Today I got a chance to head out, between the rain and storms to activate a new park for me. K-4526, George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. This park covers several states. I was heading to a section of the Forest in VA. It may be the most Eastern and Southern tip of the Forest, here in VA.
It really isn't far from me, the map states about 12 minutes. This section of the Forest is really just on the other side of the mountain from where I am at. So I headed out, down the dead end road, onto a gravel road, used by many locals, especially during hunting season. This is an isolated area, and so the Forest entrance sign apparently had a make over of red paint.
The gravel road heads up into the mountains around here and keeps going for quite a ways. I only went in about 2 miles from the entrance. There are no actual parking lots for visitors, though there are several marked trails within the Forest. Most park just of the road.
I found an actual pull off that went into the woods just a little. It got me off the road and in an area surrounded by the trees. I would take a guess that when hunting season comes around, this may be a space where hunters would camp or pull their RVs into this space.
Now I was ready to get on the air. I set up my Silvertip Vertical. I bought this antenna a few years ago, but never used it. So I had to readjust it with different coax connectors to be able to use it. I believe these days, the maker has corrected that and has the connectors already attached. Bill, KJ4ADN, I think still sells them. Check out his QRZ,com page for the details.
So I set up the antenna, ran the RG-316 Coax, I purchased from PackTenna.com. George and his crew do an excellent job of providing us Hams with great antenna gear. I stayed in my vehicle this time, with no picnic tables or near-by rocks around. I really need to carry a small table.
Well, I connected the cable to my Elecraft KX2. I really love this little jam packed radio. It has an internal battery and an internal antenna tuner. The radio will also accept an external battery if you wish. I finally received the paddle to go with it, as it was back ordered. I'm still getting use to using it, but with practice it will come. Normally I would of just used my Straight Key.
I should have taken more pictures, next time, I just have to remember.
I was on 20m, CW and the contacts began to come in. I only spent a couple of hours up there in this paradise. I finished with 31 QSO's, actually with one on 30m and one VE3. There were a few Park to Park (P2P) QSO's in my log. As soon as I actually learn to use the QSO map program, I will add those QSO maps here.
I headed back down the gravel road to the two lane black top, to home and got my log inputted (I use pen and paper) and uploaded to the various log books and of course POTA.app.
Thanks for reading my little outing. If you liked it, let me know and/or give a coffee, the links are there.
73/72
wb8yxf