This is an image my son Isaiah built for me in Mindcraft.
I participated in my first contests for the year. It was the British Columbia, Minnesota, and Vermont QSO Parties. I only had contacts on Saturday. 20 meters was not working well to BC. I had 8 contacts with BC, 19 contacts to Minnesota (3 on 40 meters, the rest on 20 meters, good enough for the cert below), and 3 to Vermont.
My soapbox comment made it into the BC QSO Party Report: Wish I could have heard more of the great hams of BC. The band was too long for 20m and 40m and 80m weren't too cooperative. K1LOK
I participated in the ARRL International DX Contest. I worked from at home, and in the field at the nearby junior high school. I had 20 contacts total in three continents. My farthest was ZW5B on 20 meters in Brazil.
I participated in these three QSO parties. I had a 20 meter contact with Idaho, which meant the band was really short at that time. Most of my contacts were on 20 and 40 with just one on 80 to Idaho.
Highest Score from Utah, Wisconsin QSO Party
Certificate from the Idaho QSO Party
I think I like this one better than the ARRL DX contest. I had a total of 47 contacts. 19 were in the continental US, all on 20 meters. I had contacts in Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Australia. The contact with VK4KW in Australia was my first with that country and also my furthest ever at 12387 km (7697 mi). That was on the 15 meter band. In fact, 15 meters was working really well. 10 of my contacts were on 15 meters.
Portable setup for the CQ World Wide WPX contest near my home QTH DN40cj
The SPDX is a contest out of Poland. The band was not working there on Saturday. However, for the last half hour of the contest, I was able to make 2 contacts. The furthers was SO9I at 8783 km Between Wroclaw (Breslau) and Krakau. I had two contacts in to Louisiana and six to Mississippi. All contacts for these contests were on 20 meters.
I operated an amateur radio station on battery power at Fluke Calibration in American Fork for the Great Utah Shakeout. It was operated just as if we had lost power, and cell phone service was impeded. The equipment included a VHF radio with a J-pole antenna and a HF radio with a dipole antenna. All operations were done outside.
A total of 7 contacts were logged. This included checking into the Skyline Net in Sanpete County on the 146.66 repeater from my QTH in American Fork. I also did some work on HF. I checked into 4 nets with net controls in Oregon, Washington (x2) and Colorado, all on 40 meters. I also had a QSO with a station in Oklahoma on 20 meters. I passed a traffic message to AJ7M in Everett, Washington.
That evening I checked into the Utah RACES Net.
| Time | Freq | Mode | Call | Dist / km | Dist / mi | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:23 | 146.66- | FM | KB7K | 118 | 73 | Skyline Net |
| 10:36 | 7.2835 | SSB | N7LRA | 1159 | 720 | Noontime Net |
| 11:39 | 7.24 | SSB | N7GES | 570 | 354 | High Noon Net |
| 11:51 | 14.305 | SSB | KE5MXF | 1400 | 870 | Oklahoma |
| 12:32 | 7.272 | SSB | W7ARR | 865 | 538 | Beehive Utah Net |
| 12:35 | 146.62- | FM | N7IE | 47 | 29 | Message #1 |
| 13:03 | 7.204 | SSB | WA7DUH | 891 | 554 | Jefferson Noon Net |
| 20:56 | 147.12+ | FM | N7GTE | 44 | 27 | Utah RACES Net |
Portable battery power from DN40ci for the Great Utah Shakeout
The 20 meter band wasn't too good and I only operated for 2 hours. I had 5 QSOs with Michigan and 1 with Ontario.
This year I went with the Skyline Radio Club to their normal location up Ephraim Canyon (DM49gh). I camped out overnight Friday and had fun making 20 meter contacts in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.
2021 Field Day at Skyline Road and Ephraim Canyon Road (DM49gh) at an altitude of 3000 m (10,000 feet) in Sanpete County, Utah. My 20 meter vertical is shown here with the GOTA station in the background and the Skyline Radio Club (K7BSK) main radio trailer in the back.
For this year’s parade, I worked at the same location as two other times, 200 S between University Avenue and 200 E (DN40ef) in Provo. There were no lost kids, but I was able to direct a number of people to the protopodites.
