Another day at Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area

 

Another Day in the Great Outdoors at Atterbury

Another beautiful day today, low humidity, and temps in the upper 60's to mid 70's. Bright sun, and a slight breeze. So nice.  So I packed up the gear and headed to the park at about 12:30pm, drove around for a bit looking for a shady spot to erect the POTA station.  I stopped at several familiar places, Beaver Bottom Lake had no shade and about 15 people fishing off the dock.  I did not see any fish being caught but they were having a great time. I then drove over to Stone Arch Lake, and the parking area was also without any shade.  Since it was about 1PM the sun was almost directly overhead. I finally landed at Mink Meadow Marsh, under the shade of a big walnut tree that was hanging over one corner of the parking area. 

Once again at Mink Meadow Marsh

So today I decided I was going to make this a quick one and I would go ahead and use my Alex Loop antenna.  It's very easy to setup and tune, and goes a lot faster than the hitch mounted portable vertical. 

Alex Loop with my Elecraft KX-2 radio in its handy pouch

After I got the antenna assembled and in place, I broke out the KX-2 and remember to turn off the auto tuner.  When you are using a Magnetic Loop antenna, you tune it by adjusting the variable capacitor in the rectangular box at the bottom of the loop.  This is why you must set the autotnier in the radio to BYPASS.  I started out on 20 meters, 14.058 Mhz to be exact.  I got on the air at 1:13PM EDT and almost immediately started making contacts.  I worked Idaho, Newfoundland, Maine, Oregon, and Nevada in the first ten minutes.  Not bad for a Mag Loop and 10 watts. The band was really working well this afternoon.  At 1:40PM I shut the station down with 12 contacts, enough to qualify as an activation of this park, my 48th time to activate this park.

KX-2 radio and log book, ready to go to work! 

From the looks of my contact mapping, I had the antenna angled so it was radiating East-West. Worked both coasts and a bunch in the middle. 

Weatherman says we have more severe weather on the way, and to expect rain and storms the next three days, with over 3 inches of rain expected in total.  Indiana has logged 71 tornadoes so far this year.  We had one last Friday night the ripped through the Morgan Monroe State Forest, cutting a swath of knocked down trees 1/4 mile wide and about 8 miles long.  I will try to make to MMSF next month to do some POTA work....but I want to give the DNR a few weeks to get things cleaned up a little bit. 

Until next time, 73 es Best DX to you! 

Brian KB9BVN

Beautiful Day to be Outdoors!

 

KB9BVN at the key, ready to POTA!

Gosh what a great day weather wise.  Here in central Indiana it was over 90 degrees every day last week, and every night we had torrential rain and thunderstorms.  One system even spawned about half a dozen tornadoes in the northern third of the state. Fortunately no one was killed. 

Here is it Monday again, or Saturday to those of us that are retired, and the temperature was 65 degrees when I rose this morning.  Sunny, and cool...perfect day for POTA at the park.  So today I headed back to US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area in southern Johnson County.  I used the Eagle One portable vertical, the KX-2 radio, and the KX-2 paddles.  Getting the antenna erected and the operating position setup took about fifteen minutes or so. 

The location I chose today was called "Mallard Marsh".  I think I have operated from here before but it has been a couple years or so since the last visit.  I took a short hike back to the lake and the marsh area, and using the Merlin application on my phone I logged 7 different bird species. Including a rare to find these days, Bob White Quail.  I heard it but I never found the location for a picture.  Maybe next time. 

Mallard Marsh has no restroom, and limited parking 

The sky was really beautiful this morning, and the clouds were rolling but no rain predicted here until maybe Thursday. 

Looking east at the beautiful sky and the slow moving clouds

Before I started operating I took a quick hike down to the pond and by the marsh.  Pictured here at the current state of things, this place is usually crowded with ducks and geese and all kinds of birds in the Spring and early Summer. I heard several bullfrogs but did not see them. 

Here is a shot of my setup with the Eagle One vertical.  It mounts to my trailer hitch, and has a large clamp that clamps on the ground side of the antenna, making my Trailblazer in to a counterpoise, or radial if you prefer.  I also clip on 2 wires made from 18g speaker wire, each about 22-23 feet in length to help the antenna tune up better on 40m.  One of the wires I lay across the top of the vehicle and out over the hood...gives it some elevation.  Does it help? I don't know but I like to think it does.  The other wire I just deploy to the ground and let it lay there. 

Today the bands seemed to be in OK shape.  I started out on 40 meters at about 12:15PM EDT.  It took about 20 minutes to get the first three contacts.  Granted I was only running 10 watts.  I switched to 20 meters (longer distance) and immediately worked California, Florida, and Nebraska.  Then 20 meters seemed to go quiet, so I switched back to 40m.  

After about 90 mins, the DNR showed up with a John Deere mower...and proceeded to mow all around me while I was operating.  The noise being generated by the mower engine was enough to cover up anything I might hear.  The DNR lad was very nice and I showed him what I was doing and how much fun amateur radio is.  So at about ten until two o'clock, I packed it in.  Finished with 13 contacts, all I need is ten for a valid activation.  Done and Done. 

Here's a map of my contacts from today:

It is supposed to be nice again tomorrow, so I may try to run down to the fishery in Martinsville Indiana, or maybe even down to Lake Monroe in Bloomington. 

Until the next one,  may you have the best DX and all the contacts you need! 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian