Tag: black rock mountain

Black Rock Mtn St Park Kilo #7

This weekend I went back up to Black Rock Mtn State park to finish my kilo. My last trip was cut short by a power outage on the mountain. This time I brought a battery which fortunately, I didn’t need. During this trip, I brought some new items with me. A new radio, a new antenna and a new fan.

The radio. I did some trading and ended up with an IC-7200. I always wanted one of these. I am a Veteran and I like its military vibe. The radio worked well.

The weekend was an FT8 weekend as the bands were not in good shape. I did notice that the radio got warn running FT8 at 20 watts. It felt about the same as an IC-7000 did back in the day. The radio performed well and no hiccups were noted. Also new was my battery powered Hercules fan.

I used it to cool the camper without running the A/C and it had plenty of volume. I turned it slightly toward the IC-7200 to help keep it cool. It ran for over 8 hours on the 5 amp/hr battery and would probably go much longer.

My antenna for this trip was a Chameleon TDL (tactical delta loop). I had some of the pieces already and only had to add another whip, a hub, and wire that goes between the whips. I used the ground spike to to secure the antenna to the ground. It made it easily to turn the antenna. Above 10 MHz the antenna is slightly directional and I found this to be true. Pointing the antenna east-northeast got me further into Europe than I normally get with my verticals. In the evening I pointed the antenna slightly northwest and you can see in the QSOMap, the antenna shows a little directivity. All in all, I was pleased with the antenna. I sets up really fast and there are no wires in the trees. My campsite had power lines nearby and the loop was well below them. Putting up and taking down the antenna was done by extending and retracting the whips so there was no danger in contacting the overhead wires. Through the whole activation, I only ran 20 watts and I felt the antenna helped in that success.

I made 200 contacts which covered 33 States and 10 countries. Furthest State being California and the furthest country being New Macedonia. Considering the band conditions, I was pleased with the results.

It was a nice trip. the weather was great, I did not have to run the A/C or the heater. I finished up Kilo #7 but I will return to this park as it is one of my favorites. This may be one of my last campouts of the season, I have a lot of work to do around the home and property. 73 de Scott

US-2167 Black Rock Mountain State Park and the End of an Era

This month I ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park. It is one of my favorite parks. I like it because it is located on the top of Black Rock Mountain. The views are fantastic and you couldn’t find a better park to operate a radio. This was a weekday trip. For the past couple of months I tried operating during the week instead of in the weekend. It was okay, I think I like the weekends better.

The weather was beautiful mostly cool with a spot of rain on the first night. I was surprised to see Slate Colored Juncos on the mountain. My mother called them snowbirds because they often proceeded a cold front and sometimes snow. I was near a comfort station and right next tot he camp host. No issues when I put up my 28.5′ random wire vertical.

Radio du jour was my FT-710. I also brought with me my IC-705 thinking I would switch over to QRP and CW on the second day. More about that later. I started out on FT8 and 25 watts. I went QRV on 20 meters around 1900 Z. The band was wide open! I stayed on 20 until about 0200 Z. The first day, I made over 200 QSO’s. Wednesday morning things started out well and then fizzled. In the end I made 453 QSO’s covering 46 states and 16 DX entities. The states I missed were AL, HI, ND, and WV. For DX I got as far north and west as Alaska, as far south as Uruguay, as far east as European Russia. I was hoping the band would stretch far enough west to pick up Hawaii, but it didn’t quite make it. A hop too far.

By Wednesday afternoon the bands were dead and I decided to head back to the house. It was a good run while it lasted and a lot of fun. The only issue I had were people asking for dupes. I only need to work you once and the way band conditions were many stations I needed were a one shot deal. Heard them once and then they were gone. I lost some of those because of people asking for dupes. That means two of us lost. Most logging software will show you if you worked a station before. It’s what I use. As an activator, I try to get as many stations as I can in the log.

Once the bands died and I realized that QRP and CW were not viable, I decided to pack it up and head home. I left the park early Wednesday evening and was home before dark. All in all a nice trip. Here is a QSO map of the activation.

End of an Era. This will be my last year on WordPress. It cost me between $100-$200 a year to maintain and being retired I need to cut a few corners. What will happen, is I will move back to Blogger which is free. I own the domain name and I will bring that with me. My WordPress subscription, ends March of next year and in the mean time, I will move some of my posts over to Blogger. Mainly the technical stuff. I will also be taking fewer overnight trips and combining some trips with the wife doing more than amateur radio.

Retirement is grand, I wouldn’t trade it anything. With it comes a little more responsibility. If I think I want something on the pricey side, I ask myself if I am willing to go back to work for it. So far the answer is no. Stay safe and 73 de Scott