Two more park activations: K-0789 and K-2880

Posted on October 18, 2021 by robert

Today was another beautiful brisk fall day.  Clear skies, temp in the upper 50s, fall colors about to come in.  My wife and our dog Jaclyn were restless, so it was time for a trip to a couple new parks.

The first was Snake Den State Park in Johnston.  I’ve lived here 40+ years and never heard of it, and I understood why when I got there.  The trailhead was in back of an abandoned fire station and went in about 50 feet, then was overgrown.  On a map it looks like it should make it to a swamp/pond, but didn’t get that far.  No matter, 22 CW QSOS later, it was activated.

The second was Roger Williams National Park (K-0789) in downtown Providence.  As a urban park it is surrounded by high-rise buildings, and full of electrical noise.  I remember it well from the ARRL National Parks on the Air program about 4 years ago.  13 folks were nice enough to make a CW contact with me.

My goal of 50 RI Parks by year’s end is getting closer.  With these two parks I now have 44 completed (plus one in Maine).  Five parks are located along the northern edge of the state, mostly management areas.  And Beach Pond, which is on the west-central edge of the state will be an easy one to pick up.  I will likely leave Block Island (sea voyage) and the Washington-Rochambeau Trail until next year.  The latter is spread out all over the state.

I may do 2 or 3 more tomorrow.

Posted in Activation, POTA | Leave a comment

Added Stenogyne Kanehoana POTA Award

Posted on October 15, 2021 by robert

Stenogyne Kanehoana is a rare flowering member of the mint family found only on the Island of Ohau.  This is the name of the Hunter award for working 400 unique parks in the Parks on the Air program.  Was last award was issued on August 20th, so I’m adding about 12 new parks a week (I’m usually on and mostly working folks using CW).  It would be easy to work a dozen or more a day if I bothered to dust off my microphone.

I plan on activating another two parks sometime next week.

Posted in Awards, CW, POTA | Leave a comment

Who says CW is dead?!?

Posted on October 13, 2021 by robert

The CWT at 1300Z (9 AM Eastern) on 40-meters.  Those 30 KHz are jammed with signals.  Will be many more at 1900Z.

This was CWT #68 for me. There are 11 more Wednesdays left in 2021, with 3 contests each, making 33, plus 2 more today, leaving 35 more opportunities.  I need 12 more to get the silver award for this year – should be very doable (might even crack 100).

Posted in CW, CWops, CWT | Leave a comment

POTA Time!

Posted on October 1, 2021 by robert

I last did POTA Activations in March (although I’ve kept hunting since then).  With the coming of spring, the parks started getting full of people, cars, electrical noise, etc.  Not something I wanted to be doing during a COVID resurgence.  However, it’s fall now, and people aren’t out and about as much, so it’s time to start POTA Activations again.

My first activation was at park K-0001, which is Acadia National Park up in Bar Harbor Maine.  My family was vacationing at a house we rented, so it was a perfect time to activate park #1.  We discovered that the park had put a $6 toll in place, with advanced reservations required to summit (3 years ago you could just drive up anytime).  No matter, fun was had by all, and I successfully activated the park.

Acadia National Park from Cadillac Mountain Summit – my view out my car window.

Back in Rhode Island, the bug had taken hold.  So yesterday I headed out to two new parks (for me): K-5482, which is Wickaboxet State Forest, and K-6990, Nicholas Farm Wildlife Management area.  Both of these parks are in the west-central part of the state, almost in CT.  Both are nothing more than trees with a few trails.  Both parks were successfully activated.

My 16 AH LiFePO4 battery was used for all three activations, each of which lasted about 45 minutes and produced a couple dozen contacts.  After the 3rd activation, I recharged the battery, and it accepted 7.6 AH.  I continue to feel that a 12 to 16 AH LiFePO4 battery is adequate for all but the most long-winded activations.  I no longer take my 30 or 60 AH battery with me, and I may shift over to a 12 AH battery at some point.

A sign marks a small trail head at Wickaboxet State Forest

Things were even more spartan at Nicholas Farm Wildlife Management Area. A small dirt pull-off next to a winding dirt road had a tiny “State Management Area” sign on it.

