Peace and Quiet in Deceptive Weather
Saturday, December 09 was not what was promised by all of my various weather apps. On a day when the sun was supposed to make an appearance and it was supposed to be dry, there was a touch of rain in the pre-dawn morning and no sign of the mysterious yellow orb that was seen regularly only a couple of months ago. Despite the mid-50dF temperatures and a stiff breeze, I went out to West Branch SP – K-1999 to grab an activation.
This park at this time of year is a fun one for me if I’m going alone because there’s simply no one else there. It feels like a little slice of solitude on most weekends in winter and I do look forward to that. My only regret is that there’s no really safe way to cycle to this park. Too much divided highway and scary stuff between home and there. So I drive.
The solitude I enjoy was only interrupted by the most entertaining of people. There was a boat out in the reservoir with a gentleman fishing away. In December. In Ohio. I love those guys. They know what’s what and how to have a good time. The other was a boat in a duck hunting outfit complete with decoys. I don’t think I’ve seen a duck of any sort at this park since it got cold. All I could do was watch them for a bit and wish them luck in my head. Before I left, they packed up and moved on to something else. I know nothing of hunting waterfowl, but I would think that one goes to hunt them where they can be found. Otherwise, it’s just sitting in a boat with some coffee and a buddy and…well…that doesn’t sound so awful, does it?
A Couple of Changes
It was my usual spot. I get a commanding view of the reservoir and its characters. The table is new and solid and has fun graffiti on it. I’ll have to get some good pictures of that sometime. In any case, I did try a couple of new things this time around. The first was to put the AX1 straight into the mAT-705plus with an elbow BNC connector. This takes additional coax out of the equation as well as any strange tripods or mounts. This particular BNC connector has neat feature. Once attached, it stiffens up and doesn’t bend without significant force. I have no idea where I got this thing, but if I did, I’d buy a dozen more because that is a nifty feature.
Oh. If you look carefully at the picture of my setup, you’ll see one of those nifty Nite-ize twisty things holding the AX1 to the handle of the cage on the IC-705. The wind did get bad enough to start messing with the antenna, so I just wrapped that around the AX1 and the problem was solved. I’m sure if I ran it through modeling software I’d see that this destroys the efficiency of something, but I’m not going to do that. Those little twisties are rubber coated so in my head that’s good enough.
The other adjustment was to take the AX1 counterpoises and attach them to an alligator clip so that it more easily grabs onto the ground on the IC-705 and makes deployment much simpler. I can attach the clip while wearing gloves. Thumb screws or the screw on the IC-705 ground require bare hands and even tools. Not great for December.
It’s silly little quarter turns of the screw that improve my setup and teardown. With these two tweaks, my setup was really about 2-3 minutes. Teardown was slightly longer because I have to wind up the wires. This means that I’m getting on the air faster and that’s what it’s all about.
I hooked up my paddles and got to work. It was a bit earlier than I normally activate, but I was getting contacts pretty quickly. I even noticed some repeat hunters. That’s always a treat!
A Visitor?
With more than enough contacts to activate the park in the bag, I kept going. I was having a really good time. As I tapped away, I noticed a truck pull in and park next to my Jeep. A gentleman got out and put on a vest. I assumed he was park staff. As I finished up a contact, he stood at a respectful distance from my table. I sent my 72 and he smiled.
“You’re doing POTA, right?”
“You bet I am! Any day outside with a radio, right?”
We got to talking. He’s a ham who has traveled quite a bit but grew up in the area. He’s just getting into POTA and started picking at CW this year. His plan is to join the LICW Club and make a real go of it in 2024. I told him the best thing he can do is get on the air as soon as possible. It was a good chat. We traded notes on our stations and he asked a lot of questions about my portable setup. After a bit, he bid me farewell and headed back to his truck. I got back to activating and picked up a good number of contacts before calling it quits. I didn’t log his callsign for an “Eyeball QSO” and I do regret that.
