It's STILL summer! Act like it!

At US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area

Greetings!  Didn't make it out in August we were too busy processing all the goodies my brother in law, Tim, grew in his garden.  It was a bumper crop of sweet corn, green beans, jalapeño peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, candy onions, and summer squash. Tim is an Iowa farm kid, that came here to Indiana to marry my wife's youngest sister, Rose,  over 30 years ago.  

Last September Rose passed away, leaving a huge hole in our family. To say she was wonderful is the understatement of them all.  Time marches on.  She is very sorely missed. 

This was Labor Day weekend.  I was able to go out and do some POTA work on Monday, and since I had today as a vacation day I was also able to do it again today.  Both trips were to Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area in Johnson County, central Indiana. 

On September 2nd, the band conditions were looking pretty bleak.  Solar Flare Index was 226, Sunspot Number was 200 - GREAT RIGHT?  A index was 16 and K index was 2...which meant 40m was pretty much useless, and 20m was very quiet and audio signals were really suppressed. 

I started out on 14061 Khz on Monday morning at 11:38 AM, I was using my KX-2 and the Eagle One 33 foot vertical attached to my SUV trailer hitch.  I was really surprised to have the first 10 in my logbook by Noon.  Signals were down in the mud but if I concentrated I could pull them out.  I got a lot of 559 reports, which mean typically quiet but readable. 

The temperature was an unusual mid 70's for this time of year, I was setup in the shade at the Mallard Marsh location and had quite a nice view.  Had to move my setup a time or time to stay in the shade. 

I wrapped it up at about 12:30PM and packed up.  My next stop was at Blue Heron Park in Franklin Indiana.  Blue Heron is not a POTA park, it is a city park.  My wife and I go there to walk to trails and get some exercise.  So I decided to stop there and take a hike, of two miles.  It was such a beautiful day. 

Here are a few pictures of some of the sights I saw while on my hike. Can you identify any of these? 

I know the red berries are BAD for people, so I didn't eat them...or any of the other stuff I saw.  I did get accosted by a gang of geese.  They seemed peaceful until I got closer. 

Anyway, I escaped! Walk the two miles, and headed home. 

On Tuesday I woke up to temperatures in the low 50's, very unlike September in Indiana, I headed back to Atterbury at about 11AM and things were a little different.  First of all, not as many POTA hunters out there, I think everyone but me was at work.  It took me about an hour to get 10 in the log book.  Today I was using the KX-2 again,  but this time I had the little AX-1 antenna in play. 

I managed to work NY, OK, NJ, AR, FL, WI, NC, CT, and GA all on 20m.  The band conditions were only slightly better than yesterday.  Solar Flare Index was 238, Sunspot Number was down to 133, but the A Index was still high at 8, and the K Index was down to 2. 

Ended up with 13 contacts and wrapped it up at 12:30PM.  Another beautiful day in the heartland for sure. 

We that's it for this run, until the next time, 72 es OO and Best DX to all! 

de KB9BVN

Brian