Activated on March 8th, 2024
It started out as a normal POTA day for me. I met Marco KN6SJQ at Albert’s Mexican spot for breakfast and soon we were on our way to K-1139 Chino Hills State Park. This time we went to the correct entrance and once we paid, we meandered through the green hills to a spot called Horse Camp. The vistas along this only road were quite stunning, as the third atmospheric river ending the day prior provided us with a beautiful sights of the green hills juxtaposed by a beautiful azure sky. Along with being the highest spot for radio ops and not far from this spot, Horse Camp is in range of the park’s Wi-Fi from the camp sites nearby. What a bonus!
To our surprise, upon our arrival I saw Milt N6MG operating on SSB activating the park. I parked near him, and we chatted for a bit when Marco pointed to two other operators also activating 50 meters from Milt’s location. I walked over to the other two to introduce myself when Neil K6KWI yells out, “I know who you are!” Taken aback, as I did not know this person yet, I was thinking I could be famous. When I finally reached him, I asked him how he knew me. He answered that “no one else leaves an $600 antenna at the park!” I went from famous to infamous in an instant. You see, a couple of months back while using Horse Camp for the first time, I left my MPAS 2.0 antenna at my now usual spot. Not used to having two picnic benches end to end, I left my antenna on the bench I was not using as it just held some of my stuff out of the way. My infamy was born when I packed up leaving the antenna system behind. Enough of the excuses. I should have gone over the locations for any bits and bobs left behind. I did recover the antenna a week later after Neil was so kind to send an email the next day. Neil visits the park quite often and the staff asked him about it. That could have been an expensive lesson!
Marco and I arrived at the park a little before 1000, and after the greet and meet, I started to set up around 1030. My modus operandi is to set up my antenna first. This time was no different, however, planning on using my 25-foot long RG316 I placed the antenna a little closer to my location, closer to my covering’s metal roof. This may have something to do with my final contact pattern. I wasn’t long before I set up my KX3 along with my tablet, HAMRS, and eventually spotting myself on the POTA site. My first stop was on the 15-meter band landing on 21.063 MHz. I finally called CQ a little after 1100. Just prior to calling CQ I usually take a break to try to clear my mind and trust me there is not much to clear! Since I am still not up to the copying speed I would like, this time-out helps focus me. I’ve learned from previous experience that once I start, time goes by quickly and at the same time it feels like I’m working for hours. Once I am ready, however, it’s off to the ether!
After half an hour of calling CQ I only had two contacts to show for it. Once I decided to QSY, and just prior to doing so, I heard a K7 station calling CQ POTA. Now here is where my lack of skills come through. I simply answered him like a regular hunter. I am not sure yet how to confidently exchange park locations, so I took the easy way out. I figured POTA will take care of that paperwork on the back end. In the end, however, at least as of this writing, the K7 station does not come up as a P2P. However, there is another operator who I think was trying to exchange park information, but I was not up to the task. This AE6 station showed up as a P2P on my processed log on the POTA site. Nice.
So now I have three contacts and moved to another band. Once I finished that non-P2P contact with the K7 station I QSYed to 14.0655 a little after 1130. Just as I am about to send out my QRLs, someone else sent their QRL first. Five minutes after landing on the 20-meter band I now moved to 14.0615 a little after 1140. I picked up three more contacts while sitting on this frequency for a half hour. This did give me time to enjoy the scenery. I still can’t quite get over how beautiful the park is resplendent in its verdant attire contrasted with the light blue clouds and slight patches of clouds. The breeze, too, was cool and comfortable enough, however I did end up putting on my sweatshirt as eventually it did get a little chilly.
Yet, another 30 minutes later I QSYed to the 17-meter band on 18.080 where I end up picking up another eight contacts. Half-way through my stint I started getting QRM from RTTY transmissions during a QSO. Initially, I came through an abrupt stop as the QRM threw me out of my stride. I waited for the QRM to stop and continued again only to have it happen once more. I tried to finish my QSO sending through the QRM and was lucky enough to finish the QSO. I had to move up one kilohertz to finish up my time on the 17-meter band.
Again, I QSYed to the 20meter band in search of more contacts. This is where I picked up the remaining eight contacts to finish out my activation. Marco, on the other hand, seemed not to have the same problems I had, made 40 contacts which included operators from Chile, Argentina, and Australia. There was no mistaking his excitement when, from 40 meters away, I clearly heard him exclaim, “I got Argentina!” I believe everyone there today who was activating got at least 20 contacts.
I was frustrated chasing bands. Twice I received calls which I answered only to have them fade away. The 10-meter band was hopping, but stayed away from it as I did not want to interfere with my friends’ activations. Not being in a hurry and just enjoying the activation makes for a nice time. I do need to get another key for my KX3 activations. My Begali Traveler is in a nice Harbor Freight case along with my FT-891 and tuner. I guess I will need to re-think my packing to provide the Begali with good travel protection when using the KX3.
This time around, fading bands aside, I do not recall making any mistakes. I annotated all my band changes along with the time I did them. I still need to get better at picking up P2Ps as they throw a monkey wrench into my QSOs. That means I have more to learn, like better copying skills and remaining steady at the unexpected. Therefore, I will need to keep doing this over and over. Yeah, that’s it. I like it. I left nothing behind.
Activation Statistics
| Activation Number | 46 |
| Date | 8 March, 2024 |
| Park | K-1139 Chino Hills State Park |
| Number of Contacts | 21 |
| DX Contacts | 1 |
| Park Activated? | Yes |
| Previous Attempts | 6 |
| Park to Park Contacts | 1None |
| Mode | CW |
| Radio | Elecraft KX3 |
| Antenna | MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configutaion staked to the ground |
| Tuner | Internal |
| Power | 5W using a 3Ah Bioenno battery |
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