An Aside: Am I Going Too Far?
When I was learning to play the guitar, I had some very inexpensive instruments of questionable quality. When learning something, it’s a common line of thinking that one should spend as little as possible to avoid sinking money into something that might not take. That makes sense, but as a guitar teacher, I quickly saw that an instrument of lesser quality makes it harder to learn. This is a way of saying that there is a lower threshold for someone who is learning something in terms of quality which may or may not influence price. I stress again that this is for those who are learning. Prince was famous for picking up the cheapest guitars from pawn shops and the like and doing full concerts on them. That’s because he was an amazing player and any instrument would work because he had exceptional skills. Pro tip: We’re not Prince. Get the best you can with the dollars you have.
Now, there is always an exception to the Spend Less Rule. Someone coming to a hobby later in life with, perhaps, a little more discretionary income might spend a little more than they should on an instrument. I have a clear memory of a gentleman sending back a gorgeous Taylor acoustic guitar because the binding wasn’t the color he expected. The instrument played like a dream! I could in no way afford that at the time and I still can’t shake why someone would order it, look at it, and toss it aside because the turquoise didn’t turquoise hard enough.
They were referred to back then as “Dentists.” I mean no disparagement to the practitioners of the Dental Arts. You have my highest respect as well as the honor of being the source of my only really serious anxiety in life. Anyway…
Another side to this is that there are some pieces of hardware that encourage us to pick them up and play them. There are guitars that never go into cases because they need to be played. They demand to be touched and thus cause the caretaker of the instrument to practice more and enjoy that practice – regardless of their skill level. It is, of course, impossible to predict where these instruments or pieces of hardware might come from, but once they’re found, there is no denying it.
I’ve only been practicing CW for around a year. Not even a full year in a serious capacity. And yet, I bought myself a Begali Traveler Light as a mixed Birthday/Xmas gift. This thing? It’s incredible. It takes the lightest touch. As a typical newbie operator (and maybe this is where my musical training helps a bit?) I can send FAR faster than I can copy. Sending at 35 wpm or more with this thing is a breeze. I keep myself to 15 wpm max in the field because I don’t want to be That Guy who sends in a blur and then can’t copy at the same pace. On top of the performance, it’s built like a tank. There is real weight here and it keeps it from sliding around on the table. Did I mention that it’s gorgeous? I picked the blue one with red paddles that have holes in them. Why the ones with holes? For the same reason you pick a guitar with flames or skulls on it: it plays better! Or it looks cool. One or the other. I’m sure there are reasons Begali offers this style of paddle and I’m equally sure that I didn’t select it for those reasons.
I can’t help but feel like I’m overdoing it, but it’s so much fun. The IC-705, AX1, and this key make such a wonderful combination that I’m not sure that I will be in the field with much else. Well, the TR-45L is going to get plenty of air time, but that feels more like a summer rig. I’ll have to write up the whole Theory of Aesthetics in Portable Radio Operations sometime. I have a lot of thoughts.
I will console myself with the fact that my last couple hundred QSOs in the field were all CW so it’s unlikely that this is a phase. I will grow to appreciate this key in the way it was meant to be over time. Right now, I just love it even if I don’t deserve it.
The Activation
When all was said and done, I had 30 contacts in the log. At that point, the wind was becoming a real concern. It was really, really chilly and my logbook was blowing away when I didn’t have my hand on it. It was time to pack it in. After the upload and analysis, it turned out that I had 5 Park to Park contacts because one of them was a 2-fer. I love it when that happens. That means I hit my 150 Park To Park milestone. This activation is number 19 for K-1999 for me, so one more and I get another piece of paper! Or a PDF. Something.
Here’s what the QSO Map looked like:
It was a great time and a good chat with another ham. The duck hunters were frustrated (maybe) but the guy fishing outstayed me. Maybe I will see them again next week.
Thanks for reading and 72!