While visiting my mom’s house in Jasper, Texas (EM20xw), I did a little portable operation out in her front yard. I used my 20 meter vertical. I checked into the Texas Traffic Net and the 7290 Net on 40 meters. I had 7 QSOs on 20 meters. One was W4C, a special event station for awareness about what is going on in Cuba. The furthest contact was W1KA in New Hampshire at a distance of 2401 km.
The linked video is on What Frequency Should I Use intended for the POTA audience. My callsign appears at about 3:08 on the video. That was from Aug 8. The QSO was with a station in Indiana. Thanks to Chase Palmer KJ7OXM for pointing this out to me.
This was my first Parks on the Air activation. It was a successful event. I had 59 QSOs operating about 2 hours. I was at park K-3064, the Camp Floyd State Park in Fairfield, Utah. I had contacts from all over the United States including Florida and Alaska, plus I had my first contact in the Northwest Territories. My closest contact was from fellow POTA activator K7JSG at K-5970, a distance of about 5 km. I also checked into the Mercury Western Net while out there as well.
My portable setup at K-3064, in Fairfield, Utah County, Utah, grid DN30wg. All contacts were on 20 meters.
For this year’s North America QSO party, I operated for a total of 2 hours from my home QTH (DN40cj) and made 26 contacts all on 20 meters. My time was limited due to travel the next day. I was impressed with the band conditions between 22:00 and 23:00 UTC.
I finally got an Allstar Link set up. It is a Node Ventures node. My first contact was checking in to the El Paso Sunday Net. AE5OJ was net control.
I did five different Parks on the Air activations on Labor Day weekend. All contacts were SSB. My favorites were the two in Wyoming. Those two parks had never been activated. They both were out of cell phone range, so I couldn’t self-spot. I also had a few QSOs on 17 meters. I think that's the first time I had been on that band. A summary of the activations is in the table below.
| Date | Park | Grid | County, State | QSOs | Operating Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Sep 21 | K-5929 Flight Park | DN40bk | Utah, Utah | 21 | 0:37 |
| 5 Sep 21 | K-5970 Fivemile Pass | DN30uf | Tooele, Utah | 10 | 0:36 |
| 5 Sep 21 | K-3064 Camp Floyd | DN30wg | Utah, Utah | 44 | 1:14 |
| 6 Sep 21 | K-6225 Piedmont Charcoal Kilns | DN41qf | Uinta, Wyoming | 13 | 0:25 |
| 6 Sep 21 | K-6228 Fort Supply | DN41se | Uinta, Wyoming | 13 | 0:38 |
My activations at K-6228 Piedmont Charcoal Kilns State Historic Site, and K-6225 Fort Supply State Historic Site. At the first one, I forgot to take the picture until I had most of my equipment torn down.
I had 6 QSOs with maybe a total of an hour of operation. I had 2 from Germany, 2 from Italy, and 1 each from Poland and Croatia. I placed 249 out of 264 entires in the Outside Europe, Single-OP low catagory.
This year I operated at the home QTH. I had 21 QSOs for the Texas QSO Party. The most bizarre counties I got were Jeff Davis, Presidio and Jack. All but two were on 20 meters. For the Salmon Run, my 11 contacts were on 40 and 80 meters. In the meantime, I had 8 POTA QSOs and 3 Route 66 contacts. That was a total Route 66 contacts for this year.
It was my 56th birthday. My XYL and I went to Wyoming to celebrate. One of our stops was a return trip to the Piedmont Charcoal Kilns K-6226 in Uinta County, Wyoming for a POTA activation. I had 40 QSOs on a beautiful day.
My POTA setup at K-6228 (DN41qf). The XYL waited patiently while I made some contacts.
I had 66 QSOs on three different bands. All of the 20 meter contacts were in the Los Angeles and Bay areas. This time I had contacts with 29 different counties.
This was on a small 40 acre parcel of land belonging to the US Forest Service near a neighborhood in Highland, Utah (DN40ck). It is part of K-4398, the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. I made 19 QSOs from here. I also got to talk to one of the neighbors about amateur radio.
I drove down to Southeastern Utah to help with Moab 240 communications. On the way there, I did a POTA activation in Colorado between Monticello and Dove Creek. It was at K-9631 Coalbed Canyon State Wildlife Area (DM57lt). I had 36 QSOs from coast to coast plus Alaska.
My aid station this year was Indian Creek (DM58df) about 48 km northwest of Monticello. For the run, this was the first station where the runners could have a pacer and the last one for 50 miles where they could have contact with their crew. There was a lot of traffic asking for runners’ locations.
