I had forgotten how long it had been since my last activation (November 9, 2021), and how nice it was to be outside. My wife, dog Jaclyn, and I drove to Beach Pond (K-6980) which is on the boarder of CT and RI. It was nice just to be there for a bit, even though the wind was blowing right at us and the temp was around 45. I had moved the battery inside (a 16 AH LiFePO4 battery) over the winter, but the IC-7300 was still in the garage. Thankfully everything still worked!
Despite a minor storm from a solar flare and a long duration event, 20 meters was in great shape for a single hop from the Carolinas down and a bit into the mid west. In fact the pileup was rather thick. 22 nice folks stuck around long enough for me to get them in the log.
Parked right next to the sign – can see the HamStick on the mag mount on top of my RAV4
Our doggy companion Jaclyn LOVES Activations because it means a ride in the car and a walk around the park.
As always, my thanks to the Parks On The Air people, especially the regional coordinators that deal with uploading logs!
Just googling around saw you and wanted to say hi after how many freaking years.
Phil WB4SOM
Oh my goodness!
Hi Phil,
No kidding, it has been a half century plus! (1970). I have no idea what day we took the exam in Birmingham, just that it was in the summer of 1970. Our paperwork came in October, or at least mine did.
I was 13 back then, and my father was working for GE in Huntsville. We moved near Albany NY around ’73 when the space program went away. I went to school there and moved to RI in 1979 when I graduated. I was also working for GE, which had a manufacturing facility here in RI (at least up until around 2000). Married, two kids, and retired after running my own small business/factory making industrial and commercial controls. Don’t love the winters, but RI is a beautiful coastal state, and I really love being near the sea. Ham radio has been my retirement hobby. It keeps me busy.
How’s life?
Yeh, long time ago. I stayed in N. Alabama, got a BSEE from UAH and went to work doing the hardware in the loop simulation for space shuttle engines, along with some com-work. Then changed employers and made server management systems. Been a mostly retired consultant for about 15 years now (I haven’t logged any work this year
🙂 ). I just got a new HF rig and still getting stuff set up – all I have in the air right now is a 40M vee – I’ve been off the radio for pushing 30 years, so there is a re-learning curve – my cw ear is still good, but my brain does not connect the letters fast enough yet. Practice.
We live in the woods N.E of Huntsville and have a grown daughter who lives in Huntsville and who is a nurse.