So, I'll officially call that one a "near fail."  I'll post soon with some pictures, things I learned, or thought I learned, etc.  This was probably my toughest activation yet - it took me multiple hours of struggling through noise, weak signals, etc.  just to get to the minimum number of contacts.  At one point I even considered bagging it, BUT I stuck with it, and managed to hit the minimum number of contacts, with a couple extra for insurance.  Logs are uploaded, so now I just cross my fingers and hope that those I contacted confirmed with LOTW, so that this one will "count" for me.
     The good news, it will count for everyone else, because the contacts always count for the chasers, even if the activator doesn't reach the minimum for it to be called a successful activation.

Good Night!

     As you may have seen in my previous posts, after a bunch of uncertainty, I ended up at the William Howard Taft National Historic Site for a National Parks on the Air activation (or as my 4 year old ham in training says - actimation.)

     My activation at this park actually started as a plan to activate a different park, and with only VHF/UHF.  I was going to be doing a two city tour of Ohio for my work.  The week started in Cincinnati and ended in Columbus.  Because I was flying into Cincinnati I first thought I would just take my buddipole antenna kit along as my "personal item" on the plane, and then hook up my HT to it, and do some FM Simplex from a park that was in between the two cities.  After an e-mail exchange with an obviously very confused park superintendent, I decided to just find a different park, and the folks at the William Howard Taft site were very accommodating, even with very short notice.
     As I was planning the trip, I decided to take along my UHF only mobile radio, to see if I could have any luck there, and I was pretty sure it would fit in my carry-on.  That quickly turned into me realizing that if I could take that radio, I could just take my 857d and have a proper HF activation.  I checked the TSA website, and ham radio equipment is specifically listed as "allowed" so I figured I shouldn't have any problems (and I didn't!  They didn't even bat an eye at airport security!)
     With that thought in mind, into the carry-on went my 857d, some power wire, some coax, and my antenna analyzer.  The buddiepole kit was my personal item, so I managed to pack 4 days worth of clothes, and an entire 100 watt HF station, without needing to check a single bag!

     I snaked the power cable, to a picnic table where I set up my operations.  I did have my laptop along, as I always do for work, so I was able to do my computer logging, which is always nice.

     The only thing I didn't have with me that I normally do that I wasn't sure how I'd get around, was my big ground screw that I normally use to anchor/guy my buddipole.  I knew it would be asking too much to get that on an airplane, so I left it at home and figured I'd use the spare tire from the rental to act as a counter-weight for the same purpose.  It dawned on me as I was setting up, that I had something better though!
     As part of my work, I had shipped some equipment ahead of myself to the first office I was at, and then threw it in the car to take with me on the drive to the second office.  This equipment totaled just under 70lbs, and is all in a Pelican case, which turned out to be the perfect anchor!

     Once I was set up and ready to rock and roll, I snapped some additional pictures of my temporary station:

     After the activation, I even took a tour of the home, in which photography was allowed!  I spotted a couple neat things, which included what would have made a very stately shack chair, if W. H. Taft had been a radio operator!

     I had a blast!  My work will keep me bouncing around the northeast for a little bit, as we are in the process of rolling out some new software and doing the trainings for it.  This means that while this was only my third activation, there will be more to come from me in the very near future - keep spinning the big knob, because the next one will be here before you know it!  

     As promised in the post I updated thursday, here is an update on my NPOTA Mobile-in-Motion operation - which included PSK31!  On Thursday as we wrapped up our family vacation, and we struck out towards the South Entrance of Shenandoah National Park.  My YL lovingly agreed to drive while I played radio from the passenger seat of the car.  
     I learned/experienced a couple things during this operation.  Before I started I thought I'd be able to make tons of contacts, with the thought that I'd essentially be driving along a mountain ridge, with lots of elevation to help out my signal.  As it turns out, I struggled to net a total of 21 contacts - with a lot of very weak signal reports.  The first thing I hadn't really considered, is that Skyline Drive, which we traveled, swings back and forth from one side of the ridge to other, so that motorists can get views of all directions.  
     For radio, this means that within a very short time periods (sometimes within 2 minutes) I would go from having a great signal path in a certain direction, to having it being completely blocked as we rounded a peak, to having it come booming back in again.  On the FM repeaters we use the term picket fencing.  Living in Lancaster County, we call the visual equivalent of this "corn flash", which you experience when driving past a cornfield when the sun is low in the sky.  Maybe I just discovered a new phenomenon - "Mountain RF Flash" (although those that live in these regions are probably used to it, and already have a term for it...)
     Even with those conditions, I was able to get 16 voice contacts fairly quickly, so that I could switch over to what I will claim is a first for NPOTA (until proven wrong by someone else..) PSK31 in Motion!  As it turns out, digital modes fought me even more that day than voice did, but I managed to find 5 contacts before bagging it for the day.  To be honest, I stopped operating a little before we hit the top of Skyline Drive, because we made a diversion to Luray Caverns so that our daughter could check out the caves.  When I shut down prior to leaving the park to head over to Luray, I told my wife I'd drive the rest of the way home when we were done.  (To be honest, staring at a computer screen while mobile was starting to give me a headache anyway!)

     I snapped a handful of pictures during the excitement.  Be sure to check out the captions for the pictures as they give some additional details!

Let me know what you think!

     Keep your transceivers at the ready - here comes NPOTA like you've never heard before!  In the very near future I will be activating Shenandoah National Park, while mobile, and actively moving.  Don't worry - I won't be doing anything dangerous - the YL will be driving, and I'll be operating from the passenger seat.  
     For those of you that know the park, you know that one of the highlights for motorists is Skyline Drive, which traverses the length of the park (north to south).  We will be traveling the entire length of Skyline Drive, with me operating the radio as we go.  I'll start out with voice operations on 20 meters - starting around 14.240 MHz and I'll just keep moving up till I find a quiet spot to start calling cq with the first small twist - "NPOTA Mobile".
​     As long as I hit the minimum contacts for an official activation, I'll then potentially try a couple other bands, with 17, 15, 12, 10 being potentials.  The highlight, and biggest "twist" however will be when I start calling on 14.070 PSK31 Mobile!  It will go something like this:

cq cq cq npota cq cq cq npota de n3vem n3vem n3vem mobile

     I'm know I'm not the first person who's done PSK31 mobile (These guys claim to be the first), but maybe I'll be the first to do it for National Parks on the Air!

     ​If you're a chaser at home, you can't see the beautiful sites I'll get to see, so here are a couple public domain pictures of the park from the NPS web site:

    Tell me about your mobile setup!  Have you ever attempted any non-voice modes while mobile? 

Leave a comment!

     Good evening all!  I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on my NPOTA activation at Minute Man National Historic Park.  I finished my meetings early enough today that I was able to sneak off to the park for just a little bit to continue my activation.  Because I made the minimum number of contacts needed for an activation yesterday, my goal today was just to try something different, so I decided to set up my equipment to try and make some PSK31 contacts:

     Because I only had a short time (about an hour for setup, contacts, and teardown), I was only able to make 3 successful contacts. However, that's still 3 additional folks who get credit as chasers for this park, and one of them was France, with only 30 watts! Most importantly, I got to have some fun!

     Do you ever operate portable?  How about portable digital modes?  I'd love to hear about it - leave a comment!