ACØPR, ham radio blog: Santa Clara River Reserve (POTA K-6084) and Lower Graveyard Trail (POTA K-6082) w/ New Wolf River Coil

My setup for the morning

This was a before-work, before school starts double activation really to test out the new antenna I got. Normally I make my own antennas, but I've been looking for a vertical I can use. I decided on this Wolf River Coil antenna (SOTA Special). These are the closest POTA places to my house and had never been done before.

At the site:

Oddly, in my opinion, one of the many trails running through the area is its own POTA, while the others are not, but the trail is within the Santa Clara River Reserve. I was thinking since it was a Thursday

morning, no one else would be around, but there were quite a few other hikers. They were all headed other directions though, so I never actually had someone pass by my "spot". The hike was less than a mile to be in the middle of the area and not on a hill. I got there just as the sun was coming up.

We've been in the middle of a heat wave, so I didn't want to be there past 9:30am. I also always wonder in a conservation area whether someone is going to harass me for having some type of equipment up, so I'm happy to not run into anyone. It's not a particularly pretty area, although looking to the actual river it's nice.

On the radio:

I set up the antenna first and the radials. I hooked everything up and sat on a tiny pad and started calling CQ. I did spot myself as well. I got into NH my first qso, which I thought was a good sign. I got a few and then things died down. I tried a few other bands--40meters, 30, and got nothing on either of them, so I went back to 20m. I had a good 30 to 40 minutes with ZERO contacts. I eventually got a few more and made it to 9 and then went looking for a park-to-park to make 10, but that was rough. AA9WJ/P was in Indiana and I finally got him.

So, I could just blame the new antenna for taking so long to make it. But, a few things that prevent that--first, this was a weekday morning, the conditions have been pretty bad lately, and finally I just used the three radials that came with the antenna, I plan on using double that so I'll need to try that before making a complete judgement. I also got it because it can handle up to 100w on CW and I want to see how much of a difference that makes in getting contacts.

Right after getting what I needed I packed up and headed home--I had been on for an hour and a half.

Call	Date / Time	Bnd	Frequency	ST	Mode	POTA	P2P	Rec	Snt
K1RO	8/20/2020 13:57	20	14.058	NH	CW	K-6084		559	599
N4MJ	8/20/2020 14:00	20	14.058	TN	CW	K-6084		569	599
N4EX	8/20/2020 14:03	20	14.058	NC	CW	K-6084		319	579
KN4OK	8/20/2020 14:04	20	14.058	AL	CW	K-6084		599	599
N4HID	8/20/2020 14:08	20	14.058	KY	CW	K-6084		599	599
AC0A	8/20/2020 14:49	20	14.058	KS	CW	K-6084		559	599
AA5UZ	8/20/2020 14:57	20	14.058	LA	CW	K-6084		579	599
W5ZDW	8/20/2020 14:59	20	14.058	LA	CW	K-6084		599	599
VE3LDT	8/20/2020 15:09	20	14.058	ON	CW	K-6084		229	579
KD1CT	8/20/2020 15:19	20	14.058	NH	CW	K-6084		559	599
AA9WJ/P	8/20/2020 15:30	20	14.035	IN	CW	K-6084	K-4207	549	559