March 31, 2022, Penticton, BC
Good times again with a trip down to Penticton to visit family and play a little bit of radio.
The girls took the dog for a walk while I made myself useful and went to the hardware store to get a new flapper for my YL's sis' leaking toilet. On the way back to the QTH, the girls called and said, "let's meet at Skaha Lake park for a picnic". I had my radio gear with me so I drove to the park and quickly set up for another POTA activation of VE-5434.
The girls found me as I was just starting to call so they jumped in the car and went to get some lunch. 45 minutes later I had 24 contacts in the log and a juicy hamburger in front of me. Oh, and a strawberry milkshake and fries too!
The 20m band was interesting this day. It was a bit slower than usual with reports of QSB from the recent solar activity. The band was up and down but it still performed and many QSOs were completed, especially with European stations. I worked 2 operators from Spain and 1 from Portugal (Mike CU3HY from the Azores (the POTA admin for Portugal)). Nice to also hear Mike AL7KC from Alaska and have a bit of a chat with him. Lots of good operators on the air. Good times for me with 30 watts and a wire.
Here is my QSO map from HAMRS:
Gear used and general setup was just like my first activation of this park but this time I did use the amplifier for approximately 30 watts RF output.
After the event, I charged up my 10Ah LiFePO4 pack via solar (like I always do) and was surprised at how little time was needed to get it back up to full. This setup is very power efficient (albeit running less watts than I used to) but gets the job done very well. I may consider running with a smaller battery in the future.
If you are an Okanagan HAM and are interested in coming out to see what fun POTA is, email me and we'll plan a radio date. It's like a mini Field Day whenever you want but the bands are not so congested and it's amazing every time to see who jumps into the log.
73s and thanks to the hunters,
Mike VE7KPZ