Golden Gate Park is a 1,017 acre city park separating the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods in the western half of San Francisco. Although large and internationally known, GGP is a city park and thus does not qualify for a Parks On The Air reference. The park is a two minute walk from my Richmond District QTH, so it would be incredibly convenient if it were, in fact, a POTA park.

A few months ago, a POTA Slack channel discussion of multi-park activation opportunities in the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site revealed a “3-fer” that I had not recognized before. Activating from Mountain Lake would net you the Presidio US-7889, Golden Gate National Recreation Area US-0647, and de Anza National Historic Trail US-4571.

This got me thinking that if the Anza expedition traipsed north from Lake Merced to Mountain Lake, then they must have crossed what is now Golden Gate Park. And, if that were the case then there was the opportunity to do a legit POTA activation within the park.

Of course, the exact route taken by the Anza expedition through the vast sand dunes of what became known as San Francisco’s “outside lands” is unknown. But the route can be reasonably estimated. The NPS website for the Anza trail shows a historic trail corridor roughly aligned with Crossover Dr. and the Park Presidio Bypass in Golden Gate Park.

I figure anywhere within the historic trail corridor and that is public land is fair game for activating Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail US-4571.

The western portion of Strawberry Hill and Stow Lake extend into the corridor and with the hill being the high point in the park, this is where I chose to activate from.

Even though the forecast called for warm weather, at 9AM the marine influence was still holding firm, making the top of Strawberry Hill too cold to spend more than just a few minutes there.

My companion and I quickly gave up on the 409 foot “peak” and retreated down past Stow Lake to a meadow which was in the sun, protected from the west wind by Strawberry Hill, and by my reckoning, still within the historic trail corridor.

There I setup the GRA-7350T whip antenna using the ground screw and extension post which is part of the Gabil Radio GRA-GNT mini tripod mounting kit. This easily gave a match of under 1.5 to 1 with the KH1 tuner in bypass mode.

The bands were surprisingly active for a Monday morning and, being a West Coast QRP operation, it took a while to finish the activation. I could hear European DX calling on 17 meters, with the distinctive “flutter” signals get flying over the poles, but unfortunately was unable to raise any of them.

With 11 contacts in the log and one “eyeball” with Ben KG7KGE, who was also enjoying the morning in the park, I called the activation of US-4571 in Golden Gate Park a success.

A short walk later we were home for lunch and refreshment.

73 de W6CSN

Bletchley Park

Most readers of this blog are probably familiar with Bletchley Park and the significance of this place in breaking the codes used by the axis military forces during the second world war.

The electromechanical systems developed and used here to aid the codebreakers in their daily work led directly to the electronic digital computers of the mid-twentieth century, and then to the modern world as we know it.

After boarding the London Northwestern Railway at Euston station, the hour long train journey took us from central London, through the suburbs, then the pastoral English countryside to the station at Bletchley, just south of Milton Keynes.

Bletchley Park is a five minute walk from the train station at Bletchley, the town of the same name. In keeping with the formerly clandestine nature of the work at Bletchley Park, there are no loud signs to welcome you, just the Union Jack flying over the nondescript visitor center in Block C.

Exiting the visitor center, any ham will quickly spot the three-element SteppIR Yagi perched atop a roof-mounted tower. Also from the tower, a folded dipole extends over the the Block B building which houses the Alan Turing museum exhibits. The other end of this antenna farm is plugged into GB3RS, the amateur radio station for the National Radio Centre of the RSGB.

The friendly and helpful staff of amateurs at the NRC played a crucial role in my hoped-for plan of activating Bletchley Park for Parks On The Air.

Surprisingly, the POTA page for GB-0507 showed only a handful of activations of this iconic location. Seeing as this is a heritage site, I sent an email to the NRC about week before my visit asking for advice on how to be a welcome guest POTA operator.

Note, the NRC is colocated on the grounds of the museum but they are not a part of Bletchley Park. The NRC is a separate organization.

Martyn G0GMB, the Director of the NRC, kindly responded to my enquiry and informed me that individual amateur radio activity is not generally permitted on the grounds of Bletchley Park due to the number of visitors they receive and concerns about RF safety. This could explain the low number of activations.

Martyn suggested I could set up in the overflow car park few minutes walk down the road from the visitor center. While not on the grounds of Bletchley Park proper, the parking lot operation would still be in the spirit of POTA and would reasonably count as a valid activation location.

When I arrived at Bletchley Park on Friday afternoon, I was met by Mervyn G4KLE who was expecting me thanks to a note left by OM G0GMB. Mervyn asked where all my equipment was and I motioned to the pack on my back.

Because my radio and antenna was a low impact, minimal footprint QRP setup, I was told that I could make use of the picnic table just out the side door of the GB3RS shack, with my antenna setup just beside it. This dead-end spot was not on any of the paths frequented by park visitors and my antenna would not be easily visible.

This was a much better arrangement than trying to activate from a car park without a car! I quickly deployed a GRA-GNT micro tripod with center spike pushed easily into the soft ground. The GRA-7350T loaded vertical and a set of short radials provided an SWR of 1.05 to 1.

I chose the QMX as a travel radio while in Britain because with it, the overall kit is very lightweight and compact. With the exception of the tripod the whole kit fits in my carry-on. The GRA-GNT antenna mounting kit has to fly in checked baggage due to several aggressive looking spikes that would certainly be flagged by airport security.

One of the display cases inside the NRC shows an original QCX radio produced by Hans Summers G0UPL, so it is only fitting for the QMX to be operated in its ancestral homeland.

I scheduled the activation for the whole day on the POTA app and thankfully the RBN connection was working well and spotted me just moments after starting to call “CQ POTA DE M/W6CSN” which was programmed into message slot #1 on the QMX.

I had no idea what to expect working a POTA activation in Great Britain and where most of the awake ham population would be European. As such I was a little surprised when the first call was from K2UPD in Kentucky, USA – and he was loud.

Throughout the hour that I was on the air there was alternating periods of sunshine and clouds with occasional light rain. The rain was nothing that couldn’t be handled by the Rite-In-The-Rain logbook and by simply closing the flap of the Maxpedition pouch that held the radio and battery.

However, needing just two more contacts for a complete activation, the skies started chucking down rain in large quantities. At this rate both the station and the operator would soon be thoroughly soaked. I hastily made an arrangement with Mervyn G4KLE where he turned the power down on GB3RS as low as it would go and I worked him both as GB3RS and then G4KLE to finish out the ten.

While that stunt may have stretched the spirit of the rules, they were valid over-the-air contacts and counted for POTA. I was simply working him line of sight off the side of his beam.

