This weekend was spent in El Paso in order to do a 30 km trail run. During my journeys, I did three POTA activations. Two were in El Paso, and one was on the way there in New Mexico. The parks activated were K-0462 Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro County, New Mexico; K-0770 Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso; and K-3012 Franklin Mountains State Park also in El Paso.
I had several DX contacts on 15 meters. The one over 5000 km were ZS6NL (South Africa, FT8, 15644 km and V51WW (Namibia, SSB, 14241 km). I also had two local contacts, WB5LJO and KD5KC.
I was also able to attend a meting of the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) at their clubhouse in Logan Heights, El Paso. After the run, I went to a spaghetti dinner with the club as well. The dinner really hit the spot after the run. I got to meet a lot of great people while I was there.
| Date | Park | County, State | QSOs | SSB | Digital | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19-Jan-23 | K-0462 Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge | Socorro, New Mexico | 21 | 21 | 0 | 20 m |
| 20-Jan-23 | K-0770 Chamizal National Memorial | El Paso, Texas | 112 | 68 | 44 | 15 m |
| 20-Jan-23 | K-3012 Franklin Mountains State Park | El Paso, Texas | 61 | 35 | 26 | 20 m |
K-0462: A quick activation during a 14 hour drive
K-0770: Back to Chamizal looking a Ciudad Juárez in the distance
K-3012: On Transmountain looking out towards the west with the waning sun
I finally got to meet WB5LJO after having heard him on the air for years.
This was my first time back here in almost a year. When the Russian aggression against Ukraine started, I stayed away in favor of closer POTA sites. This time I was back. I had 107 QSOs on SSB and FT8 om 15 and 20 meters. Not counting Canada, 11 were DX (6 FT8, 5 SSB). This brought my total for this park up to 479 QSOs.
Parked in a snowy parking lot at K-3062. This activation was done using ham sticks off the roof of my car
I woke up early and got on 80 meters FT8 before going to work. I was able to complete a contact with YJ0A (K7AR from Vancouver, Washington) who was operating in Vanuatu, grid RH34. It was a rare contact with a small country in the South Pacific.
My FT8 contact with Vanuatu
It was back to K-3062 for Presidents Day. This time it was 60 FT8 and 57 SSB contacts putting me at 596 total for the park. This is 60% of the way to a kilo. All of the QSOs were on 20 and 15 meters. 4 of the QSOs were DX.
I helped out with as a VE at an exam session in Eagle Mountain done by VEC KI6OSS. After the session, I went out to Camp Floyd and did a POTA activation. It was a short one, as I needed to get home for some other activities. I had 24 QSOs, all digital (FT8 and FT4) on 15, 12 and 10 meters. That got me up to 623 activator QSOs for this park.
I spent some more time out at Camp Floyd for this activation. I operated from 15:30 to 18:00 UTC. I had a total of 100 QSOs. I worked both FT8 and FT4 for digital. 54 of my QSOs were SSB. I had 4 QSOs on 40 meters at the beginning. The rest were 15 meter. 15 meters was working rather well into Europe. My DX contacts were DF3JO, F4JJA, OH2MDN, SP9RXP (SSB!), IU0KWX, EA3SI, SP7QJF, HI3AA, US2YW, DK8NX, RZ1OA, HA7TM, IK4LZH and F1SAA. This was all on a ham stick antenna. This put me at 723 activator QSOs for this park (277 to go to kilo).
The snow had melted and most of the mud was gone for this activation at K-3062. The hamstick on the roof worked into Europe this time.
I used my Wolf River Coil antenna and Xiegu G90 with a 6 Ah battery. I am able to take this is a setup as a carry-on in a plane.
I had some trouble with the antenna. I think there may have been an open at the wiper on the coil. I was only able to get 4 contacts on 26 March at Saint Edward State Park (K-3261) in Kenmore. After three successful QSOs (one with Japan) at Legion Park in Everett (CN88va) on 29 March, I tried the same setup at Camano Island State Park (K-3169) and only go 2 QSOs, one with another station on Camano Island. I checked my coil with a multimeter at work and made sure everything was working fine. I went back to Saint Edward State Park on 30 March and was able to complete the activation with 12 QSOs on the 31 March side of 00:00 UTC and 4 warm-up QSOs on 30 March I used 15, 20 and 30 meters to complete the activation. I also had two Winlink HF sessions while at the park.
This gave me an 11th state for activation. I had previously tried to activate a park in October 2021, but ran into propagation problems.
Set up at Saint Edward State Park (K-3261, CN87ur).
Camano Island State Park (K-3169, CN88rd). Only 2 QSOs, but it was a really nice drive out there.
Carry-on antenna bag containing Xiegu G90, Wolf River Antenna, Coax and Signallink at SEA.
I went to Anaheim with my family. I went to the International Temperature Symposium 10 (ITS10) conference. They went to Disneyland.
The first night we arrived, I set up in the Holiday Inn parking lot (DM13at). I was able to check in to the Mission Trail Net on 80 meters. I then switched over to 40 meters and made 5 40 meter FT8 QSOs. I had one with KC1SFA in Massachusetts at a distance of 4169 km.
On the way back, I activated K-0650 Mojave Preserve National Conservation Area on the side of I-15 between Baker, California and Primm, Nevada (DM25dk). I had 15 QSOs, all 15 meter FT8.
Set up outside the Holiday Inn in Anaheim.
On this day I had a 25K trail run in Tooele. On the way back, I activated the Great Salt Lake Park. I worked all SSB on both 20 and 15 meters. Quite a few of the 20 meter contacts came from Southern California. I don’t know how this was possible with a 20 degree vertical angle mountain in the way.
Looking out to the Great Salt Lake.
I helped out with the Salt Lake Marathon. Besides doing the radio communications for the marathon, I also checked into a net on 80 meters and two on 40 meters using ham sticks.
After the marathon, I activated This is the Place Heritage Park (K-5950, DN40cs). The entire activation was on 20 meters with a combination of FT8 and SSB. My favorite QSO was WB7UZO in a rare grid square CN78 in Washington. I never thought I would get that one. I also had a QSO with Ed in El Paso, KD5MFS.
Aid Station N at Highland Drive and Crandall Avenue near the boundary of Millcreek and Salt Lake City (DN40bq).
Looking towards Emigration Canyon from This is the Place.
This was actually done the night of the 4th, but it was on the 5th for UTC. I had a 50 K endurance run and was camping overnight. I had some really noisy conditions but managed to get the required number of contacts. I had 28 QSOs (23 SSB and 5 FT8) on 20 and 40 meters from DN30ct east of Wendover in Tooele County.
I was back out at Camp Floyd again. The band conditions weren’t so good this time. I had 60 QSOs. I worked both FT8 and SSB on the 10, 15, 17, and 20 meter bands. This got me up to 783 QSOs for this park.
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