I enjoy Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio, Field Days, QRP, satellites, and CW. I have many friends in the hobby that make it fun. I will keep you posted on what I learn about amateur radio on this blog.
Linda and I took a three-night camping trip to FDR State Park near Pine Mountain, Georgia over the Columbus Day weekend. For me, the draw is Dowdell Knob a 1345 foot peak in the park. This peak qualifies for Summits On The Air or SOTA. It is W4G/CE-004. Since I live in the flatlands of Florida, Dowdell is the closest SOTA opportunity. The history aspect was our visit to the Little White House and museum located nearby in Warm Springs, Georgia. This is where President Roosevelt took advantage of the warm springs for his polio. The president died at the Little White House halfway into his fourth term. Roosevelt fostered the Rural Electrification Program. I learned that when the farmers got electricity their first purchase was a radio. The nature aspect was our visit to the Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens. We were immersed with the butterflies among the plants they enjoy. It was a challenge to capture them with my smartphone camera. I will let the pictures and video fill you in on the details.
The SOTA activation on Sunday morning was successful. I had a pile-up going on 40 meters for the first hour, I was getting better than one contact per minute. In all, I had 88 contacts; 68 on 40 meters, 17 on 20 meters and 3 on two meters. Of those 51 were SSB, 34 were CW, and 3 were FM. One of the two-meter FM contacts was about 45 miles to Mauk, GA. The contacts also counted for Parks On The Air (POTA). The park reference is K-2173.
I also did some operating from our campsite number 501. It had room for an 80-meter Dipole. I talked back to Bob WB4BLX in Panama City on 80 meters SSB. So this camping idea is working out for us. I expect we can do this in a big way during our retirement years.
