Instead of heading out to the stores looking for bargains, I headed up to French Creek State Park (US-1355, KFF-1355) looking for POTA and WWFF hunters. It turned out to be a productive morning—and I didn’t have to spend any money.
I rolled into a parking lot near Hopewell Lake and started setting up. Old Man Winter is starting to rear his head here in southeastern Pennsylvania, with an air temperature about 32°F (0°C) with a wind chill around 25°F (-3.9°C). I forgot to bring my gloves, so my fingers were becoming numb by the time I got my 12-foot base-loaded whip set up on the truck. I used my Elecraft KH1 up in the truck’s cab.
My handy band conditions app showed an active geomagnetic field with “FAIR” conditions for 40M through 15M, my bands of interest. Even under these conditions, however, there are usually contacts to be made.
There was plenty of activity on 40M. It only took about nine minutes to log my first 10 contacts. After logging 18 contacts, I moved up to check 20M, 17M, and 15M. These higher bands weren’t too shabby either, producing 35 contacts across these three bands. I had DX contacts on each of those bands, too. The KH1’s display showed it was putting out about 3.5 watts on 15M, but that was enough to be heard in Europe.
Altogether, I had 53 contacts, including the following DX contacts:
- 20M: F6EOC
- 17M: DF2PI
- 15M: DL1SWB, F6DHD, IK3HMB, IK1LBL, DK1RS, EA7ZC
I also had a nice 2xQRP QSO with N8NK on 20M. He was running 1 watt from Michigan and sounded great here in Pennsylvania.
I had to pull the plug after about two hours. I would have stayed longer, but I had an errand I needed to take care of. The windchill temperature was still below freezing, so I hastily took the antenna down and headed on to my next stop.
Note to self: Keep a pair of gloves in the truck!
72, Craig WB3GCK
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- Hopewell Lake in French Creek State Park
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- Despite the predicted band conditions, the band weren’t all that bad.
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- My KH1 showing about 3.5 watts on 15M
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