w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

Feeling slightly despondent after an unsuccessful POTA activation?

Just think about it from the hunter’s perspective. Even though you don’t get credited with the activation, you’ve helped the op on the other end of the QSO snag another park and advance toward their next hunter award.

And let’s not forget, that while we often take it for granted, communicating with other people over long distances by radio is a wondrous and magical thing!

You may have guessed by this point that I did not get the 10 needed contacts for a successful activation of the John Muir National Historic Site, and you’d be correct.

Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable experience to visit this little oasis of National Park history situated at the edge of suburbia in Contra Costa county.

The National Park site is part of the fruit ranch and open space where John Muir spent the last decades of his life writing, traveling and spending time with his family while also helping to run the ranching operation.

If it weren’t for John Muir’s vision of preservation, we wouldn’t have the National Parks we do today. If we didn’t have the National Parks, there wouldn’t have been an ARRL National Parks On the Air (NPota) event in 2016. If it weren’t for NPota, we may not have the international Parks On The Air operating program we all enjoy so much today.

So, in a way, we can say that John Muir is the Grandfather of Parks On The Air!

I set up my low impact amateur radio station in one of the old fruit orchards, just across the creek from the vineyard.

As is my usual practice, I started out on 20 meter CW. By the time my XYL and 3rd harmonic returned from exploring other parts of the property and hilltop ranch house, I had a mere three contacts in the log.

I netted another four QSOs before the airwaves really shutdown for me. It was looking unlikely that I would get another three contacts before 00:00 UTC, besides the park would also be closing at that time, so I reluctantly called QRT and packed up the station.

While the park grounds around the ranch house and orchard are quite beautiful and definitely worth the visit, I think for a future activation attempt I will hike up one of the hills on the open space preserve which is part of this park unit. The additional elevation would certainly help my 5 watt QRP signal be heard better and improve my chances for completing the activation.

73 de W6CSN