| WRTC in Germany | Vermont Parks On The Air | SOTA Activation |
| CA QSO Party |
Our September meeting will feature a presentation on the World Radio Team
Championship (WRTC), held in Germany this past July. The WRTC featured
head-to-head radio competition between 63 2-person teams in a Field Day
setting. Presenter Mitch W1SJ was there front and center as an antenna and
site team volunteer and will report what it was like to put up antennas with a
German team. There'll also be a side show visit of Berlin. Plenty of slides
and stories will accompany the presentation - look forward to it!
Congratulations to the team! It was another busy month with two more activations following the Alburgh Dunes… Kill Kare State Park during the annual RANV picnic and D.A.R. State Park in Addison. For these three, the team racked up a total of 2030 QSO's, 48 states, 30 DXCC countries and 8 operators.
The team activated Alburg Dunes on August 5th. W1SJ, AB1DD and K1BIF put over 650 QSOs in the log on 20 and 40 meters as well as having a great time. Video of Alburg Dunes.
During the annual RANV picnic the team put Kill Kare State Park on the Air with 680 contacts. Video of Kill Kare.
On September 1st, W1SJ, AB1DD, KE1AZ and K1BIF activated D.A.R. State Park in Addison (KFF-3111), VT from 16:00 to 21:00 UTC with the club call, W1NVT. Conditions on 20m were poor, but 40m was a bit more useful than on other activations this year. All together we had around 700 QSOs, plus a whole lot of fun. Thanks to all the hams who contacted us. Video of D.A.R.
5/06/18 Knight Point KFF-3125 6/02/18 Lake Carmi KFF-3126 7/28/18 Mt. Philo KFF-3134 8/05/18 Alburg Dunes KFF-3098 8/11/18 Kill Kare KFF-3121 9/01/18 DAR KFF-3111
At this point all but two parks in the Champlain Valley have been activated.
We plan to activate a few more parks that we can access after Labor Day -
including the two remaining island parks. Anyone who is interested in joining
us for the next activation, contact Bob K1BIF.
Last month Anderson and I had the chance to take our show on the road. During our annual family vacation in Long Beach Island, New Jersey I passed my General test. When we came back it just so happened that two weeks worth of days off came in a row for me giving us a four day window, so we decided to visit my sister who lives in Mount Airy, Maryland. She is within 2 hours of 3 different associations, so I came up with a scheme to hit them all up to achieve a Bronze Mountain Explorer award. Long story short, sleeping through an alarm and road construction kept us from 2 out of the 3 activations, but we did make our first planned activation: Hawksbill Mountain in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia.
Hawksbill Mountain, W4V/SH-001, is one of the many SOTA peaks along the beautiful Skyline drive through Shenandoah National Park. On the way to my sisters' house, Anderson and I stopped at Ham Radio Outlet in Delaware and procured a 32' mast and an 10m-40m End Fed Dipole to compliment my new license. The peak of Hawksbill is a pleasant mile hike from Skyline drive. My sister brought her American Bulldog, Quinn, with us; this is the first time we had companions and the first time we hiked with a dog. On the way up the path, my sister stopped, turned around and pointed with Quinn's ears perked up. On the side of the path, sitting in some bushes was a Black Bear cub! This was the first time in my life seeing a Black Bear in the wild. We made it to the top after encountering some deer and a bunch of millipedes. I set up my Elk antenna and radio while everyone else had something to eat. I started out on VHF making enough contacts for the activation before setting up the mast and End Fed for the first time. I made my first QSO on 20m with Tim, K5DEZ, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I made 4 more contacts on 20m before my mast fell over! It was getting late anyway so I decide to call it a day with 15 QSOs. On the way back down Skyline drive we pulled into a picnic area to use the restroom and there was the same Black Bear cub we saw earlier running across the parking lot!
It was a great time with wonderful views and I am glad I was able to share all
these firsts with my son and sister!
The first weekend of October (October 6-7 this year) sees the 53rd running of
the California QSO Party - a great opportunity for stations in California.
The object of the contest is to work as many stations as possible on SSB and
CW. You can work the same station on each band and each mode for score
credit. Details may be found at the
following website.