One of the genius things about Parks on the Air is the awards program. There are all kinds of awards to choose from, and they are all automatically awarded. You don’t have to submit QSL cards or pay fees. They just appear on your awards page, and you can pick and choose which ones mean something to you.

I’ve never been much of a wall paper chaser, so, aside from the Rhino Rover award that my friend, Tom, W8TAM, helped me achieve, the 24 awards that I have somehow managed to accumulate don’t really mean that much to me. Yesterday, though, I reached a milestone that brought a smile to my face (as you can see by the photo at right). I hit 1,000 contacts from US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area.

It’s been very hot here in the Midwest, but somehow, I managed to cajole Paul, KW1L, and Rick, K8BMA to accompany me to the park. We left my house just before 9 am, and despite some slow traffic, we managed to get to the park and get set  up by 10 am. Yesterday, instead of using my 66-ft. doublet, we set up Paul’s new Cobra antenna. Despite its claim to being “ultra light,” it was a bit heavy for my fiberglass mast. We solved that problem by not using the top two sections of the mast.

I don’t know if it was band conditions (I was calling CQ on 14.062 MHz), or the antenna, or a combination of both, but I began working them one after another right off the bat. I made the first 10 contacts in less than 10 minutes. I made the 45 contacts I needed to reach 1,000 in just a little over an hour, and I was up to 55 contacts at 11:25, at which point, we decided to eat lunch.

The contacts we made were literally all over the map. Somehow, the skip was short enough to work into New York and Pennsylvania, but also south to Florida, east to Prince Edward Island, and west to British Columbia.

After lunch, we switched to 15 meters to see what band conditions were like there. Right away, I got a call from an OK2 station, but not much afterwards. We pounded out another six contacts before calling it quits. It was starting to get hot out there, and any extra contacts would just be anti-climactic.

Paul likes to ask, “So, what did we learn from this?” One thing I may have learned is that using twisted-pair wire may not be the best feed line for my POTA antenna. I think that I have to give some credit to the Cobra antenna for the good results we had yesterday, and its feed line is 450 Ω ladder line. The feed line loss for 450 Ω ladder line has got to be less than the feed line loss of my twisted-pair feed line.

I think I’ll try to find some 300 Ω twin lead and see what kind of results I get. Is there an easy way to measure feedline loss? Has anyone already measured the losses of 300 Ω, 450 Ω, and twisted pair feed lines and compared the results?

As for POTA, it’s onwards and upwards. I have 315 contacts from the Pinckney State Recreation Area (US-3322). It’s only a little further away from my house than the Island Lake Recreation Area, and in some ways, is a nicer park. I’m thinking that if I can get out 2-3 times a week, I can get to 1,000 contacts from there by the end of the season.

Where: US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area (near Brighton, MI)

When: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1830 – 2230 UTC)

Who:  I was solo today.
Weather: Sunny, low 80s, BEAUTIFUL!
Rig: Elecraft KX-3, 66-ft. doublet antenna

The traffic was really bad on the way to US-3315 on Friday. Part of the reason for this is that I got started a little later than usual. I didn’t leave the house until 2:00 pm. As I sat in traffic, I hoped that this wasn’t a bad omen for this activation. Fortunately, it wasn’t.

I started on 40 meters for this activation, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of activity, so after one contact, I switched to 20 meters. 20 was open, so that proved to be a good move. I made my first 10 contacts in less than a half hour.

After about an hour and 15 minutes, I decided to try 15 meters. I made a couple of park-to-park (P2P) contacts and was spotted on ReverseBeacon Network (RBN) by several Europeans. I kept banging on 15 meters for a while and made some more contacts, including F5SGI, my first POTA DX contact in a while.

About 2035Z, I switched to 17 meters. I made a couple of contacts there and then went back to 20 meters to finish out the day.

Overall, I mad 45 contacts in about three hours of operating time. For most of that time, my rate was over 16 contacts/hour. This beat my previous rate of 14/hour last time.

As far as total contacts go, I’m now just 45 away from 1,000 total contacts at US-3315. I hope to hit that sometime this week.

Where: US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area (near Brighton, MI)
When: 10:30 am – 1:30 pm (1430 – 1730 UTC)
Who:  Paul, KW1L, came with me today.
Weather: It was sunny, but a little cool in the morning. As you can  see, I’m wearing a sweatshirt. The temperature eventually got in to the low 70s, with very little humidity.
Rig: Elecraft KX-3, 66-ft. doublet antenna

On Thursday morning, Paul and I decided to set up on a hill overlooking the lake. There were very few people at the park Thursday morning, so we almost had the whole park to ourselves. There were a few swimmers. Brrrrrr. That water must have been cold.

As you can see from the photo at right, the operating position is in the sun. It was a bit cool in the morning, and being in the sun, made it feel just right.

It was just before 11:00 am when I made my first contact. I chose 40 meters to start, and I quickly made the 10 contacts needed for a legal activation. I then moved up to 20 meters, where I had decent success. I even tried 15 meters, but I only worked one station on 15—Russ, K5TUX of Linux in the Ham Shack fame.

We brought our lunches with us, and we broke for lunch about noon. After lunch, we made a couple of 20-meter phone contacts, including KC4DSV, who was operating from a spot that qualified as two parks: US-3924 and US-2935. We decided that that was a great way to end the activation, so we packed up and headed home.

Where: US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area (near Brighton, MI)
When: 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm (1830 – 2030 UTC)
Who:  I was accompanied on this activation by my lovely wife, Silvia.
Weather: The skies were overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain. It was also very windy. The temperature was in the upper 70s, and very little humidity.
Rig: Elecraft KX-3, 66-ft. doublet antenna

On this activation, I set up in the Bluebird shelter at the Island Lake Recreation Area. It was a bit of a hike to get there, as the road was closed for repairs. That worked in my favor, though, as I had the shelter all to myself.

True to its name, I spotted a bluebird perching on the volleyball net near the shelter. To the dismay of my wife, I spotted a lot of spiders, too.

I started out on 20 meters, but there was so much contest QRM, I decided to try 30 meters instead. Unfortunately, there wasn’t that much activity on 30, so I decided to try 40 meters.

I had much more success there. Conditions were good, and I was getting  good Reveres Beacon Network spots. I made 12 contacts in less than a half hour.

After that, I tried 17 meters, and I made a couple of contacts there, but eventually wandered back to 20 meters. Instead of operating around 14.060 MHz, though, I saw some POTA spots above 14.090 MHz, and worked a park-to-park, then started calling CQ up there. That worked out OK, and I ended up the activation with 25 contacts total.

Then, it was off to dinner with Silvia.