It was 7:44when I pulled into the only partly-shaded space in the upper lot at Wildcat Mountain State Park; I shut off the engine and thought “let’s see if I can be set up and on the air by 8:00!”. By 7:55 the 17′ whip was up on the Buddipole and I was turning on the X6100, but it took until 8:17 to make my first contact; N2CMC at the Cape May lighthouse in New Jersey was CQing, loud and clear.
Tuning along 20 meters I found several POTA operators that I could not hear; just the other stations calling them … worked a few park-to-park contacts, including a 3 operator station in Florida; NF1T, KB4MIS, and W4BUS, and WD5JOE in New Mexico, who did “last call” and went QRT .
I waited a decent couple of minutes; nothing heard. Still nothing. Started calling CQ on the vacant frequency and spotted myself on POTA. Hunters started calling me! I never had a pileup, but it didn’t take all that long for my logbook to be at 23 contacts, and the partial shade was entirely gone. Too Hot!
I called and spotted QRT, the Buddipole came down as quickly as it went up, and I was on the way home!
Guess what I left at home? All of my brand-new toys!
When the sun started hitting the dashboard I shaded the radio with a hat, but when I shut down that was one hot radio!
It was good to get out in the field again for an activation; to experience the magic of radio with the amazing bonus of being in the Great Outdoors!
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp! More stuff, coming soon!
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