Somewhere, UNDER the Rainbow

KB9BVN at US-4183

I got off work at 4PM today so I grabbed my POTA kit and loaded up the SUV and headed to US-4183 (again).  Murphy was in the car with me and I didn't notice until I got to the park.  Today I was using the Eagle One hitch mounted vertical, a couple of 20 foot radials, my Elecraft KX2 radio at 8 watts, and my pencil/paper logbook.

I carry two coax cables, both RG-8X, one is 25 feet and the other is 50 feet. I prefer the shorter one, but of course when I got it out of my POTA kit I discovered one end had the BNC smashed in the lid of the POTA kit.  No longer round, more egg shaped than anything, it was not going to be used this outing because I could not bend it back enough (no tools of course) to fit it on the BNC on my antenna.  SO, luckily I had the 50 footer with me and was able to get it unwound, on the ground and connected to the Eagle One.  Although I have activated this park about forty times now, this is the first time I have setup in this particular location.  I give you Teal Marsh.  Didn't see a single duck, did see a few muskrats, and about 30 million mosquitos. 

I finally got everything connected, tested and tuned and got on the air at 21:14Z.  To test out my setup I checked the spotting page and worked a couple of parks, namely Tripp N4NTO down in North Carolina at park US-6956, and Jeff KE8NJW over in Ohio at park US-1998. 

Based on those contacts I spotted my station on the POTA spotting page, at 7.065 Mhz.  With two already in the log, I needed at least 8 more to validate this activation.  Did I mention I was starting to hear thunder? 

In the next 11 minutes I managed to get 9 more in the log for a total of 11.  Just as I wrote down number 11, which was Bill KI9NG from Valparaiso IN, the rain started falling.  Sprinkling at first but my old Boy Scout spidey sense convinced me to tear down and get in the truck as fast as I could.  

I rolled up the radials, the coax, and took the antenna down.  Just as I finished the sky basically opened up and I was drenched.  Good thing I had the KX2 and the paper logs already stashed in the truck.  In Indiana we have these weird little pop-up thunderstorms. They go from clear blue sky, to torrential rain in less than 5 minutes.  We need the rain.  It lasted maybe 15 minutes...then here comes the sun.  I was soaked so I just headed back to the ranch, and I got to see this on my way out. 

Double Rainbow

Beautiful Sky post Storm

The storm has left the arena! 

One of the best things about POTA, in my opinion, is the beauty of nature that you get to participate in, I have as much fun watching the hawks, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and even an eagle as I do operating in the outdoors.  It's way better than being cooped up in the office.  We still have decent daylight until nearly 8PM so I hope to get a few more after work POTA trips in before the snow flies. 

Here's the contact map for today.  Not bad. 

Until next time! 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian