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Unusually pleasant weather we've been having, and this morning was a great example. Sara and the dogs and I hopped in the car pretty early and headed to Chesterfield Valley. A quick short hike over the levee brought us to one of the many tracts of land which make up Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. As the girls headed out on the mile-long loop through some woods, I'd set up my antenna...

Oh! Waitaminute! I'd left the antenna mast in the car. D'oh!

So I got my own hiking in, with an extra trip back to the car for the forgotten item. I shed my fleece jacket and was almost regretting wearing a flannel shirt.

Back at the spot I'd chosen I started setting up. I knew I'd be operating away from the car and needed to carry everything. Today I'd brought a folding camp chair which was a little heavy. But I also decided I would not need a table -- I'd just put the radio and battery on the ground. But I did decide to grab the plastic steering wheel "desk" I usually used in the car. It had a small steel sheet stuck in the corner that provides magnetic mounting for my most-used paddles. All in all this setup worked great!

I started out calling CQ on 40 -- hoping to net some fellow SLQS members or other Midwesterners. I was the only one in the 40 spots list... and there were no takers. Too bad -- RBN showed I was being heard with pretty strong signals. But I guess at that hour folks have given up on 40. So I moved to 20 and quickly started getting calls. After the initial rush died down I moved to 15 and netted a few more.

My extended setup time meant the girls had finished their hike and I'd only worked 17 stations. But this was a new park for me so I call it a win.

Summary: 17 QSOs in 18 minutes; 20m: 12 CW; 15m - 5 CW 10 states; Canada; Mexico

Today's a PTO day -- my brother's coming over for a board-gaming weekend. Last night I realized I had all my POTA gear still in the car from Wednesday. It would be simple to head to Castlewood after morning coffee. Maybe I could cross the Early Shift finish line. Let's see!

Setup was just a little quicker this morning as I would just repeat the setup from Wednesday's outing. Left the house at 6:53 and was on the air at 7:18.

Summary: 16 QSOs in 26 minutes. Still a few QSOs shy of Early Shift award, but one more quick morning visit should do the trick.

Over the weekend I was catching up on logging duties and glanced at my POTA awards. I saw that I was getting close to an Early Shift Activator milestone. Decided it was time to give that some focus! So I loaded up the night before and hit the road at a little before 7am local.

When the park gate rolled open at 7:00 I was ready. Drove to my usual spot and set up the antenna: a 44' doublet fed with twinlead and a 4:1 balun at the base. Rig was the KX3.

I started out on 40 and knew I'd set up an Activation at pota.app -- the RBN would be spotting me. Several rounds of CQ without a return call gave me that "Hm... I hope" feeling. And then the calls started coming in. Whew! I worked a dozen stations on 40 and then switched over to 20. It was a lively morning!

I heard several familiar calls along with a few new ones and a few surprises. I sent F1BLL an honest 529 and he sent back a 539. Longest continental station was W6LEN in Huntington Beach, with W1KX in ME a close second.

Summary: I made 27 QSOs in 29 minutes -- a pretty good rate given my sometimes-chatty exchanges. Twenty-seven steps closer to Early Shift and a good way to start the day.

I'll fill in this story some day. For now it's a way to check if I can add a photo to my blog posts using this new site generator.

Winter Field Day turned out to be fun -- cold, snowy fun!

First post!