A Tale of two activations

New year activaganza!

I rang in the New year with family on a road trip to Chicago! Of course no trip is complete without POTA activations. I am absolutely blessed to have understanding family members who put up with my little detours during the road trip to complete the activation. 

The I-94 corridor between Detroit and Chicago is dotted with many parks within a quick detour. On the way up to the windy city on 30 Dec, I managed to activate K-1522 Warren Dunes State Park. This park had eluded me twice before. Each time I had passed through it, there were thunderstorms which derailed any possibility of an activation. It was supposed to be calm and in the 40s (5 deg C) this time. The plan was to do an in vehicle activation in the parking lot, but the sunny disposition outside persuaded us to go on to the lake shore. It was a miscalculation! 

Sunny Skies belie the cold temperatures and winds on Lake Michigan shores at Warren Dunes State Park K-1552

I managed to set up my JPC-12 vertical on the beach and started the activation, while my family started to grab some lunch. By the time we settled in and I started my CQ sequence, a mild breeze started to grow in strength. Soon, the sun went back into the clouds, it started to feel a lot colder. I had no cell coverage and I had to ask my first contact (N1RBD) to spot me. By the time I had enough contacts (about 25 minutes), my hands were completely frozen. Packing the radio and the picnic gear was a chore with hands that had no sensation. I was glad to have nabbed this park.  This was just one of the three activations on the trip. 

However, I saw an interesting contrast on my next two activations. 

On the way down to the motor city on New Year's Day 2024, I decided to stop by K-4107 William Powers State Recreation Area on the South side of Chicago. Now just or unjust, the southern part of Chicago does not have great reputation in terms of personal safety. After assuring the family members that reputations are more fearsome and usually undeserved, I told them this would be a quick process. When we pulled into the park, the gates were closed. So I had to park at the gate and walk in a few paces to set up my radio and start my activation. After about 10 minutes on 40m netting only 2 contacts, decided to switch over to 20m. I had 15 contacts in 12 minutes! Hooray. Time to get out of there with the park in the bag! No time to even snap a picture. 

After motoring two and a half hours further east, I decided to pull into Fort Custer State Recreation Area K-3310. I wanted to minimize the pain to my family and decided for quick in-car activation. I went for the 20m. However, what a difference the two and half hours make! After about 35 minutes on the band, I managed only 8 contacts. So I decided to change tack and try out 30m. I should have probably started with it first as I made contacts at about one a minute. After waiting for the contacts to die down, I packed up and called it a day much to the relief of my family members.

Yours truly activating K-3310 while family waits patiently

Todays two activations were weird. 20m was active earlier on in the day and then took a dip. I am noticing as winter approaches, 30m seems to be a good compromise and generally does the trick when 40m or 20m does not. I believe there are fewer hunters on that band, and rarely make more than 10 contacts on 30m alone. 

I was happy to get 3 new to me parks activated during the trip. There is also a tinge of regret that these are fly-by activations as I prefer the more leisurely activations with more contacts.