Maybury Century

Most of the readers of my blog would know that Maybury State Park (US-1518) figures prominently in my blog posts frequently. This was the site of my first POTA activation and thus has a special place in my heart. In my last post I had expressed my disappointment where my attempt to activate this park for the 100th time did not go well. I had forgotten to take the power cord. When I mentioned this in one of our local repeater round tables, one of my fellow hams told me that he would like to join me on my next attempt to make the 100th activation. 

Mike (W8ZFM) lives quite a ways away from Maybury. So we had to coordinate a time and date that would be mutually convenient for both of us. Well that turned out to be Saturday Oct 12 at around 1800UTC. Mike turned up with his ICOM 718 and a 20m tuned dipole. I rode my motorcycle to the park with my KX-3 and long wire as usual. 

Mike usually works 20m only on FT8 and SSB. Today he chose to work only FT8. I was planning CW only. The early afternoon conditions were not conducive for QRP SSB work. We tried to keep our antennae away from each other as much as possible; however we both settled on the same picnic table. 

I started on 20m and did not find much takers that day. The slow pace even had me worried if I would have a successful activation that day. Once Mike started his FT8 activation on 20M I had to move away and went to the 30m band. The fish were biting there! I quickly racked up many contacts from near and far.

Midway through the activation, Mike had to take a little break. I took this opportunity to try his tuned dipole. My KX-3 loved it as it was tuned for the lower portions of the band. I continued to work on 20m until he came back. 

Back on my antenna, I then tried 17m. My CQs went unheeded. The RBNs indicated decent hits, but I had no luck. I finally wrapped up by making a few calls on 40m. Unfortunately, I had to wrap it up as the bands were heating up. I had other commitments back at home to attend to. 

Mike and I both had about 50 QSOs each during our outing that day.

Thank you Mike for sharing my 100th activation of the park

A big bust

 I was all excited for my POTA activation of US-1518 [Maybury State Park today!]. I was very eager to get there as this was going to be my 100th activation of that park. So I pick up the charged batteries, load up my motorcycle. I then negotiate the residual rush hour traffic and get to the park around 6PM. I was in a little bit of rush as sunset was at 7:15PM and I wanted to complete my activation before dark. 

I get to the park. It was a beautiful fall day in Michigan and the sun was definitely racing towards the horizon. I throw the arborist line over the tree branch and set up my wire antenna. After hooking up the feeder line, I pull the radio out of its box and set it up on the table. I hook the antenna up to the radio; pull the battery out. But wait! where's the power cable? Darn! I was working with another radio at home and forgot to put the power cord in back into the box. Nothing deflates the excitement as busted activation.

So much for the much anticipated 100th activation of the park. It'll have to wait for another day.

The itch that must be scratched

 Last weekend was a great time to be outdoors here in Michigan. Summer was still clinging on and the days were at mid 80F and no rain in the forecast. But life has a cadence of its own and my previous commitments meant I could not take this opportunity to go out camping for the entire weekend. However, come late Saturday I found that I had accomplished all I had set to do at home and had the rest of the day and Sunday all to myself. I had an intense desire to get out and camp. A quick check at the Michigan DNR website showed only one campground with open slots. Lake Hudson State Park, a park that I have not activated before was only about 90 miles away. This was also a designated "dark sky" park. My recent interest in astronomy means that I can get some stargazing done there as well.

So I quickly packed up my motorcycle with camping gear, food and my radios (KX-3 and KH-1) and set off for the park around 4PM EDT. It was a little too warm for my taste under the riding gear, but the 90 minute ride was fun and enjoyable. As usual, upon arrival, I found the access road to the campground was a gravel road. I had to take it very easy on the surface with my heavily loaded tour bike. I passed the campground office on the way [closed for the day] and headed up to the campground. I was hoping there would be someone there to check me in.

