Mashamowhatnow?

Believe it or not, as I start to write this post, I am sitting in my tent, at Mashamoquet Brook State Park. (It took me 3 days after that to finish it...)

​I have to start by apologizing because even though I asked the ranger that checked me in (Amie) how to pronounce it, I still can't get it right ( but I'm pretty sure that it sounds like "mash-muck-it.") Anyway, if it was still daylight, this would be the view from where I am sitting, but its dark, so what I actually is a whole lot of nothing...

View from my Tent at Mashamoquet Brook State Park

​This was almost a non-acrivation, because this was a work trip that had a slightly unusual schedule. As it turned out, I did get a chance to operate for a while in the afternoon leading up to my last night here. I only made about 20 contacts, but even so, this was one of my most memorable activations! How's that you say? Here's how!

First, 20 contacts isn't a bad showing for the amount of time I had to operate, the time of day it was, and the way conditions were. Thanks 'ol Sol! 20 is plenty for the awards in the US portion of the WWFF program, and I'll be back for 3 more days in August, so I should have no trouble getting to the 44 needed for the international awards and rankings (or getting in a few more CW contacts - I'm still slow, but I try to get a couple each time!)

The second thing that made this trip memorable was the ham-encounters I had! The reason for this trip was some meetings with folks in the Hartford, CT and Boston, MA offices of the company I work for. When I pulled up at the Hartford office I noticed someone noticing my antenna's, which in turn led to me noticing his! It turns out one of the system designers in Hartford is a fellow ham!  We chatted for a little bit about operating styles and what we do in ham radio.  He said that he is mostly a VHF guy, monitoring, and occasionally talking on, the simplex frequencies as he travels to and from work.

As exciting as it is to realize a co-worker is a fellow ham, I had a second encounter that was even more interesting.  In many of the state park campgrounds, when you arrive, you just head to the camp site you reserved, and as the rangers make their rounds, they stop by and check you in.  Mashamoquet Brook State Park is one just like this.  Shortly after getting my tent set up (Which doesn't take me long - check out the video in this post) the evening shift ranger stopped by.  Whenever I talk to rangers as I get checked in at campgrounds, I always find a way to sneak into the conversation that I am a ham radio operator, and that I usually play around with my radio stuff while I'm camping.  This helps give them a heads up so that when they see antenna's and radio equipment, they already know what's going on.   

So, this time around, when I started my spiel and said "I'm a ham radio operator - that's why I have all the antenna's on my car." the ranger responded very quickly "Oh!  I'm KB1WRN." So there was another chance ham-encounter!  Let's all give a collective - Nice to meet you Amie!

After the realization we were both hams, we chatted for a little bit about radio.  I told her about the World Wide Flora and Fauna program, and she told me about some places in the park that would make good spots to set up.  I also invited her to stop by while she was doing her rounds the next evening, once I had my equipment out.

The next afternoon I set my radio up on the picnic table, and started making my contacts.  Amie - KB1WRN - did stop by then and listen in to a couple contacts.  Since she is a technician class licensee, I offered to let her put out a few CQ calls if she wanted, but she did seem a little mic shy.  I didn't want to over-pressure her, so we chatted a few minutes again, and then she continued on her rounds. 

The third and final thing that made this contact very unique was one of the contacts I made into New Jersey.  The worst part is that I forgot to make a note about which contact this was, and since I had a couple contacts into New Jersey I can't recall which of them it was.  Anyway, one of my contacts into New Jersey was with a ham running 1200 watts - from his mobile!  He described his setup to me, and I was quite impressed.  He basically has very short runs of 4/0 cable to an extra set of batteries and his equipment, to be able to handle the 160 amps that he can potentially need.  He also has some impressive filtering to keep the power clean, which is pretty important at those levels!  That was definitely a first for me!

To wrap up, I like to learn something with every activation I do. I think I learned two things from this one:  

• Keep a script on a piece of paper with your radio equipment!  This way if you want to help someone get on the air, you can hand them the outline of what to say and what to do, to help encourage them through any mic-fright they may have.  Many people do something like this for their GOTA stations during field day, and I think it's a great idea for any situation where we might interact with the public during our radio operations.
• I need to record some sound clips on my iPhone so that I can use the "Annalink" interface that my Daughter and I built as a way to let me use my iPhone as a voice keyer.  When conditions aren't great the lengthy calling time between QSO's can really wear out your pipes. 

Till next time, Happy Hamming!

Stopped for dinner not far from the park. My stuff was all packed and ready to head home!