w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

When you activate the same park regularly it becomes rather routine. You probably have a system worked out consisting of radio, antenna, time and location that produces good results most of the time.

Not every one of my outings to K-7889 Presidio of SF gets a writeup here on this blog, that would get boring for everybody. However, this Tuesday evening activation, for whatever reason, was particularly satisfying.

Nothing remarkable about 12 contacts. In fact, I was feeling content with the activation well before I’d even made 10 QSOs. One thing that was different from the usual, was starting the activation on 40 meters. I’ve wanted to try 7MHz, but the severely compromised short vertical has always given me pause. This may have not been the best time to try, but I did manage one QSO on 40M, a park-to-park with N7CCD on the Oregon coast.

I then moved up to the more familiar waters of 20 meters, where I called for a while before the entire U.S. opened up to my 4 watt signal.

One particular highlight of the activation,which I only learned after the fact, was working KO2D, an 11 year old Extra class amateur in New York. It’s exciting to see amateur radio and CW being picked up by the younger generations!

The shadows were getting long and the chilling ocean breeze reminded me that it was well past dinner time and I was getting hungry, so I signed with N0VRP in Texas and called QRT. Five minutes to pack up the station and a 10 minute drive and I was back home for Taco Tuesday.

73 de W6CSN