Alan W4UB welcomes you to POTA Honeymoon Island. [Photo by Fred W2SUB]On Saturday, October 29th, UPARC had a very fun day at Honeymoon Island activating two club stations and making over 150 contacts as a Parks on the Air (POTA) activity. We had a great turnout of club members along with family and some visitors who had curiosity about ham radio which we took care to enthusiastically explain our wonderful hobby. The star visitor was a very sizable gopher tortoise that wandered close to our antenna guylines but eventually decided to high-tail it out of there (well, as fast a tortoise can go)! The weather was very nice and our pavilion (special thanks to Ray W8RD) had shade, tables and shore power along with a few mosquitoes, but we did not let those pests slow us down.
Bob K1NLS holding everything together. [Photo by Fred W2SUB]
A new visitor [Photo by Fred W2SUB]
We had two club stations on sideband and one personal station on FT8 using a mag loop and enjoyed excellent band conditions. We made tons of contacts with little to no mutual interference issues. Newer members got to practice 132′ wire antenna setup on collapsible poles and hands-on time with our club radios which provided excellent skills practice in preparation for future events. Everyone got on the air and as a POTA station we had a lot of callers eager to make contact and chat with us. But none of our operators was more popular than Charlotte Luria KO4WNK. Once she got on the microphone, she became the princess of POTA with a huge pileup of eager callers. We really enjoyed having the entire Luria family attend and see Gabriel KS4GAB and Charlotte get on the air and use their skills.
Ryan KO4KGP at the controls [Photo by Fred, W2SUB]Thanks to all the organizers (especially Alan W4UB), setup helpers and participants. Our fun activities outside of meetings help make UPARC a great club. We hope to have two POTA events each year going forward to continue this excellent event and learning opportunity. See you all next week at the annual meeting and election at John Chesnut Park, be prepared to foxhunt!