I quickly bundled all the stuff back into the GB3RS shack and tried to dry the wettest of the equipment before stowing it all back in my pack.

I can say with confidence that without the kind assistance from Martyn, Mervyn, and the whole gang at the National Radio Centre that my attempt to do a POTA activation at this important historical site would not have been successful, if it even happened at all. They really are a great bunch of guys.

If you ever visit Bletchley Park, which I highly recommend, and are thinking about doing a POTA activity it is imperative that you contact the people at the NRC ahead of time and make appropriate arrangements. GB-0507 is a sensitive and historically significant site, do not just show up with a bunch of ham radio equipment and expect that you’ll be able to operate.

---

Hyde Park

A couple of days after the successful excursion to Bletchley Park, I had some time available in the morning and I had been wanting to do another POTA activation while in London. Hyde Park is smack in the center of London and is designated POTA reference GB-0401 – I figured now was good time to try to get it.

I consulted the marvel of deception that is the London Underground Map and saw that just three stops from our hotel on the Jubilee Line would take me within walking distance of Hyde Park.

Bill Bryson in his book “Notes from a Small Island” has this to say about the London Underground Map:

What a piece of perfection it is, created in 1931 by a forgotten hero named Harry Beck, an out of work draughtsman who realized that when you are underground it doesn’t matter where you are.

Alighting at Green Park station it was approximately a quarter mile walk to Hyde Park Corner. I kept going, deeper into the park, hoping to put some distance between the operating location and what I presumed would be higher RFI emanating from the modern urban environment at the edges of the park.

A park bench which backed up against an area of taller grass seemed like a good choice since it was off the main trail and I could set up the antenna in an area unlikely to be frequented by people.

After spotting myself, I again set to calling CQ POTA with my “M/” prefixed callsign. Conditions weren’t great it seemed, but I did make three contacts before the rain once again began falling in earnest.

Waiting out the rain showers was no longer an option as I was running out of time. However, since theoretically I had until 11 o’clock that night to complete the activation, I could come back later in the afternoon and try to wrap it up.

It took several hours to help my daughter to finish packing up and getting moved out of her apartment and back to our hotel, from which we’d leave early the next day for Heathrow for our flight back to San Francisco.

After an early dinner we found our way back to Hyde Park which was a much busier place now than it was at 8AM. The park bench which I had used earlier was unavailable so I found a place to set up the station at the edge of a broad field.

This time around, while there were definitely stations on the bands, they either weren’t hearing me or not in the mood to answer my QRP calls.

The week of walking all over (and under) London, the chilly afternoon weather, and sitting on the ground making no contacts finally got the better of me. After an hour of trying I decided to throw in the towel.

Z35M/P	North Macedonia	20 meters	2024-06-16 07:56
CT1GFK	Portugal	20 meters	2024-06-16 08:01
K2UPD	Kentucky, USA	20 meters	2024-06-16 08:16

The three contacts made that morning would have to do. I uploaded my log to POTA later that evening from the hotel. While not thrilled with being the first to attempt, but not complete, the activation of Hyde Park, I put a positive spin on it. All the other activators that come after me don’t have to worry about being the first to bust an activation here. Hi Hi.

Conclusion

Rain and Sun, complete and incomplete activations, these radio outings in Great Britain were a lot of fun and enabled me to tick the box next to one of this year’s ham radio goals, which was do to a POTA activation in a foreign country.

73 de M/W6CSN

The spontaneous HF radio operating enabled by the new Elecraft KH1 handheld transceiver opens up a whole new set of opportunities for the POTA activator. Combined with the sprawling Golden Gate National Recreation Area (US-0647) you could do an awful lot of POTA activations and not operate from the same spot twice.

Nestled between the San Francisco Maritime NHP and the Marina Green, Fort Mason and the land it occupies was a location of military importance from before California was a U.S. state through the second World War.

My plan today was to operate from Black Point Battery, a fortification from the time of the American Civil War, or the war between the states, if you prefer. This location is of particular interest to me because over 40 years ago I worked a summer job on an archaeology crew that unearthed this gun battery.

I remember digging and sifting a lot of dirt! We frequently found spent primers used to fire the guns, there were hundreds of them! Occasionally we’d find “live” primers which had to be treated with care. What was most exciting however is when the timbers that supported the semi-circular track on which the guns would pivot were uncovered.

While it wasn’t particularly busy, I didn’t want to setup a separate antenna atop the berm because there is a pathway there that people use to get sweeping views of San Francisco Bay. I deployed the KH1 with the supplied 4 ft. whip and Tufteln 3D printed angle adapter while sitting atop a concrete entryway to one of the old magazines.

Although I checked conditions before heading out, it seemed that propagation was really quite poor today. In a half hour of tuning and calling, I’d only managed a single QSO on 20m while 17m and 15m seemed completely dead. This was unusually quiet for a Saturday afternoon.

With only two hours of parking, if I wanted a chance at a valid activation then I needed a new plan. I descended the hill down to the the piers that served as the point of embarkation for servicemen heading into the Pacific war in the 1940s.

I found a spot behind the old firehouse that offered protection from the wind which was really blowing at this point, too windy even for a tripod vertical. However, I felt I needed longer antenna to combat the lousy propagation with my QRP signal.

I walked back to the car and retrieved a quick release mount and MFJ-1979 telescoping whip antenna. This quarter wave vertical gives a 1-to-1 match on 20 meters when fully extended. A length of ABR Industries RG-316 connected the antenna to the BNC port in the KH1. I bypassed the internal tuner and got a “perfect” match.

With this setup, and being closer to the Bay waters, I was able to make more progress towards a complete activation. A rocky outcrop at the base of Black Point blocked my view to the east and southeast, but I had a clear shot over the Bay to the north so, unsurprisingly, this is where most of the contacts came for today’s activation.

Fortunately, 30 more minutes was all that was needed to fill the log with the QSOs for a complete activation. Even though this wasn’t a purely pedestrian mobile expedition, like the Wave Organ, I probably would not have even come to this spot without the inspiration provided by the KH1.

Many thanks to the hunters and other activators that ultimately made this POTA a success. Some of the call signs in the log were familiar and some were brand new to me, this is my favorite kind of operation to work both old and new friends.

Equipment used in this activation:

• Elecraft KH1 with internal tuner and whip antenna.
• MFJ-1979 telescoping whip.
• ABR Industries RG-316, 25 feet.
• Rite In The Rain spiral notepad.
• Zebra Mechanical Pencil
• Quick Release 3/8×24 antenna mount

73 de W6CSN

You’d be forgiven for assuming all the posts on this website are either related to Parks On The Air (POTA) or Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations, but in fact, this blog is simply about “outdoor amateur radio.”