Alas, not only there were no campground staff, but I was asked to go back to the office and pick up a courtesy phone to book my campsite. [I was surprised that there were no drop boxes for cash payments at this entrance either]. I wish they had posted a sign by the office as I was passing through. So after tricky U turn I headed back to the office and got the wonderful site number 26. I picked this one because it was pretty secluded, but also close to the amenities [more on that later]

After speaking with a helpful agent and completing my reservation, I headed back to the site and took off my riding gear. The fresh air against my body felt nice. I then proceeded to set up my tent. I put up the wire antenna up the tree first[one of my criteria for the campsite] and then based on its stake point on the ground, I mapped out a convenient site for the tent that will allow me to operate the radio from inside the tent at night. Setting up the Cabela XPG tent was an easy affair; at least it wasn't raining like the last time I was out on motorcycle camping! I pulled the picnic table closer to the antenna stake point to set up my KX-3 for operation.

All the setup made my hands a little dirty. So I walked up to the water source across from my campsite. It was a water pump; it had some loose parts scattered around it, but fortunately, it seemed to work. When the water gushed out, I washed my hand. I did not fail to notice that the water was not clear and I did not want to use for drinking. Fortunately, I had a 2 liter bottle of water and a 2 little bottle of Gatorade. That will see me through the night.

I was all set to play some radio. There was no cell coverage at the campground. So I spotted myself using SOTAMaT. I started off with CW on 20m band. The spotting using SOTAMat seemed to have worked. The contacts came in at the usual clip as I was enjoying the cool evening breeze under the clear blue skies.

It was now 7PM EDT. Dinner Time! Time to take a break from radio. I pulled out my camp stove and proceeded to make my camping staple - noodles. I set up the stove on the rim of the fire pit and got the pot going. When the water boiled, the pot started to move and it was about to fall into the ash pit. I reached out and grabbed it. Ouch! silly me! My hand got a nasty burn on the ring finger and the pinkie in my right hand. I set the pot correctly and put some noodles. I then headed over to the pump to put the fingers under the cool water. It wasn't that bad, but the burning sensation was unpleasant. I was hoping it would not be much painful on my ride back home the next day. After consuming the noodles, I took a walk around the park. The light was beginning to fade. I decided to return to the tent and play some more radio.

KH-1 in the tent at night

I moved the KX-3 into the tent and started working some SSB and CW on 40 meters. It was fun.  It was dark by now. But being a dark sky park, I wanted to keep my light pollution at a low level. Fortunately, my head lamp has a low power red LED. I turned it on and used it for see what I was logging. Midway through the CW run, I changed to my KH-1.It performed well and I had many contacts at 5w or less late into the evening. By around 9PM EDT, the contacts started to taper off and I decided to call it a night. Time to put on some podcasts and have it lull you to sleep.

I woke up around 3AM. The near full moon had just set and the skies were spectacular. I was able to spot the usual suspects in the sky. Orion's bow was clearly seen. I could never see it from my residence. Gemini's Castor and Pollux and Taurus' Aldebaran were comforting to see. I took a quick walk around the site and enjoyed the views from various perspectives. It was back to bed again and wait for the morning light.

Out of bed again at around 6AM. It was still dark outside. Nothing to do, but to play some radio! I was looking around the band on 40m. I managed to work another ham in FL. We had a decent chat for about 20 minutes. After he signed off, I decided to slowly start putting things away. I wanted to get out as early as possible. I had heard from a friend that there was going to be a motorcycle show at Stockbridge, MI. I decided I want to take it in on the way back to home.

Sun rises over the campsite

Dawn at last! It is now 7:30AM. After the morning ablutions (well what counts for it in a primitive campground) I put on a cup of coffee and start packing. Packing up took up about an hour and I it was almost 9AM when I bid adieu to my campsite. 

Stockbridge was an hour away. The early morning air was almost fall-like. The ST1300 cut through the early morning breeze as I headed east and then north towards Chelsea and Stockbridge.

I rode into Stockbridge just as they were getting started. There were bikes already parked in the city square. I took a leisurely stroll and talked to various enthusiasts. I was specially interested in the section for electric motorcycle riders. I got into an interesting chat with a gentleman who makes his own electric bikes. 

