Operating Notes - POTA at Minute Man National Historical Park (US-0745)
·515 words·3 mins
Whilst staying in a hotel not too far away, for a trip to the Boston area I decided to try a POTA activation. The Minute Man National Historic Park was only a 10 - 15 minute drive away, and what better than a guy with a British accent trying to activate this park!
Upon arriving I parked up and made a little walk to some picnic tables. As I was setting up, i managed to snap part of the insulator for the Recon 40, it seems to be a 3d printed part, with about 40-50% infill, and looks like it might not have had a good time with the winds at my previous activation attempt. After scratching my head for a bit I ended up just resting the antenna up against a couple of rocks. The placement of the antenna meant i could only get a 3 of the radials out, and only covering about 100 degrees. When I get home I’m going to make a set of radials from my DX10 wire that I have left over from a DX Commander build.
Setting up, took about 20 minutes including the rethinking time.
I setup on the picnic table and started tuning about, and as I was about to check for if the frequency was in use or not, I was able to make a Park To Park with NC4XL which ended up being a 2fer!
After finding a frequency to sit at, I self spotted and started calling CQ. I had a number of stations respond within a short period of time.