahoma but he was operating from a park there. This is called a Park to Park contact. always fun to work other operators in other parks.
The site I was operating from within the state forest is a long term study of the local hardwood ecosystem in the Morgan Monroe State Forest.
All in all a great day to play radio in the outdoors. The mosquitos eventually located my sweet juicy self and began attacking in full force. Total operating time was about an hour.
The reverse beacon network was not having any trouble picking me up at 10 watts on the 20 meter band.
Until next time!
72 es OO de KB9BVN
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