Back on the air at Wildcat Mountain

It was cool and damp, and the sun was not yet up, when I headed off along the back roads toward my favorite activation spot, hot coffee in hand.

Patches of fog hover over the fields before sunrise.

Last year on June 25th I activated Wildcat Mountain State Park, US-1480, and started an unbroken string of activating only that park; not by planning or intent, just how things worked out; every time I went out to do an activation it seemed like a good idea to go to Wildcat Mountain. Today was no exception!

I repeated the familiar pattern again; parked in the same spot, set up the same Buddipole vertical, operated 20 meters SSB as before … even the same pencil for logging! I found an empty frequency, started calling CQ, and self-spotted.

Another picture of my radio on the dashboard.
Flat SWR across the entire 20 meter band! No need for a tuner.

Hunters were few at first, but my 6th contact was a real surprise: LA9DSA, Knut in Norway!, a very active SOTA and POTA operator both activating and hunting. Thanks for the DX, Knut, hope to meet you again!

I also worked a few park-to-park hunters, it’s always a treat to help out another activator. P2P contacts have helped save many an activation for me!

The final total was 21 contacts in 2 hours, and it was starting to get warmish when I packed up the station. It was good to get out in a park again, after about 2 months of … radioinactivity? I mean, I didn’t even make an omnibus post in June, there was just too much going on here.

The map scale is somewhat altered by The Miracle of QRP DX

Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp !


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