Today’s activity was just such a case of not POTA and not SOTA, just plain old outdoor radio. The driving factor was that today was Memorial Day, a day to honor the fallen, and traditionally, to spend some time outdoors, but trouble is that at my home QTH in San Francisco the skies were overcast and the temperatures expected to remain in the mid-50s. When the weather is like this, which is most of the summer, our family likes to escape to Marin or Sonoma counties to experience the warm weather that is uncommon in The City.

One of our favorite spots is Marin French Cheese Company factory and store, simply known as “The Cheese Factory” located in Hicks Valley near the Sonoma county line. Here they offer delicious cheeses made right there on-site as well as variety of picnic fixin’s to enjoy with your cheese. However, the main reason we go here is that the cheese factory offers its guests the use of their park-like grounds.

Most visitors congregate around a small pond and picnic area on the north side of the parking lot, but if you go around back, on the south side, there is a wide open grassy field dotted with full shade trees and plenty of picnic tables. Even on busy days, you practically have the place to yourself. If there are other groups, they are usually spread out enough that you still have plenty of space.

Now, about the radio activity. I’m making plans for an overseas trip later this summer and hope to have the opportunity to attempt a Parks On The Air activation while I am there. It would be very easy to bring the KH1, an entire station in a small “camera” bag. But I just got the KH1 after a six month wait for delivery and would be very upset if something were to happen to that radio while traveling abroad.

Slightly less convenient, but still quite small is the station consisting of the QMX multiband CW/Data radio, Gabil GRA-7350T base loaded vertical antenna and tripod, Talentcell Li-Ion battery back, and various connective bits. All of this can fit in my carry-on and still leave room for other travel necessities. And if something unfortunate happened to the QMX it’s not nearly such a big deal. The station could be replaced quickly and inexpensively.

I just needed to do a quick field check of the QMX station combination to verify that I can put it on the air in a park like setting, such as I am likely to encounter while traveling. The QMX is a high band model covering 20m through 10m which enables a smaller deployment footprint. I promise, there is no chance that I’ll be tossing wires into trees in a foreign park!

Previous activations have shown that when using the GRA-7350T on these high bands, especially above 14 MHz, that easier tuning is achieved when the 16 foot radials are folded back on themselves, effectively shortening the radials. Instead of folding them, I took one set of radials and cut them in half. There are two sets in this kit from when I thought I needed a lot more radials than I actually do with this antenna.

When hooking up the QMX to check the ability of the antenna to tune to a 50 ohm match with the shorter radial set, I realized that I forgot one of the power cables that connects the Talentcell to the QMX, doh!

I did have the cables needed to use the Bioenno LiFePo-4 pack with the QMX, but the battery was fully charged and supplying more than 13v, which the QMX cautioned against by flashing the battery icon to indicate the over-voltage condition. Well, shoot!

Fortunately I had another option. I brought along the KH1, because why not take the KH1 every where you go (except overseas)? With the internal autotuner bypassed, I could still test the tuning ability of the antenna system to provide a low SWR and be confident that when I use the tune mode on the QMX that I could achieve a similarly good match. I am not planning on bringing an antenna tuner.

The antenna tuned easily enough on 20m, 17m, and 15m using the KH1 as an RF source and SWR indicator. Naturally, I tried to make a few QSOs while I was proving the antenna system.

Normally when I do ham radio in the outdoors I am activating a park or summit, so I am the DX. But the cheese factory is neither a POTA park nor on a summit. I’m just a regular ham, outside, running QRP. I didn’t even have cell phone coverage out in the country, so I couldn’t look at the POTA spots page for stations to hunt. I would just have to do it the old fashioned way, by tuning around and listening.

I spent about an hour “on the air” hunting for stations calling CQ POTA or CQ SOTA. That yielded three QSOs, all on 20 meters.

W0ABE	Colorado	20 meters	20:25 utc
K7SHR	Wyoming	20 meters	21:12 utc
W6KC/VE7	British Columbia	20 meters	21:25 utc

While testing the setup on 17 meters, I didn’t hear a lot of activity but I did hear a JA working an Italian. I could copy both stations, the Italian was weak but the Japan station was pretty loud. EA3PP was calling from Spain, but QSB was enough prevent me from attempting a call. You can’t work ’em if you can’t hear ’em!

The logbook looks very different when I am not activating and don’t have access to spots info. A lot of callsigns written down, but not worked. When I work a station, the time notation becomes the indicator that I had a QSO with that callsign.

On the way back to the cold City, we stopped at Hicks Mountain Hens to pick up some freshly laid, pasture raised eggs. So I guess you could just as well title this post “Ham ‘n Eggs.” Ok, I am leaving now …

73 de W6CSN

is not always the adventure you expect. Recently I’ve been plotting a unique activation of the De Anza National Historic Trail, but that particular POTA activation is going to need a good antenna and just as importantly, time.

This day afforded a few hours in the morning for outdoor radio but not enough to retrace the steps of the De Anza expedition. Instead, I headed down to the San Francisco Bay side for a quick outdoor amateur radio session.

Since it was was a Saturday, my usual spot at Presidio East Beach was heavily impacted by weekend recreation enthusiasts, so I continued for a quarter mile to the practically empty parking lot east of the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Thence on foot past the old stone light tower and the clubhouse of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, you find yourself of the path to the end of the breakwater where a unique art installation sits.

The Wave Organ is a curious sculpture that uses tubes and cavities between old cemetery stones to channel and amplify the watery sounds of waves as the tides move in and out of the Bay.

Surrounded by saltwater at the end of this jetty, which by my reckoning is within the boundary of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (US-0647), this location was perfect for the “no impact” operation afforded by the Elecraft KH1.

My plan was to see if I could complete an activation of making 10 contacts entirely by hunting other POTA activators, perfectly reasonable given it was a weekend with no geomagnetic storms to disrupt radio propagation.

What I did not count on was that it was a contest weekend with both 20 and 15 meters wall-to-wall with rapid fire contesters. As a QRP station, finding the POTA needles in that haystack was going to be tough.

I retreated to 17 meters which should offer good daytime propagation and no contesters. There on 18 MHz, I was was able to collect five park-to-park contacts in a span of 23 minutes.

At that point I’d exhausted all of the 17m active CW stations on the POTA spots page and didn’t really have time to wait for more to show up. Therefore the “all hunting” activation strategy was abandoned and I commenced calling “CQ POTA.”

The activation was “validated” with a call from Dave, AA7EE as the 10th QSO and then completed with one more park hunted, K9DXA in US-1001. Most of the contacts were with stations east of the Rockies.