Posted in Activation, From the OM, NPOTA, POTA | Leave a comment

10K + Goal Progress

Posted on September 8, 2021 by robert

When I started CWT #58 this morning, I was sitting at 9,996 confirmed in LotW.  When I uploaded my log, I bumped over 10,000 confirmed QSOs in LotW.

At the beginning of each year I set some goals for myself.  Checking my progress for the 2021 goals:

  • Teach a Technician Class (Yep, did that this spring)
  • Reach 1500 Band-Points in the DXCC Challenge (closer after adding 27 to get to 1479)
  • Complete DXCC on 160-Meters (no closer at all, still at 93)
  • Reach a total of 50 park activations in RI (ten more to go, I’m at 40)
  • Add 1,500 QSOs to the log (killed it! Added 3,060 so far this year)

I doubt I will complete DXCC on 160 (although the new season will be starting in a month or so).  The same holds true for DXCC Challenge 1500, with 21 more to go.  But we will see.  I should be able to get ten more parks (there are 52 now), now that the summer crowds are going away.

If I could add a new goal, it would be to compete in at least 80 CWTs.  I did my 58th for the year this morning, and didn’t know about them until May.  There are 50 CWTs left to go in 2021.  Given that my antenna has taken a hit twice so far this year, this is far from certain with 2.5 months of hurricane season left to go.

Posted in CWT, Goals | Leave a comment

15,000 QSOs in LOTW

Posted on September 1, 2021 by robert

When I uploaded my contacts from today’s CWT at 1900Z, I found that I had gone over 15,000 QSOs in LOTW.  Only a few more needed to get to 10,000 confirmations too.  This was CWT #57 for me this year.  The 0300z one is not looking good due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida bringing 4-6″ of rain and thunderstorms around midnight.  But who knows!

Posted in Contests, CWT, LotW | 1 Comment

Ouachita Mountain Good – Henri Bad

Posted on August 24, 2021 by robert

I did receive the 300 unique parks hunted award from Parks On The Air (POTA).  That was a good thing!

Unfortunately RI took a big hit from Tropical Storm Henri.  We were without power for about a day and a half (could have been worse), had a large oak split about 25 feet off the ground (the remaining 75+ feet fell into my neighbor’s backyard), and a couple more oaks in our backyard woods got topped.  That oak was one end of my inverted-L, which survived, but needs a new anchor.

 

Posted in From the OM, POTA | Leave a comment

Hunted 300 Parks on the Air

Posted on August 19, 2021 by robert

With most of the parks full of summer visitors, I haven’t attempted any park activations since April.  However, I’ve been slowly hunting parks.  This morning I received confirmation that I have made contact with 300 unique parks.  It usually takes a day or so for the certificate to appear.

Posted in Activation, POTA | Leave a comment

CWT #50 for 2021

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Bob Beatty

This morning, I completed my 50th CWT contest.  With 19 more Wednesdays left in 2021, that’s a potential of 57 more.  I just earned the Bronze Medallion, and my goal is to complete at least 80 to qualify for silver.  Given Tropical Storm Fred is heading into the area tonight, I suspect I might make the 1900Z contest then ground the antennas.

My appreciation goes out to CWops and the CW Academy instructors (Thanks Joe)!

Posted in Contests, CWops, CWT | Leave a comment

Forcing Win10 to Sync Time

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Bob Beatty

Despite the fact that Windows has a built in automatic time sync function, it doesn’t work as one might expect.  Unless the difference between the NTP time server and the local clock is large enough, both the manual and automatic sync will not update the local clock.

A very simple way to get around this is to right-click on the time area, select “Adjust date/time”, then turn “Set time automatically” off.  Use the Set the date and time manually “Change” button, then adjust the minute either 2 minutes ahead or behind.  Finally put the “Set time automatically” feature back on.  This will immediately sync the local clock.

There are plenty of ways to do this automatically, but sometimes I like to avoid installing new software (I’ve been bit by serious bugs on more than one occasion).

Posted in Time | Leave a comment