w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

The last days of October can sometimes bring early season rains to the San Francisco Bay Area, a perfect time to get out for some POTA action. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a huge National Park with a ton of good places to do Parks On The Air activations. This particular outdoor radio adventure started next to Rodeo Beach at Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands.

Driving north, across the Golden Gate Bridge, I took the Bunker Road tunnel out to Rodeo Beach.

There wasn’t really a convenient spot outside to activate from and winds were blowing a lot of mist and sea spray. Therefore, I opted to setup in the car with a roof mounted vertical. The antenna was already tuned up for 17 meters from my last time out, so thats where I started the activation today.

The RBN spotted my scheduled activation on the first call and thanks to plenty of hunters, the activation was qualified in 12 minutes. Finally things slowed down and I wrapped up on 17 meters.

A few QSOs before the end of operations on 18.076 MHz the Bioenno 3ah battery gave up, leading me to drop down to 2.5 watts for the last four contacts on the internal battery.

For the next part of the activation I had the QMX available with a charged battery for a full 5 watts. I elected to rove from the ocean side of the headlands to the Bay side where it was less moist and I knew a good spot to setup my 20 meter vertical.

Battery Yates is an old fortification in Fort Baker that looks out over San Francisco Bay. I’ve activated from here several times before. Check out this post if you’re interested in more on Battery Yates.

A short walk from the parking lot takes you up to the old gun battery and magazine works. Thankfully, when the Army constructed this defense 80 years ago, they knew I’d need some place to attach my antenna in 2025 so they put some convenient pipe railings on which to clamp my 17 ft telescopic whip.

The antenna had 1.2 to 1 match on 20 meters which didn’t bother the QMX at all. I was a little more concerned about actual rain since there was some drizzle while setting up. I kept the QMX in its pouch, ready to close the lid if the precip got any heavier.

I parked on 14.056 MHz and called CQ POTA again and was soon working stations with a fresh RBN spot.

The rain never came and the activation was wrapped up in just under an hour on 20m with a grand total of 39 QSOs in the log. Thanks to all the hunters and the other activators out there handing out P2P contacts.

73 de W6CSN