Vintage Harley at Stockbridge, MI

I spent a leisurely couple of hours at Stockbridge and then made the trip back home.

 

The long and short of it

This is not a POTA story... but I found it interesting and felt compelled to narrate it here anyway. Most amateur radio operators cherish their DX contacts; they are quick to brag about their furthest contact. But the bands do not always play nice and sometimes produces results that can be quite surprising. 

The other day I was working on 17m CW and was happy to have a QSO with a Bulgaria contact.  DX contacts are not rare, but they are not very frequent either for my station. I was running CQ on the frequency and terminated the contact when a '8' station chimed in with their call sign. I did not respond initially thinking they might be trying to work the DX. They repeated their call. Since I did not hear the DX call back, I chimed in asking the station if they were trying to work the DX station. Surprisingly, they said they were actually looking to work me. So we got the QSO going and found out that the caller lived about 10 miles away from me. We had FB QSO and chuckled about our rare 17m contact. Sure enough I have more contacts on 17m to Europe than in my own state...

A little while later I hopped on to 40m CW to ride the golden hour for propagation. A '5' station responded to my call. During the exchange I was surprised to find that this station lived less than 6 miles from me. This piqued my interest and pulled up the QRZ. What I saw made my jaw drop. This contact was my riding buddy from many years ago. We had lost touch with each other. I was not a ham at that time, and therefore did not know that he was a ham too. He had moved in to Michigan from the '5' land years ago. So I went on with the QSO and told him who I was. We reminisced our rides in the past and had a fantastic QSO. We have decided to meet up again for coffee and talk radio in the next few days.

So the next time the bands are short, do not despair. Who knows what surprises it may hold.

To the shoebox again

I started off my very first POTA activation with my Alinco DX-70 and my POTA kit was a shoebox [https://motopota.blogspot.com/2023/03/my-first-pota-activation-and-onto-pota.html] . I graduated onto an Elecraft KX-3 for my recent activations. 

I did, however, have the Alinco on my desk and felt that every time I went POTA activating, I heard a deep sigh! Perhaps, the Alinco wanted to play! The Alinco is as easy to operate as the KX-3. It may not have all the modern bells and whistles, but it is a formidable rig in its own right. Some of the strikes against it for me were

• it did NOT have a keyer and thus did not support paddles for CW operation
• it does not have a built-in antenna tuner; forcing me to be low power 
• it does not have CW memory for calling repeated CQs

Now bear in mind that I did work with these limitations on my initial 30 to 40 activations. Using a straight key to repeat POTA CQs was scary and exhilarating at the same time for a CW newbie like me.  The downturn in band conditions made me long for the higher power output of the Alinco. Recently, I did acquire an external tuner and a CW keyer. I had all the tools to give the rig a second chance. 

Today, I paired the radio with the N7DDC antenna tuner, a knockoff Nano MK2 CW keyer with custom firmware (PUEKEO), my favorite Putikeeg paddle and my random wire antenna. 

The CW keyer is powered by a standard USB-C connector and comes with a custom firmware. This firmware allows most field operations with just a paddle connected. For instance, to put the keyer into tuning mode you 

• Press the Menu and then key T (dah)
• subsequent operation of paddle emits a constant tone for tuning
• Hit the paddle again to exit tuning tone
• Hit menu again to resume other operations

Similarly to program CQs say the first memory slot you would hit Menu and then key dit-dah-dah-dit  and dit-dah-dah-dah-dah (P1). You then paddle your memory sequence and hitting Menu again writes it to program. The device has buttons on the front to quickly recall the memory. For repeat calls, you hit the call button and the left paddle at the same time. Simple :-)

The N7DDC is powered by a 12V DC input. The tuner operation could not be any simpler. You hit the AUTO button and it takes care of tuning quickly. You must take care to restrict tuning power to under 30W. All I have to do is to remember to hit the low power button on the radio for tuning. No need for any other connectors; just feed the power and the connections to the antenna and the rig.

