When I finished hiking the 7 Bridges trail it was almost 1 pm, and definitely lunchtime! Fortunately I had brought a cooler and was able to recharge on sandwiches and cold liquids, and (fighting off post-lunch laziness) I was ready to start the other part of my plan for the day: activating US-9870, Van Loon SWA!
The shady spot I had parked in was rapidly disappearing so I moved the minivan to a spot that would have a few hours shade, then deployed the 20 meter vertical and hooked up the X6100 . When I turned it on, there was a POTA activator right there, but he was fading in and out so badly that I could not make contact. I had noticed on the waterfall that a nearby frequency was idle, so I moved over there, self spotted, and began to call CQ. My first contact was a park to park one, starting with the query “is this frequency in use?”! I responded with another CQ, and we did a quick exchange and he moved on. (I noticed in the spots later that he had found a frequency and was operating).
It was pretty slow going, averaging maybe 6 or 7 minutes between contacts, (one other P2P, and three from Wyoming!) but I got 12 in the log, by which time, shade or not, it was getting uncomfortably hot so I did last call a few times and spotted myself as QRT. Collapse the Buddipole, collapse the 17′ whip, fold up the tripod, pack up the radio, and proceed to the nearest Kwik-Trip to re-hydrate!
All of the pictures from this trip will be in the hiking post above; anyone wanting a picture of my radio sitting on the dashboard or the vertical antenna in a parking lot can refer to previous activation posts. I think the ones from my Willow Creek SFA post were fairly good.
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!
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