Parrott's Bay POTA Activation...

It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Kingston..but, we had high humidity which made things just a little bit uncomfortable. It was also 29C before the humidity was added on.

The propagation wasn't very good, again.  It's like a broken record these days, bad QRM and very noisy bands.  Todays propagation was: SFI=77, SN=14, A Index=5, and the K Index=1.  Hopefully the propagation Gods will wake up soon and let Cycle 25 start to take off.

After morning coffee I decided to drive to Parrott's Bay Conservation Area, about 15 minutes from my home QTH. It was fairly busy there with many trail walkers coming and going.  It is right on Lake Ontario, and therefore it get's a pretty good breeze, so it was a good place to operate from today in the heat.

The 40m band was the band of choice as it seemed to be operating better than the others.  It took me a little over 20 minutes to get 14 contacts in my log, which was good, because by then I needed another shower and some dry clothes.  The heat was incredible, and not at all comfortable.

All of my contacts were from the east today,  but given the fact I was using a 40m hamstick on the roof of my van with a 5" mag-mount, and 10w from my KX3, I'm pretty happy with the result.

I had 5 good Park to Park contacts which made things more interesting.  

These days I notice I have to make sure to read back the other stations callsign to them.  After all the years I spent flying Chinook helicopters in the Air Force, my hearing has suffered a great deal. So I have to make sure I have the correct call in my log.

I think I'm going to have to start wearing a headset all the time now, I hate to log an incorrect call, and I just refuse to do digital modes....I detest them.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I'm off to activate a local light house for the ILLW.  Let's hope the bands are in much better shape.

Stay safe out there!!