Activated on April 11th, 2025
I did not plan to go activating when I got up in the morning. In fact, I made three POTA contacts by 0830. Hells bells, I thought, the bands did not look so bad and decided on the spot to go hit the park. I got ready and started loading the backpack. This time all my batteries were charged.
As is my habit every time I go to a park, I make a pitstop at Albert’s, and this time was no different. Once my appetite was properly sated, off I went on my 6-mile sojourn to the park. My route would wend through El Sereno, Omaha Heights, Lincoln Heights, and Cypress Park, for those of you who have an interest in Los Angeles neighborhoods. I got there about 1130 and drove around to find a suitable spot.
Fun fact: The second episode of The Walking Dead had scenes shot in El Sereno. The high school in that episode is where the principal was killed. The abandoned church scene was in nearby Silver Lake.
Putting the walkers and biters aside, I ended up in the same spot as last time. I started to set up my station around 1150. It was warm/hot and felt somewhat humid, especially since there was no breeze at the time. This is what made the shade under the tree so welcoming. I take my time setting up and I am ready to make all the needed connections and do the computer stuff which takes me about 15-30 minutes. Like I said, I am in no hurry.
I started calling CQ POTA right at 1300 on 14063 MHz. Four minutes later I made my first contact from Idaho, then nothing. Nada. For about ten minutes or so I waited, then decided to move to the 15-meter band. I ended up in the 15-meter band for the next seven contacts.
These seven contacts came at me on average of four minutes apart. A couple of contacts were five minutes apart and the worst one was seven. However, my modus operandi is to wait for about five to ten minutes with no contacts before I move to another frequency or band. This does tend to elongate my time at the park.
You may have noticed in my videos that during my activations I tend to look around when sending. I truly enjoy the views I have when I am trying to activate a park. The greens, the blues, the whites, the flowers, and the people provide a delightfully animated tapestry that fills me with joy. This, by the way, is regardless of where I am activating. Looking around as I send is the only activity I can do while sending. I cannot multi-task while sending or copying code.
“Do you have anything you can trade for ten dollars?” Three boys tentatively approached me doing a Tick-Tock trend where you start out with something, and the object is to continuously trade up to get something of real value. One of the boys had the $10 bill in their outstretched hand. The best thing I had was one of my mechanical pencils which were about $17 each. They went off to see if they could get some better deals. In the end they returned and made the swap.
I was pleasantly surprised to get my contacts predominantly on the east side of the country. I was really tickled when I got West Virginia in the log, as I do have the hardest time contacting that Appalachian state. Surprisingly, the hardest copy for me was the contact from Missouri. Mother Nature did not allow Missouri to show much, as that operator received the lowest signal report I can give, 119. Georgia, which I mistook for North Carolina, got a 229 report along with New York.
The popularity of any park peaks at weekends. This one is even more so now that the construction has taken half the park off-line until December. It makes sense to perform maintenance during the weekdays. Still, the street sweeper drove by at least six times, not twenty feet from me. I get doing both curbs and the middle for three passes, but six? Then there were the dump trucks. Still, it was the lack of human activity that made it a relatively worry-free activation.
My stupid human trick of the day stretches back over a week. I’ve gotten into the habit of just closing the Surface 2 without turning it off. During this time, I would wake it up and send it back to sleep. This is why somewhere during this time the Wi-Fi went quirky. It would connect to a Wi-Fi source, but not to the internet. When finally diagnosing the problem at the shack, I replicated the problem. A good way to fix computers problems is to reboot them. When I did that, the Wi-Fi problem cleared up! Go figure. Okay, that is because I did not do proper preparations.
‘Nough said.
Activation Statistics
| Location | DM04vc13, 34.09973, -118.23608 |
| Activation Attempt | 92 |
| Date | April 11, 2025 |
| Park | US-3548 Rio de Los Angeles State Park |
| Park Activated? | Yes, #80 |
| First Activation | June 11, 2022 |
| Previous Attempts | 22 |
| Park to Park Contacts | None |
| Number of Contacts | 10 |
| DX Contacts | None |
| Historical Contacts | 289 |
| Mode | CW |
| Radio | Elecraft KX3 |
| Antenna | Chameleon MPAS 2.0 in the vertical configuration |
| Tuner | Internal |
| Power | 5W using a 3Ah Bioenno battery |
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