For the POTA activation, it was K-5807, Indian Creek Falls Group Site State Recreation Area. I had an unsuccessful for 8 October with one QSO. For 9 October, I was able to activate with 12 QSOs.
Set up at K-9631 west of Dove Creek, Dolores County, Colorado
The Indian Creek Aid Station for the Moab 240, San Juan COunty, Utah
A picture of K1LOK and the station at Indian Creek
This was a trip for work. Due to the late nature in making reservations, I rented a car and drove up there. On the way, I attempted 3 activations. The one activation was not successful because my 10 QSOs straddled two days. I forgot I was in the Pacific Time Zone. I will have to try Washington again some other time. The activations of the parks in Idaho and Oregon were successful. A summary of the activations is shown in the table below.
| Date | Park | Grid | County, State | QSOs | Operating Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct 21 | K-2249 Three Island Crossing State Park | DN22iw | Elmore, Idaho | 17 | 0:30 |
| 12 Oct 21 | K-3259 Sacajawea State Park | DN06le | Franklin, Washington | 4 | 0:09 |
| 13 Oct 21 | K-3259 Sacajawea State Park | DN06le | Franklin, Washington | 6 | 0:34 |
| 14 Oct 21 | K-9147 Farewell Bend State Recreation Area | DN14jh | Baker, Oregon | 15 | 0:32 |
Operating from Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Elmore County, Idaho on a cool windy day
Operation from Farewell Bend State Recreation Area in Huntington, Baker County, Oregon. The Snake River can be seen in the background of the second picture.
I went back to this same suburban location near Highland, Utah (DN40ck) in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. This time I made 19 QSOs, with two being on 17 meters.
I returned again to DN40ck. This time I made 17 QSOs on four different bands. Besides 20 meters, I worked 40, 17 and 15 meters. All contacts were mare on my 20 meter wire vertical.
This time I almost got blown off the mountain. It got very windy, and I decided against putting up a long wire antenna. I did make a contact with KN0JI on the 2 meter band. I also had 6 on the 17 meter band for a total of 33 QSOs. All contacts were mare on my 20 meter wire vertical.
Stephen, W0KNI, made a video of a QSO he had with me during a POTA activation in Oregon at K-0200. The QSO starts at 14:50 into the video. I thanked him for coming up on 40 meters. 20 meters is usually too close to get the Beaver State. The video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/YCZtu08g7nU
Back to DN40ck again, this time with my grandson. We operated for half an hour, making 13 contacts all on the 20 meter band. The antenna was the 20 meter vertical again.
This is getting to be my favorite POTA locations, as I am able to get a lot of QSO's from here. It has really good propagation. On my way out there KJ7MCA, Tanner, made contact with me on two meter. He met me there to see how my set up went. It was great to spend some time answering his questions. I ended up with 50 QSOs. All but one contact were on 20 meters, the other being on the 17 meter band. I got both coasts and 3 from Alaska. The number of QSOs should put me in second place for this park. Again, I was using my 20 meter wire vertical. As I was getting ready to shut down AD7KG, Jed, pulled into the park to do an activation.
This year, I did the Skywarn event from Fairfield, Utah at a POTA site (K-3064). I brought some of my own temperature measuring equipment. Many of the contacts were dual POTA/Skywarn. I made 56 POTA QSOs and 55 Skywarn QSOs. The temperatures I recorded varied from 2 °C to 13 °C (36 °F to 55 °C). I compared the temperatures to surrounding weather stations.
Left: my instrument shelter with a Accurite sensor and a thermistor probe inside; Right: my radio with the thermistor readout
A comparison of my data with that of surrounding weather stations. My data is in black. It was interesting to note how much elevation made a difference in readings in this temperature inversion situation. The two stations in blue 14 km (8 miles) apart on opposite sides of Utah Lake. It is also interesting to see how well their temperatures tracked each other.
One of my contacts was with KG4ARC, a Red Cross special event station celebrating the 200th anniversary of Clara Barton’s birth. Thanks to the Atlanta Radio Club for sending this to me.
For this year’s contest, I didn’t work too long. Band conditions were great. I got contacts with both Newfoundland (VO1) and Labrador (VO2). They ware all on 15 meters. That was my first contacts ever with both places. I never realized that they had very unique prefixes. I had a total of 31 QSOs.
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