Category: activation
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Winter Field Day
On Sunday morning the weather had moderated a bit; the pre-dawn temperature was -12F, and I felt a bit more energetic than I did on Saturday. I still waited until about noon to set out, and I needed to deploy my battery charger / jump starter to get the car started. As usual, my first…
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Activating Mecan River SFA and the Ice Age Trail
Drawing upon my experiences last Monday, I left the house as the sun was rising: A quick stop at KwikTrip for lots of coffee, then rather more than an hour of driving, finally brought me to the perfect twofer spot that I scouted out last week. Though the day was sunny and the forecast promised…
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Testing the X6100 at Wildcat Mountain
The radio seemed to work okay with the new firmware update; I asked particularly for reports on my signal and audio; “just fine” was the typical response. (lol, insofar as anyone can tell when they’re giving me a 33 signal report). Here’s one ominous note: the volume knob froze on me again. It doesn’t seem…
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Radio surgery, part 3
Xiegu X6100 battery replacement, and a sampler of other stuff going on … First, the battery stuff: There’s a computer occupying my electronics bench right now, I need to get that out of the way so I can finish this battery change job. Watch for the next post! Activating US-12077 again It’s always a good…
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Two activations and a window sill
Wildcat Mountain State Park, US-1480 A cool and sunny Sunday morning made for a very pleasant drive through the woods and farm fields on the way to Wildcat Mountain State Park. It felt good to get out in the field again! Setup (in the customary location) was quick and routine. When I turned on the…
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A quick visit to Buckhorn SWA, US-12077
I was up early today, with a choice: hike, or play radio? Radio won today, and I headed for Buckhorn SWA. We had thunderstorms last night and it was still windy and overcast. I imagine that the trails would be muddy and slippery. I remembered to bring along a long tape measure, so while setting…
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Spring in the Kickapoo Valley, at US-4296
In the morning I wasn’t even thinking about radio, but with an early start on the household stuff, as noon approached the vista of the afternoon opened before me. I mulled over the POTA map for a few minutes and for some reason Kickapoo Valley SWA seemed like a good idea. Looking back, I see…
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Buckhorn SWA again
April Fools Day, (Election Day in Wisconsin), though chilly, overcast, and windy, nevertheless provided a few unallocated hours for an afternoon activation, and I chose Buckhorn State Wildlife Area as my site. As a relatively new entity it has only been activated 4 times, 5 if you count this one; the leaderboard hasn’t even fully…
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A double activation at Buckhorn
It seemed a little weird, is all; the last two times I went to activate Buckhorn State Park something interfered and no activating happened. Yesterday I decided to invoke the “third time lucky” clause and went back. The day started out lightly overcast and a bit below freezing, but the sun broke through early and…
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A springlike afternoon at Wildcat Mountain
Even though it was late in the day, it was just too nice a day to let the opportunity to play radio slip away! I thought a lot about where to go: new park? different park? but in the end, I went with nearby and familiar. Other than that, everything went well! The X6100 was…
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Spring(ish) at Buckhorn State Park
I don’t suppose that it’s surprising that Wisconsin should have a couple of weeks of deep-freeze weather in the middle of February; just inconvenient. Yesterday was warmish, the forecast predicted more and better for today; it might be Radio Weather! A few minutes before 7 I was at the local Kwik Trip filling up multiple…
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Buckhorn State Park, US-1443
Lat week I found a window of time to go play radio! The night before, I spent some time looking at the POTA map and tentatively decided on going to Buckhorn S. P., one that I never activated before, though it is not far away. The day dawned chilly (in the ‘teens), breezy, and sort…