Recently, there have been some complaints about propagation on the HF bands. Last night, however, propagation was pretty good on the 40-meter band. I managed to work four DX stations, including one LU (Argentina), one YT (Serbia), and two HAs. All of them were S6-S7 and very good copy.
The two stations from Hungary were both from the same town (Miskolc). I’m wondering if the first one called up the second and let him know that propagation was good to the U.S.
Finally got Ohio in the POTA log
Last year, on my way down to the Dayton Hamvention, I activated two parks: Van Buren State Park and Grand Lake St. Marys State Park. Unfortunately, those logs never got uploaded. As I was leaving the second park, my phone died. And, it wasn’t just that the battery needed recharging. It was completely dead. I lost both logs, and when I got to Dayton, I had to buy a new phone.
This time, I had much better luck. Van Buren State Park is right off the I-75 freeway. As soon as you get off the freeway, you’re in the town of Van Buren. Drive through town (about four or five blocks) and you come to the park. I set up in a shelter close to the entrance because there was a possibility of rain. Despite complaints about poor band conditions, I made 30 contacts in an hour, including a couple of DX contacts. I would have stayed longer, but that evening, I was meeting some people for dinner, so I packed up and headed to the second park.
The second park I activated was Grand Lake St. Mary’s State Park. I like this park because, even though it’s an inland lake, it has a lighthouse (see above). So, I get both a park activation and a lighthouse activation.
Grand Lake St. Marys is a man-made lake that was constructed in the early 19th century as a reservoir for the Miami and Erie Canal, which connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie. At one time the lake was the world’s largest man-made lake.
The threat of rain was even more real here, so I found another shelter to set up in. That kept me nice and dry. Unfortunately, the shelter I decided on was very close to some homes near the lake. The problem with that was that it was very noisy there. I managed to make 15 contacts in about an hour, but I know I missed at least one because he was down in the noise. I would have been able to make that contact if I’d been at Van Buren State Park.
After I packed up, it was off to Dayton. This time, my phone didn’t flake out on me, and I made it to the hotel in plenty of time to get ready for dinner. Overall, it was a great way to kick off my Dayton 2025 trip.
