Activated on October 9th, 2023
I had been contemplating going out to another park for a few days. My decision to go to a park was an impromptu affair arrived at not long after I woke up this morning. I checked my social calendar for the day (empty), I had no appointments or meetings (retired), so I had nothing to do (bum). When I decided to do a POTA, I did not know what park I wanted to activate. I then settled on Chino Hills because of the horse pens, not that I was going to see any, but…just work with me. I put my backpack, battery box, cooler, and coffee mug in the car. The rest of my gear remains in the car just in case. Went out the front door and…fog. I have not seen that in SoCal for a long time.
Arriving at the park the temperature was mild with a light overcast. The sun would be making an entrance soon, so I found a nice spot under a tree next to a mini pavilion—a corrugated roof covering a single picnic bench. As always, I put up my antenna. This time, however, I used my tripod to elevate the bottom of my 18-foot vertical five feet off the ground. This included an elevated counterpoise as well. My antenna analyzer pitched a fit. It gave me the “silent treatment”. Nothing on the SWR trace for both 15 and 20 meters. My first order of business was to determine where I screwed up. You see, I have been known to forget to attach the feed line to the antenna at times. I checked all the connections (tight), counterpoise (connected), and concluded I am a LID.
I then asked myself what was different from my other activations. Pushing any catastrophic equipment failure aside, I realized my antenna deployment was a failed experiment at this location. I stuck it in the ground, like I normally do, and for good measure I poured a quarter bottle of water on my stake right at ground level. And just like that, everything was right with the world.
As I was settling in to start, a young man mountain biking stopped by and very politely asked me if I would accept some literature he was offering. He asked me if I was familiar with the subject and was then sidetracked by what I was doing. We spent the next half-hour talking about ham radio, POTA, and talking around the world. He was truly fascinated and asked some insightful questions. He was blown away by my keying Morse Code. I tried to show some humbleness while basking in the glory! Yes! Here is a youth that is not jaded by cell phone or the nerdiness of our hobby. I just have to wonder, at the end of the day, who did a better job of informing the other? The time I spent with him was quite worth it, and if it cuts into the activation, so be it.
The park does not have trees that are good for wire antennas. Although there would be no issue throwing up an antenna into the trees, they are just not tall enough. I was surrounded by hilltops all around, quite different from Kenneth Hann, or even Rio de Los Angeles. Kenneth Hann, specifically, is quite manicured—not at all in Chino Hills. Two different parks; two different uses.
My first contact today was with David KI5SLJ about an hour after I was ready to go. See above. I spent a little over an hour getting contacts, ending with 18 overall. There was nothing special about the contacts except I seemed to get stronger contacts today. There were, however, the hard ones due to QSB. The big one that got away, however, was an LU station. It would have been nice to get that Argentinian DX, but QRB had its way. There will be other times.
The last contact today was also my only 20-meter contact. The 15-meter band was “drying up” and I took the opportunity to stretch my legs and munch on an energy bar. Back at the rig I moved over to 20-meters and started back up. After logging my contact with NE5E, I continued calling CQ. This lasted for about another ten minutes, and not getting any additional contacts I posted my QRT on the POTA site.
I was certainly more relaxed during this activation. At one point, I had three stations calling at once. I concentrated on one call, sent a partial with my buddy, the interrogative, and made the contact. I do not remember that happening again. Once more, I became aware of myself looking around at the scenery while keying. However, I cannot enter a signal report on the keyboard while sending code as I do not yet have that level of multitasking skill. The fact that I packed up without an adrenaline crash says a lot to me. This was just another activation. Can I say that? Hell, yeah, I can, for this one. Now I wonder, will the next one be the same?
Activation Statistics
| Activation Number | 28 |
| Date | 9 October, 2023 |
| Park | K-1139 Chino Hills State Park |
| Number of Contacts | 18 |
| DX Contacts | 2 |
| Park Activated? | Yes |
| Previous Attempts | 2 |
| Park to Park Contacts | None |
| Mode | CW |
| Radio | Yaesu FT-891 |
| Antenna | MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configutaion staked to the ground |
| Tuner | MFJ 939Y |
| Power | 50W using a 30Ah Bioenno battery with Bioenno 40W solar panels |
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