One thing I learned from earlier outings with the KH1 was to not cut the log sheets too small, as might be suggested by the lines printed on the page. Without enough paper under the top and bottom tabs of the logging tray the sheets can easily be caught and snatched away by the wind.

Leave enough margin on the logging sheets and they are easily secured in the tray, even in the face of brisk Bay breezes.

The “hunting only” activation plan didn’t quite work out but it was a great time out playing radio at scenic spot in San Francisco Bay.

While I didn’t expect to activate from the wave organ today, it turned out to be a fun adventure and an excellent spot from which to get on the air with the KH1.

73 de W6CSN

The outdoor amateur radio adventures documented in this blog so far have taken place entirely within my home state of California. Recently, I took off by car to visit family in Washington state. This wasn’t really a POTA oriented vacation trip but if I played my cards right there might be some time to activate parks in both Oregon and Washington.

Studying the POTA map, I found Row River National Recreation Trail US-10009 not far off I-5 near Cottage Grove, Oregon, about an hours drive north from where we had stopped the first night.

Row River Trail is a BLM unit maintained with help from the Army Corps of Engineers that offers miles of level recreation trail along the shores of Dorena Lake.

Row River feeds into Dorena Lake at the east end and continues past the dam at the west end of the lake.

For radio accessory management I’ve been testing out a new toolbox solution from Harbor Freight. The lid includes a clear plastic cover that snaps closed over several compartments in which you can store adapters, antenna bits, patch cords etc.

An inside tray holds coax and antenna wires, while the main box can be used for bulkier items, like spare LiFePO4 battery backs, arborist throw kit and such. The main box plastic is a little thin, which makes it a challenge to get the lid to align and snap closed properly, but then again it was 12 bucks at Harbor Freight.

It turns out I drove farther up the road past Dorena Lake than was necessary and where I ended up activating from actually had some overhead power lines cutting through the trees not far from the picnic table that had sun.

I definitely needed to keep my antenna and lines well clear of these wires and I hoped they wouldn’t be a source of noise.

I deployed a 20 meter EFHW on a Sparkplug Gear 64:1 unun, an antenna system I hadn’t used in quite a while. Although I had scheduled the activation from the hotel earlier in the morning, I used Sotamāt via the Garmin InReach Mini to make my spot certain as there was no cell service in the canyon.

The springtime morning in the Oregon countryside was bright blue with temperatures is the 70s. I can imagine it getting really toasty here in the summertime.

After about an hour, I’d logged 10 contacts needed for a complete activation. One of the challenges a QRPer faces when doing POTA midmorning on a weekday is the relative lack of hunters. You’re out playing radio while everyone else is at work!

Since we were “on the road” we didn’t linger any longer than necessary. Besides, it was well past time for my first Dutch Bros coffee of the day!

While I very much wanted to get an activation from Dash Point State Park on the shores of Puget Sound, my family and travel schedule simply did not leave enough time.

On the return trip, back in California, I again pulled off I-5, this time at Castle Creek Drive going southbound just past Dunsmuir. Castle Crags State Park US-1135 is easily accessed from this exit.

To get a little bit of elevation I drove through the park to the vista point parking area. However the crags themselves are not visible from here, you need to hike out a trail for another 1/4 mile to catch a view of them.

I wasn’t in the mood to carry my radio kit to the viewing area and since both my traveling companion and myself were a bit under the weather, I went for an expedited setup on the nearest picnic table.

Being relatively close to the highway still, I had adequate cell service so the Garmin InReach was just used as a real time clock while I logged 10 QSOs split between 15m and 20m.

Again, once the 10 contact minimum was achieved, I went QRT and we get back on the road for the final several hours drive back to home in San Francisco. I hope to get back to Washington later this summer with a better possibility of picking up a POTA activation while there.

72 de W6CSN

Mount Tamalpais is a 2,571 foot landmark situated above Marin County in California’s coastal mountain range. Known locally as Mt. Tam, the mountain has been a refuge from busy city life in San Francisco for more than a hundred years. The Coast Miwok people, who lived around the mountain prior to European settlement of the Bay region, gave the mountain its name which roughly translates to “coast mountain.”

Earlier this year, in March 2024, it was my intention to activate Mt Tamalpais State Park (US-1178), however foul weather prevented me. Today the mountain was more inviting with lots of blue skies and mountainside grasses still green from Spring rains.

Just off West Ridgecrest Boulevard there is a picnic area set on a forested hilltop that offers a little elevation and tables to set up a field radio station. Though I had a 20 meter EFHW antenna, it seems the arborist throw line didn’t make it into the kit, so those good looking trees would not be able to support my antenna today.

Plan B for the antenna was a ground mounted vertical on a tripod. Winds were fairly light, and the trees surrounding the site offered some shelter to help keep the 17 foot telescoping whip from toppling over.

I’d forgotten how difficult the vertical antenna can be to tune up over the rocky, low conductivity ground on the mountain. In fact, without an antenna analyzer I was really having a hard time getting the MFJ whip to tune up. Eventually, I switched out the whip for the Gabil GRA-7350T loaded whip vertical which gave me better control over the tuning.

Up to this point, I’d taken the QMX radio on several POTA activations conducted from my vehicle at the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site (US-7889) but this would be the first time it saw use in the proper out of doors environment.

Knowing that cell service can be very spotty up on Mt. Tam I scheduled the activation ahead of time on pota.app. I was beginning to think the RBN was not going to pick me up so I took advantage of Sotamat to spot the activation using the Garmin inReach service.

The QMX performed well and after about an hour of operating, the activation was complete with a total of 13 QSOs spread across 20m, 17m, 15m, and 12m. I would have moved up to give 28 Mhz a try but signals weren’t all that great and it was starting to get a little chilly.

The wooded hillsides and grassy meadows of Mt. Tam are home to deer, elusive mountain lions, soaring hawks, and even wild turkeys. The rocky outcrops of Serpentine provide ample opportunity for a multitude of lizards to warm themselves in the strengthening springtime sun.

Here a single California Poppy, the official State flower, thrives in a crevice of Serpentine, the official State rock.

Mount Tamalpais offers colorful and surprising vistas of San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Looking at reports from other activators, it appeared that the approaches to the summit of Bald Hill in Marin County were steep, steeper, and steepest. In the hopes of starting the hike with as much elevation gain as possible already behind us, I chose the route that starts at Crest Road in Fairfax.

The information sign for Bald Hill Open Space Preserve stands just past the locked gate where Crest Road becomes Crest Fire Road. There is enough space for two cars to park at the turnaround before the gate.

About a half mile from the gate you come to the spot where the Google Maps pin for is dropped for Sky Ranch Open Space Preserve. The trail system intertwines through both Sky Ranch OSP and Bald Hill OSP, and with the names of both locations sprinkled around on different bits of signage it can get a little confusing as to which preserve you are in. But it doesn’t matter much, just go “up” and you’ll find the summit.

