Activated on August 24th, 2024
The start of a new day comes to me with a promise that excites me. It is a promise full of wonder and full of hope. That is, of course, unless it is solar cycle 25 and the sun is reveling in its high energy hijinks. Sol, that hot-headed blow-hard, always at the center of attention, continues its molestation and perturbation of our propagation. It was going to be a long day.
My arrival at the destination had me waiting about ten minutes, as the gate was locked. The intention was to activate US-1139 Chino Hills State Park. My backwards planning helped out. My stop at the pancake house and a less congested freeway ride was the ticket I needed. Listening to my latest book, “Hunger”, by Jeremy Robinson, made the drive seem shorter than its 40-minute Google prediction.
The plan was to start calling CQ right around 0900. Normally, after arriving at a spot, I walk around on a little recon to make sure things are as I remember them, or to acquaint myself with the area. This, plus a quick antenna deployment along with my kit, would have me calling CQ POTA around 0900. That first CQ, however, was delayed. A young family pulled up at the tree next to me. As I was expecting a visitor, I broke the ice and greeted them. That started a series of questions as their curiosity peaked. In the end and after hearing the 12-year-old boy say “cool” several times, they left. I never regret talking to people about ham radio, however this delayed me about 20 minutes.
The 20-meter band found me starting to call CQ POTA on 14.063 MHz. I was able to make four Qs in the span of nine minutes. That is about a contact in a little over two minutes. The contacts were located in Illinois, Colorado, and Oregon. I was on fire, relatively speaking. That is until I wasn’t.
After the last contact, the band seemed to dry up. I started band-hopping by first going to the 10-meter band. Having heard nothing there, I moved to 15-meters, and then to 17-meters. All the time not hearing any responses. I eventually moved back to 20-meters. In the meantime, two ladies riding their mountain bikes stopped by and started a conversation, one of which, Pricilla, took the pictures of me you see here while her friend Monique stood by and watched. When I was ready to call CQ POTA again, an hour had gone by.
The next four contacts, again on 20-meters, took twice as long as the earlier four. The band was shifting on me, I felt, especially since there was an hour between both batches. The second batch of contacts came in from Arkansas, Michigan, Montana, and New Mexico. Eventually, that familiar feeling of calling out in the wilderness returned. It was time to do something else.
For as great as the Elecraft KX3 is, the supplied microphone feels very plasticky. I suppose it’s in the spirit of keeping things light, but using the microphone this last outing made me think of cheap knockoffs. However, that was my tool at hand as I tackled the warbles, QSB, and overlapping transmissions that is side band communications when there are few activators and many more hunters.
That is until I came upon a clear transmission from a park activator. I will keep his call sign unmentioned because he was quite an unpleasant man. Before I realized this, however, I tried contacting him. Eventually I moved on because he was not hearing me. I would meet Mr. Unpleasant several times, always avoiding him, as I tried calling CQ POTA, then later just trying P2Ps. The phone portion of 20 meters was a lot more chaotic. It seemed to me that I could get out, but nobody could hear me. I struggled for about 45 minutes before I made my last contacts.
Finally, an operator in New Mexico heard me, and through some hash and QSB, I realized there were two operators at the park! Booyah! I still had QSB plaguing me, and I could not verify the first caller’s call sign until after the second operator’s contact, but it got done. Like I said, Booyah! And that made the activation. Ten contacts.
I would normally hang around for safety Qs, however, this ended up being a long activation. I was hungry, I was tired, and I was done. I know I was taking a risk, but I was very confident with my Morse Code contacts, as well as with the sideband ones, so I took the risk. There is also such a thing as being wrong with confidence.
Yes, all my contacts were righteous and were uploaded to POTA. But I still have to question my decision to stick it out for so long. Just as I am thinking that I’m moving on, I hesitate to think someone will hear me now. It has not worked in the past so why would it now. Still, if I had not waited it out as I did, would I have an activation now?
The virtue of patience?
Activation Statistics
| Activation Number | 73 |
| Date | 24 August, 2024 |
| Park | US-1139 Chino Hills State Park |
| Latitude & Longitude | 33.92353, -117.70100 |
| Number of Contacts | 10 |
| Historical Contacts | 136 |
| DX Contacts | None |
| Park Activated? | Yes |
| Previous Attempts | 8 |
| Park to Park Contacts | 2 |
| Mode | CW, SSB |
| Radio | Elecraft KX3 |
| Antenna | MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configuration |
| Tuner | Internal |
| Power | 5W using a 3Ah Bioenno battery |
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