A Cold Day Operating...

What sort of a nut goes out and activates a park for POTA when it's -3C and blowing snow?  Oh, that would be me 😁

I knew it would be a cold activation, and initially plans were to activate two parks, but after finishing the first park I realized it was just too cold and needed to go and get warm before I got hypothermic.  The wind just drew what little heat you had right out of you.

Thanks goodness I had a package of hand-warmers in the van!  They really helped.

The propagation numbers were great today, not as good as yesterday.  They were: SFI=119, SN=119, A Index=3, and the K Index=1.  There was a fair bit of deep QSB, and the bands were busy with contests, including the RAC Winter Contest.

One thing that did stand out today was the fact that I suffered no deliberate QRM that we POTA activators have been suffering with for the past few months.  Apparently a number of individuals don't like the POTA program and are trying to cause enough trouble to get people to walk away from it.  Their plan isn't working, in fact POTA seems to be growing everyday to new countries.

So using my now usual routine - the KX3 with 10 screaming watts output into a 20m hamstick - I managed to work Mike CU3HY, Manuel CU3BL, and Jerry HI5YJM.   Contacts were also made in IL, CA, TN, GA, AL, LA, MO, and TX.

The wind and snow is supposed to stop late this evening, so tomorrow I can dig out and set off to another park and do it all over again 😊

Today's QSO Map