Atterbury Fish and Wildlife - No Skunk!

 

Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area - US-4183

So after I got off work today, I loaded up the gear and headed to the scene of the skunking I got in April. Today was upper 70's, sunny, with a slight breeze...for July this is what we call perfect weather to be outside. 

I arrived at about 4:45PM and was setup and on the air by 5PM.  I'm getting good at setting up and tearing down quickly.  I still use a written checklist when loading back up to make sure I don't leave anything in the park.  It's happened. 

Happy Camper

Here I am getting ready to start calling CQ POTA.  See how happy and excited I am?  Everything went smooth on the set up so off I went.  As a reminder, to activate a park, wildlife area, state forest, or other state wilderness area you must make ten contacts, minimum.  I am happy to report that within the first 20 minutes, on the 20m band, I had my ten contacts in the log.  My first contact was WA5RML from New York, then I had W3NCK from Delaware, WA7RAR from Oregon (THAT was a surprise, I was thinking I was only going to be working east coast today) then W8NLZ from Virginia, WJ0L from Minnesota, NK2C from New York, AA7WU from Arizona, KW5CW from Texas but he was at a park like me so this is a Park to Park contact, those are always cool, then K1PUG from Connecticut, and my tenth one today was N0ANE from Minnesota.  I ended up with 21 contacts for the outing.  I spent the entire hour there on 20 meters.  The band was not very good, and there was a lot of signal loss, and wavering....we call that QSB. 

KX2 Radio and Eagle One Vertical Antenna with a small hand key

Stone Arch Lake and Ominous Clouds

All Packed up and Ready to Leave

So on the way out today I decided to drive through the area and go over by Camp Atterbury.  Camp Atterbury at one time was a prisoner of war camp for Italian and a few German soldiers during World War II.  Currently it is an army camp where we train our troops, and foreign troops.  

This is my dad.  Sgt Major William J Murrey, retired.  He served in the US Army and later in the Indiana National Guard.  He passed away in January 2016 at the age of 79.  Pop was assigned to Camp Atterbury for a number of years.  

My kids went to Cub Scout Day Camp at the park next to Camp Atterbury, and my dad and a couple other guys showed up in Humvees and took the kids on some Humvee rides, and let them get a good look at the dining facilities at Camp Atterbury, I believe they were even permitted use of the on base pool as well.  This had to be 35 years ago, and those kids still talk about that to this day.  So I like to go to Atterbury to operate for POTA, I kind of feel a connection here.  Dad was a true patriot, loved his family, loved his country, and served the Lord. 

Veterans Memorial at Camp Atterbury

Before I left the property entirely, I stopped at the Camp Atterbury Veterans Memorial Park for a look around.  

Open from Sunrise to Sunset

Huey Helicopter UH-1M Iroquois - Used in Vietnam

Lots of old military vehicles in the Memorial Park 

I walked around the Memorial Park for about 45 minutes looking at all the vintage equipment they have on permanent display.  When it was time to go I drove back over by the lake and found this little duck family enjoying a early evening swim.  

Until next time! 

de KB9BVN