Sunday 2 May 2021

A New Day...

It was 8C and raining when I woke up today, not the best way to start a day.  The daily propagation wasn't any better either, the SFI=71, SN=11, A Index=5, and the K Index=3.  Not exactly the best of conditions to be outside playing QRP portable radio!

But, outside I went, and within a few minutes I was at the first of three POTA Parks I activated this morning.  All three of the parks were added to the POTA system only this week, and had never been activated before.

The first location, VE-5143, Marshland Conservation Area, was pretty much deserted which was a good thing as the parking lot isn't very big.  Amazingly it took exactly 12 minutes to get the ten contacts necessary for a good activation.  Within minutes of being spotted I had a huge pileup coming at me.

I then moved on to VE-5141, Lemoine Point Conservation Area.  The road into this spot had to be seen to be believed.  The pot holes were huge, you could have lost a large car in them!  

It took 15 minutes to get 16 contacts in my log at this location.   This is a huge parking lot with plenty of room to spread out.  It was busy though today with families getting some much needed exercise during the Covid-19 restrictions we're currently living under.

Nobody bothered me at this location, a few people walked past and had a look to see what all the noise was about, but that was it.

The final location was VE-5142, Parrott's Bay Conservation Area.  The rain had decided to stop the downpour by now and was just a light drizzle which eventually stopped.  In 20 minutes I put another 19 contacts in the log.  

I had a great view from the open door of my van at this last location.  It made up for the other two muddy parking lots.

The equipment I used today was my Elecraft KX3 at 10 watts, and a 40m Hamstick mounted on a mag-mount on the roof of the van.  I did try 80m and 20m but didn't have any luck on those bands, so 40m was the go-to spot.

I received mostly very good signal reports, but I also got a couple of not so good reports.  Overall I was very happy with the results and am planning my next POTA adventure.

Stay safe out there!


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