The Alinco DX70 has a on-board switch that can either restrict the rig to 50W or 100W. I had it turned down to 50W. In addition the radio has a high/low power toggle on the front panel. The low power is 5W when max power is restricted to 50W. I felt this gives me the right set of power choices. QRP if I want, and enough power when I want to be heard further. 

So here is the set up all put together at US-1518 today along with the now familiar shoebox in view

 I never realized how much I missed this radio. There is so much fun in taking the time to hook up all the wires. Life in the slow lane can be enjoyable sometimes. I worked both CW and SSB and got excellent reports on both the 20m and 40m band. I usually favor quick activations on the go or at break during work day and thus prefer the KX-3 for its simplicity in setup. However, when I have the time I will resort to this setup. 

Whipped

 Like every other amateur, I am constantly experimenting with antennae. The propagation characteristics are important as expected. But being a POTA activator I am also concerned about packability, setup and tear down times. Previously I had written about the JPC-12 almost being a near perfect POTA antenna except for the most weight conscious backpackers [https://motopota.blogspot.com/2023/12/jpc-12-redux.html]. Nothing beats the wire antennae for their packability and light weight and performance. However, you are also constantly looking for supports such as trees, posts or masts to get them to perform well.

I preferred the JPC-12 for its self standing nature on most terrain. I believe rocky terrain might make it difficult to anchor the antenna, but in a pinch you can always try to find something to tie the base to. One minor disadvantage I had with the JPC-12 was its set up and tear down time [2 minutes gasp!]. I had to assemble the pieces together before I could operate it. The metallic pieces become cold in the winter and screwing them on and off with gloves was also difficult. Too many pieces also meant that I risked missing some of them unless I packed them in the provided case. It was not convenient to throw the pieces in a bag and get moving.

Enter the 17ft collapsible whip! I love this one because it is very simple to set up. It has three major components. The base shown below; to which you attach the other components: the whip and a spike.

Whip antenna base. Available at your online stores

Screw the whip to the base.  [Optionally: Screw the spike to the base -- I have it already on the base with the counterpoise when I get to the park]. Insert the assembly into the ground. Extend the whip and connect to the rig. Voila you're ready to go. It takes less than a minute to get this done. The tear down is also extremely easy. 

The collapsed whip is a little under a foot and a half. I carry it in a PVC tube in which it was shipped.

Whip antenna in use at US-3324

Close up view of the assembled whip

I find that my KX-3 easily tunes this one across all bands I care about. I also do not have to fiddle with adjusting coils etc. It is also lighter than the JPC-12. Given these considerations, this has now replaced the JPC-12 as my go to POTA antenna. 

One of the issues I am facing is that the whips are not very hardy. You have to treat them with kid gloves; or otherwise you run the risk of having one fail on you at a critical moment.

Etiquette...Shmettiquette

 Most POTA activations are very enjoyable. Other than band conditions and weather, the only other issue I as a hunter am concerned most is malicious QRM. 

Recently, however, I am noticing a small pattern of persistent hunters...they almost bring a contest like ferocity to the activations. They insist on blasting their calls, despite my efforts in trying to work a weaker station. For example I might hear a prefix of the weak station say K7. I will go back with a K7?.. But will get blasted with W6xxx... I cannot honestly believe this is a mistake as the prefixes are wildly apart; Sometimes repeating K7? twice the W6 station will hold their calls until I complete the QSO with K7. 

The other day however, despite me clearly going back to the K7 station with a full report, I get a report back from the W6 station [599 both ways by the way]. I had no option but to acknowledge the W6 to get it out the way. Eventually, I went back to the K7 station who mercifully was still there and completed the QSO. 

In this instance, I was operating during the golden gray line hour for this particular activation and I was having good propagation to the western part of the continent. I can understand that stations may be eager either to work this particular park or work my call. I as a hunter rarely ever QRT if there are callers coming back to me. So there is no reason to rush it. 

What was surprising was that the W6 station turns out to be a seasoned long-time ham. Is the competitive spirit and gamification in POTA driving the simple etiquette out?