My hiking buddy used an app on her phone to collect some stats on our ascent to the summit of Baldy. From the trailhead, where the equestrian area is, the fire road goes steeply up and over a knoll to where it joins the Worn Spring fire road.

I recommend to take the Sky Ranch trail from the trailhead. This skirts around the eastern side of the knoll and avoids the steep elevation gain, much of which you give right back on the other side. We took this trail on the return leg rather than climbing straight over the knoll again.

The fire road to the summit is a steep climb but offers enough level spots where you can take a rest, hydrate, and catch your breath while watching other much more fit people run right past on their way up the hill!

The broad summit and activation zone offers panoramic views of the northern part of the Bay Area, but nothing in the way of antenna supports, so be prepared to supply your own.

With the GRA-3750T vertical antenna and the Mountaintopper MTR-4B on 20 meters I collected 15 QSOs within 20 minutes.

The first call was from K6EL a few miles north on Loma Alta W6/NC-350. The familiar duo of W0MNA and W0ERI checked in from Kansas and WU7H and WW7D were on W7W/CW-068 in Washington state.

After securing the HF operations and a successful activation I gave 2 meters a try. A pair of QSOs on FM was enough before heading back down the hill.

From Bald Hill there are views of Mt. Tam, San Francisco, southern Marin and Bay Area, including Mt. Diablo to the southeast.

73 de W6CSN

It’s been a stormy past several days here in Northern California, but if anything, the weather only amplifies my motivation to go outside and get on the air.

Rather than do a separate writeup for each, this post is a roundup of my last four POTA activations, from Friday February 2nd through Sunday, the 4th.

Thursday and Friday had been wet, with one storm in a series moving across the Bay Area. However, by Friday evening the cold front had passed and there was a break in the rain. This was a perfect opportunity to try an after work activation at the Presidio of SF (K-7889).

I hadn’t used the QCX-Mini in a while, and this activation reminded me why. I believe what is happening is that being so close to the antenna, RF interference causes clicking while keying, nearly to the point of distraction. I need to experiment with RF chokes on the key and audio lines to see if that improves the situation.

Fed up with the RFI on the QCX-Mini, I switched over to the MTR-4B which doesn’t seem to suffer the same issue. I wrapped up the activation after netting 21 QSOs in the cold west wind.

The next bout of rain wasn’t due to arrive until later Saturday afternoon. This was a change in the forecast that subsequently altered my plan to stay in Saturday soldering on my QMX Hi-Bander project.

Initially I went to Fort Point (K-0819) in the hopes of changing it up from my usual activation park but there were just too many people there. So seeking relief from crowds, I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and went up on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais.

I parked at Trojan Point at an elevation of approximately 1800 feet. See this post for more views from this location. The temperature was in the mid-40s, which is cold for us coastal Californians. Besides, the winds were picking up ahead of the next storm so I operated from the comfort of my vehicle using the Gabil 7350T base loaded vertical antenna on 15m and 20m.

This activation used the FT-818 and yielded 23 contacts, including JH1MXV from northwest of Tokyo, Japan coming in fairly strong on 21 MHz.

Driving back to San Francisco takes me right through the Presidio of SF (K-7889) and noticing that it was after 00:00 UTC, I made the last second decision to divert to East Beach to see if I could work in another activation before the anticipated rain.

At my usual spot for activating this park, it took only moments to raise the MFJ-1979 20m quarter wave and do a quick deployment of the MTR-4B on the trunk of the car. The wind was picking up, but not nearly as strong as it was up on the mountain.

After seven QSOs, the skies began spitting raindrops, this was going to be close! I closed the cover of the Maxpedition pouch to protect the radio and battery while the Bencher paddles could tolerate a little bit of moisture.

I was happy to have a Rite-In-The-Rain notepad for logging, because now I was certainly writing in the rain! Three more contacts and the activation was concluded with a hunt of Jim, WB0RLJ, in K-4011.

---

The next big storm blew in overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning with heavy rain and high winds. It seemed almost certain that I would not be heading out today. However by the late afternoon, the barometer, which had bottomed out at 991 millibars, started to check back up and some blue sky appeared between the cumulus clouds. The winds however were still running high.

Seeing as the rain had stopped for the moment, I quickly put together a plan for K-7889 to operate from the car with the shorter vertical antenna on a roof magmount. Driving through the Presidio of SF there was lots of debris and even detours because of downed trees.

Once down at East Beach, I got straight to work with the FT-818 on 20 meters. The winds continued to blow unabated while I worked stations from the southern plains through the Pacific northwest. About halfway through this operation, another wave of rainfall quickly moved in, as such I was happy to be in the dry and warm confines of my vehicle.

I have to put in a good word about the Gabil 7350T antenna. While it is a short vertical, it tunes easily and performs well on the higher bands. I don’t have an exact count, but this antenna has held up over many dozens of activations and in some really adverse conditions.

For this final activation of the weekend, 15 contacts was enough, including two Park-to-Park QSOs, K7EVM at Capitol State Forest K-5567 and KH6RF at Kaloko-Honokohau NHP K-0739 on the Big Island of Hawaii.

It is not uncommon for California to experience a spell of warm weather in late January or February with temperatures rising into the mid-60s °F. This typically occurs when high barometric pressure builds over the eastern Pacific and into the Pacific Northwest, causing an offshore wind flow over California.

With the warm temperatures came a wonderful display of altocumulus clouds throughout the day. In fact, the real reason this activation gets a blog post is to show some pictures of the pretty clouds!

Enough about the weather, let’s talk radio. The FT-818 has been getting a lot of use recently. While it does lack a built-in antenna “tuner” and CW message memory, it’s the closest I have to a shack-in-a-box. And, it’s the only portable HF radio I presently have that goes above 20 meters.

Collapsing the lower three and a half sections of the MFJ-1979 telescoping whip, I am able to get a good match on 15 meters, which is where I started this activation. By operating on 21MHz late in the day, my hope was to get some Pacific-rim DX as well as the more likely stateside QSOs. The strategy paid off with three Japanese stations responding to my CQ POTA calls. Sigs weren’t strong, but with some persistence we were able to complete the required exchange of callsigns.

Next, I tuned the radio to 20 meters and fully extended the whip antenna for a one-to-one match. The N0NBH space weather report on qrz.com showed the geomagnetic field to be in “unsettled” territory and QRN on 14 megahertz was getting up to S5. Nevertheless, propagation was still quite good with calls from all over the USA, Canada and Alaska.

