Mitts for mitten state

This weekend is the Winter 2024 Support your Parks day. At the crack of dawn (well 0930 local time) I headed out to K-3324 Proud Lake State Rec area for an activation. On the way back I was going to stop by Costco for our weekly resupply mission. It was cold with the temperatures in the 4-5F.  I went to the Park Headquarters area knowing that that area will be plowed and easier to access. When I reached the parking lot, I found that it was nearly full. There was a big contingent of hikers (in training walk I guess as they had big backpacks) that had used the parking lot as a staging ground to the nearby trailhead. 

I found a secluded corner that will enable me to set up my vertical close to the car. I stuck the JPC-12 on the snow taking care to keep any melting snow from entering the feed line. I need not have worried as the temps were way below freezing anyway. The only disadvantage was that there was a bunch of trees close to the antenna on one side as seen in the picture below. While it was not ideal, it was a pretty sight as you can see the golden early morning sunlight being caught in the trees in the background.

Activation of K-3324 on Support your Parks weekend

As is the routine, I started off with 40m and got quite a few contacts. Then I went through 30m to pick up a few more. When I went down to 20m I had to work a few pileups. That was fun. However, I do not leave my car engine running during activation. I had to get down each time I changed bands to adjust the tuning coil on the JPC-12 vertical. This meant that I was losing heat that I had built up by cranking up the heater on my way to the park. When working 20m the temperature in the car had plunged and my fingers were freezing. Luckily, I had a few thin mitts (would have loved thin mints as well.. hi hi ). It was a little tricky operating the paddle with the mitts as I did not get the same feel. I did flub a few calls, but I hope the hunters would forgive me. As time progressed, it got colder even with the mitts on. You never realize the fine motor skills degrade with cold causing even sending out simple calls difficult. 

Operating the KX-3 paddle with mitts

Eventually, I had to restart the car for a few minutes to warm up the interior before continuing again. I ended up the activation on 17m. In summary I worked a little over 50 contacts including on DX [France] on 17m.  

Interesting note: I worked AE1T and AE2T from the park. Perhaps they should have an award for such things -- three calls in a sequence? I also ended up with a few first time contacts. I hope to catch you on the air soon!