Activated on New Year’s Day, 2025
Rio de Los Angeles State Park was my first location for a New Year activation. I then remembered that the park is run by L.A. County and they are not open on holidays. No, I’m not bitter…well, maybe just a smidge. Because I wanted all my antenna options available to me, I decided on US-1139 Chino Hills State Park. The drive was pretty short, as many folks were probably relaxing from the previous night’s celebrations.
The morning started out rather chilly, but by the time I got there it was downright comfortable. When I arrived at Horse Camp, I was immediately surprised by seeing about ten horse trailers. Now, this is a first for me. After speaking with a member of the park staff, who was doing maintenance on a trash can lid, she mentioned it was a group of fourteen horses and their owners out for a ride. Now the last time I remember seeing that many horses was back in the late 80s or early 90s at the Cheyenne Frontier Days.
The Cheyenne Frontier Days, of course being a rodeo, I saw many a horse, himmin’ an-a hawing, fidgeting, flickin’ their tails, in all kinds of events from Chuck Wagon Racing to Calf Roping. In the end I saw the Oak Ridge Boys singin’ Elvira and American Made. A very western day indeed. Then came New Year’s Day of twenty-five and as I am trying to POTA, I hear the slow clippity-clop a couple of horses. Man, that took me back a few years. I look behind me and I see a couple on their horses slowly a-comin’ my way.
For the life of me I cannot remember the gentleman’s name. I took a picture instead of recording the interaction (douh!). Go figure. He was riding, Ranger (I think), and his wife Nancy was riding…wait for it…wait…a mare…named…Savi. As in, S A V I! Not Savvy, Savie, or Savee, but Savi. Well, all I could think of was “Paint me purple and call me Barney!” Now, there is a mall in Norco named Savi, but I’ve never come across any other living thing with my name, other than my first-born son. There is now a horse, a four-legged filly, a full-fledged member of the equine species named Savi. I’ll be. And, no, I am not her uncle.
About thirty or so minutes (horse) later, the rest of the fifteen horses and their riders came back in from their ride. I was trying to concentrate (horse) on doin’ the POTA thing. I then switched to calling CQ (horse) on the 15-meter band. I was able to get (horse) seven contacts before (horse) Mother Nature turned off the band for me. Did I mention I was distracted by all the horses? Did you know horses act like prima donnas? Did you know they have attitudes and personalities? Did you know they are beautiful?
My activation took over three hours. The first seven contacts were split between 15 and 20 meters. The contacts were slow in coming, between five and seven minutes apart. There was also a 50-minute span when going from 15 to 20 meters when no contacts were made. Still, it took almost two hours! To be fair, Dr. Tamitha Skov, on her Space Weather Spotlight on New Year’s Eve, forecasted two solar storms to hit us on New Year’s Day, so I wasn’t missing calls just because of the horses. Boy, they really were a delightful distraction for me, however.
Here’s the chorus of my pilfered song, “A Horse with My Name”
I’ve been on a POTA
Saw a horse with my name.
My antenna had some modest gain.
Doing POTA, callsigns replacing your name,
‘Cause there ain’t no sense making things a pain.
La, la, la, la, la, la….
Apologies to America – Both of them!
I then tried to supplement my contacts with FT8. Listen, all is fair in love and war! However, since the last time I tested FT8 on my KX3, I added FLRIG and never thought to test it with WJST-X. Well, I never got it to work in the field. Since the mode is so automated, I was chatting with an equestrian ham and did not realize I was not transmitting. Lesson learned. By the time I realized this, and now trying SSB, about 50 minutes had passed.
When I got back to hands-on operations, I was hunting POTA on side band. The bands were both noisy and weak. In some cases, there seemed to be active interference, like someone was on sideband nearby. However, it soon dissipated, and I was back to the regular weak and noisy conditions. I managed to get three more contacts on sideband, and went back to CW for a Safety Q, which was also a hunt. Still, it took a card deck of minutes for the four contacts: an average of 13 minutes between calls. I was done. All together I did get five Park-to-Parks, however!
Each POTA outing is an adventure for me, and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what, or who, you’re gonna get. This activation was no exception, except for the horses (see what I did there?). The horses were a wonderful sidenote. As far as the activation is concerned, I did not follow the 5P Principle and did not make any contacts on FT8. There were some juicy CQs on FT8 too. Next time.
So, it took just under three hours from the first Q to the last Q, not counting setup and tear down time. And, yes, that is an average of just under 16 minutes between Qs. That is a dismal statistic. However, there is no horsing around here, it still is an activation!
‘Til the next time, partner!
Activation Statistics
| Location | DM13dw51, 33.92130, -117.70106 |
| Activation Attempt | 86 |
| Date | New Year’s Day, 2025 |
| Park | US-1139 Chino Hills State Park |
| Park Activated? | Yes, #74 |
| First Activation | October 22, 2022 |
| Previous Attempts | 12 |
| Park to Park Contacts | 5 – US-3216, US-1213, US-9669, US-4514, and US-11182 |
| Number of Contacts | 11 |
| DX Contacts | None |
| Historical Contacts | 194 |
| Mode | CW, SSB |
| Radio | Elecraft KX3 |
| Antenna | Chameleon MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configuration |
| Tuner | Internal |
| Power | 5W CW and 10W SSB using a 3Ah Bioenno battery |
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