Jackpot!
Through some trial and error, I finally managed to activate US-1596 Seneca Creek State Park near Gaithersburg, Maryland today via CW. I say trial and error because I had to figure out how to get a decent antenna deployed for one, which I used my NØAPX EFHW antenna again strung up 33 feet on the end with the feed point up about 5 feet at the other end. This little antenna works great even after I broke it, replaced the wire, removed the wire and added a longer wire, and then tuned it properly. Lots of learning. Lots of fun! The other thing I had to work through was figuring out how to repel the hordes of mosquitoes that frequent this park. I recently bought some OFF! Deep Woods repellant wipes and after field testing them at home, I deployed them during this POTA outing and they performed the job well. No mosquitoes landing on me at all. I could see them wanting to but fluttering away frustratedly. Hallelujah!
20 meters was doing pretty well for me today. QSB, which normally messes me up pretty badly was relatively stable this afternoon. I’ve also been playing around a bit with the settings of the KX3 to learn how to more effectively wrangle signals out of the noise and it has appeared to have paid off. Well done sir.
Thanks to the hunters and the one P2P who made it into my log today. Congrats to me for my first ever CW POTA activation. It’s been a long time in the works.
Until next time, 73.
K2MAS
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