Minute man National Park
Good evening all! I just got finished with an activation at Minute Man National Historic Park, as part of the ARRL & the National Park Service's celebration of the Centennial of the National Park Service. Make sure you go to the National Park Service page by clicking the link, and check out the ARRL's event by clicking the banner above. These are two awesome organizations, and I was pumped to be part of it today!
Thanks to traffic it took me longer to get here than I expected, but I still made it in time to get on the air for a decent bit. I had a pretty good run for a little bit on 20 meters and had 33 contacts in approximately 40 minutes before I decided to change frequency due to some QRM. This was my first experience on "the other side" of a radio pile-up, so I'm glad it was a relatively small one - I know it's nothing compared to the big contest stations, but it was a thrill for me!
Because I was activating Minute Man National Historic park, I would also like to encourage you to check out their website at
http://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm
Minute Man isn't a huge park geographically, but the history here is larger than life - which you can tell if you happen to bump into anyone that knows the park, like I had the wonderful opportunity to do, when I met Ranger Kevin today (more on that shortly!) Most of you have heard the phrase - "The shot heard round the world." That phrase wasn't so much about a specific shot, but more about the events that happened on that day, in this area - if you're ever near Concord / Lexington / Boston, etc, this place needs to be on your list!
Shortly after clearing the air waves with the last station in my mini pile-up, I had the chance to meet Ranger Kevin - he had pulled up in the lot while patrolling, and told me that as soon as he saw my antenna, he knew what I was up to, because he had seen some e-mails from the folks in his NPS unit about the event, and what was going on. We had an awesome chat, and he even offered to let me snap a couple pictures - Thanks!
Thanks to traffic it took me longer to get here than I expected, but I still made it in time to get on the air for a decent bit. I had a pretty good run for a little bit on 20 meters and had 33 contacts in approximately 40 minutes before I decided to change frequency due to some QRM. This was my first experience on "the other side" of a radio pile-up, so I'm glad it was a relatively small one - I know it's nothing compared to the big contest stations, but it was a thrill for me!
Because I was activating Minute Man National Historic park, I would also like to encourage you to check out their website at
http://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm
Minute Man isn't a huge park geographically, but the history here is larger than life - which you can tell if you happen to bump into anyone that knows the park, like I had the wonderful opportunity to do, when I met Ranger Kevin today (more on that shortly!) Most of you have heard the phrase - "The shot heard round the world." That phrase wasn't so much about a specific shot, but more about the events that happened on that day, in this area - if you're ever near Concord / Lexington / Boston, etc, this place needs to be on your list!
Shortly after clearing the air waves with the last station in my mini pile-up, I had the chance to meet Ranger Kevin - he had pulled up in the lot while patrolling, and told me that as soon as he saw my antenna, he knew what I was up to, because he had seen some e-mails from the folks in his NPS unit about the event, and what was going on. We had an awesome chat, and he even offered to let me snap a couple pictures - Thanks!
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Officer Kavanagh (Sorry if I spelled it wrong, - I remember you said there was no U, but I don't know if I got the rest of it right!) is an awesome representative for the National Park Service! He was friendly and knew all about the history of the park - it was an educational experience for me! I also got to share with him a little bit about ham radio.
For an added bonus, we had a case of "small world" that we discovered. Officer Kavanagh and his family (whom I had the honor to meet!) vacation in Lancaster County regularly, and they formed a friendship with some folks from the Witmer Fire Department. Witmer is a very small town (basically 1 street) which happens to be the small town around the corner, where I keep the PO Box associated with my FCC licence!
With some luck I might get to visit the park again tomorrow - depending on when my meetings wrap up tomorrow, I'm planning on heading out there again for a couple hours before sunset to "tie the ribbons" on this activation.
For an added bonus, we had a case of "small world" that we discovered. Officer Kavanagh and his family (whom I had the honor to meet!) vacation in Lancaster County regularly, and they formed a friendship with some folks from the Witmer Fire Department. Witmer is a very small town (basically 1 street) which happens to be the small town around the corner, where I keep the PO Box associated with my FCC licence!
With some luck I might get to visit the park again tomorrow - depending on when my meetings wrap up tomorrow, I'm planning on heading out there again for a couple hours before sunset to "tie the ribbons" on this activation.
The station I operated with today, that I will set up tomorrow if I have time, is a combination of my car, that I have detailed in other posts in my blog, and my Buddiepole antenna. Here are some pics of my setup and a couple of things in the park, just for fun.
Hope to put you in the log!
Hope to put you in the log!
Have you activated any parks? Are you chasing parks? Leave a comment with your NPOTA stories!
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