My 50th Park Activation!

Obey the Rules or Pay the Fines

Sometimes reaching goals can be so exciting, and so anti-climatic at the same time.  Today I completed my 40th POTA activation at US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  That makes 50 times I have gone to a park and made at least ten contacts. The goal of 50 activations was something I was sure I'd hit last year but life isn't all ham radio and playing outside, other things happen.  As you can see here, my operating position was on the shore of beautiful, bug infested, Beaver Bottom Lake in the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  This place is almost uninhabitable in the early summer, as the bugs are so thick you're certain to be carried off and drained of all bodily fluids. This time of year the lake is clear of weeds, the bugs haven't come up out of the ground yet, and it's just a great place to spend an afternoon hour or two enjoying the hobby of amateur radio. 

So today I loaded up the Trailblazer as soon as work was finished at 4:15PM, traffic this time of day can be thick, and it was.  I arrived at Beaver Bottom around 4:45PM, I had the antenna up, the table installed, my chair unfolded and the 10 Watt KX-2 connected to the Eagle One antenna by 5PM.  The first contact rolled in on 14.046 Khz at 5:02PM...which is always a good sign.  The first station logged was Steve in Texas, K5SJC and I ended up with 19 total this time before I decided to pack up and head to the home shack.  Signal was getting out well.  Montana to the west, New York to the east so almost coast to coast.  I can setup the Eagle One and the coax with a couple radials in less than 10 minutes. 

DNR Supplied Ham Shack

I was very surprised to see the DNR had already installed the portable ham shacks this early in the year.  Usually this doesn't happen until mid April.  The lake was busy today, I counted close to two dozen fishermen scattered around on the bank.  This lake also has a nice aluminum walkway that provides wheelchair access to some nice spots to fish from. 

I don't think I could have asked for better weather today, it was sunny and it was warm, and not a raindrop in sight. That might change later this week, here in Indiana, this time of year can bring on some pretty treacherous weather, including tornadoes, hail storms, and high winds. 

Here's my basic setup, the KX-2 of course, my little 3D printed paddles, the round ball looking thing is an external amplified speaker to pull out the really weak ones. I found these little notebook things at Dollar Twenty Five Tree. 

KX-2 Station for POTA Action

My QSO Map from Today 

Reverse Beacon Spots the last half of my Activation of US-4183

Well that's about all for now. Until the next adventure! 

de KB9BVN

Brian