With the sun dipping below the western bluffs of the Presidio of San Francisco, I sent a final QRT after one last call from N4GO in Kentucky. El Niño winters can bring a mixed bag of interesting weather to Northern California and today’s “t-shirt” weather was perfect for getting out for a little outdoor amateur radio.

73 de W6CSN

Today’s activation of the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site K-7889 was pretty standard for a mid-winter POTA outing. Normally I wouldn’t bother to write it up on this blog. After coming here 72 times there is not much new to say about it. Nevertheless, maybe somebody will find value in this field report.

Even though the weather was dry this afternoon, the radio operating began in the car where I used the FT-818 to net 14 contacts on 17 meters. I must admit being warm while doing a POTA activation is not bad!

After a while the calls started to dry up so I extended the antenna fully to get on 20 meters, but the best SWR I could get was 3:1. I suppose the lack of good bonding of the coax shield to the car body, which I’ve read about in other blog posts on qrper.com, was responsible for the less than optimal antenna match.

After taking down the badly matched roof mount antenna , I flipped the car around and backed into the parking space to set up my usual 20 meter station on the trunk lid with the antenna clamped to a steel post.

At the same time I switched radios to the Mountaintopper MTR-4B. Previously the current draw of the FT-818 had dropped the battery voltage to 12.6v, but with the lighter load of the MTR, the voltage rebounded above 13v. The MTR-4b is designed to accept 13v, something the other radios in the MTR series are not recommended for. However the SWR in this antenna configuration was 1.0 to 1 so I felt okay to run the radio at the full 5 watts with the higher voltage.

Unfortunately 20 meters wasn’t performing all that great, yielding a mere four contacts. The POTA website showed several JA’s activating parks on 40 meters, so I added the Wolf River coil to the base of the antenna in hopes of hearing them. Alas, no copy, so I put out a few CQ POTA calls of my own on 7.062 MHz. W6OOD responded from Southern California, but my report was not particularly strong. And, with the light fading I decided to call it a day.

Activation #72 netted a total of 19 QSOs on three different bands, coast-to-coast. Not bad for an unremarkable Friday afternoon ham radio outing.

The new year means time off work and the opportunity to overindulge in amateur radio activities. With no antenna installed presently at my home QTH, all of my operating must be done in the field.

For January 1st, 2024 I was able to complete two POTA activations at local parks. The first was actually on December 31st local time but was a New Year’s activation nonetheless as the calendar already turned in Greenwich.

The Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site K-7889 is the park in my “backyard” where I rolled in just after 00 UTC. It didn’t occur to me to take a lot of pictures of the radio action but there was a nice sunset.

A total of 16 QSOs made it into the log, one was a duplicate and it seems two of the other contacts were “busted” as they didn’t return anything from lookup in qrz.com. I didn’t have any difficulty copying the calls and neither operator corrected me so I can only log what I copied.

Advice to hunters: don’t be afraid to correct the activator if you have any doubt as to whether they copied your call correctly, even if you are on the slower side with CW or the activator is working fast. POTA is not a contest and I’d rather take the time to log your call correctly than end up with a busted contact and you not getting hunter credit for the QSO.

The next morning we got up early for the traditional New Year’s Day hike. In the mediterranean climate of central California, there are good odds that January 1st weather will be clear and bright, if not overly warm.

We headed to the Tennessee Valley which cuts through the Marin Headlands out to a small beach of the same name. All of this area is within the expansive boundaries of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area K-0647.

The problem with being in a valley is the surrounding terrain is not exactly conducive to QRP radio operating. So we began to hike up one of the “roads” up toward Coyote Ridge. These trails are wide enough for a vehicle to pass but most parts are so steep that only a serious off-road vehicle could manage it. Besides, the gate is locked at the trailhead parking area.

After 800 feet of elevation gain I was not at the top of the Coyote Ridge but high enough to have a radio view to the east. The hike this far had been short, but quite strenuous so I was happy to find a flat-ish spot off the trail to setup a tripod and antenna.

I ran the RG-316 coax 25 feet from the antenna to the operating position where an embankment offered perfect place to sit by the side of the trail. While I worked for about 45 minutes to get ten contacts on 20 meters my hiking companion continued up the steep trail to Coyote Ridge, from which she assured me that the views were excellent.

Again, between the hiking and scratching for QSOs I neglected to take pictures of the radio setup. But picture in your mind the red Mountaintopper MTR-4B with N0SA Sota paddles and black 3ah 12v power source and that was the station.

As soon as the activation was complete, I packed up the station and we booked it back down the hill as we had a some errands to run before a family get-together in the afternoon.

Happy New Year and 73,

W6CSN

It’s late December and one of a series of winter storms is driving into northern and central California. The previous day, my plans for a combined Summits On The Air and Parks On The Air activation fell apart due to weather. Today most of the UTC day had passed with only light drizzle, and itching to get on the air, I hatched a plan for an activation at my nearby park reference K-7889, the Presidio of San Francisco.

Typically when activating at this park from the “East Beach” area, I will back into a parking space, setup the radio on the trunk lid and run the coax a short distance to a 17 foot vertical telescoping whip antenna which is clamped to a short steel post.

Today however, I chose to operate from inside the vehicle so both myself and the radio equipment would stay dry. Not wanting to leave the coax unsupervised where someone could trip over it, I deployed the Gabil GRA-7350T antenna with a triple mag-mount on the roof of the car.

The GRA antenna is a short, loaded vertical with the whip portion maxing out at about 8 feet in length. It works well on 20 meters, but it’s less of a compromise on higher frequencies. On 18 MHz, only a small amount of the loading coil is needed to achieve an acceptable SWR, so with the bands in pretty good shape I brought the Yaesu FT-818 so I could get on 17 meters.

There weren’t many spots for 17m on the POTA web site, but I posted my spot anyway and started calling CQ. It wasn’t long before KX0Y responded, followed by more hunters from across North America and Alaska. The Golden Gate Bridge was visible from my vantage point at the start of the activation, but as the rain intensified the bridge became enshrouded by the incoming weather front.

With 00 UTC approaching, the rain now coming down harder, and 13 QSOs in the log I called QRT. Rather than carefully stowing the antenna and mag-mount, I simply broke it down as quickly as possible and tossed it all the back seat since I would have to bring it inside to dry anyway.

The following equipment was used in this activation:

• Yaesu FT-818 QRP transceiver
• Gabil GRA-7350T antenna system
• Triple magnet antenna mount
• CW Morse machined aluminum pocket paddles
• Rite In The Rain spiral notepad logbook
• Snazzy Zebra mechanical pencil with “shock absorber.”

Thanks to all the hunters that responded and made the activation a success.

73 de W6CSN.

