Activated on Our Independence Day, 2025
I’ve been wanting to go out and activate for a while, and the Fourth was the best excuse for doing so. Over the last couple of days prior to the Fourth, I was making sure all my batteries were charged, equipment worked and so forth. The night prior I lined up the stuff I was taking with me by the door so I would not forget a thing. After loading the car, I went to the famous International House to break my fast and took off east towards US-1139 Chino Hills State Park.
The drive was nothing special, it was a holiday after all, and I reached the park in about 40 minutes. There were an unusually large number of hikers in the morning so wending through the one, narrow road to the entrance was done with abundance of caution. I keep forgetting to get my library pass that gives me free entrance to State Parks, so I paid my senior fee of $9. Finally, again wending through the hills and valleys, I ended up at my customary spot: the last ramada sheltering a bench close to the restrooms. Except…something was not right.
I’ve been going to this park for over two and a half years, so I am quite familiar with the layout. But something was off. The ramada that was found closest to the water spicket was no longer there. This was “my” spot, and it felt wrong. The only things left were the two benches, and a slight depression where the closest corner support to the spicket was located. That depression becomes important later. The day had a lot of promise; a beautiful cloudless, blue sky with temperatures promising the need to stay hydrated and soft breezes. The tree would provide beautiful shade, and I set up my station, of course, right under it.
Propagation the few days prior was promising as well so I had high hopes for a relatively quick and successful activation. Because of this confidence I moved with a casual demeanor. I arrived at “my” spot around 0830, walked around for a bit, took some B-roll, and set up my equipment by 0930. Then came setting up the computer with Discord, HAMRS, and ensuring I had a good USB connection with my KX3. Everything was working correctly, except I was receiving nothing. Not a signal to be found on all the bands. This is when I realized I made another Stupid Human Trick. It suddenly dawned on me to check the antenna. Wouldn’t you know it? I forgot to connect the feedline to the antenna. I am telling you this now, but I actually looked around to see if anybody noticed.
What a difference that made! Instantly I was serenaded by dits and dahs as an operator was calling CQ POTA! Really. Before I turned on the camera for the activation, I hunted “Waterloo”. Every time I see or hear the call W4LOO, the name Waterloo instantly comes to mind. I don’t know why, it just does. So, W4LOO was my first contact of the day, activating US-3088 Rockport State Park (US-UT) at 1000. Nice, I thought, this is going to be a good day. However, Mother Nature and her daughters, the Q-Sisters (QSB, QRN, & QRM), had other plans. It took me two hours and twenty-five minutes to get five, count them, five contacts!
During this time and aside from Paul W4LOO, I managed to contact Dan AB6SV with my abysmally bad and LID style form, and Dave W8XAL. However, it was taking so long that I decided to hunt a park. That was when I got Chris WR7B, activating US-0815 Fort Bowie National Historic Site (US-AZ). After all this time I decided to take a break, relax, and eat some lunch. By now the sun had taken on a more powerful stance and without a breeze the heat was oppressive.
My break lasted about a half hour or so and I was back at it. Thinking that CW was not panning out for me, I resorted to FT-8 for the rest of my activation. I think it was Michelle KC1UML who once told me that with FT8 you will always activate. Well, I put that to the test. Even with FT8, it still took me about an hour and a half to make seven contacts. Seven! On FT8! Mother Nature was toying with me. However, in the end, I got twelve contacts making sure I had my Safety Qs.
I was tired, I had a cramps in my calves, more than likely because I did not hydrate well enough, and I packed up ready to leave. I was in the car and got out to make one last sweep of the area in case I may have left something. Indeed, I am glad I did because I did leave my stainless steel stake by the water spicket. It took a little effort to pull out, but finally in my hand I absentmindedly started walking back to the car. Remember that depression? It was hard to see as the coarse gravel made it hard to see. Yep, I stepped in it throwing off my balance.
My mind went into hyper speed. I was trying to decide how to land, as my left shoulder had torn ligaments, and my right had four earlier procedures because of torn tendons and arthritis. I ran out of time, and I ended up falling on my chest, hitting the ground just to the left of my sternum. So, there I am face down in the gravel trying to roll over on my back. I came to realize that my car went into panic alarm. Beeep, beeep, beeep. I struggled to get my key fob out of my pocket to turn off the alarm. I did, but now I’m on my back looking up at the hot sun. As I lay there, I imagined a hawk circling high above screeching like in old western films. Funny thing, the mind. Now it was time to get up.
I kept rubbing my chest as I finally sat up, only to have the panic alarm go off on the car again. In the most entertaining way I get up, put away my spike, and get in the car to drive home. Instantly I am reminded of the pain in the chest. I figured I might have a bruised or cracked rib, but the drive home would not worsen the problem. I quietly drive home rubbing my chest. At least I activated
Activation Statistics
| Location | DM13dw51, 33.92339, -117.70610 |
| Activation Attempt | 94 |
| Date | The Fourth of July, 2025 |
| Park | US-1139 Chino Hills State Park |
| Park Activated? | Yes, #81 |
| First Activation | October 22, 2022 |
| Previous Attempts | 14 |
| Park to Park Contacts | 2, US-0917, US-3088 |
| Number of Contacts | 12 |
| DX Contacts | 1, Canada |
| Historical Contacts | 207 |
| Mode | CW, FT8 |
| Radio | Elecraft KX3 |
| Antenna | Chameleon MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configuration |
| Tuner | Internal |
| Power | 5W using a 3Ah Bioenno battery |
Leave a Reply