Activated on November 17th, 2023
My activations are usually a last-minute thing. This morning was no different as I decided to do this early in the morning. I followed my usual routine of stopping by Albert’s, that little Mexican food place, for breakfast prior to making the drive. I punched my destination into Android Auto and immediately it told me to go to a different location than where I wanted. Trying once more with the same results, I ignored the instructions and headed east, instead of west as directed. The turn-around battle continued as I reached Rancho Cucamonga (yes, that’s a real city in California) where I stopped to check my sanity. I entered directions to other parks and Android Auto in the car worked well however, for Silverwood Lake, not so much. Once in the mountains I thought I would give it another shot, and again, it wanted me to turn around. Possessed the machine is. I made it to the park about 12:45 after 90 minutes of driving because…SoCal.
I ended up right at lake level under a cabana on the “beach”. I was no longer afraid of being in a bowl due to my antenna’s previous performances. At this point I need to thank Kim K6YYL and Neil N6VHF for providing me with the 411 I needed to decide where to set up within the park. I then took a few minutes to walk around and explore my surroundings. The place looked like a deserted bay as the only lifeforms I saw were a bushy-tailed rodent and a father with his two kids. I had the place to myself! The weather was cool, sunny, with winds swinging between total stillness to very breezy.
Going about my setup was quite pleasant, especially so when the park staff saw me putting up my antenna without comment; I staked my vertical antenna into the ground. All said, I was set up 40 minutes after arrival, ready to turn on all my equipment. I got the POTA spotting page set up, logged in to Discord, got the RBN set up, logged into QRZ, and got HAMRS up and running. This time, however, I made sure HAMRS had the time entry running and the icon was green! There will be no stupid human tricks this time. I took a few minutes to clear my head before I started.
Settling down I QRL-ed a couple of times on 21.063 where I was immediately stepped on by some VARA transmissions. So, I QSY-ed to 21.069 where I remained for the rest of the time. About a minute after sending CQ POTA, I received a loud reply from an LW2 station. At the time I thought it might be from Chile, certainly from South America, but was not sure. Nice, I thought, this is a good way to start the activation. It turned out to be from Argentina.
About 15 minutes in, I got a Japanese station with whom I had some QSB hindering the process. In fact, as time wore on, I was getting increasingly higher levels of QRM as well. I remember fighting through a tsunami of QRM trying to complete a QSO. In retrospect, I believe that was around the time I made an entry into the log that I later had to drop because I could not verify the 411.
There were not any distractions there except for the wind, which at times drowned out my ability to hear the radio. Oh, yes, there was also this trash truck, and I mean a trash truck like the ones that pick up your trash from the curb every week, that passed not fifteen feet from my bench, twice, providing massive QRM. I suppose the park was getting ready for the weekend. I still managed a contact with that behemoth slowly driving by.
Were you ever your own QRM? I can claim that title. I set my FT-891 to beacon the POTA call every 25 seconds or so. I figured that would give about 10 seconds of clean air between the end of a call and the start of the next. That feature works like a charm! Until it doesn’t. Well, it’s the operator—I knew you’d get there eventually—that is not used to the feature. So, as I was trying to single out a call in a small pileup, I kept hearing my own callsign. Somebody was using my callsign! Who is the idiot using my callsign, I thought. I then realized I was the idiot because I did not stop the beacon after hearing responses. Thankfully, I had no time for embarrassment as I was trying to make contacts. It is not the first time this happened, so I must be more aware of that feature in the future.
As is the case with me many times, when I get a call wildly outside of my experience I tend to choke. That was the case with my second Japan contact: 7N1FRE. I remember thinking I was missing a leading character at least. I questioned him a second and third time for the call. I may not be the brightest bulb, but I finally got it, especially after the operator patiently sent his callsign three times in a row to make sure I got it. I did. Thank you, Hiro-san.
About 50 minutes after I started, I called QRT. I sent it twice to make sure everyone heard. Of course, the second I am about to turn off the radio I get another call. Didn’t I just call QRT? This guy tried to sneak one in there! I thought back to the number of times I’ve done that. I have scored at least a dozen prime QSOs that way, both on SSB and CW. I can’t blame the guy, so I answered his call. The last one in the log, number 24, was a WZ9 station. FB OP 73. I immediately turned off the radio.
Yes, it was quite a pleasant activation. Except for my beaconing prowess, I managed a relaxed activation with little hiccups. In time I will learn to take my headset out of the case to avert any audio problems, both natural and man-made. I just like wearing my hats…maybe I’ll take a baseball cap next time. I keep learning new things every time I go out. Honestly, there were no hard lessons on this activation. I did, however, gain more experience reinforcing the 5-P Principle I picked up in the military: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Activation Statistics
| Activation Number | 35 |
| Date | 17 November, 2023 |
| Park | K-3569 Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area |
| Number of Contacts | 23 |
| DX Contacts | 5 |
| Park Activated? | Yes |
| Previous Attempts | None |
| 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 |
Leave a Reply