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KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Activating USA 615 again

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 06:55 PM PDT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu/tVpu/~3/ud7CktwBtf8/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Over the weekend, which just happened to be National Lighthouse and
Lightship Weekend, I activated the Pointe aux Barque Lighthouse again. Ive
been up there several times before, and I never get tired of it. This
weekend, I had one great day and one wet day.

On Saturday, I got up there a little before noon. After eating our lunch, I
set up my KX-3 and doublet antenna and was on the air by 1 pm. This trip, I
set up the antenna as an inverted vee, like I did in Afton, VA three weeks
ago. That made the antenna a little easier to set up. Not only that, I made
a perfect throw with my weighted tennis ball on the first try.

I thought Id start out on 20 meters, and made my first contact with W0M, a special event station celebrating the bicentennial of Missouri as a state.
That was the only contact I was to make on 20 meters, though. After a few unsuccessful calls, I decided to try 40 meters instead.

My first contact on 40 meters was another specials event station, KD3KA.
KD3KA was commemorating the first professional baseball game radio
broadcast made over KDKA on August 5, 1921, from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

I had a lot of success on 40 meters over the next couple of hours, working
a couple of POTA stations and then another special event station, W8T. W8T
was operating from the the Worlds Largest Teapot in Chester, WV.

One of the strange things of my outing this time is that I had more luck on phone than I did on CW, even though my output power was only 3 W. I
actually made 7 phone contacts, versus 5 CW contacts.

While I was operating, the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society was
holding their annual Heritage Festival. At about 4:30 pm, everyone decided
to pack it in for the day, so I followed suit. I packed up the radio, but
left the antenna in the trees, intending to come back the next day.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning was a rainy one, and it didnt look like it
was going to stop. Silvia and I drove over to the lighthouse from our hotel
to eat lunch, and because it looked like it was going to continue to rain,
I took the antenna down. My bad. The weather cleared up by 2 pm, and I
could have gotten a couple more hours of operating in had I not taken down
the antenna.

It wasnt a total loss, though. We went to the beach in Port Austin, and I
got to take a dip in Lake Huron.

The post Activating USA 615 again appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.

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