w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

The outdoor amateur radio adventures documented in this blog so far have taken place entirely within my home state of California. Recently, I took off by car to visit family in Washington state. This wasn’t really a POTA oriented vacation trip but if I played my cards right there might be some time to activate parks in both Oregon and Washington.

Studying the POTA map, I found Row River National Recreation Trail US-10009 not far off I-5 near Cottage Grove, Oregon, about an hours drive north from where we had stopped the first night.

Row River Trail is a BLM unit maintained with help from the Army Corps of Engineers that offers miles of level recreation trail along the shores of Dorena Lake.

Row River feeds into Dorena Lake at the east end and continues past the dam at the west end of the lake.

For radio accessory management I’ve been testing out a new toolbox solution from Harbor Freight. The lid includes a clear plastic cover that snaps closed over several compartments in which you can store adapters, antenna bits, patch cords etc.

An inside tray holds coax and antenna wires, while the main box can be used for bulkier items, like spare LiFePO4 battery backs, arborist throw kit and such. The main box plastic is a little thin, which makes it a challenge to get the lid to align and snap closed properly, but then again it was 12 bucks at Harbor Freight.

It turns out I drove farther up the road past Dorena Lake than was necessary and where I ended up activating from actually had some overhead power lines cutting through the trees not far from the picnic table that had sun.

I definitely needed to keep my antenna and lines well clear of these wires and I hoped they wouldn’t be a source of noise.

I deployed a 20 meter EFHW on a Sparkplug Gear 64:1 unun, an antenna system I hadn’t used in quite a while. Although I had scheduled the activation from the hotel earlier in the morning, I used Sotamāt via the Garmin InReach Mini to make my spot certain as there was no cell service in the canyon.

The springtime morning in the Oregon countryside was bright blue with temperatures is the 70s. I can imagine it getting really toasty here in the summertime.

After about an hour, I’d logged 10 contacts needed for a complete activation. One of the challenges a QRPer faces when doing POTA midmorning on a weekday is the relative lack of hunters. You’re out playing radio while everyone else is at work!

Since we were “on the road” we didn’t linger any longer than necessary. Besides, it was well past time for my first Dutch Bros coffee of the day!

While I very much wanted to get an activation from Dash Point State Park on the shores of Puget Sound, my family and travel schedule simply did not leave enough time.

On the return trip, back in California, I again pulled off I-5, this time at Castle Creek Drive going southbound just past Dunsmuir. Castle Crags State Park US-1135 is easily accessed from this exit.

To get a little bit of elevation I drove through the park to the vista point parking area. However the crags themselves are not visible from here, you need to hike out a trail for another 1/4 mile to catch a view of them.

I wasn’t in the mood to carry my radio kit to the viewing area and since both my traveling companion and myself were a bit under the weather, I went for an expedited setup on the nearest picnic table.

Being relatively close to the highway still, I had adequate cell service so the Garmin InReach was just used as a real time clock while I logged 10 QSOs split between 15m and 20m.

Again, once the 10 contact minimum was achieved, I went QRT and we get back on the road for the final several hours drive back to home in San Francisco. I hope to get back to Washington later this summer with a better possibility of picking up a POTA activation while there.

72 de W6CSN