Lynn and I had anticipated that today would be a stellar fall day in Rhode Island, and it certainly was. We left the house around 11 AM, and by noon (1700Z) I was on the air at the Blackstone River State Park (K-2869). With quiet RF conditions it was easy to complete 30+ contacts in 40 minutes.
About a half-hour later I was on the air at the World War II Veterans Memorial Park in Woonsocket. This is an inner city park, complete with RF noise coming from nearby buildings, cars, etc. The noise floor was about S7. Nevertheless, a dozen contacts were made (including 3 from one family: KN4VKW, KN4VKX, and KN4VKY).
RI is a very small state, about 45 miles from end to end. Sometimes we joke that the state is so small you have go to Massachusetts to make a U-turn. Such was the case today, as we traveled about 40 miles through MA, CT and back into RI to get to the Buck Hill Wildlife Management Area (K-7714), which was only about 10 miles away as the crow flies. That put me about an hour behind schedule, just getting there. Like almost all the Wildlife Management Areas in RI, it is about wildlife, not people, so no trails, no obvious places to park, etc. But the good news was it was far enough away that there was no RF noise. 20+ contacts were quickly added to the log.
With those three parks completed, that brings my total RI Activations up to 50, which was another goal for 2021. Now only two parks remain; Beach Pond (K-6980) on the border of RI and CT, as well as Block Island (K-0513), which requires an expensive ferry ride to access. I will leave these as goals for 2022.
