I visited Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland again today. I’m slowly learning how to abate the onslaught of blood-sucking mosquitoes. Unfortunately, I am blood type O and typically have a warmer body temperature than other folks, so I have a big red bullseye on me when it comes to mosquitoes seeking a tasty meal. The only thing I’ve found that wards them off is Picaridin lotion or Permethrin treated clothing. Stupid mosquitoes.
I recently purchased a Spooltenna. This a really nifty antenna designed by KO4HUI in Cary, North Carolina. This is a 40m to 10m end-fed half wave wire antenna that is wound around an “open source hardware” spool. The build quality of this antenna is magnificent. I took the Spooltenna with me along with my Explorer POTA masts and expected to deploy it and get it on the air. However, I found that a wire long enough for 40 meters was too long to easily deploy at this park, or at least at the picnic area I was using for my activation attempt.
Luckily, I also brought along my NØAPX End-fed half wave biscuit antenna which is good on 20m, 15m, and 10m. I tossed that antenna up between my two antenna masts and fed it with my Chameleon 12.5ft choked feed line. It tuned up well enough. I may take the wire off of this antenna and put a new one on it that’s a bit longer and then tune it correctly since I whacked off almost 3ft of this wire after thinking I knew what I was doing while trying to tune it. It’s a bit short now but is still tunable and usable. I’d like to be able to use it with my QRP Labs QMX which does not have a tuner, so getting it dialed in where I don’t need a tuner to get a low SWR would be ideal.
Anyway, I tried my hand at CW activating again this time around. I really like CW and I’m leaning toward CW being my primary operating mode. I had a good time at the park today and while I had a slow start and had to call CQ POTA a few times before I got any callers, I managed to grab a few and get them in the log. Unfortunately, I used up most of my time trying to figure out a way to get the Spooltenna deployed in the space I had to work with that I only managed to get 5 QSOs for this activation attempt. I will activate this dang park via CW if it’s the last thing I do! Sooner or later, it will be done.
I was quite amazed with these contacts, though, because I managed to dig out Rodney, KI6PXV, from the noise. Why is that? Well, KI6PXV is from California and I was operating from Maryland. That was exciting to get someone that far away on 20m with 15W and a short end-fed wire antenna. Fun stuff. Thanks Rodney! I’m glad I got you in the log.
I’ll try to activate Seneca Creek State Park again soon. Next time, I aim to stay there until it’s done.
Until next time, 73.
K2MAS
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