Wednesday, April 23, 2025

RaDAR, SOTA, POTA and Dinosaurs at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia

Linda, Suzy, and I camped at Stone Mountain Park the first week of April 2025. 



The mountain offers a Summits on the Air (SOTA) opportunity. Walking up the mountain was tempting, but I rode the Sky Tram instead. I took the Icom 705 and the Alexloop. I found the winds gusty on top, and they blew the loop tripod over. I managed to tie it down with a cord and my foot. I have more than enough contacts for SOTA and POTA, including 2-meter FM contacts as far as fifty miles.


The RaDAR Rally was on April 5th. I had many options among the park trails, but I settled on taking my one-kilometer walks from our campsite. My rig was the FX-4C, and the antenna was the SOTABeams link dipole. I made five contacts on three stops, setting up the dipole each time. The Alexloop would have been faster. My contacts included CW, SSB, and FT-8. The FT8CN Android App on my smartphone connects to the FX-4CR via Bluetooth. The highlight was a RaDAR-to-RaDAR contact with Chris, VA3ECO. Chris was using a snowmobile for his RaDAR. 

Linda and I enjoyed the attractions in the park. It was Dinofest. We took in the drone, laser, and fireworks show on our last night. 





Click here for more photos.


73,


Greg N4KGL

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Go Ahead, Try RaDAR

RaDAR is Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio. The first Saturday of April and November are the RaDAR Rally Events. The upcoming RaDAR Rally is on April 5th, 2025. The rules are on www.radarrally.info. Go ahead and try RaDAR. It is a fun and exciting outdoor ham radio challenge. This was the topic of our Feb 24th, 2025, Beginner's Academy Zoom.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Snowy Dothan Alabama

A rare snow day, January 21st, 2025!