I went to New Orleans for a conference and we stayed one extra day to do some sightseeing. We did a tour in the morning and ate lunch and figured I had time to ride over to a nearby state park and get an activation in before supper. I chose Bayou Segnette State Park (K-2356) as it was only about a 30 minute drive from the B&B we were staying at.
We get there to find a beautiful state park and almost every pavilion was occupied by these huge family reunions! That is fine though as the park is really roomy and there were plenty of picnic tables elsewhere. We looked for a picnic table in the shade of a tree that was keep kind of close to the parking lot so I didnt have to transport my gear very far.
We also decided to come during an apparent heat wave too! The temps easily reaching 99 degrees (37.2C) every day so it was like standing in front of a blow dryer while outside. It was just plain hot… This was the reason I was looking for some shade to setup in, at least we didnt have the sun beating down on me while I worked some contacts.
So I found a table by this abandoned playground. Lol! It really wasn’t abandoned but no kid wanted to touch that stuff with the air temp that high!!! The shade made all the difference though as it was kinda pleasant once you sat there a minute, got a little sweaty and then a breeze would blow.
I had my TR-35 kit in the truck from an activation last week so I got out the throw line and threw it up into this cypress tree. In the photo below you can see the table and I am pointing to the spot where the throw line went over the tree. The antenna didn’t reach into the tree itself so it was a great placement in my book. The wire being fully exposed and not crossing tree branches makes a big difference to me if for no other reason.
This made my wire a sloper running uphill to the southeast. I ran the counterpoise out at about a 90 degree angle to the 41’ wire and connected them to the tuner.
I tuned it up on 17 meters and dial around the band for a minute to find HA3NU booming in and working a fairly deep pile up. I thought about trying to work him for a minute but finally decided to find an open frequency and call CQ instead as I wasn’t sure how much time I would have. Turns out I had about an hour… good call.
I called CQ for about 1 minute and was blown away when I worked SM2SUM in Sweden right out of the gate. Today is going to be a good day…I thought. The very next station was KP4M in Puerto Rico!!! It just keeps getting better!!! I worked a few more on 17 meters and then made the jump to 20 meters (where the scores can really change…)
I worked another 26 people on 20 meters in about a half hour or so, bagging KP4M again on 20! Shoot, I even worked Paul KJ7DT today up in Idaho! The bands were pretty good if you ask me.
I wished I had time and a radio that would cover more bands to be able to get a few more out of it, TenTec Argonaut 5 I’m looking at you buddy... Maybe next time… It was a great day though and I added Louisiana to my states that I have activated!! I hope this motivates you to get out and do some POTA too. Thanks and 72!