Dell Creek State Wildlife Area, US-4281, occupies several unconnected tracts of land, mostly in Sauk County, west of the Wisconsin Dells and Mirror Lake State Park. There are 13 parking areas scattered among them to provide access. Early Sunday morning I started at the northernmost ones along Dore Road, which all lacked shade, had lots of flying insects, and were a bit overgrown. The next one, on Town Hall Road, was roomy, less buggy, and had a little shade, so I chose to set up there.
I will probably try some of the other areas of Dell Creek, and go back to Mirror Lake as well, while the summer and fall weather continues. I also feel like I am operating from the car in a parking lot too much; I want to do more hiking and activating from the field, and this is the time for it. Winter Field Day is only 6 months away!
Setup of the Buddipole vertical and the Xiegu X6100 was quick and easy, and I was on the air a few minutes after 7 o’clock; signals on the waterfall seemed sparse, but I tuned to the nearest one and found a two-park operation in Florida.
At this point I discovered a couple of flaws in my so-called “planning”; I did not know the park number, and my chosen location had zero bars of phone service! Walking out to the road yielded an intermittent single bar, so I was able to get the park number and go back to operating P2P. I didn’t want to put in the time needed to log in and self-spot. The next contact was a 4 operator one (!), also in Florida; it sounded like the “Sawgrass Breakfast Club” was having a lot of fun in their park! As I listened and hunted I learned that it was also “Support Your Parks” weekend, which added a little extra incentive to keep going with another all-hunting activation. One by one the QSOs went into the log. As time went on the noise floor on 20 meters seemed to increase, and rapid fading in and out was the norm. Between the increasing temperature (lost the little shade I had earlier) and difficulty busting pileups, I closed down with 14 contacts in 2 1/2 hours.
When I disconnected the radio to pack it up I was surprised to find the case almost too hot to touch, despite keeping it out of direct sun. No cause for alarm; at the actual semiconductor junction deep within all the packaging the temperature can exceed boiling-water temperature without danger of failure.
No map this time; a faulty QTH locator for one of my contacts shows him out in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, and I am quite sure he said he was in Florida!
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp! I appreciate all of you who stop by!
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