The weather in San Francisco on Christmas Day 2023 was partly cloudy and dry, with mild temperatures in the upper 50s. Additionally, the space “weather” numbers did not contraindicate the likelihood of success for a low power radio activation.

Rather than being a full field report, this post simply notes the achievement in the Parks On The Air program of making 1000 contacts as an activator from a single park reference: K-7889 “The Presidio of SF National Historic Site.”

It took 67 individual activations averaging about 15 QSOs each, over a span of a year and a half to reach the 1000 QSO mark. The “Kilo” was a 5 watt CW contact on 20 meters with KB3A in Alabama. The station on my end was the Yaesu FT-818 running to a resonant quarter-wave vertical antenna.

My thanks to the all hunters that responded to my low powered “CQ POTA” calls over these past 18 months, including many “regulars” such as Paul KJ7DT, Mike N7WPO, Jim WB0RLJ (p2p), Mike AL7KC, and Steve KG5CIK.

73 de W6CSN

One of our family’s annual traditions is to venture down U.S. Highway 101 to a Christmas tree farm called Rancho Siempre Verde (RSV).

The several years of dry conditions put a strain on Christmas tree production at RSV, so our annual visits have become an more opportunity for picnicking, wreath making, and enjoying the natural beauty of California’s central coast.

Part of the natural heritage is Año Nuevo point, known for being the winter home of a large colony of Elephant seals, and is a State Park located less than a mile from RSV.

Prior to becoming a State Park, the low coastal plain around Año Nuevo was the site of the Cypress Dairy Ranch which produced butter and cream in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ranch buildings became part of the park infrastructure, with the visitor center occupying an old barn.

As a California State Park, Año Nuevo is also a POTA reference, K-1125. And seeing as I was in the neighborhood, an activation attempt was certainly on the agenda.

This time of year 00:00 UTC is 4:00 in the afternoon and darkness falls soon after that. We left RSV after 3pm, so I had less than an hour to get the 10 contacts needed for a complete POTA activation.

There is a whole corral of picnic tables near the visitor center, but some of them were occupied. Besides, I always try stay out of the way when activating a popular location so as to not spoil the experience for other visitors or raise the ire of park staff with my various wires and antennas. As such, I opted to use an empty group of picnic tables adjacent the large parking lot.

Knowing that cell service is non-existent along this portion of coast, I scheduled the activation ahead of time to take advantage of the Reverse Beacon Network and get spotted automatically on the POTA web app.

With time running short, I opted for the quick deployment of the Mountaintopper MTR-4B connected to a tripod mounted 20M quarter wave vertical telescoping whip. The FT-818 as well as EFHW and Spiderbeam mast were in the trunk of the car but that station takes a bit more time to setup up.

The MTR-4B showed an SWR reading of 1.5 to 1 and an output power between 3.5 and 4 watts, good enough! Using the message memory function on the Mountaintopper, I started calling “CQ POTA” while simultaneously preparing the logbook.

After several CQ calls I started getting responses. This told me that RBN picked up my signal and the POTA web app responded by spotting the activation scheduled earlier.

Experience has shown that getting QRP contacts with North American stations can be a challenge when located at the oceanside base of the coastal mountain range, so I was mentally prepared for a scrape to get the 10 required QSOs with less than an hour to operate before the clock ran out on the UTC day.

I needn’t have worried though. The first contact was logged at 23:20z, followed by a steady stream of hunters for the next 35 minutes. I sent QRT at 23:55z with 28 QSOs in the book. Activation complete!

The radio operation was secured as quickly as it was deployed and I met the rest of the family, who had just returned from the hike out to the beach to observe the Elephant seals.

We made a brief stop at the Pigeon Point Light Station to catch the sunset, then made our way 50 miles back the home QTH in the dark.

California’s coast features many dozens of POTA references that are easily accessed right off U.S. Highway 1. The centerpiece of today’s POTA plan was activation of Pigeon Point Lighthouse State Historic Park, additionally there are several nearby State Beaches that could make for a nice coastal rove.

Driving southbound and making right turns into State Beach parking lots is easier than trying to turn left, crossing the busy highway. For me, this meant activating my “secondary” beaches before getting to the main event at the Pigeon Point lighthouse.

The first stop was at Pomponio State Beach, which is a short distance south of San Gregorio SB which I activated back in July. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, the beach was pretty quiet, although the ranger kiosk was open and charging the $8 day-use parking fee. Fortunately, the California “Poppy” pass gives access to many of the state beaches, including Pomponio.

Wanting to stay out of other visitors’ way, I chose to activate from an unused picnic area farthest from the beach, between the parking lot and the road. The traffic noise from the highway is loud, but nothing a pair of earbuds can’t handle.

The 17 foot telescoping whip antenna was clamped to a barbecue grill and extended fully. I meant to start on 20 meters, but for whatever reason I couldn’t get a low SWR with today’s setup. I didn’t bring a tuner and adjusting the radials wasn’t helping, so I shortened the whip by a couple of segments and got a good match on 18 MHz.

There is no cell service at this location so a Garmin inReach message to sotamat got me spotted. The 17 meter band was hopping today and the activation was complete in about 20 minutes, which is fast for a QRP CW activation from a California coastal location.

With Pomponio in the log book, it was time to continue south toward Pigeon Point. There are places along Highway 1 where single lane traffic controls are in place for construction work, although only the stoplights were working today, not the road crews. The long red light afforded an opportunity to snap a picture of the waterfowl on Pescadero Marsh.

The next stop is Bean Hollow, a picturesque beach on a small bay shaped like, a bean. There is much less parking available here than at the other beaches, so the lot was full when I arrived. Fortunately, just as I went once around the lot, a car was pulling out so I was able to snag a spot.

There are actually two beaches on either side of a low rock outcrop. A picnic table was available above the outcrop so that’s where I setup the FT-818 once again.

This location offered nothing in the way of antenna supports, at least none that I was comfortable using. So I turned to the GRA-3750T on a tripod set in the ice plant with three radials outstretched.

I was hoping to get more contacts on 17 meters but couldn’t find the match with the loading coil. This antenna provides an easy match on 15 meters though, so I set it there and sent out another sotamat spot on the InReach mini.

This activation was substantially harder to come by. It took nearly two hours but I was eventually able to gather the ten contacts needed, plus one for “insurance.”

Because the Bean Hollow activation took so long to complete, enough of afternoon was consumed that the Pigeon Point Lighthouse activation was now off the table. I hope to activate Año Nuevo before the end of the year, maybe I can get Pigeon Point at that time.

73 de W6CSN

Fort Baker is a former U.S. Army post situated at the north of side of the Golden Gate, opposite Fort Point and adjacent the town of Sausalito, California. The post is now part of the sprawling Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) which is also known as K-0647 for POTA.

