A few days ago I wrote about how winter tightened its grip on Michigan leading to my first true winter activation. Well that was just a start. Today, the deep-freeze really set in with our temperatures at -5F (-21C) not accounting for wind chill. Unfortunately, I had to head out towards Ann Arbor to run an errand. And if you have read my blogs enough, you'd know I'd hate to let this opportunity to go waste. I wanted to squeeze in another activation of K-1513, Mike Levine Lakelands trail.
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| Brrr. Its cold out there... |
I bundled myself with multiple layers of clothing; took my heavy gloves and my thinner mitts. I would need the latter to assemble my JPC-12 upon arrival. To save time in the cold, I pre-assembled sections of the antenna at home where it was warm and comfortable. The snowfall from two days ago had all been cleared; the cold in addition to a Federal Holiday (Martin Luther King Jr Day) meant that the traffic was light and I made it quickly to the park. K-1513 is a long trail that runs for many miles. I went to my favorite location at Village Trailhead Parking in Hamburg township, Believe it or not! There were a few vehicles in the lot with people walking the trail. The lot along the trail was cleared. So it was easy to set up the antenna. I decided to start with 20m, which was suggested by VOACAP. With the pre-assembly of the antenna sections, I got started within minutes.
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| Working K-1513 from the rear-seat. The trail runs to the right of the screen |
20m was in great shape today. The contacts were coming in at a fast clip even when I started at 5W. After a little while, I decided to switch to 30m. But after CQs for about 10 minutes did not get any bites. So I went back to 20m at 10W.
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| Yours truly warm and cozy in the rear-seat. This is a mirror image due to selfie orientation |
More contacts poured in. I even managed to snag a DX [F4ILH coming in at 599]. I believe that a combination of the band condition and fewer activators out in the cold contributed to the greater number of hunter contacts today. Whatever the reason, I was happy that I snagged 43 unique contacts in a little over an hour. That alone made up for the cold conditions outside. Hope to catch you on the air soon!
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