NPOTA Activation: Prince William Forest Park - DZ08

Greetings, all.

About a month ago the XYL and I headed up the I-95 corridor a few miles to Prince William Forest Park to do get away from the suburban life at my home QTH, to camp out a night in the woods, and to knock out a National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activation.

Prince William Forest Park is a National Park Service-ran facility of 19,000 acres and the largest park in the DC metro area.  It abuts Marine Corps Base Quantico, and lies right on the geologic border of the Piedmont and Tidewater regions of Virginia.  There is a marker in the park denoting one of the geographic boundaries--that marker location is not particularly scenic, but it is interesting.

XYL hiking through Prince William Forest Park.

My wife and I are immensely thankful for this piece of land because it's basically the only relatively unmolested natural land near us, and we spend a good amount of time hiking around there.  She goes to the park several times per week, and I go there every week or two.

The park has a unique history.  It was originally homestead land for several farms.  There are several family cemeteries on the park grounds, and there is also a military cemetery on the grounds containing graves from soldiers who served in the Civil War through more modern times.  The Civilian Conservation Corps managed the lands during the Great Depression.  In World War II, the park's lands were used by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner of the modern CIA.  The OSS used the park for training spies and radio operators from 1942-1945.

Today the park has numerous trails and a few options for camping.  It is full of trees, ferns, streams, and swamps, and is really representative of the mid-Atlantic states' eastern seaboard.  It's not beautiful like Yosemite or Death Valley or other similar parks.  But we're still very glad to have it so nearby.

We went to the park on the afternoon of 16 April, a Saturday.  We took a campsite, and then decided to do a hike for a few hours.  After returning, we lit the camp fire and I started to operate a bit.  I used by basic SOTA setup:  The FT-817ND, the LDG Z-817 autotuner, my Palm Mini Paddles, a homemade version of the EARCHI wire antenna, and the mic.  I also brought my Yaesu VX-8DR HT.  I brought a 7 Amp-Hour gel cell battery pack to power everything.  I also brought my MFJ QRP SWR meter for no reason whatsoever.  My QTH was the picnic table, and the wire was slung into a tree.

N0PCL at the PWF QTH.  The detritus of camping surrounds me.  The HT is quiet, but the 817ND is doing fine work.

The VX-8 was basically useless.  I attempted to get some APRS packets out to the world so that I could be seen on APRS.fi, but no luck was to be had.  It was just a remote area, and, frankly, APRS coverage is spotty in my area as it is.  (I'm thinking about addressing that myself as a project, but that's for another day).

N0PCL copying CW.

N0PCL doing fun things with radios.

The 817 did fine.  I did manage to self-spot using my iPhone to the spotting network, so that assisted with getting contacts.  The first night I managed to get four contacts.  But I was hungry, so I decided to pack up and make dinner with my lovely XYL. After dinner we enjoyed the campfire and retired to the tent for a good night's sleep.

The next morning (but still the same "UTC day") I finished up the activation.  I needed six more contacts.  So I fired up the 817 again and got the necessary contacts.

Screen capture of my electronic logbook.

Overall it was a good activation.  I'm continually surprised at how well portable & QRP ham radio can do.  But sometimes it's really a challenge, too.  It took a good bit of time to get the necessary 10 NPOTA Chasers to make this activation count.  Meanwhile the XYL headed out to do a solo hike.  I then gladly packed up the site and our adventure came to a close.

Thanks, Chasers!
73.

N0PCL using LOTW

I have been away from the blog of late but I have a few posts in the hopper, so expect some more interesting things to read soon.

I've been operating more or less daily, generally operating from 40-15 meters CW and SSB.  I've actually had some pretty good DX contacts of late:  Cyprus, Bahrain, American Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Sable Island, New Zealand.  Unsurprisingly, most of these contacts have been on CW, which does better than phone most of the time.

I also did a National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activation in Prince William Forest Park, a forested piece of land north the Quantico Marine Base in northern Virginia.  I have an upcoming post on that.

I've also activated a couple of SOTA peaks, too.

My latest amateur radio project has been making my station Logbook Of The World-capable, by basically moving the QSO records from my various logbooks (paper logs, and an Excel spreadsheet I've been using for my home QTH log) to a logging program on my computer, and then uploading to LOTW.  I was going to delay this action until I could upgrade my computer so that it better complements my radio (a stunningly wonderful Elecraft K3S).  My plan was to get a computer that was capable of operating on all digital modes, doing rig control, and also being the engine of a panadaptor for the K3S.

I decided against waiting for the new computer, though.  So I did a quick Google Search of a LOTW-capable freeware logging program.  The top result was WinLog32.  It's pretty good--and you can't beat the price--basically free.  It is somewhat finicky in certain areas and isn't perfect, but once you figure out how the software acts, it does just fine.

So I uploaded my home QTH QSOs to WinLog32, and then subsequently uploaded to LOTW.  LOTW is pretty slick, too.  You get nearly instantaneous conformations of contacts, provided the station you contacted is using LOTW as well.  My LOTW results from home for Worked All States (WAS) and DX Century Club (DXCC) are below.

Worked All States results via LOTW thus far.

DX Century Club results.

I really like LOTW.  I like that it's free, because postage can be expensive these days.  I do have a nice stack of QSL cards from other stations, and I do like to collect them, but there is so much less hassle with LOTW confirmations than with other methods.

I also started a small thread on Facebook asking why more people don't use LOTW.  One response was that the many no-code licensees on the air these days don't like to use LOTW, basically because they're a bunch of good-for-nothings from 27 MHz.  I'm not sure that I agree--I don't see how not having a CW requirement for licensing has anything to do with using LOTW or other computerized methods in amateur radio.  Quite the opposite, actually--most the anti-LOTW Luddites are really old-timers that, like always, are reticent to get with the times.  And why is everything in amateur radio seemingly related to dropping CW requirements for licensing?  I just don't see the connection.

Right now I'm uploading my paper SOTA logbooks to LOTW, which is somewhat tedious.  I typically use the ARRL Minilogs for SOTA, and that's not about to change.  They're sturdy, durable, and neat.  But I still think it's the right thing to do to upload these QSOs--you never know if somebody wants needs a QSO for their WAS, DXCC, or VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) award.  But uploading these paper logs is tedious...It's not the number of QSOs, since most of my SOTA activations have perhaps 10-15 QSOs per activation.  Rather, the problem is establishing new operating QTHs on each summit registered in LOTW.  It's a bit tedious, but I think it's the right thing to do.  I'm slowly work through this.

73 for now.