Many of the good POTA spots in the GGNRA are heavily used for recreation and sightseeing on weekend days such as this, but Cavallo Point is out of the way enough that there was still ample, free parking today. This location offers spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco, and Alcatraz and Angel Islands at anchor in San Francisco Bay.

Today the “pull of POTA” was strong as I wanted to get another activation done before the arrival of an anticipated solar storm as well as rains predicted for the coming week.

During the week leading up to this activation the Bay Area has experienced fine weather with mild daytime temperatures and light winds, but driving in, the sound of rigging slapping loudly against the aluminum masts of the sailboats docked in the Presidio Yacht Club marina told me that it was windy down here.

A short series of wooden staircases lead up from the parking area to Battery Yates, named for Captain George Yates of the U.S. Cavalry who fell in the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

The gun battery is a reinforced concrete structure which once sported six rifles that fired a three inch caliber cartridge to provide for naval defense inside of San Francisco Bay. The guns were manned through the middle of World War Two when, by 1943, they had been moved to more strategic locations.

Today I had hoped to use the same steel pipe which supported a fiberglass mast and EFHW in an earlier activation from this spot, but unfortunately the pipe was too thick to get the jaw mount securely attached.

I went with plan B which was to use the pipe railing at the back edge of the gun pit. Being unsure whether or not the galvanized steel railing made any electrical connection to what surely must be rebar embedded in the concrete, I deployed the 17 foot vertical whip with three radials just in case.

Whatever was serving as a counterpoise, it was doing a great job, providing an SWR reading of 1.0 to 1 on the Mountaintopper MTR-4B. This was probably the third activation on this Lithium-Ion battery pack, so the power was down to 3.7 watts, still plenty for a CW activation with a resonant antenna.

The activation was scheduled ahead of time on the POTA web application so all I had to do was just start calling CQ POTA and let the RBN do the spotting. I soon heard from KG6HM from right across the Bay, followed by stations from Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

I was starting to think it would be only western states calling in, but the band opened up a bit, bringing N3RT from Delaware. Now we had a proper coast-to-coast activation, and, I bagged a hard-to-get state needed for an informal CW “Worked-All-States” achievement.

By this time, the wind really started to pick up and with the sun so low in the western sky, it was becoming chilly. Satisfied with the 14 QSOs in the log, we packed up, made our way back down the pathway to the car, and then to a fancy coffee house in Sausalito for a nice warm cup.

Equipment Used

• Mountaintopper MTR-4B v2 by LNR Precision
• Talentcell 3000 maH 12v Li-Ion battery pack
• ABR RG-316 coax feedline with ferrite common-mode choke
• MFJ-1979 telescoping whip from DX Engineering
• Quick release mirror mount with 3/8×24 to SO-239 adapter
• N0SA SP4 Morse paddles by CWMORSE.US
• MUJI Notebook for logging
• ZEBRA mechanical pencil for logging (the “shock absorber” spring makes this great for field use)
• Various Maxpedition Gear pocket organizers

73 de W6CSN

Earlier this past summer I did an East Bayshore POTA rove in which the plan was to pick up Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve K-3429 as the final park before heading back across the Bay Bridge to home. However, due to time constraints I was unable to attempt Emeryville Crescent.

Fast forward to mid-Autumn and I had an early morning appointment at the Emeryville Amtrak station to pick up a family member who’d journeyed south on The Coast Starlight. Leaving home at 6:30 am gave me plenty of time to get across the Bay, attempt an “early shift” activation at K-3429, then meet the train at 8:30 am.

Parking across the street from the Emeryville Marina office, I found an open area perfectly suited to setting up the 17 foot quarter wave vertical on a tripod. There weren’t too many people using the park at this hour so I felt comfortable to stretch out the radials needed for a nice resonant match on 20 meters.

Since it was early, the morning dew had not evaporated from the park benches. I had a foam “sports” cushion to keep my backside dry and not too cold, but for the radio kit I just kept it in its Maxpedition pouch set on my lap. This arrangement made logging a bit more of a challenge without a firm surface on which to put the notebook.

After spotting on the pota.app site and sending a few CQ POTA calls I started to get some hunters. With the early morning propagation on 20m, it took just about 30 minutes to log the 10 contacts need for a complete activation. Since there was still time, I hunted K7AZT in K-4557 before packing up and making the short hop over to the train station.

This completes the activations on the east shore, north of the Bay bridge. To the south, I still have Robert Crown State Beach on the island of Alameda as well as Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge near the Dumbarton bridge to add to my POTA conquest.

73 de W6CSN

This activation took my XYL and myself on a Saturday drive from chilly San Francisco to the lazy autumn warmth of Sonoma county and Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park (K-3531).

Our visit started with a little reconnaissance of the site’s historic adobe building and grounds across Adobe Creek and up a low hill from the parking lot. This site was the heart of General Mariano Vallejo’s ranch operations prior to California statehood.

There are a variety of engaging indoor exhibits and recreated displays showing the life of early California, as well as working exhibits of some of the activities that took place at the adobe.

After getting our fill of history, we walked back to the picnic area to see if we could complete a Parks On The Air activation from this location.

I suspect that on weekdays the picnic tables would be filled with youngsters on field trips from nearby schools, but today we had the whole place to ourselves.

Sometimes my crusty old phone will just refuse to take a picture, such was the case when I attempted to document the antenna setup. So, please picture in your mind a 17 foot telescopic whip antenna sitting atop a tripod with six radial wires spread out on a soft carpet of autumn leaves.

For the radio, it was a tossup between the Yaesu FT-818 and the Mountaintopper MTR-4B. The Yeasu won today since the vast majority of my other activations have been with the Mountaintopper recently.

Here, at the eastern edge of Petaluma, there was just enough cellular signal to spot myself on the POTA web app before I started calling CQ on 14.061 MHz.

The first station to respond was NN9K from Illinois. The calls came fairly steady for the next 20 minutes before tapering off after working K6EL, a well known local SOTA man. I had the needed QSOs for a complete activation so I sent QRT and secured the station.

Both my companion and I were feeling a bit peckish so we took highway 116 east, around the southern end of Sonoma Mountain to get lunch in the town of Sonoma.

I’d left open the possibility of a second activation from General Vallejo’s domain at Sonoma State Historic Park, but after our late lunch we opted for an afternoon drive through the Sonoma valley wine country before heading back down highway 101 to San Francisco.

Activating Sonoma SHP (K-3570) will have to wait for another day. Besides, it’s a great excuse to come back to this beautiful part of the Bay Area.

I leave you with several more photos from around Petaluma Adobe SHP.

73 de W6CSN