Activated on January 1, 2024
It was cold this morning, maybe 50F or so, and to Sothern Californians that is cold. You see, I get up early in the morning, brew my espresso, sit on the porch and sip the relaxing brew taking in the promise of a new day. This morning was no different, but then I noticed a UFO lumbering in the dark, morning sky. My phone did a fine job in the low light making it brighter than what I percieved. As I realized what it was, I can say for certain it was not Oumuamua’s little brother. In fact, it was the Goodyear blimp slowly airshipping northeast towards Pasadena, the site of the Rose Parade every New Year’s Day. This was just before 06:00.
I was hesitant to activate because of the possibility of rain. The forecast mentioned 11% rain, but since it’s still more art than science I hesitated. The prediction mentioned 0% by eight in the morning lasting the rest of the day, so I pulled the trigger. Albert’s was closed! There was no traditional Mexican fare for me this morning. I ended up at a McDonald’s sitting at the end in the corner like some guy on a stakeout. Once finished I left for Rio de Los Angeles State Park. That’s strike one.
Arriving at the park about 15 minutes later it hit me that the park was closed. I initially thought that all the cars parked by the entrance gate were waiting for the park to open. I had no such luck. Thankfully, this side of Los Angeles has two parks near each other. I followed my newly minted Plan-B and headed to Los Angeles Historical State Park taking me five minutes to arrive. This park has paid parking to better maintain its manicured appearance. And it looks it. I paid my eight dollars because I was not sure I would be there less than two hours, only to find out no ticket was printed. Hmm… I forgot that parking is free on holidays. That’s strike two.
The day was nice with little to no wind. An hour after I arrived the overcast was gone leaving Sol to shine in its full glory. I soon doffed my heavy overshirt and started unbuttoning my camp shirt. It was still 60-some-odd degrees, but sitting still in direct sunlight without any real breeze made the whole activation slightly warmer than expected.
This park has many benches, but no picnic tables, and since I did not take a table or chair, I was going to do this rustic-style. I ended up straddling the bench like a cowboy out in the open air of the plains. It made for cramped working conditions on the bench, however. Using my new clamp, which I affixed onto the bench, and mounted my antenna. After that I took great care to deploy my coax snaking it on the ground in front of the antenna. Doing that kept the antenna close to me and away from the growing number of people meandering through the park. My safety cones were placed encircling my setup. The nice folks there respected the cones and never crossed them, although there were a few that came up to them asking me what I was doing. One gentleman even asked to take a picture, so I guess I’m going to be famous. The rest of the time was taken up by all the power and control connections, setting up HAMRS, and QRLing.
I ended up calling CQ on the 10-meter band around 10:30, about a half-hour after starting to set up. Things were going smoothly, but for Mother Nature. The Three Q Sisters; QRN, QRM, and QSB, were up to their old tricks. There were only three of the 21 operators that came in cleanly with a 599 response from me. The rest were all over the spectrum. One contact came in, and after I responded, he simply faded into the ether. Others were hard to hear and required multiple ?s to complete the QSO.
Then there was a South Dakota station of whom I asked at least five or six repeats. The Q Sisters were really wreaking havoc, but perseverance saved the day. I would send him an email but he does not have one listed on QRZ. Another operator and I went through the same dance, an although I distinctly heard “roger” when verifying his callsign, it ended up being wrong and I could not recover the contact. Bummer.
Around 11:15, after 13 contacts (my goal) I QSYed to the 15-meter band. I managed one pile-up with ease, I think. Three or four stations all jumped after one of my dit-dits. All I could make out of that was a W. My next step was to send “W?”. Whattyaknow, two stations answered, but I heard a W8 this time. So, I sent a “W8?”, and only one station responded. Nice. I still sent a couple of more ?s due to the sisters previously mentioned. However, I got him in the log. I got seven more entries in the log, and the final one was my catalyst to QSY to the 20-meter band.
The last contact was hounded by stations calling CQ and others answering a call other than mine. My usual course of action is to continue sending as the interference could only be on my side. The QRM was so severe on this case that I stopped and waited for it to subside. Once over, I continued with the QSO, and thankfully, my partner was on the other side waiting and responded. We finally re-synced and finished the QSO and I got the contact in the log.
I believe I posted on the POTA page I was going to QSY to 20 meters when a couple came up and asked some questions. I sent “QRX 10” because I was taking a break. The couple and I had a nice chat where I extolled the virtues of POTA. They asked some good questions, and the gentleman did know it was Morse Code, although he professed no other knowledge than passing recognition. Once they left, and after taking a break, I turned back to get on 20 meters. That was when I realized I was done. I was out of gas. My get-up-and-go, got up and went. I called QRT and spotted myself so.
This activation was a mixed bag. Although I was not stressed at the end, the Three Qs were a source of frustration. It took a lot of concentration to make almost all the contacts and in the end, I was drained of energy. I selected the equipment, or lack thereof, for the first park I was going to activate. That did not turn out as expected so I was not as equipped as I could have for the second. I need to figure out how much I really want to carry in Betelgeuse when I activate. That, however, is for another time, prior planning and all that. There was no strike three.
Activation Statistics
| Activation Number | 39 |
| Date | 1 January, 2024 |
| Park | K-3462 Los Angeles State Historical Park |
| Number of Contacts | 20 |
| DX Contacts | 0 |
| 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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